ATC/AFCAD & ATIS disagree

[martinlest2 58]

Is there a way to correct ATIS reports so that they agree with the airport AFCAD? For instance at Cairo (HECA) I get an ATIS report that gives the active runway as 36. There is no runway 36 in my HECA scenery (3rd. party addon), nor in the FS9 default AFCAD come to that (AP956210.bgl): FSNavigator correctly shows Rwy 34, and FS9 ATC directs AI traffic to 34 too. So where would ATIS be getting 'Rwy36' from? Where is the file where the incorrect data is loading from?Thanks,Martin

[jvile 1]

Is there a way to correct ATIS reports so that they agree with the airport AFCAD? For instance at Cairo (HECA) I get an ATIS report that gives the active runway as 36. There is no runway 36 in my HECA scenery (3rd. party addon), nor in the FS9 default AFCAD come to that (AP956210.bgl): FSNavigator correctly shows Rwy 34, and FS9 ATC directs AI traffic to 34 too. So where would ATIS be getting 'Rwy36' from? Where is the file where the incorrect data is loading from?Thanks,Martin

Open the airport with the airport utility that was used in the design. View runways and see if a 36 exist. If AFCAD was used to design the airport then use that Utility. If AFX or ADE9X was used then select that utility.jim

[martinlest2 58]

Hi. Yes, I'd looked at both the default and the addon AFCAD (which is an AF2 file) using AFCAD2 - no Rwy36 there. I even disassembled the AP956210.bgl file to check the information for runways and the ATIS, but no Rwy 36 for HECA is mentioned.Martin

[N60JBravo 27]

What is the filename of the addon, and where did you get it?regards,Joe

[ronzie 21]

The default has a 16/34. Was any runway renumbering attempted?Here's an idea for you to try. Go to:http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.htmland download Makerwys.exe. It is free and does not require FSUIPC. Place it in your FS folder and run it (with admin privileges if VISTA or Win 7. Let it go and you'll see an airport and runway count. At the end it will pop-up an OK for you to close it.Makerwys follows your scenery priority. It will create some data files but for your analytical purposes it creates a log file called runway.txt in the same FS folder. Open it in Notepad or other editor. Search for HECA. It will find a few sections the first being the default and the section head shows the file path, then any afcad or other afd type .bgl. Each section will contain runway information. Runways shorter than 2,000 feet (I think) are ignored as they are pseudo runways used for the STAR/CROSSWIND runway technique. The last HECA section has priority but earlier sections might leave droppings behind if the later section does not contain proper excludes. That .txt file will show runway exclude statements, the path to each section, and other details. See if any section contains a runway 36.Unfortunately FS ATIS does show the short runways used in the STAR/CROSSWIND technique that makes a non-parallel runway simultaneously active with others to avoid the FS restriction of only parallel runways being simultaneously used.There might be an add-on .bgl layer that has this so see if makerwys picks it up. It is used by several add-on apps but in your case just use it for analysis running it without FS running and executing it in your FS folder. It takes about three minutes to run with quite a few add-on sceneries as every scenery folder in your scenery list is examined for airport properties even if not an airport type.See if you can dig this out.It is easier to look at runways.txt than explain it. There is a makerwys readme created in your FS folder as well that explains the data file fields if you are interested.

Hi. Yes, I'd looked at both the default and the addon AFCAD (which is an AF2 file) using AFCAD2 - no Rwy36 there. I even disassembled the AP956210.bgl file to check the information for runways and the ATIS, but no Rwy 36 for HECA is mentioned.Martin

[tgibson 11]

In AFCAD did you actually go to Lists/Runways and see if there was a runway 36 listed there?

