I was flying Alaska #52 from Fairbanks to Anchorage with the feelthere 737 PIC and RadarContact. Flight was normal during startup, taxi, and climbout. RC held me at 29,000' for quite awhile which kept me from reaching cruising altitude of 35,000' before it issued me a descend command. In fact I was still climbing through 31,000 feet when it ordered me down to 29,000'. Re-programming the FMC and re-setting the altitude meant it took more than 15 seconds before I started descendiing, prompting the ever-present "Watch your altitude, your assigned altitue is 29,000' message". Later, while descending to 29,000', I was give the "Descend to 11,000', start down now I need you level in 30 miles or less". OK, 19,000' in 30 miles, guess I'm getting the "You missed your crossing restriction" lecture again. Oh well. As I was descending, the Anchorage ATIS gave me winds 240@5 and I was expecting to be assigned one of the east/west runways, but instead it said "landing and departing runway 14". Good deal for me since it's almost a straight-in approach. RC told me to expect vectors to Runway 14, I got handed off to approach, vectored east, then southwest to intercept the localizer. As I did, RC was vectoring other AI planes to runway 32. Odd, but I guess they know who is where. I got handed off to tower and when I came out of the clouds about 5 miles from the airport, I saw lights from other planes stacked up vertically on approach to runway 32. My runway, from the other direction. At about 2 or 3 miles out I was instructed to go around, told to fly heading 170 and climb to 6,000'.As I turned right and climbed, I got this shot out the LH window showing planes scattering in every direction. Some were taking off on 32, some were landing on 32 and landed, and some were landing on 32 and did go-arounds:Another view as a climb out. I count twelve planes either taking off from, landing on, or going around from runway 32, all within about a 5 mile radius:So, RC vectors me southwest, then northeast, then back southeast to intercept the localizer for runway 14 again. This time I don't hear any chatter of planes being vectored to runway 32, so I assume I'm good. I'm handed off to tower, come out of the clouds, and see no traffic. I'm cleared to land then just as I cross touch down, lights from the far end of the runway appear, get larger, and I watch a MD80 take off right in front of me. At the time I see the MD80's nose rising, RC tells me to go around. But my wheels are down, speedbrakes out, and the MD80 is above me, so screw that, I slow down and turn off the runway. At which point RC tells me I am losing my license for landing when being told to go around. :( I'm used to some of the peculiarities of RC like being told to start descents so I fly the last 100 miles of trips at 10,000', being told to descend 18,000' in 30 miles to avoid traffic (near Barrow, Alaska), and being warned about my assigned altitude when I don't start climbing or descending within 2 seconds. But several firsts on this one:* First time landing in a cross-wind (albeit small) when two runways aligned exactly with the wind are available.* First time I've seen RC vector airplanes to land on the same runway from opposite directions simultaneously.* First time I've seen RC make AI look like an Italian traffic jam.* Despite the frequent lectures I get from RC, this is the first time I've ever lost my license. :(

But several firsts on this one:* First time landing in a cross-wind (albeit small) when two runways aligned exactly with the wind are available.* First time I've seen RC vector airplanes to land on the same runway from opposite directions simultaneously.* First time I've seen RC make AI look like an Italian traffic jam.

The main problem is FS's ATC and AI control. Radar Contact is not controlling airborne AI, it is only pretending to with the appropriate messages at the right time. FS's own ATC is really controlling them. RC does try to prevent runway encroachments, by occasionally 'freezing' ground-based AI. There's a very limited amount of control afforded to any program over what AI do. A program called AI Smooth (I think that's the name) does try to control AI traffic on approach and space them out, but it too is limited in what it can do. And nothing can change AI traffic runway assignments except stronger winds imposed early enough.And, I think, that was the main problem here -- the wind speed at 5 knots is not enough to fully determine that one runway is better than another, so other factors come into play.Recent updates to ASE have included a facility to enforce a minimum wind speed at the destination, and to fix the destination weather from 50 miles out. Those actions do help a bit, though they are still not an ideal solution.AI can be more fully controlled, but only by a program which creates it, like those used to represent other on-line fliers when using VATSIM or ICAO. But it is beyond the scope of a sophisticated ATC program like RC to create the AI traffic that folks really want to see as well as providing user ATC. I think VOX ATC does create its own traffic so it has more control, and I think that works well for smaller airfields and VFR / GA flying, but us airliner pilots demand greater AI realism at the sorts of airports we visit.Oh, incidentally, UT2 also creates its AI traffic. But then it just gives it a plan to follow and leaves it to it, so after creation those AI flights present exactly the same sorts of problems as the pre-compiled BGL file types of AI (like the default).RegardsPete

