Leo112
06-21-2002, 10:16 AM
I had the weirdest experience last night. I took off from Crystal airport (local field in the Minneapolis area) and headed for KMSP to land. I filed no formal flight plan, just contacted ATC for a straight out departure, once in the air requested flight following and headed to KMSP. I noticed all AI aircraft taking off and landing on runway 4. I contacted the tower and requested my intentions to land and they vectored me to land on runway 22 (the other end of the active runway). Aircraft were still taking off and landing on runway 4, I know I couldn't land into traffic like that so I choose another runway to land on. I know for a fact there was no change in wind direction and usually ATC is smart enough to know that there are other aircraft in the vicinity or a runway is in use and has traffic on it. I've seen this strange problem before at other airports like KATL. Even in the days of FS2000 and Proflight I've landed only to find that other traffic were using the same runway as me but landing and departing at the other end. I've had to abort many landings and declare a missed approach to get vectored to the right runway. I wonder is this a common problem with FS (FS98, 2000, 2002) because I've seen this in all three versions. FS2002 wouldn't let me declare a missed approach last night and I remember hearing a KLM Heavy being vectored behind me. ATC tried to contact him after awhile and there was no response. I didn't see a fireball but I could just imagine what would happen if you had aircraft landing on a runway and other aircraft were departing from the other end. FS2002's solution is to cancel your flight plane but in reality many people would die and someone would be losing his or her job. Let's hear it for that patch that won't get released...