Ground and Taxi Operations at Large Airports

[Jetblst 23]

Hi,

 

In using Radar Contact now for a while, I noticed that the taxi instructions at large airports leave a good deal to be desired, which means I am probably not doing something correctly. For example I have my traffic settings at 60% Airline and GA respectively. I am using stock traffic (may be my first mistake) but that is what I have for now. I do have WOI installed too.

 

Departing KATL for KMSP (My testing flight) I notice that the ground controllers, well, no offense, do not behave at all like controllers at RW ATL. During high traffic hours you are given extremely detailed taxi instructions to the runways, as I am sure you are well aware of. So. Where am I going wrong here.

 

I read all I could on ground ops in the RC.DOC. I dabbled in the AdvDisplay area, when I have a little more time I will set that up. Looks great. I searched the forums. Not saying much as I am not the best search guy LOL.

 

I have to think this very well put together program does better than "Taxi to 27R and Hold Short" when there are two massivly busy ACTIVE runways on the way there. Again I am new. Does the program tell you to hold short while on the way if you try to cross an active runway, then giving you adv instructions?

 

If you have covered it can I have a link please? Thank you in advance.

[Jetblst 23]

Ok, I found it. (Getting better at search). I see that RC will not give turn by turn directions from a post prior. Why? (Curious)

 

This sure would be useful as that is one of the most complicated tasks a pro can face, as well as one of the fastest ways to get FSDO giving you attention. For instance while flying in and out of ORD we would get "Air Choice One, taxi 32L Alpha, Alpha 18 Bravo, Mike 2, Mike, Tango, Tango 10." Easily read here. But over the radios during push this was daunting even though you would normally taxi this route once or twice a month. The other fun in this taxi instruction is Mike 2 gets confused with or meaning Mike to. In your mind for a split second your thinking how to you take mike to mike when your on mike. This would give a new realm to RC.

 

If you have more info, I sure would appreciate it.

[metalmike 34]

There are no taxi instructions in rc, unfortunately. Just "taxi to holding point runway xx" or after arrival "taxi to the ramp".

[Jetblst 23]

LOL Metalmike. Wow. I am getting my search on now. Finding better ways to find old posts. :blush: Wow did I get an eyeful.

 

I get it now that the info was not there in the first place so JD was not able to get it into the program.

 

I have learned how to do some work arounds too. I would have never thought to use a mix of stock ATC and RC. Food for thought. No worries. Great program. The inflight ability of this program is well, spectacular. I almost forget it is actually a computer program. Last night I shot (ILS now LOC rnwy 4 to mins and was told to go missed. The missed procedures are great. Also so are the emergency procedures. Very realistic. Anyhow thanks.

 

So question answered.

 

Wishing hard though that in RC v5 we can see this fixed somehow. Computer guru I am not.

[ronzie 21]

I just use charts for US Airports from the free resources at flightaware.com (use Info) that give you the FAA charts.

 

There are a couple of payware "airport GPS" add-ons that will plot taxi paths for you and I think open up a win in FS. They may have had limitations, though.

 

I also use FS overhead views for taxiing if I don't have a chart. If I do have a chart I look at the afd file for the destination airport, pick a gate and mark it on the charts, and then set its radius to very small to keep ai out of it.

 

If RCv5 is released it will have incremental taxi instructions in the status area of the RC window.

[Jetblst 23]

Nice. That would be awesome to have the incrementals. Now that I know the deal I have been doing what you suggested and it works fine. I either get my charts from fltplan.com or other sites I am going to look into flight aware too.

 

Thanks so much Ron for the answers and the help. As a RW pilot RC is filling in the where FS ATC was lacking.

[artair 3]

If RCv5 is released it will have incremental taxi instructions in the status area of the RC window.

Ron,

just only text instructions, no audio?

[ronzie 21]

Audio taxi instructions are not planned to my knowledge but doesn't mean it is out. As I recall the text taxi instructions did not have turning indications but not sure. The current beta of RCv5 is not functional at this point so I can not test.

 

Taxiway label pronunciation should not be a problem. That might be considered as a feature for v5 updates but there are enough things in the mix right now.

 

I'll see if I have a running beta to test if audio is there.

[artair 3]

Ron,

 

Keep us informed please.

 

Would be nice to hear RC taxiway label pronunciation. For example: "Taxi to holding point RW36R via November, Bravo two, Delta" or "Taxi to stand five via Delta, cross RW18, kilo two"

[artair 3]

Ron, any news?

[ronzie 21]

RCv5 development is in hiatus so no communication is taking place about it.

[artair 3]

Ron, just confirm that we can expect taxiway label pronunciation in RC V5. And will RC V5 interact with AI traffic on ground?

 

Thank you very much for your answers.

[ronzie 21]

RCv4 interacts now with ai on the ground. Their have minor improvements for taxiing freezing ai in its path that you'll have to work your way around. Remember that FS controls ground ai and RC only controls ai during the final landing phase freezing them to prevent runway encroachment.

 

I do not recall any audio regarding progressive taxi and can not confirm it. I do not have a running beta version. RC5 has had an extensive recoding to its GUI and the code structure itself to make it easier to add or modify features.

 

I can tell you that RC has a list of gates/parking spots derived from your scenery and preflight you can choose a destination gate from the list. It might offer the option using using the "traffic zapper" feature to free your chosen gate up. You can also modify now for RC4 the afd type file to choose an extremely small radius to prevent larger ai from using it so you have a known reserved gate.

[artair 3]

Remember that FS controls ground ai and RC only controls ai during the final landing phase freezing them to prevent runway encroachment.

I imagined that RC controller will give taxi instructions to the user aircraft and to the ai aircraft as well.