There are lots of folks in this group who know more about AI traffic than I do, but this afternoon after I landed at Billings International (KBIL), I got out of my Mooney, switched to the Mobile Tower bus and started watching traffic. KBIL is served by several of the big carriers -- Northwest, United, Delta -- but apart from one Northwest flight that took off shortly after my arrival, it was just GA stuff. Thinking maybe I had a weak AFCAD file, I checked the AFCAD section at Project AI (PAI) and...saw that there is now a list of airports that have been modified to use non-parallel runways. For busy airports like KORD and KDFW, this is a major breakthrough. If you've added a lot of AI traffic, you will have noticed that the major airports are subject to lots and lots of go-arounds. This is annoying if you're just watching traffic, but if you're actually trying to land it can be downright tedious. Part of the problem is that, out of the box, ATC won't activate multiple runways unless they're running parallel to one another. This is significant, because if you can activate more runways, you can land planes more quickly. Faster landings = fewer go-arounds.I don't know how it works, but some smart folks at Project AI have arrived at a technique for modifying the underlying structure of an airport so that it can use non-parallel runways (e.g., 36 and 9). The modification has to be done one airport at a time, and no one's getting paid to do it. Over time, though, we should see more airports operating with this new, more efficient runway system. As of yesterday, PAI has posted a list http://afcad.projectai.com/ of the airports that have been modified so far: KMCI - Kansas City Intl Steve Parkinson KBOS - Boston Logan Steve Parkinson LOWW - Schwechat Matthias Kremp EDDK - Cologne-Bonn Matthias Kremp KELP - El Paso Intl Nelson Beazley KDEN - Denver Intl Steve Parkinson KDFW - Dallas-Ft. Worth Steve Parkinson KLAS - McCarran Intl Steve Parkinson KOAK - Metro Oakland Intl. Matthias Kremp EDDF - Frankfort/Main (SimFlyers) Matthias Kremp EDDF - Frankfort/Main (SimFlyers), Bastian (General User Upload) YMML - Melbourne Intl Marty Henare YSSY - Kingsford Smith Intl David White EGLL - Heathrow David White KSAT - San Antonio Intl Steve Parkinson KDCA - Ronald Reagan Intl (Shehryar Ansari) Kevin Gridiron (General User Upload) KJFK - Kennedy Intl (SimFlyers) David Klemm (General User Upload) KDFW - Dallas-Ft. Worth (SimFlyers) David Klemm (General User Upload) KIAH - George Bush Inter. (SimFlyers) David Klemm (General User Upload) KLAS - McCarran Intl (SimFlyers) David Klemm (General User Upload) KORD - Chicago Ohare (SimFlyers) David Klemm (General User Upload) KMSP - Minneapolis - St. Paul Intl David Klemm (General User Upload) SVMI - Simon Bolivar Intl (Maiquetia 2004) Oliver Crease (General User Upload) KSAT - San Antonio Intl Chris Bailey (General User Upload) KDTW - Detroit Metro Anthony DuJardin (General User Upload) KMIA - Miami Intl (FlyTampa) Jim Vile (General User Upload) KMIA - Miami Intl Jim Vile (General User Upload) A lot of these files rely on shareware add-ons from SimFlyers (as indicated by "SimFlyers" in parentheses). I'm guessing this will change, as the library grows. So, keep checking PAI. In the meantime, I think this is pretty big news.

Yes, that is pretty big news. Thanks for the heads-up!Todd

Thanks, their afcad2 files are awesome. now heres hoping KOAK is done for the jetways mod soon!

Cool, thanks for the notice. :D I'll check it out.

Thanks.... looking forward to using rwy 26 and the long runway, 25R at Pheonix kphx at the same time. Right now I can only get 25/7l and 25/7r to work at the same time....long tie-ups on taxi.

Understand fully the problem with go-arounds - which of course are exacerbated by FS aircraft being so slow to exit the runway and other limitations in FS' ATC ability to control ground and air movements.However, I'd rather reduce the number of AI flights than introduce unreal runway allocations to ram more aircraft through.Now the only one of the above I can comment on is Heathrow, where as far as I know, only the 2 parallel, long, runways (27/9 R & L) are ever used and then in such a way that landings and take-offs take place on one runway each.The shorter, diagonal runway is never used, even for smaller planes.Of course, I don't know what the new Afcad for EGLL does, it may be entirely realistic, but can anyone see any others where non-parallel runway operation look to be an oddity?How would anyone else trade-off realistic runway operation against AI throughput?

Sure some of them may be unrealistic, but what about a situation like TJSJ for example. There are two runways.......08 and 10. FS will not do operations from both at the same time.........which is of course unrealistic.Also, I listen to live ATC from KBOS all the time too, and quite often, operations are taking place from R27 and R33 at the same time. Yet FS will not do those either........So, I think this breakthrough is huge and I welcome it.

I do appreciate that other airports are set up like this, and presumably for those you get the double benefits of realism and fewer go-arounds. But it's not how Heathrow works.Just wanted to alert people to think about what they were loading up as much as anything.In fact, the EGLL Afcads I've downloaded are all inaccurate anyway as they allow mixed take-off's and landings on the Heathrow runways, which never happens either - it's always one for up, the other for down.I guess allowing a mixture reduces the number of FS9 go-arounds, but it just looks totally wrong for Heathrow.In fact, the long lines of landing lights stretching back into the sky from one runway back over central London is just something you have to try to replicate properly, even if half of them do subsequently go-around!Also, many Afcads use both runways at Gatwick, whereas only the long one is actually in operation. Presumambly this is also done to speed things up.It is of course a simple matter in Afcad to open or close a runway to landings or take-offs or both, but of course that doesn't mean ATC will use them even if they are open.

Thanks for the kudos....Admittedly PAI has some of the BEST AI and AFCAD Gurus in the hobby. Being in the FS Beta team doesn't hurt either! :-)As always thanks for the support y'all!http://fsgateway.com/frank/fs9paibeta.jpg

I agree about Heathrow - landing on one runway - taking off on another, and to me, this is the only way FS can work properly!I have recently bought World Airports 2, and trying to depart from KJFK was a bit of a nightmare, because it had 2 runways open to both take offs and landings, and because FS9 isn't very good at "keeping the runway hot", departures are seriously delayed by aircraft landing and taking so long to get off the runway.Seems to me that you can either favour arrivals (having more than 1 runway active) or departures (closing one runway for landings).Gary