Problems with AI traffic taxing

[Guest retro111]

I wonder if anyone can help with a problem. I fly from Phoenix AZ with a lot of AI traffic running, I run AISmooth to help with the flow and I have a heavily modifed AFCAD file for the airport but have not touched the taxi ways.When an AI aircraft comes into land or is taxing it sometimes stops in it's tracks and will not move. This leads to traffic backing up behind it and everything coming to a halt. This happens only with traffic that has landed and doesn't happen to every aircraft. After a while 10-20 minutes the aircraft simply vanishes, but anything behind it stays put.Any ideas anyone.Steven Schofield

[ronzie 21]

If you are experiencing this only with AI Smooth running, try turning off the setting Respond To User Aircraft.Another thing you can do if a specific airport is causing your problem is to run AFCAD (version 1.x for FS8 or 2.21 for FS9) and use the fault finder tool to locate any broken taxi links.If AI can't find an open parking space they can stall and (in FS9) disappear in about five minutes. Use AFCAD to determine if you have enough parking space. AI will at first attempt try to find the correct parking area by airline code in the AFCAD, then will park anywhere using the shortest taxi route to pick any gate of equal or greater size to match the aircraft radius. Look for an AFCAD to fit your airport in the library here by searching on the ICAO code. Typically they have more gates available and can have parking codes built in. Be aware that if you installed a traffic package it may have already installed an AFCAD besides the default. There should only be one AFCAD beyond the default stock layer or you can get "undetermined results".

[Guest retro111]

Ron,Thanks for responding.I did have some issues with the AFCAD file for KPHX and these have now been resolved. I have loads of spare parking spots, so this can't be the problem. I have also set respond to user aircraft in AISmooth, but unfortunatley my problem has still not gone away. Thanks for the input.Steven

[ronzie 21]

Just to be clear Respond To User Aircraft should be off.Does an overhead view show any ai taxiing on conflicting paths? If ai are in certain proximity to other ai or you they will wait for you (hopefully) to move. In some cases ai will wait for other ai to move in a stalling situation, either nose to nose or other issues.Sometimes a specific ai model will have too large a radius in its aircraft.cfg. If it is on a parallel taxiway to a busy runway or other taxiway it can stall.If you need an emergency ai "poof" there is a mappable function to toggle AI in a registered FSUIPC. Another trick to force AI refresh is to go into the World/Time menu and advance the time by a couple of minutes.FWIW I have had nose to nose AI stall on opposing taxiways on each side of a runway threshold. Since the scenery had the taxiway elements, I just got rid of the opposing taxiway link (in AFCAD) forcing AI to use the next entry down, which in this case was pretty close. (AI did not seem to respect a closed taxiway property set in AFCAD.)

[tgibson 11]

Hi,Usually, when an aircraft just stops for a long time, there can be two reasons:1. This plane's taxi route interferes with another plane's taxi route, and it must wait until that plane clears the route. Make sure to have alternate taxi routes around the airport, but in many cases (i.e. in alleys at the terminal) this cannot be easily avoided.2. When landing, the plane will stop if it needs to cross another active (i.e. parallel) runway to get to its parking place (often it will stop while still on it's runway, but not always). It will wait until all traffic is clear on this other runway (or disappear if that takes too long).The fix for this is to create a "diamond" crossing of the offending runway at that point:1. In AFCAD, move the existing node on the runway between the taxiway and the runway to the side, making it a V shape. 2. Create another taxiway route across the runway, but DON'T let it connect to the runway - it should go from one red hold short node to the other.3. If traffic will be entering or exiting the runway from the other side, create a complimentary V shape taxiway from the hold short node to the runway to the other hold short node (creating the other side of the diamond).4. I usually set the "straight through" taxiway with a visible line and the "diamond routes" without lines, but you can experiment and see what you like best.Now the plane will taxi across that runway, even if there is active traffic on it. You might see a few collisions, but this is much rarer than the traffic tie ups you had before.Hope this helps,--Tom GibsonCal Classic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.comFreeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.comDrop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

[Guest retro111]

Ron, TomThanks again for responding. I have spent quite a lot of time both observing the issues on the taxiways and looking at the fixes. I have changed the layout of the taxiways at two levels firstly I have added two new exits from the landing runway to allow aircraft to simply clear the runaway and allow more aircraft to land. This did not resolve the problem fully but did help. While I was relucant, I removed an entrance and exit to the active departure runway and them added a straight crossover across the active runway this worked all traffic now go straight across. While at first it looked odd, by moving the "crossover" too a position where a taxiway should have allowed aircraft to cross the whole airfirld looks good and this point is beyond the point where the aircraft rotate. I need to do a little more tidying up and I should be able to get on with flying again.Thanks again guys, a great help.Steven

[ronzie 21]

Happy New Year!To assist in speeding up landing aircraft exiting a runway consider using FSConfigurator by Ken Salter. One of its features is the ability to adjust AI taxi speed. I recommend you just increase it very slightly.Another utility, called AI Taxispeed is mislabeled as being compatible with FS9. It is for FS8 only.

[Guest Phantoms]

All the time I've used FS9 Configurator and I've never noticed that under the tools section. Thank you!