OnCourse Software

I have tried a number of different settings but, taxiing at normal speeds, I cannot stop aircraft stopping dead in front of me. Personally, I wish I could turn that part of CM off and just retain the option to pause traffic which is joining my taxiway, say at an angle of 45 degrees or more. Is that possible in a future update please? Currently I end up having to zap AI traffic that stops in front of me, as it takes so long for it to get started again.

As I said somewhere else, I don't really even see the rationale behind stopping traffic that is in front of you - why stop traffic heading in the same direction and so block the taxiway? If the a/c is oncoming, at c.180 degs, it makes no difference if it pauses, I just run into it a little later than if it had continued on rather than stop.

For now I have had to turn CM off altogether as the 'annoyance' is outweighing the advantage.

Thanks

martinlest wrote:

I have tried a number of different settings but, taxiing at normal speeds, I cannot stop aircraft stopping dead in front of me. Personally, I wish I could turn that part of CM off and just retain the option to pause traffic which is joining my taxiway, say at an angle of 45 degrees or more. Is that possible in a future update please? Currently I end up having to zap AI traffic that stops in front of me, as it takes so long for it to get started again.

As I said somewhere else, I don't really even see the rationale behind stopping traffic that is in front of you - why stop traffic heading in the same direction and so block the taxiway? If the a/c is oncoming, at c.180 degs, it makes no difference if it pauses, I just run into it a little later than if it had continued on rather than stop.

For now I have had to turn CM off altogether as the 'annoyance' is outweighing the advantage.

Thanks

The answer is quite simple. Turn down your minimum speed. In Options #2 "Pause CM below this ground speed" Set it to 5 knots. This way it mimics real life. If I am taxiing and catching someone up ahead then naturally I would slow down. The "rationale" behind stopping traffic as you put it is quite acceptable. It is up to you to find the right balance by choosing a speed that you are comfortable with. Traffic coming towards you on the same taxiway is the only time you may experience a problem. That's pretty rare I have to say and indicates someone usually the user has made a wrong turn.

vololiberista wrote:

martinlest wrote:

I have tried a number of different settings but, taxiing at normal speeds, I cannot stop aircraft stopping dead in front of me. Personally, I wish I could turn that part of CM off and just retain the option to pause traffic which is joining my taxiway, say at an angle of 45 degrees or more. Is that possible in a future update please? Currently I end up having to zap AI traffic that stops in front of me, as it takes so long for it to get started again.

As I said somewhere else, I don't really even see the rationale behind stopping traffic that is in front of you - why stop traffic heading in the same direction and so block the taxiway? If the a/c is oncoming, at c.180 degs, it makes no difference if it pauses, I just run into it a little later than if it had continued on rather than stop.

For now I have had to turn CM off altogether as the 'annoyance' is outweighing the advantage.

Thanks

The answer is quite simple. Turn down your minimum speed. In Options #2 "Pause CM below this ground speed" Set it to 5 knots. This way it mimics real life. If I am taxiing and catching someone up ahead then naturally I would slow down. The "rationale" behind stopping traffic as you put it is quite acceptable. It is up to you to find the right balance by choosing a speed that you are comfortable with. Traffic coming towards you on the same taxiway is the only time you may experience a problem. That's pretty rare I have to say and indicates someone usually the user has made a wrong turn.

I personally am far less annoyed by having the option to stop AI than not as before. Before it was a real problem. Dave has provide a very flexible option. Some will have it turned on, some will have it turned off like you. For me it works very well at Heathrow for example. So I see no need to change it.

Quote:

Traffic coming towards you on the same taxiway is the only time you may experience a problem. That's pretty rare I have to say and indicates someone usually the user has made a wrong turn.

You might 'have to say it' (not sure why) but it's not true at all - I have not made any wrong turn: often there are no wrong turns to make with single taxiways.. As the PF3 pdf itself says, this happens because it is not possible to predict which taxiway AI traffic will use. I quite often have traffic coming at me on the same taxiway, especially at airports which only have one runway. That's FS9 ATC, not PF3.

But and much more to the point, traffic coming directly at me is NOT the only time I have a problem - that's the point of this thread. I have the problem of traffic stopping, no matter how I try to tweak the settings, when it is going the same way as I am. I don't expect PF3 to be able to control traffic coming head on, for the reasons I gave above. Hence, I am not sure what the point of that specific function of CM is supposed to be.

I've tried lots of different values for the CM - OK I'll give 5 another try, but basically I am sadly going to have to switch it off if I can't stop a/c grinding to a halt in this way.

Quote:

So I see no need to change it.

No, if it's working for you, I dare say you don't. But, whether you see the need or not, for you, it's a constant annoyance for me having the AI traffic freeze up like this when it's heading in the same direction as I am and at a reasonable distance in front of me: hence I regretfully am going to have to turn CM off as it is creating a situation that is on balance less realistic than with it switched off. So as I say, I (and am I alone?? If so, it won't happen of course) would really appreciate the option of turning the forward control of CM off, if it's not a difficult tweak to make, via advanced options or whatever) and just have the lateral option working - that works well and I want a/c to stop if they are approaching from the side. I don't want them stopping when we are taxiing to the same runway in an orderly line, it makes no sense.

