AFCAD problem.

[NigelC]

Just flown into Alicante with the LEAL2006 scenery.

Every arriving aircraft parks on Stand 5, merging with each other.

I've had a look at the afcad and it looks ok. Think I once read somewhere that it can be caused by multiple afcad's for the same airport but I can't see any duplicates anywhere.

Any ideas??

[DaveB]

Hi Nige..

Difficult to comment without having the scenery. I only have the default LEAL which comes with 3x heavy stands, 3x medium (of which gate 5 is one) 2x small, 2x GA Med and 3x GA small.. this in FS9. You could check to see what specific parking (if any) is stipulated to the aircraft cramming onto gate 5 but if your scenery follows the default, there should be 2 other stands of the same size available.

Not much help I'm afraid but the only other thing I can think of is that gate 5 is the only one on your LEAL2006 with the necessary afcad route to the stand.. the others being available for 'scenery objects' only.

ATB

DaveB

[NigelC]

Sorted!!

There was no hold-short nodes on the rapid exit taxiways. Consequently, the ai aircraft were exiting the runway and continuing taxying to the first stand in the parking list without calling ground.

Nodes inserted, aircraft now stop on the RET, call ground, and get allocated stands as normal.

Nige

[DaveB]

Excellent

ATB

DaveB

[petermcleland]

Sorted!!

There was no hold-short nodes on the rapid exit taxiways. Consequently, the ai aircraft were exiting the runway and continuing taxying to the first stand in the parking list without calling ground.

Nodes inserted, aircraft now stop on the RET, call ground, and get allocated stands as normal.

Nigel,

That is a very important point that you fixed but what you didn't notice was that after the first aircraft that escaped from the runway WITHOUT crossing a Hold Short Node...No further aircraft would land on that runway because that aircraft did not call "Runway Vacated"...From then on, any aircraft approaching that runway would do a "Go Around" because he would see the runway as blocked. So technically your scenario above could not have happened in FS9 as they would all be going around till FS9 was restarted.

[nigelb]

Peter - is that correct? LEAL has both tower and ground frequencies and I have only ever heard "Runway Vacated" at airports without a Tower and/or Ground frequency.

Even though some hold-short nodes were missing, if there was at least one hold-short node, it would be possible for two aircraft to occupy the same space - ie one plane lands and takes an exit with a missing hold short node then heads to the parking space and another lands and takes an exit with a hold short node. Ground assigns that aircraft to the same space, unaware of the first aircraft occupying the space.

Nigel²

[NigelC]

The problem materialised as follows.

1. First landing aircraft vacates runway and is told to call ground on 121.7 (or whatever the freq is).

2. Missing node means that aircraft does not stop and call ground but continues taxying to first stand (Stand 5) in the AFCAD Parking list.

3. Second and subsequent aircraft repeat the above, taxying to the first stand (not first available) in the list. Again Stand 5.

4. Hold short node inserted on RET and now vacating aircraft stop and call ground and are allocated parking correctly. All appears well.

5. 1 aircraft (Monarch A321) lands long and misses the first RET and continues to second RET. This RET is also missing a node but I not yet corrected. This aircraft does not call ground and taxies to first available stand (Stand 14) from the list.

6. Next landing makes the first RET, calls ground and is assigned the same stand (14) as A321 above.

7. This node fixed as well and AI parking now working fine.

In answer to your "question", Peter, ATC/AFCAD was obviously recognising the aircraft the landing traffic had vacated is they were instructed to call ground. Until the node was inserted they were all taxying to the first stand on the list. This stand was not being recognised as occupied. Once node was inserted, traffic was told to call ground, did so, and taxied to the gate assigned in the call to ground. The A321 in 5 above, went to the first stand (14) in the list that ATC/AFCAD recognised as being unoccupied. The next aircraft to land calls ground and is given stand 14 as ATC/AFCAD does not recognise that stand as occupied because the aircraft on it had not gone through a hold short node.

Nige

[petermcleland]

Peter - is that correct? LEAL has both tower and ground frequencies and I have only ever heard "Runway Vacated" at airports without a Tower and/or Ground frequency.

Even though some hold-short nodes were missing, if there was at least one hold-short node, it would be possible for two aircraft to occupy the same space - ie one plane lands and takes an exit with a missing hold short node then heads to the parking space and another lands and takes an exit with a hold short node. Ground assigns that aircraft to the same space, unaware of the first aircraft occupying the space.

Nigel²

Nigel, I only make SPBs with no Tower so they all make a "Runway Vacated" call on the "Traffic" frequency. Not sure what happen with a missing "Hold Short Node" on an airport with a Tower

Edit...OK, having read Nigel C's post above he has listed exactly what happens on a Tower airfield with a missing "Hold Short Node"...Useful to remember. All my previous comments apply to airports with no tower only. BTW, there are advantages to having no Tower at an airfield and I will stick to no towers for SPBs.