OnCourse Software

I really think that this is the best atc program out there, Im loving it but one thing I wish that could be addressed is the constant runway changes, this is the only thing that drives me nuts, I know that AI and varible winds can cause havoc but this can happen like 10 to 15 times on approach. It even can happen when things seem to be perfect, I was flying into LAX tonight and had a strong wind coming in from the west and the acars told me 24R was in use.As I got closer I could see with fscomander the AI were also landing on 25L aswell kinda like real world ops parallel approaches, anyways then it began "runway change 25L" "runway change 24R" at least 10 times back and forth. I wish we could request a runway on first contact with approach, or just get rid of the code that tells pfe to look for what the AI traffic are doing, they are so unpredictable anyways and its easier for me to zap then out of the way anyways if there is a conflict, just let pfe look at the winds. Anyways this is the only major thing that needs to be addressed.

Ian

Hi Ian,

I'd like to see the log file when this happens again because the maximum number of changes you should get is fixed to '5'

Please email the log rather than posting it here as it's easier for me to process

Having reinstalled PFE after being away from flight simulation for over a year, I rediscovered how great this program is. But as Ian stated, there must be a problem when assigning runways. In my case not that I have more then 1 runway change per flight (but even that seems statistical too many), but too often, ATC changes to a runway with gives me tailwind on landing. Not at one airport but it happens all the time and is gets really hard to include a STAR or prepare a 737 for landing. Also, at take off, aircraft are sometimes directed to opposite sides of the same runway.
I use ASE for weather and when tuning meteo, it seems that the info corresponds with ASE.
Please, have a look at this problem? Would it be impossible to include an option to stick with the first runway mentionned for departure or landing?

Kind regards,

Jos EBBR

You can request whatever runway you want

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S

Yes, CTRL=SHFT+W gives me a screen asking: "runway 6L CTRL+SHFT+N or CTRL+SHFT+Y". After my response: "CTRL+SHFT+N", no more message from PFE. All I can do then, is taxi to the assigned runway, dial tower freq and ask for take off. Happened 2 times in a now. Also, the meteo report gives me for example runway 24 as the active, and taxi clearance assigns the opposite 5 minutes later. Why? Aircraft taking off/landing from two sides of the same runway is not very realistic. There is no logic in assigning runways. Hopefully, there will be an improvement, because is a downer to the best ATC software ever.

Jos
EBBR

Jos,

Pfe uses the same runway as any active ai aircraft. If none are detected it used wind direction. It works. There is no problem to resolve.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S

Hm, so if there are AI aircraft active, it is the FSX engine that decides on the active runway? Could it be then, that FSX is not reading the same weather parameters as PFE? Has anybody else that uses ASE has problems with runways assignments? Yesterday for example, ATIS says runway 07 is in use. When contacting ground for taxi, they give me runway 25 for take off (wind direction unchanged). If there is no problem, why does this happen so often? Last minute runway changes happen in real life also, so that's not the problem, but runway changes that choose runways with a tailwind on take off or landing, that's not very realistic to me.

Jos
EBBR

Try using ASE SP3 that was released yesterday, it has a new wind lock facility that is designed to stop these weird active runway switches due to wind changes, Radar Contact is effected in exactly the same way as PFE is, there is nothing that can be done to stop aircraft taking off and landing at both ends of the runway that is a core function/bug in FS that cannot be overcome by anyone outside of the ACES team and they don't exist anymore, but this latest tweak in ASE should certainly reduce the likelyhood somewhat.

Hi Jos,

there is a "Refresh AI Aircraft"-button on the Report page of ASE that I always use before starting PFE :
"Click to refresh scenery and AI aircraft in your FS session, based on the most recently loaded weather"

I've tried that myself, and it never seems to change anything regarding traffic, it just makes the screen go black for a split second with a loading dialogue. When the sim returns from the blackness every single AI aircraft is still doing exactly what it did before, this feature has never worked for me in all the time I have been a HIFI beta tester.