[martinlest2 58]

Hi again. Thanks a lot for the replies.Firstly, yes, I did check the runways list in AFCAD2 for HECA - no Rwy 36 was listed. The three are 5L/23R, 5R/23L & 16/34.I know that ATIS lists any STAR runways (a bit of a pain when the list is very long!) but at HECA Rwy 36 is the only runway that ATIS announces. The 'legitimate' runways, like 34/16 are not mentioned by ATIS at all. ATC, as I mentioned, does get it right.I did have the MakeRwys.exe file in my FS9 folder already (I'd forgotten it was there!), so ran it as you suggested: apparently I have 55477 runways... I used the text search facility to find any instance of 36 under the HECA section of the new runways.txt, but there is definitely no entry for such a runway in the file.The addon in question BTW is "go_cairo_2007.zip" (plus the update "go_cairoupdate.zip") - both now 'missing' from the AVSIM file library (though I do have the zips backed up on my PC).Martin

[N60JBravo 27]

HEAZ is a stone's throw away and uses the same ATIS frequency. It has a RWY36.Are you hearing that?regards,Joe

[ronzie 21]

The files are on flightsim.com:gocair07.zip - exam shows AF2_HEACgocairup.zip - Includes updated AFCAD2 file. Scenery of Cairo International Airport (HEAX), Egypt. and that's the AF2 title as well.Note is uses HEAX as the ICAO according to the description above. That is Alexandria and the runways (default) are 4/22 and 18/36.I'll have to look at them closer later.

[ronzie 21]

Both Cairo files have the AF_2 files for HECA but it is the cairoair7 zip that has the wrong file name. It left out the cross runway. The gocairup.zip readme explicity states to delete the AF2_HEXA file and replace it with the upgraded one which adds the missing runway 16/34.Both were for HECA, it was just a file name error. The ATIS is 122.6.Again, see how many HECA sections there are in makerwys.txt. There should probably be only two, the default and the add-on unless some special layers were used.As N60JBravo noticed HEAZ has the same ATIS frequency. I am attaching both comms listings from AFCAD which in their descriptions seem to show the tower is shared and their is an 18/36 at HEAZ. You might want to change one of the ATIS frequencies in AFCAD to make them exclusive.

[martinlest2 58]

Starting up at HECA, Rwy 34 and turning on ATIS, I get two different reports (never had that before in ten years of MSFS), one after the other, in different voices. The first is correct, saying that Rwy 5L and 5R are in use, ILS. Then a second voice tells me that it's Rwy 36, VFR, that's in use.So I changed the ATIS frequency for HECA and saved the AFCAD. Now, the correct ATIS report is missing altogether and I only get the incorrect Rwy 36 one.... Changed HECA ATIS back to 122.6. Still only get the incorrect Rwy 36 report..Next opened up AP956210 (which contains the default HECA and HEAZ) to an xml file, and changed the ATIS frequency of HEAZ, then recompiled back to a bgl. Now I get only the correct Rwy 5L and 5R, ILS ATIS report.So maybe this is fixed. I'll test it out a few times before I can definitely say so. Anyway, thanks Joe, ronzie, for pointing out the cause.Martin

[scott967 62]

How did you open up the AP9 file, as disassembly programs tend to mess up things like the approach code?scott s..

[ronzie 21]

ADE9X can open up a stock airport and disassemble it including the approaches into its work area. You can then create both airport scenery and approach code based objects and changes and it looks like it can exclude stock scenery objects and approach code and recompile its duplicated code with your changes into a .bgl that can go into a higher priority.It is stated it for both FSs follows the SDK strictly and for FS9 uses the MS SDK xml compiler (included) and for FSX uses the compiler furnished with the Deluxe FSX version.It does not change the FS AP original files.It has some features such that first it will not compile things that break SDK rules. If you add an ILS in airport view which will only be seen by the user aircraft it will also add it to the approach code and automatically create a default circular approach to it. An ILS added with AFCAD would not be listed or seen on the default FS GPS. An ADE9X added ILS will.I don't know what disassembler was used but it seems to work.It apparently can do for the comms what martinlest2 performed to fix his problem and undoing what AFCAD did but again being safer by not modifying the the AP stock file.

How did you open up the AP9 file, as disassembly programs tend to mess up things like the approach code?scott s..