xwind runways

[MeneMene 1]

Some afcad files you get have an option for crosswind runways enabled. As far as I can tell, these add in several non-existant tiny runways that somehow gets things going. How does this work, exactly, and what are the drawbacks/side effects? I've been seeing some strange behavior at some airports like this, where I'll have the xwind being the only one open ever, or A/C taking off from both the Xwind and the main, which intersect. What is your opinion on using these?

[Art_P 6]

Some afcad files you get have an option for crosswind runways enabled. As far as I can tell, these add in several non-existent tiny runways that somehow gets things going. How does this work, exactly, and what are the drawbacks/side effects? I've been seeing some strange behavior at some airports like this, where I'll have the xwind being the only one open ever, or A/C taking off from both the Xwind and the main, which intersect. What is your opinion on using these?

This is a creation by JVile, who can properly explain it, but I'll give a layman's explanation. A number of additional runways are created with small heading changes between two real runways and FSX sees them all as parallel. The extra runways don't appear because they are located at the north pole with ice surfaces. Since the runways are seen as parallel, ATC doesn't consider aircraft are landing/taking off on crossing runways. At the airport I tried this on, GA aircraft defaulted to the shorter runway without ILS and airlines used the long ILS runway, regardless of wind direction. There are a lot of factors that go into runway assignment, which Jim is good at explaining but I dare not. I found that when I first started up a flight, the runway assignment was downwind and changed to the proper direction a short time later. Maybe this is sort of like AI traffic in that it takes FSX a little time to get things sorted out. The biggest drawback is that ATIS lists all of the runways, which takes a long time. As far as aircraft landing/taking off head-to-head, I've seen this at airports without the crosswind runway technique applied.

[MeneMene 1]

I use Radar contact, so the ATC listing runways isn't a problem. So this technique doesn't cause any other drawbacks? How realistic is it for an airport to use the wind-aligned runway for landing and a different one on a different heading for take-offs? This is what seems to be happening 60% of the time.

[FalconAF 213]

How realistic is it for an airport to use the wind-aligned runway for landing and a different one on a different heading for take-offs? This is what seems to be happening 60% of the time.

andque,It's very realistic. But let's talk about a couple things first so you get a better understanding of what is going on.First, the use of the term "crosswind runways" isn't really correct. It is more appropriate to say "multiple runways" when it comes to airport operations with runways like the AFCADs are being made for. Many airports with multiple runway configurations will use more than one, two, or even more runways for takeoffs and landings at the same time. ATC coordinates the takeoffs and landings to avoid conflicts.Here's an example. At Las Vegas McCarran airport (KLAS), it is quite common to have aircraft taking off on runways 25R and 19L, with landings happening on 25L and 19R. Winds in this case would be from generally the south to west direction, thus BOTH the 25 and 19 runways would be "wind aligned". ATC makes sure that no two aircraft would take off at the same time from 25R or 19L because they would cross paths departing, so they stagger the takeoffs. Landings however could occur on both 25L and 19R at the same time because they don't technically intersect each other on the ground. Take a look at the KLAS airport chart diagram to get a feel for this.What the "crosswind runway" AFCADs do is make FSX use MORE than just one set of runways at airports like these, so you get more realistic real-world type aircraft operations. Without these AFCADs, FSX would only use one set of runways for takeoffs and landings, which can really cause your FSX AI traffic to back up and delay takeoffs, do go-aroounds on approaches, etc. They still aren't perfect, but make things more realistic overall if you use them at the big major airports they are made for. For instance, without a "crosswind runway" AFCAD for KLAS, FSX would use only the 25's or the 19's, but not both. With a "crosswind runway" AFCAD for KLAS, FSX will use BOTH (actually, all FOUR) of the 25 and 19 runways. This is very realistic to real-world operations.FalconAF

[Art_P 6]

ATC coordinates the takeoffs and landings to avoid conflicts.

In the real world, yes. The crosswind runway technique makes ATC see the conflicting runways as parallel, so no "coordination" takes place in FSX. While ATC in the FSX simulation is pretty amazing, there are a lot of things that need to be improved. It an addon (like Radar Contact) resolves the issues, I would like know.

[FalconAF 213]

Uh...yeah. That's why I said above , "They still aren't perfect..." when I talked about using crosswind runway AFCADs. AI aircraft will still do strange things in FSX with or without them. They don't fix anything that is inherently "wrong" with the FSX ATC or AI traffic management. Stuff still "happens" in FSX that won't be 100% realistic, regardless of what addons we add.FalconAF

[MeneMene 1]

ok, thanks