I was wondering which would be the best weather source for P2A.  Currently sim of choice has been p3d v4 for awhile now.  I've had it set to Active Sky with the correct directory configured, yet P2A has been giving me some strange issues.  The first I noticed it consistently tells me active runway information is not available at pretty much any airport I've tried.  This in turn seems to give me an incorrect runway which would have me want to take off into landing/departing aircraft.  This has led me to wait a few extra minutes to see where the AI go, then requesting that runway.  This is also leading me to never getting assigned any SIDs.  I've been using Efass NG as the flight plan tool, exporting without any SID/STAR info so P2A can do its thing.  Would it be best to choose sim weather or just go right for the NOAA source?  I don't recall having any issues when I was mostly flying XP 11 although I don't remember what I had set as weather source.

Waiting until the AI Traffic starts moving is the best solution.  Assuming the AI Traffic is being reported properly to FSUIPC, P2A will set the runway to the one being used by them.  Otherwise, it uses whatever weather info it has and aligns to the winds, if they are not calm. 

ASN Wx should work.  You should be able to read the ASN weather file, look for the airport you are at and see that P2A read it correctly.

 

2 hours ago, Dave-Pilot2ATC said:

Waiting until the AI Traffic starts moving is the best solution.  Assuming the AI Traffic is being reported properly to FSUIPC, P2A will set the runway to the one being used by them.  Otherwise, it uses whatever weather info it has and aligns to the winds, if they are not calm. 

ASN Wx should work.  You should be able to read the ASN weather file, look for the airport you are at and see that P2A read it correctly.

 

I think the issue I had was landing in McCarran.  It seems P2A was favoring an ILS approach, which happened to be 25R.  Since there was no ILS to runway 7L I had to manually request the visual instead.  Not sure if that should matter to P2A or not.  It was fairly clear so I didn't see any reasons not receive that approach.

Chris,

On IFR flight plans, P2A will favor an ILS approach and if winds are not too strong, will give an approach with a slight tailwind if no ILS runways are available with a headwind.  If the winds are stronger, it will give other approaches.

When you requested the visual straight-in to 7L, did you get it?  Assuming you had Force Pilot Runway Selection checked, you should have.

Dave

Just now, Dave-Pilot2ATC said:

Chris,

On IFR flight plans, P2A will favor an ILS approach and if winds are not too strong, will give an approach with a slight tailwind if no ILS runways are available with a headwind.  If the winds are stronger, it will give other approaches.

When you requested the visual straight-in to 7L, did you get it?  Assuming you had Force Pilot Runway Selection checked, you should have.

Dave

 

I did get the approach without issue.  Winds were less than 10 knots if I remember correctly.  I was actually about to post saying I had force pilot runway selection disabled as this seemed to fix the "No runway information available" at airport message. Now I'm getting a departure runway and SID.  

 

EDIT: Im about to depart McCarran and Im being given 25R for departure, where the AI are still using 7L.

OK.  Thanks for the update.  I'm working on some mods in the Runway assignment area that might fix some of the problems like that.  Unfortunately, I can't always get the AI Traffic runways, especially from X-Plane, because the data just isn't there.

If you put a SID in your flight plan with the Force Pilot Runway Selection on, you will get that runway for takeoff.  So in your case now, you could check the Force Runway option and add a SID for 7L and ATC will give it to you.

1 minute ago, Dave-Pilot2ATC said:

OK.  Thanks for the update.  I'm working on some mods in the Runway assignment area that might fix some of the problems like that.  Unfortunately, I can't always get the AI Traffic runways, especially from X-Plane, because the data just isn't there.

If you put a SID in your flight plan with the Force Pilot Runway Selection on, you will get that runway for takeoff.  So in your case now, you could check the Force Runway option and add a SID for 7L and ATC will give it to you.

Sounds good.  Pretty much exactly what I did.  X-Plane I figured that was the case.  Maybe one day theyll be some real AI support.  Question - If I have force pilot runway selection, Will I still be assigned a STAR by ATC?  More importantly, a correct one if weather changes by the time I get to my destination?

After takeoff, you can uncheck the Force Runway selection and the ATC will be free to assign whatever destination  runway they decide on.  Just be sure the ATC Assigns STARs and Approaches are checked.