First things first :)What version of FS are you using and RC? Make sure you have the versions of FSUIPC and makerwys.exe from the links at the forum top. After installing makerwys.exe run again the scenery rebuild from within RC.The current charts for PANC show only the 7's and 14 have runway navaids (ILS, LOC). With only as five knot wind it is surprising that AI chose 32. Are you using UT2? Normally AI will choose even in VMC with mild winds an ILS approach.RC gives first priority to the AI pattern it sees just before the assignment of the landing runway for approach. If you happen to use UT2 it is important that you have it set for the maximum range to spawn AI so RC can see their established pattern 40 nm out. If it doesn't see AI soon enough it will choose a runway based on winds that are above a certain speed of headwind component and also take into account if a localizer or ILS is present, plus the length of the runway for suitability.So if RC didn't see AI soon enough in these mild winds the 7's and 14's would dominate.You RC version should be 4.3 build 3845 or 3843. Today's makerwys base version is MakeRunways 4.45 for both FS versions. FSUIPC 3.99 and FSUIPC4 4.70 (:( are full installs for FSX and FS9 respectively. Interim versions are MakeRunways 4.46 and FSUIPC 3.997b and FSUIPC 4.713 from the links pinned at the forum top.See threads here and on the ASE forums regarding issues about arrival weather and ATC applications. If you are using ASE in DWC mode there can be issues with the arrival weather not being what it will be when you get there but what it is at your aircraft location due to forced global weather mode. Some issues have been resolved with recent ASE service packs. With ASE in FSX RC gets the forecast weather at destination, not the weather AI are responding to. (Pete may have a correction on this whole scheme.)Regarding AI runway priority I have some information extracted from a thread in one of these forums regarding AI patterns at KDCA:"Runway 01/19 will always be the prefered takeoff/landing runway because1. It is the longest runway2. It has a ILS and a LDA approach code in the database3. The runway is longer then 6500 ft4. Runway 01 is the prefered landing runway with the highest score since it has the ILS approach code for clear weather landings5. Runway 04/22 at less then 5000 ft when xwinded will only accept turbo props and smaller type aircraftSome of the scoring in the XML compiled to bgl processed by the .dll looks like thisScore = 0If runway length > 70% of longest runway at airport -> Score += 50Score += tailwind or headwind (tailwind < 0 and headwind > 0)If (unknown 'runway group' flag) Score += 10Score = crosswind <<<<<<<<------------------------------------ add 100 points if my CW technique is in useIf (runway landing==yes) -> Score += 100If (runway takeoff==yes) -> Score += 100once the score is totaled then FS multiplies by 10000Now we have to factor in that Jet Aircraft as per the .air file has additional scoring code. FS also looks at the Empty Weight value in the aircraft.cfg fileIf no empty weights specified in the .cfg: returns 5000ftElse:value = ((empty_weight pounds - 10000) * 2000 / 90000 ) + 5000if ( value > 7000 ) return 7000if ( value < 5000 ) return 5000else return valueJets are most complicated based on EW vs runway lengthRunway 01/19 = 6875 ft (FS9 stock)Runway 04/22 = 4914 ft (FS9 stock)Since the longest runway at KDCA is 01/19 then ATC will vector all Jets to use that runway. Runway 04/22 will be used if you crosswind but ATC will vector Turbo Props and smaller type aircraft to use that runway.FS coded taxiways and runways with weight restriction code in the XML compiled to a bgl. However like many other parts of FS coding this weight restriction was not made available. The runway weight restriction code can be activated if the runways are parallel or made to think they are parallel with the Crosswind Runway Technique."Not simple, is it :) A user was attempting to make 4/22 and 1/19 simultaneously active with what is called the "crosswind runway" technique for non-parallel runways.Anyway, the question is how did RC observe the AI at approach time. If you can duplicate the situation make a log if you wish and you can send it in for analysis. See the pinned forum topic about this.