Aircraft does not takeoff, just sits on the runway

[Guest Stamatis]

Can someone explain what may be wrong when an aircraft aligns with the centerline of the takeoff runway but does not start its takeoff run but simply sits there forever? Needless to say that the queue of waiting aircraft can become very long :-)By the way, if I taxi my aircraft to another intersection of the same runway and ask for takeoff clearance, ATC promptly clears me for takeoff, so obviously the sitting aircraft is forgotten.Obviously, for the aircraft to be aligned with the centerline means that it has already received its takeoff clearance, so it is not waiting for another ATC message, that is for sure.What causes this?Stamatis

[Guest Stamatis]

OK, I found the answer to this one.The runway in question has many "entry" points, and for that particular one I had forgotten to place a red "hold short" node, all nodes were blue.Thus, when/if you observe aircraft lining up properly but not taking off, search for missing red ("hold short") node.Stamatis

[tgibson 11]

Good tip - thanks!--Tom GibsonCal Classic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.comFreeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.comDrop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

[Baldrick 0]

>OK, I found the answer to this one.>The runway in question has many "entry" points, and for that>particular one I had forgotten to place a red "hold short">node, all nodes were blue.>>Thus, when/if you observe aircraft lining up properly but not>taking off, search for missing red ("hold short") node.>>StamatisThanks for posting the answer,had me guessing :-roll Baldrick

[Guest]

"The missing red dot"! That is really a good tip.Although I observed some planes having that problem in AFCADS with all the required red dots. Perhaps the problem lies in my PC (very modest in speed and memory), but when it happens, I have two tricks that solve (temporarily) the problem:1. I use AIView program to locate the forgotten plane, and I delete it (radical solution);2. I increase momentarily the simulator speed up to 8 times. The AI/ATC engine then recomputes the status of AI aircraft, and solves the hang ups. This solution does not "delete" the aircraft, instead puts it on the air!

[Guest Stamatis]

Interesting!This solution does not "delete" the aircraft, instead puts it on the air!Care to explain what do you mean by "puts it on the air"?Stamatis

[Guest Captain Barfbag]

There is a known problem which occasionally occurs at the hold-short points (red dots.) Typically, I see it when a number of aircraft are queued up. The first aircraft will receive clearance and depart, but the second does not advance to the hold-short point. After a while, the inactive plane will simply disappear.I've observed a couple of things. It looks like Microsoft has built a "creep forward" movement into AI aircraft to nudge them up to the hold-short points. Sometimes, the offending aircraft will very slowly move up, and finally will contact the tower and proceed normally. Alternately, there is a "circuit breaker" built in, which notices the plane is not where it should be, and simply David Copperfields it out of existence.The standard solution to this problem is to add a blue node shortly before the red one. This seems to prevent the lockups somehow, with no ill effects. This problem occurs at many airports, including completely unmodified ones. We'll have to wait and see whether the AI taxi software has gotten smarter in FS2004.

[Guest Stamatis]

Yes, I am fully aware of this problem, I have experienced it myself and indeed placing a blue node close behind of the red "hold-short" node seems to cure it.But my previous question referred to the statement:This solution does not "delete" the aircraft, instead puts it on the air!which implies that the offending aircraft does not simply disappear a la David Copperfield, but magically resumes flying somewhere in the skies!Stamatis