I will try a low value again and see what happens though..

I had the same problem as martinlest describes at least two times, too, so I can understand his frustration.

ThomasAH wrote:

I had the same problem as martinlest describes at least two times, too, so I can understand his frustration.

This is why I chose a low speed setting of 5kts. It even works at Kai Tak! If I am trundling towards an AI crossing my path waiting for take-off then he is going to freeze if I am going at a certain speed. If that speed is too high then everything around me stops. Whereas above 5kts everything around me is moving. My reasoning is this. If I am travelling at more than 5kts then AI stops for me. If I am travelling at less than 5kts then I give way. Which I have had to do on a number of occasions. It works very well. And I have tried it at busy airports without problems. Sometimes in real life one has to give way to other traffic.
Dave should use "[callsign] hold your position" if there is a potential conflict so that the AI can in those circumstances have precendence. On the rare occasion where AI is heading directly towards you I think Dave has already said that there isn't a work around.

vololiberista wrote:

The answer is quite simple. Turn down your minimum speed. In Options #2 "Pause CM below this ground speed" Set it to 5 knots. This way it mimics real life. If I am taxiing and catching someone up ahead then naturally I would slow down.

Why would turning it down help? Then I would have to crawl behind the aircraft in front of me.
I currently have it set to 10, so I can at least taxi this fast and not make the AI in front of me stop.
If I would be in this situation more often, I would increase it even further, but but in the end it would only mean that I have to wait longer at the holding point.
Maybe it would be nice to have TGS autospeed match the speed of the aircraft in front of me.

I'll add something to the internal bug/wish list.

Edit: done.
- CM should not stop aircraft twice or heading in my direction
and for added comfort:
- TGS autospeed should match aircraft in front of me

ThomasAH wrote:

vololiberista wrote:

The answer is quite simple. Turn down your minimum speed. In Options #2 "Pause CM below this ground speed" Set it to 5 knots. This way it mimics real life. If I am taxiing and catching someone up ahead then naturally I would slow down.

Why would turning it down help? Then I would have to crawl behind the aircraft in front of me.
I currently have it set to 10, so I can at least taxi this fast and not make the AI in front of me stop.
If I would be in this situation more often, I would increase it even further, but but in the end it would only mean that I have to wait longer at the holding point.
Maybe it would be nice to have TGS autospeed match the speed of the aircraft in front of me.

I'll add something to the internal bug/wish list.

Not at all Thomas. You don't have to crawl behind the AI in front of you (unless you are in a queue for the holding point). You do know that there are ways of setting AI speeds. I currently have it set to 10, so I can at least taxi this fast and not make the AI in front of me stop. Set it to 5 and they won't! And in any case what would you do in real life? There is an aircraft in front of you that has stopped. So you would carry on at 15kts and say "Hey get out of my way!" or would you slow down and see what happens. If a car was stopped on a motorway I presume you would stop rather than not brake and hit him!

When Dave first provided the option I tried it at the default speed and it didn't work very well. Now I have no problems at all. The only thing I would put on the wish list would be for Dave to get PF3 to ask me to hold my position therefore allowing AI to pass/cross or whatever. I don't use the TGS autospeed function because I am able to taxi at the required speeds i.e. 10-20kts. without its help.

vololiberista wrote:

You do know that there are ways of setting AI speeds. I currently have it set to 10, so I can at least taxi this fast and not make the AI in front of me stop. Set it to 5 and they won't!

Huh? Why won't they stop again for you when you reach their speed (10 knots, i.e. above your setting of 5 knots)?
I can only guess: If the stopping is only triggered at the CM border of 400m, maybe I did let them gain too much distance and so they stopped again when I got near again?

ThomasAH wrote:

vololiberista wrote:

You do know that there are ways of setting AI speeds. I currently have it set to 10, so I can at least taxi this fast and not make the AI in front of me stop. Set it to 5 and they won't!

Huh? Why won't they stop again for you when you reach their speed (10 knots, i.e. above your setting of 5 knots)?
I can only guess: If the stopping is only triggered at the CM border of 400m, maybe I did let them gain too much distance and so they stopped again when I got near again?

The whole point of this option is to stop AI traffic to allow you precedence. Think how it was in PFE. You can really have it only one of two ways. Off, as it was in PFE or ON as in PF3 with the addition of controlling the point at when AI is stopped.
For me I'm not interested in AI around me whether it has stopped or not. Only if it is directly in front of me. In which case I'm not going to taxi like a bat of hell so I slow down and let the AI continue.

To me this much ado about nothing. I have done about 50 flights from Heathrow, Gatwick and Kai Tak (Kai Tak because I diverted all my Middle East and Far East AI from VHHH to VHHX so it's a bit busy!). And only on one occasion did an AI in front of me do something strange and unexpected. And that was using the default value. At Gatwick an Easyjet airbus had stopped in front of me. I stopped and he suddenly shot off at an enormous speed right across to the other side of the airport.

AI pilots are untrained AHs so they will always do things wrong. Whenever I see a Ryanair a/c however, I always make sure I taxi just fast enough to keep him stopped and therefore delay him!