AI problem with disappearing big planes

[tiger1962]

I've seen an Era Dash8-200 spawn at my PAEN and then taxi & take off about 50 mins later, but I haven't seen one land yet. I'm trying to get a Coast Guard C130 flightplan running, if I see one land & taxi to parking I'll PM the AFCAD to you for comparison.

[tiger1962]

I started with the default FS9 layout and then rebuilt it, so no, I don't have that problem, and in fact when tested no unknown problems are detected. Explanation: I have KNOWN problems that are created by me intentionally, such as a taxiway not being connected to the rest of the layout; it is only there for the ground markings and in fact is not meant to be used by planes at all. I would attach a layout pic to this if I could see the way to do it.

 

I have created a flightplan and seen B1900's, Dash8's, CRJ700's and C130's land and park with no problem. I can't upload the AFCAD, but I can tell you that there are 4 cargo ramps for the C130's, 3 small gates for the CRJ's and 3 ramp GA large for the Dash8's, all set to default radius. The rest of the spots (18) are ramp GA small. There are a couple of 'nodes not connected' errors, but I've seen traffic taxiing to the runway and other traffic taxiing to parking at the same time with no issues. I used Gunnar Daehling's Airport AI Enhancer to create the FP between PAHO, PAEN and PANC using PASCO B1900's, Horizon Dash8's & CRJ's, and an old USCG C130 which needed some FDE updating to get it working properly - it was vanishing on landing (sound familiar?) although it would spawn at a parking spot, taxi and take off without problem. Perhaps you could try a different Dash8 model to the one which is disappearing?

[Roger Wensley]

The Dash 8 is not disappearing so long as it uses the exit-only taxiways, as described on Sunday; nothing wrong with the plane. You are not going to recreate or discover "the problem", whatever it is, by making another layout. Somewhere in the mix of 30+ new buildings, taxiways, land classes, floatplane base, land ai, water ai, signage, fences, lights, corrected runways, parked cars, corrected comms frequencies, etc, there has been a miswiring that prevents FS9 from reading the info correctly.

[tiger1962]

You are not going to recreate or discover "the problem", whatever it is, by making another layout.QUOTE]

 

This is true, but by providing a comparison it may assist you to discover the problem. You said earlier that your 'Big' planes go the far end of the runway to exit, mine don't (but I've no idea why not). Anyway, here's a screenie of the layout with the C130 taxi to parking route marked in red:

[Roger Wensley]

Try a DC6. And that apron is for small GA parking!

[tiger1962]

Try a DC6. And that apron is for small GA parking!

 

I knew I'd get in trouble for that! :rolleyes: Found a DC6 & DC7 AI pack and straight off they have the default Boeing737-400.air files but I'll test them anyway...

 

OK, the first two in have taken the second exit like the C-130's. I can see that this layout is significantly different to the real thing, but when a little 'artistic licence' has been applied to preserve FS functionality I won't complain:

"ENA-b" by Federal Aviation Administration, Alaska Region - Image: http://www.alaska.faa.gov/fai/images/COOKSU/ENA-b.jpgWeb site: Alaska Airport Photos and Diagrams. Archived from the original on 2007-11-14.. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ENA-b.jpg#/media/File:ENA-b.jpg

[tgibson_new]

Note that if the arriving aircraft do not encounter a valid (red) hold short node, the parking spot number is not incremented and this can lead to AI planes parking on top of each other. Just a heads up if you see this problem if you have removed any hold short nodes.

[Roger Wensley]

Tom, funnily enough it appears to be functioning totally correctly. Airline planes go to one of their assigned gates, an empty one. Cargo planes go either to their sole assigned spot (in the case of Fedex or UPS for instance) or if they don't have an assigned spot they go to an empty spot on the apron. Small GA (Cessna 180 etc) without assigned spots taxi to the GA parking and park in an empty place. All takeoffs without exception work correctly. The only hiccup is with a plane that needs the whole runway length to land and therefore crosses a real hold short that is there to handle takeoffs; so 4 flights a day out of maybe 60.