AI-Traffic

[Guest berendt]

Hello,does anybody know how long an AI Aircraft is visible after having landed at an airport and having changed to "Sleep" Mode - especially, if it is going to start again rather long time after having landed ?Similar: How long before a start according to a given flightplan does an AI Aircraft appear at its parking position ?Reason for the question: If I want to check the parking capacity at a given airport at a given time, I have to know all aircraft which is visible at that time on some parking position.Thanks for any answer,Gerhard.****************************Gerhard Berendte-mail: berendt@zedat.fu-berlin.de****************************

[gab523 0]

Gerhard, The plane will be visible until the flight plan tells it it is time to depart. So if it lands at 7:00am but does not depart until 7:00pm then it will sit there for 12 hours. I would guess that most airline traffic is on the ground during the day from 30 minutes to 1hr. Also, if there are no empty gates, the plane will disapear on the runway and never taxi to a gate.When you start your flight, I beleive that the program will place all planes that would depart in the future, plus the ones that were supposed to depart 10 minutes ago (I think that is the time) from that time.Hope this helps.Glenn

[Guest berendt]

Hello Glenn,thanks for the message.I believed its contents too, but as far as my experience goes, it is not always true:Assume a flightplan with a flight between only 2 airports (not too far away from each other) and only once a week. This implies that actually the plane has to stay at one of the two ports in question (perhaps even at both of them) for some days, and evidently this does not occur (as can be watched in FS9 either by the Traffic Explorer or by direct looking at the airport involved through the bird's perspective at different times of the day and the week.Also, there is another evidence which made me doubting the statement:I wrote a program which - for any selected airport with AI traffic - lists hour by hour for a selected day anywhere in the week the number of "sleeping" aircraft. When writing this program, I assumed exactly the statement of your message, i.e. at a given time, I checked the flightplans within FS9 for each aircraft, sitting at that airport at that time. The result is that my program lists much more aircraft at the airport at that time than can be seen on the corresponding bird's perspective screenshot (which, on the other hand, coincides with the list within the Traffic Explorer).Hence, I have the strong feeling that AI aircrafts, being in "sleep" mode at an arbitrary airport, vanish at a certain time after having landed and appearing at a certain time before starting, and only remain there, if - according to the respective flightplan - they leave the airport again rather shortly after having arrived there. This seems to be similar to the fact that flying AI aircraft vanish from the Traffic Map as well as from the Traffic Explorer list, if they have a certain distance from the airport they will land on or have started from.At the moment, I do not have any idea how to test the mechanism and get these parameters in question.Greetings,Gerhard. *************************Gerhard Berendte-mail: berendt@zedat.fu-berlin.de*************************

[RFields5421 1]

I have one traffic file for "static" aircraft.These are all set to week flight plans and have one local middle of the night flight to an airport about 30-50 miles away and return an hour later.The file includes airports around the world - over 40 and over 400 individual flight plans.The aircraft have special parking codes and are set for things like maintenance hangers, boneyards, static displays, etc.I've never seen the aircraft disappear - and because the only movement is set for local hours 0130-0330 - they are always present every day of the week during daylight hours.You have to remember that AI aircraft do not follow their weekly schedule unless you leave the computer and FS running for a full week.At the time you start FS, the traffic files are scanned and a "slice of time" from the traffic files is used.Any aircraft scheduled to be on your airport in the sleep mode should be initialized on the airport when FS starts - even if their schedule had them land six days and 20 hours ago, or they are not scheduled to depart for six days and 20 hours.The only time I've seen aircraft not be initialized in the sleep mode on the airport is when there was not sufficient parking for all AI aircraft.At that point, all rules about schedules are going to be messed up.

[gab523 0]

Hey Gerhard>Assume a flightplan with a flight between only 2 airports (not>too far away from each other) and only once a week. This>implies that actually the plane has to stay at one of the two>ports in question (perhaps even at both of them) for some>days, and evidently this does not occur (as can be watched in>FS9 either by the Traffic Explorer or by direct looking at the>airport involved through the bird's perspective at different>times of the day and the week. This could be true as I have not used those programs. In my experince I have not seen them disapear. But then again I would have to simulate an entire week to see if this were true.>I wrote a program which - for any selected airport with AI>traffic - lists hour by hour for a selected day anywhere in>the week the number of "sleeping" aircraft. When writing this>program, I assumed exactly the statement of your message, i.e.>at a given time, I checked the flightplans within FS9 for each>aircraft, sitting at that airport at that time. The result is>that my program lists much more aircraft at the airport at>that time than can be seen on the corresponding bird's>perspective screenshot (which, on the other hand, coincides>with the list within the Traffic Explorer).Again have not used the program. You can have as many planes as you want at an airport, but they will not all show up unless you have the space for all of them. So lets say your program shows 20 aircraft, but the airport only has space for 10, then you would only see those 10 planes and the other 10 would not show up. Maybe that is why your are getting those results, your airports don't have enough spots. Just a thought. But then again I do not stay at airports long enough to see what really happens.I would like to know what would really happen in this next situation, but I just don't stay around long enough. Lets say a plane lands, but there are no empty parking spots, it will disapear. But it may as you say appear sometime before it is time for it to depart, if there is an empty spot for it to start from. Not really sure if that would happen or not, but would be interested in finding out.Glenn

[RFields5421 1]

There is a limit of 255 parking spots per airport in FS2004, and from testing so far it appears the same limit applies in FSX.This "limit" may not be an actual limit, but neither AFCAD nor the BGLComp will compile an airport with more than 255 parking spaces.In FSX, fuel stations and fuel truck parking take up parking spots.