AI Aircraft Taking Off Next To The Runway Error in FS2004 Query

Hi there,

 

I have a problem at an Airport I am viewing AI Traffic at. At Stansted Airport in London UK, which is from the Payware Addon Pack from Justflight (British Airports East Of England) for Flight Sim 2004, this may occur at other Airports from those packages but I am not sure which ones. AI Aircraft will land correctly in the middle of the Runway (Most) some short of it for some reason , but AI Aircraft whilst they taxi correctly on the Taxiways, they will always (I think) Takeoff from either one side or the other, on the grass next to the Runway but not on it ! for some strange reason both Payware and Freeware AI Traffic ! What could be causing this ? and how can I correct this Error. I.e. what program shall I use to Fix the problem ? and what should I alter ? I have the Airport File Editor Program AFCAD221 installed on my computer. Any help and information, someone could give me would be much appreciated. Best Regards Eddie Winch

Hi Eddie,

You might have a duplicate scenery AFCAD for Stansted EGSS installed. The Just Flight pack is in fact the same as the UK2000 Scenery from Gary Summons. If you launch AFCAD221 and search for EGSS, and more than one MOD type appears in the list, you have a duplicate. Open the top one in the list, go to File/Properties and check the file location along the bottom of the properties window. If it's not your Just Flight version of EGSS, go to that file's FS2004 directory location and remove it.

Hi tiger1962 thanks for your reply to my post, Yes I have two Stansted Airport AFCAD .bgl files the Justflight one, and the other one is named F1UT_EGSS.bgl is that the default Stansted Airport for FS2004 ? shall I make a copy of this file ? In case I want to revert to the Standard Airport instead of the Justflight one, then delete that file ?

Hi Eddie, the other one is a Flight1 Ultimate Traffic Afcad, you can disable it by changing the end of the filename from .bgl to .bgx and your default Stansted won't be affected. By disabling this file you will have effectively removed the duplicate AFCAD without deleting anything and your AI traffic will now stay on the runway.

Hi tiger1962, I did what you suggested, and ran FS2004 again and the problem remains. what other file could be the culprit ? as it can't be that file. Eddie

Hi tiger1962, I tried disabling the file that the "Stock (default)" Stansted Airport was in in FS2004, which was the File AP948130.BGL which I presume contains all the default FS2004 UK Airports. By changing the extension to .BGX But the problem still hasn't gone away. Have you any ideas of what I should look for next ? Or what the problem could be now ? Eddie

Hi Eddie, leave the default AP file active because it contains many other airports in that area and all their navaids etc. Check that your Just Flight airports are higher up the Scenery Library list than your Ultimate Traffic scenery files (if any) disable the UT EGSS file and then run the Ultimate Traffic config utility if there is one.

Do you know exactly which Afcad is actually the active one, i.e. the bigest file? It shouldn't be an AF2, AFX, ADE file or something like that. It could be a file named completely different.

tiger1962, There are no Ultimate Traffic Scenery Files, in the Scenery Library in FS2004. I think the active one leuen, is the Justflight AF2 AFCAD File for Stansted (EGSS) Airport. I have disabled the Ultimate Traffic AFCAD for Stansted, by changing the extension, in the File from .BGL to .BGX The Default Stansted Airport in FS2004, is in the File AP948130.BGL yesterday I tried disabling that File too, by doing the same thing, and the Problem remained. I have reactivated the AP948130.BGL File on tiger1962's advice. I am stumped of what to try next. What other File could I try disabling next ?

Hi Eddie,

Ultimate Traffic will use it's own AFCAD's until you select your Just Flight AFCAD with the UT AFCAD utility.

Your Ultimate Traffic Utility program has an AFCAD Overlay Assigner utility with which you can de-select the F1UT_EGSS.bgl (which Ultimate Traffic will be using for your AI Traffic at EGSS) and then select your Just Flight EGSS AFCAD.

I can't use that facility when Ultimate Traffic is installed in FS2004 it only works when installed in FS2002. The AFCAD Utility is greyed out. So should I copy my Justflight Stansted AFCAD File, to the same directory the Ultimate Traffic AFCADS are in, and rename the Justflight AFCAD File to what the UT Stansted Airport (EGSS) one is called ?

I tried what I thought to do, but it didn't work either unfortunately ((

Hi Eddie,

I don't use Ultimate Traffic myself but it must have a similar AFCAD utility for FS2004 - it will be explained in the manual, hopefully with a step-by-step guide on how to configure 3rd party add-on AFCAD's.

So should I copy my Justflight Stansted AFCAD File, to the same directory the Ultimate Traffic AFCADS are in, and rename the Justflight AFCAD File to what the UT Stansted Airport (EGSS) one is called ?

 

No , leave the Justflight AFCAD where it should be, and dont rename it.

 

You wont do any harm if you did those two things, but you would achieve nothing.

 

When you installed the JustFlight product, did you activate it in the scenery library ?

 

In what folder is the JustFlight AFCAD placed ?

 

What operating system are you running?

 

Have you checked that your edit of the UT AFCAD file extension is still being honoured ? (ie no permission issues on your computer)

Hi Eddie,

I don't use Ultimate Traffic myself but it must have a similar AFCAD utility for FS2004 - it will be explained in the manual, hopefully with a step-by-step guide on how to configure 3rd party add-on AFCAD's.

 

 

There is no configurator for FS2004, nor is there any need for one. The OP has disabled the UT afcad, that is all he needs to do

I think the active one leuen, is the Justflight AF2 AFCAD File for Stansted (EGSS) Airport. ....... What other File could I try disabling next ?

You think but aren't really sure. AFAIK is AFX the sole tool which shows all Afcad installed for an airport. And not just those ending with an ICAO code. The active one is at the top of the list. As said before, it's always the biggest file anyway.

