OnCourse Software

Dave,
I don't know if PF3 could do it but if the user a/c was contained in a bubble say of 150 meter radius. Could PF3 detect any ai encroaching anywhere into that bubble as it moves? So any ai finding itself within 150m in any direction of the user has to stop as the user passes by, or through an intersection. In addition you could compare the ground speed of the user against that of the ai and if the user was ai+50% then "[callsign] Hold your position." Thus reversing the process and not stopping ai. Then once the ai has passed "[callsign] Continue taxi." It doesn't matter then at what angle the ai is to the user. Also if the ai is already stopped eg. waiting in a queue then you could omit that call.
So in effect there would only be three parameters for PF3 to check Is ai and/or user moving - plus "You're too close to me - Stop!" or "Oi you the rally driver - Stop!"
If PF3 can't then we have to go with what you have done.

Hmmm, sorry - but I don't quite see the logic of the request. Why would you want an aircraft to stop if you approach it from behind, on the same taxiway? There's no way of getting past it, as you suggest. The key surely is to make things as real as possible, and though approaching a taxiing plane too close from behind is clearly a 'no no' in real life aviation, one thing that the a/c in front surely doesn't do is come to a sudden halt! In practice, in FS too, keeping a good distance from the a/c in front is what everyone should be doing, like driving a car, but I would far rather have the a/c in front get faster, to keep a set distance ahead of my user aircraft, as the Aerosoft AES 'Follow Me' me car does, than apply the brakes and block the taxiway.

Perhaps the CM monitoring distance could be decreased. This would result in fewer annoying stoppages but if there is a delay (as there often is on older setups) there may be more conflicts.

vololiberista wrote:

Dave,
I don't know if PF3 could do it but if the user a/c was contained in a bubble say of 150 meter radius. Could PF3 detect any ai encroaching anywhere into that bubble as it moves? So any ai finding itself within 150m in any direction of the user has to stop as the user passes by, or through an intersection. In addition you could compare the ground speed of the user against that of the ai and if the user was ai+50% then "[callsign] Hold your position." Thus reversing the process and not stopping ai. Then once the ai has passed "[callsign] Continue taxi." It doesn't matter then at what angle the ai is to the user. Also if the ai is already stopped eg. waiting in a queue then you could omit that call.
So in effect there would only be three parameters for PF3 to check Is ai and/or user moving - plus "You're too close to me - Stop!" or "Oi you the rally driver - Stop!"
If PF3 can't then we have to go with what you have done.

Well PF3 does use a 'bubble' radius but only to the front and sides. The routine then calculates if anything moving within that radius will, within the next 60 seconds, either enter our assigned taxi route and/or cross it. CM is a totally separate process to PF3 so it cannot issue hold instructions. If you remember this was a point I made during the beta because I wanted to give CM every second I could at searching for possible conflicts. If it had to stop for say just 10 or 15 seconds to issue a 'Hold' and wait for a reply, another conflict could easily slip through the net.

CM was designed to be a transparent as possible, to just sit there and prevent any conflicts without you even knowing about it. If you notice any aircraft stopping prior to a possible conflict all the better and you might just assume it was the pilot using common sense rather than waiting for ATC to tell him/her they'd better stop before crashing into another aircraft

I always knew there would/could be a problem of CM stopping an aircraft at the furthest point away from you which was actually on your taxiway and so on reaching it you wouldn't have a way past it, without going on the grass , which is way we have the 'stop CM/restart AI' feature, automated by your speed. So you see an aircraft that has stopped and as you slow down it continues with it's taxi. If you're careful with your speed you can simply follow that aircraft all the way to the holding point with no further stoppages but yes, if you go above your trigger speed it will stop again. That, I believe, is a small price to pay for a feature that works really well, even though I say it myself.

I think my throw away suggestion of maybe having another hotkey to toggle CM off/on will probably be the best thing to keep everyone happy.... so if you use the hotkey to turn CM off when following along behind another aircraft it would not begin working again till you hit the hotkey a second time.

