Single Runway Traffic Issues

[Bill A 68]

Hi, I mostly depart from my home airport KSAN and notice when Im at the hold short point of the runway the tower does not clear me for takeoff when there is traffic around 6nm away on final. I use AI smooth. Is there a setting to adjust this so the tower can clear planes for takeoff then they are even around 5-4 mile away when there is heavy ground traffic waiting for departure?Thanks,Bill

[ronzie 21]

If you turn respond to user aircraft on in the settings and set a distance from your aircraft, all AI within that radius will go into a holding pattern outside of final which should provide seperation for your take-off clearance once you are near the runway. AIS does not have control of FS ATC take-off clearance protection parameters.I use (as noted in my tag) RC which uses a 3 nm clearance limit. I have used it with AIS with respond to user aircraft turned off. I have AIS set for a sixty second seperation of AI on final and that lets AI get off the ground especially in the "AI rush" that occurs at a busy airport when a flight is loaded. I should note that there might be some conflict of AI when using RC and AIS but I have not experienced this. RC4.2 does control AI in the immediate aircraft vacinity if enabled in its options to reduce ground aircraft from taxiing onto the runway when you are on final and helping to keep aircraft behind from overruning you.A newer version of AIS is here:http://sagner.dyndns.org/extern/flightware...Smooth_V120.zip

[Bill A 68]

Thanks Ron, I have read all the reviews of Radar Contact and it looks very promising. Looks like I will be purchasing that product soon for my FS9. This is something that I have been waiting for. Question, does Radar Contact do a excelent job with AI traffic on final or is it best to use AI Smooth with Radar Contact?Another question, how much resourse does it use on the computer since I would have FS9, AI SMooth, Active sky, and also Radar Contact all minimized while using FS9?Thanks, and sounds like a great product?Bill

[Mike T 208]

Bill:RC does not seperate aircraft on final any better than the default ATC, ergo, you still need AI Smooth.Secondly, RC will introduce stutters if you are running it on the same computer as FS9 with your single core CPU. However, I don't know if it is be design or by accident that RC doesn't not stutter at all on a dual core.The only real weakness with RC is its lack of ground control. You will lose ATC specifying gates to all AI aicraft and instead you will get "taxi to ramp". Likewise you will lose that also unless you specify a gate at your destination location. Additionally, you do not receive detailed taxi instructions (i.e. taxi to RWY 34L via taxi way Bravo, etc.)Otherwise, its a very good product. Search, through the reviews...I did one on it with lots of details.

[Bill A 68]

Thanks Mike, will AI traffic still go to their airlines assigned gates with RC, or will they just go to any gate and park?Thanks,Bill

[Mike T 208]

They still go to their assigned gates, no problem at all there.Edit: Be forewarned, once you get used to RC, there is NO going back to the default ATC. Officially, I can say that RC is a FS9 must have utility.

[Bill A 68]

Thanks Mark, you have me somewhat concerned with the performance issues.Bill

[ronzie 21]

RC updates have fixed some of the performance issues with stuttering by introducing a different method of assembling its ATC audio for playback. If your HD is defragmented it should not cause much in the way of any stuttering by itself. It has minimal effect on FPS.Before activating the flight you can go into the Controller menu and enter gate numbers for departure and destination and RC will announce those on departure ground and arrival. It does not check to see if they are empty. There is not taxi route given or progressive taxi in the current version. If the options AI chatter and interact with AI are enabled, FS ATC ground instructions should be regenerated as given. I recommend keeping AI random recorded chatter off. It should not be needed with AI present and that would help performance.RC does have some control of AI enroute and on on approach. It will attempt to slow aircraft behind you to prevent overrun on final and maybe speed up aircraft in front. It will freeze ground traffic to prevent runway encroachment reducing go-arounds. Enroute it will move AI out of your way to some degree to avoid conflicts and call traffic targets to you.I have used AI Smooth 1.12 (now 1.2) with RC with the AIS setting Respond to User Aircraft turned off so it does not conflict with RC control of AI. RC also controls enroute AI to move them out of your way to resolve conflicts. I still use a TCAS equipped aircraft to keep an eye on AI trends. Mike is correct in that RC does not provide separation between AI, but it does to some degree between AI and you. In testing I and at least one other beta tester has not found conflicts between AIS and RC that I am aware of.I suggest you query users regarding performance issues on the RC support forum here on AVSIM. Describe your setup and you should get some answers. I run 100% Ultimate Traffic and a well designed scenery gives me minimal problems. I frequently use the PMDG 737NG which uses a lot of resources along with AS6.5 and RC on a P4 3.2 GHz CPU with 1.25 GB RAM under XP with a 6800GT 256 MB video card. Ocassionally I get a stutter on close final as at a well detailed heavily populated airport when AI come into view but I think that is more a function of AI models and resources. I intend to increase my RAM to 2.0 GB but I very seldom see disk access unless RC is fetching .wav files or scenery is being fetched. Not all fetches result in stutters however.Version 5 is expected to have many improvements in ground handling as Mike commented on, but this version is probably at least a year away and I can not comment on what will be the improvements in the next version for sure. I would suggest that you post any queries on the support forum here on AVSIM for the principals to answer. Some of these comments have been addressed already so browse the forum first.You can download the large instruction manual from the RC web site you can reach by clicking on my tag below. I also suggest you look at the features comparison table to decide if it is right for you.

[Bill A 68]

Thanks Ron, I use the default ATC system and it runs great on my PC with with trafic set at 100%. I hope RC performs the same way. I'll read around the forums on it.Thanks for the reply,Bill