Hi Eddie,

Further to Peter & Bernard's good advice, ScanAFD is a freeware tool which finds duplicate AFCAD files which you can try (read the instructions carefully!):

 

http://www.nwlink.com/~erog/

ScanAFD is a freeware tool which finds duplicate AFCAD files which you can try

Ok, but how searching with a key word like "Stansted" e.g.?

Hi Bernard, you can't search with a keyword, ScanAFD will scan the "Default AFCAD directory only" or "All scenery addon directories" and can "Show all" or "Show duplicates".

This is a good thing, because it's surprising what shows up as a duplicate sometimes. I've got taxiway_signs.bgl's, windsock.bgl's and apron.bgl's which are duplicate AFCAD's, but are doing no harm. Some duplicate AFCAD's are harmful though, I've had to disable two navaid .bgl's this week because Radar Contact was reading them instead of the actual AFCAD's, and the navaids were FS2004 default ones anyway.

Hi pschlute, All the JustFlight British Airports Addons I have are activated in the Scenery Library in FS2004 including the AFCAD's, and are higher up the priority list than the Default Airports. The JustFlight AFCAD for Stansted Airport (EGSS) is in the following directory path :-

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Scenery\BrArpt\East_AFCAD\scenery My computer is a Quad Core computer, with an Intel HD Graphics Card and Running Windows 7 Home Premium I think. I will check your last point now on my computer. Also forgot to mention I have disabled the Ultimate Traffic AFCAD for (EGSS) by changing the File extension to .BGX instead of .BGL

I am about to use the ScanAFD Utility on my Computer, thankyou very much tiger1962 for directing me to it ))

The JustFlight AFCAD for Stansted Airport (EGSS) is in the following directory path :-

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Scenery\BrArpt\East_AFCAD\scenery

 

Ok if ScanAFD does not show up a duplicate (and be careful as not all dupes it reports are actual dupes) then I have two things to suggest.

 

1. Within FS9/addon scenery folder, create a new folder called EGSS AFCAD. Within that folder create a folder called scenery. Get the Stanted AFCAD from the path you specified above and cut and paste it into the scenery folder you just created. Start FS9 and add the EGSS AFCAD folder to the scenery library. Leave it at the top of the screen ie highest priority. Close FS9 and restart and test.

 

If that does not work try this

 

2. Within addon scenery create a new folder called magdec. Within magdec create a folder called "scenery". Go to FS9/scenery/BASE/scenery and copy the file magdec.bgl and paste it into the scenery folder you just created. Start FS9 and add magdec folder to the scenery library. Restart FS9, and report back.

 

Peter

Thanks for your suggestions Peter, I am going to bed now, but I will try your suggestions out tomorrow, and I will report back to you on this thread about the outcome. Many thanks once again Eddie ))

I don't understand why you call taxiway_signs.bgl an afcad.

I thought afcad referred to the old program Afcad, that was/is used to create Airports.

Taxiway_signs.bgl is a .bgl file, but it is not an airport at all. It's cm object-library. It contains taxiway signs only. (and it needs to be installed only once, after that any airport can be made to use those.)

 

there are other .bgl files too. Traffic files. Like: TrafficAircraft.bgl

 

That's a traffic file, containing the traffic routing of the default AI. A .bgl file, yes, but I wouldn't call it an Afcad.

Same with UT I suppose. I assume their traffic comes from .bgl files too. But I know little about UT.

 

I do know that the term Afcad was used for "airport files created with the program Afcad". And that it by some now also used for "airport files created with the newer airport program ADE". But not for "all .bgl files in general".

I don't understand why you call taxiway_signs.bgl an afcad.

I thought afcad referred to the old program Afcad, that was/is used to create Airports.

Taxiway_signs.bgl is a .bgl file, but it is not an airport at all. It's cm object-library. It contains taxiway signs only. (and it needs to be installed only once, after that any airport can be made to use those.)

 

I do know that the term Afcad was used for "airport files created with the program Afcad". And that it by some now also used for "airport files created with the newer airport program ADE". But not for "all .bgl files in general".

For a long time Afcad2.21 by Lee Swordy was the goto tool for FS9 when it came to creating/editing Airport Facility Data files (AFDs).

 

As such, it became common to call all AFD files "afcads" in much the same way all facial tissues are called Kleenex regardless of their manufacturer.

 

Afcad2.21 is a Beta program that was never finished. Lee wrote it before the SDK was released and left the sim community before it was finished.

 

One shortcoming of Afcad2.21 was that it had no way to edit/create/delete taxi signs.

 

There was another program that I cannot remember the name of that dealt solely with taxi signs, or folks used the SDK after it was released to deal with taxi signs by hand writing the .xml files.

 

The end result was often that you would get an .AFD file (afcad) and a separate taxi sign file.

 

Taxi signs are "owned" by their parent airport, that is, the taxi sign data has to be nested within the parent airport file.

 

Because of this, programs that scan your scenery files for AFD files will see both the AFD file and the taxi sign file as airport files because they both have to have the basic airport header data in them for FS to use them. These scanners will then report that you have multiple AFD files for one airport even though the two files contain no overlapping data except for the airport header.

 

These are the taxisign.bgl files that tiger was referring to.

 

True object libraries typically do not contain an airport header so will not show up in a multiple AFD scan.

 

Newer tools such as ADE and AFX know how to deal with taxi signs eliminating the need for two files.

 

 

there are other .bgl files too. Traffic files. Like: TrafficAircraft.bgl

 

That's a traffic file, containing the traffic routing of the default AI...

 

...in FSX. That file does not exist in a default FS9 install so listing it in an FS9 post might confuse FS9-only users.

 

peace,

the Bean