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MyTraffic - one user's opinion

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Greetings, all.I have been playing around with various AI traffic tools for a couple of months and, although they all looked great and presumably did what they're supposed to do, I just couldn't seem to get my head around how everything fit together. I would download flightplans, and then not be able to find the appropriate aircraft, or find that an airport I needed didn't exist in the default FS2K2 database, or that I had to renumber aircraft and/or flightplans to make them work.Then I discovered Project AI, and what a wonderful thing they are doing for folks like me who just don't "get it". I had a great couple of weeks flying around with a wide variety of airlines and airplanes. What I missed most though, was more of a variety in major hubs like KATL, KDEN and KDFW. Project AI seemed to have a lot of variety in the European theater, but outside of Delta and United, not so much in the US (or it seems to me, anyway).I tried unsuccessfully to add Alaska Airlines, Qantas and Continental aircraft and flightplans to the Project AI fold. I finally resigned myself to waiting until those airlines were added by the Project AI folks.Then, along comes an announcement in AVSIM's News about a product called MyTraffic. Aha! I thought. Here's my chance to get those missing AI flights. Little did I realize how it was going to blow me away after I installed it.The installation went without a hitch, so I immediately brought up FS2K2 and dropped into KPHX. Yowzah! Look at all those Southwest planes! And, not only that, but ATC was actually saying the word, "Southwest".OK, here comes the REAL test...KDFW. I grab my trusty DF737 and plunk it down at the gate. I see LOTS of aircraft in various liveries sitting around looking very cool. I wait a bit...no action. Well, this kind of sucks, I say. So I start my pre-start checklist and suddenly all hell breaks loose!In a matter of 10 or 12 minutes I heard calls from: UPS, Fedex, US Air, Delta, United, American, DHL, Northwest and even Aeromexico! Add to that a few Cessnas and a USAF jet and it was amazing. It took me 3 minutes of keypressing just to get a hold of ground!Not only that, but planes were taking off from runways 36R, 35L and 36C and landing on 36L, 35C and 35R. The smaller planes (including the USAF flight) were taking off and landing from 13R and 31L!At the same time, the local area was full of planes calling in for landing instructions. It was a riot listening to ATC telling several of them that they didn't have permission to land and to get off the runway. Meanwhile a number of the incoming aircraft were giving "go-around" signals, which they actually did! It was great fun just sitting there on the apron watching and listening to all this going on.By the time I taxied to 35L, there were 5 aircraft ahead of me. It seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time for these 5 planes to take off until I went to spot view and realized that there were three more aircraft taking off on 35L who had been give taxi instructions that brought them to the runway from the other side! The 8 flights were taking off in dovetail fashion, one from the right side of the runway, then one from the left, etc.Now, I know that all this has been done before and many of you more AI-savvy folks have been experiencing immersive sessions like this for a long time, but for me it was an epiphany. I never realized it could get this good!MyTraffic may seem a bit steep at $30, considering Project AI is free and there's a lot of other excellent AI traffic freebies available here at AVSIM and elsewhere, but for that one experience earlier today at KDFW, it was money well spent.BTW, the MyTraffic manual is available for download at http://www.simmarket.com/online/mytraffic if anyone is interested in knowing more about all the various airlines and aircraft types that are shipped with the product. Also included are the required AFCAD and voice files which add the alternate runway settings and all the missing airline callsigns. Not a bad deal!And, no, I'm not associated in any way with MyTraffic. Just a VERY satisfied customer.Best regards, Ron

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Guest frankcubillos

Glad you like it Ron, we are more than happy to supply the models for it too, it's a win-win situation! And by purchasing you are indirectly supporting PAI's longevity.Thanks for the support Ron. :-wavehttp://projectai.com/images/frankpai.jpg

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Guest United

the My Traffic people. Definitely win/win and will promote more and more liveries!!

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RON,Beginning from scratch, please describe what additions I need to make to FS2002 to reach the level of satisfaction you describe.I've been experiencing the same problems you describe and I want to be as happy.thsnks david

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Hi, CaptDavo.Although I have finally learned enough to add some of the flightplans I've downloaded from avsim and flightsim to my mix, MyTraffic was the base on which everything else was built and getting started with it is pretty simple. 1) Head on over to http://www.simmarket.com/online/mytraffic and download either the free demo (covers Sydney airport only) or pay the $30 to download the full package.2) Install the program.3) Fly with more AI traffic than you can shake a stick at.Believe it or not, that's really all there is to it.There are some additional downloads available at the MyTraffic site which will:1) add more callsigns for ATC to use2) modify the AFCAD files for several third-party airports3) patch MyTraffic to the latest version.Very shortly (by the end of the month), the first service pack to MyTraffic will be released which will add 150-200 new airlines, 300-500 new airports and piles of new flightplans. In addition, the MyTraffic Editor is out ($10) which allows you to generate as many random flightplans as you like. I purchased the Editor, but have not had any success in using it yet. Too convoluted for my small brain.By using a combination of Tom Molitor's AI Traffic Mover (http://www.molitor-home.de/fs/aitm) and Richard Bixler's ComponentAI (http://www.softtoyssoftware.com/ComponentAI), I have added all of the projectAI flights, about half of the WorldAI2 plans and several other downloaded plans (Singapore Airlines, Fedex, UPS, Air Europa, etc.), bringing the total number of plans from the 16,000 or so that ship with MyTraffic to over 30,000. Unfortunately, my system is beginning to feel the overhead associated with this many plans now! :-)Ah, almost forgot. What ComponentAI does for you (among other things) is1) validates all your aircraft to make sure they can act as AI aircraft (it also checks your flyable aircraft for errors) and2) automatically assigns WorldAI and projectAI flightplans to your existing aircraft. A huge timesaver. For $15, it's a steal.Let me know if you need more info.Best regards, Ron

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Guest

Argenfarkle......thanks much for that review..I too have been thinking about "My Traffic"..although I have finally learned by trial and error{more error!}..how to add the flight plans and aircraft from "Project AI"...I have recieved alot of help from forums like these from some great people...I agree...I see many planes from Southwest....Delta...United but that's about it..don't get me wrong...its great to fly with these planes..but I miss the other liveries...anyway ..a quick question....what happens to all the existing flight plans and planes from PAI also what about the "default" flight plans and planes from fs2002??..are they saved somewhere in case you want to go back to them?? please let me{all of us} know...thanks again for the helpful review

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Guest

Sure thing. Normally, all AI flights are contained in traffic.bgl. MyTraffic puts all of its traffic in a file called MyTraffic.bgl.MyTraffic doesn't touch your original traffic.bgl, custom AFCAD files or installed aircraft so your default/PAI traffic is still there. By toggling the MyTraffic ATC box in FS2K2's settings/scenery area, you can switch between using MyTraffic AI flights and the default AI flights.Best regards, Ron

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