Dan77 wrote:

Perhaps the CM monitoring distance could be decreased. This would result in fewer annoying stoppages but if there is a delay (as there often is on older setups) there may be more conflicts.

I don't believe that would help in Martin's case

I've set my trigger speed down to 4 and I'll test that a while. It didn't seem to make too much odds last time, but that was with v1.0, maybe it'll be different this time

martinlest wrote:

I've set my trigger speed down to 4 and I'll test that a while. It didn't seem to make too much odds last time, but that was with v1.0, maybe it'll be different this time

That won't help you Martin because it means you would have to keep your speed below 4 knots for the AI traffic to start moving. Remember the trigger speed is what STOPS CM from monitoring AI so they will continue as normal. Once your speed goes above that trigger level CM will again begin to monitor for possible conflicts. Also remember this trigger is ground speed. I still have mine set to 10 knots and it works for me in my trusty ol' 737. I guess if I was catching a lot of traffic a fair distance from my destination then I would probably raise it a bit, but I don't normally have any issues till I'm quite near the holding point, in which case, tailing alont at 10 knots or below is not a problem (for me)

martinlest wrote:

Hmmm, sorry - but I don't quite see the logic of the request. Why would you want an aircraft to stop if you approach it from behind, on the same taxiway? There's no way of getting past it, as you suggest. The key surely is to make things as real as possible, and though approaching a taxiing plane too close from behind is clearly a 'no no' in real life aviation, one thing that the a/c in front surely doesn't do is come to a sudden halt! In practice, in FS too, keeping a good distance from the a/c in front is what everyone should be doing, like driving a car, but I would far rather have the a/c in front get faster, to keep a set distance ahead of my user aircraft, as the Aerosoft AES 'Follow Me' me car does, than apply the brakes and block the taxiway.

I didn't suggest getting past an a/c in front of me. That problem would be solved both by reducing the range and speed setting. So that an a/c in front of me will continue to taxi or if it has stopped "because it has to" then I slow down and stop behind it joining the queue as it wer.e

dmarch wrote:

vololiberista wrote:

So you see an aircraft that has stopped and as you slow down it continues with it's taxi. If you're careful with your speed you can simply follow that aircraft all the way to the holding point with no further stoppages but yes, if you go above your trigger speed it will stop again. That, I believe, is a small price to pay for a feature that works really well, even though I say it myself.

I'm afraid that's what I do! Which is quite real life too. In that if I am taxiing and closing in on an a/c in front of me then I slow down for strangely obvious reasons. And if I have to stop then that's what I do. One adjusts the speed as one wishes to achieve a predictable result. It only becomes a problem if the user is charging about the airfield like there's no tomorrow.

Dave - yes, that was my argument somewhere above and I currently have the CM set to 20, but that is too high I expect. OK, I'll try somewhere between 10 and 15. I usually taxi at around 17 knots (the FS9 default), so I thought 20 was 'safe', but it hasn't worked out so well. Once a/c stop in front of me they seem to take for ever to get moving again.. I'll set CM to 16 and keep my taxi speed at 15 or below.

One instance of how the CM is blocking AI traffic is when I push back from the gate. Other a/c are often doing the same thing, and so often they start taxiing and then stop, no doubt due to information from CM. In any event...

Quote:

It only becomes a problem if the user is charging about the airfield like there's no tomorrow

.
... I don't go "charging about the airfield like there's no tomorrow", so clearly that is not the only time it becomes a problem. Not sure, as I say, why the esteemed Mr.V keeps assuming that any issues we are having are due to an 'idiot' user.

I also posted somewhere a while back (can't recall where exactly now - I have added so many posts!!! At least it shows I am getting my money's worth from PF3 and FDC!) that I had tweaked the default AI taxi speed to 25 knots. How is that likely to impact the functioning of CM? Had I better set the speed back to the 17 knot default?