AI Aircraft SID and STAR Controller

[russianspd 10]

What if I want it to use all of the converted US files? Can it monitor all files within the directory or just the ones I pick?

Seems AISIDSTARS crashes and can't handle them all. 27 thousand txt files listed.

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

Yes, it will monitor all files within the same directory.  Just put all the converted US files into a c:\aisidstar12\all us airports and make an aisidstar.ini that reads this directory (e.g., STAR=.\all us airports\*.*  SID=.\all us airports\*.*).

 

If you want AISIDSTAR to just load a subset of all US airports, put all the US airports into a subdirectory like c:\aisidstar12\my favorite us airports\all us airports.   Make aidistar.ini read your "favorites" directory (e.g., STAR=.\my favorite us airports\*.*  SID=.\my favorite us airports\*.*).  In this case, AISIDSTAR will NOT read the "all us airports" subdirectory.  Thus, pick your favorites by copying selected airport files from "all us airports" into "my favorite us airports".

 

There's a lot of different ways you can organize your files.  Take a look at the directory structure in the examples included with ver 1.2.  I like to put each airport into its own subdirectory, but that's just my personal preference.   

 

What if I want it to use all of the converted US files? Can it monitor all files within the directory or just the ones I pick?

[russianspd 10]

Thanks. I figure I would just drop in airports I use and add as I go. Working out fine. Next big issue I see is that AI are having trouble following FSX directives. FSX ATC keeps telling them to expedite their descent or climb and turn headings. Is this attributed to the program forcing them to comply with departure and arrival  headings and altitudes? If so then it makes sense to only monitor ATC when on tower and below. Anything past airport operations would be an FSX ATC mess, correct?

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

Next big issue I see is that AI are having trouble following FSX directives. FSX ATC keeps telling them to expedite their descent or climb and turn headings. Is this attributed to the program forcing them to comply with departure and arrival  headings and altitudes? If so then it makes sense to only monitor ATC when on tower and below.

 

 

Yes, good point, I'm sure it is attributable.  I'll add that to the NOTAM in the readme.  I'm sure stock FSX ATC wants the AI to keep flying their VFR patterns into the KORD terminal area at rush hour and is objecting. :wink:  

 

I've been using Radar Contact (which works very well with AISIDSTAR) for so long, I've long since turned off stock FSX ATC.  Still though, I'll look to see if there is a reasonable way to better sync stock AI voice to AI movements in a later version.

 

BTW, to anyone reading, please provide feedback to me here (or at my support email) about how other add-on ATC programs work with AISIDSTAR (besides Radar Contact, which I know is compatible), especially if that program seem mostly or "sort of" compatible.  That would be a good signal for me to go ahead and buy that particular ATC program to see how I could make AISIDSTAR more compatible.  I'm actually looking to buy another ATC program.

 

-Roland

[russianspd 10]

So I have been testing at LAX. AI seem to be spaced out real nice up until the approach. As they roll onto final they start bunching up. Any way to smooth that out? I have tried using my AI Separation program set to deal with conflicts 10 miles to the airport and keep them 5 miles separated but it doesn't seem to work. Unfortunately at LAX throwing a Saab every once in awhile into the jetliner mix throws things off.

 

Clipper,

What is the busiest airport you have run AISIDSTAR at? What were your observations with traffic levels and how the program handled them? What was the ratio of go arounds for every good landing?

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

Russian, I'm glad you came back because I need to correct the steps I mentioned earlier.  In step (1) copy aiconv.exe and the airports.dat file to the temp directory.  Sorry about that, airports.dat was a late addition and I'm not used to it being there.  

 

Here is the corrected procedure for creating SID and STAR files for all US airports (there are other ways to do this of course):

 

(1) copy aiconv.exe and airports.dat into a temp directory (c:\temp)

(2) copy your SIDSTARS subdirectory to a temp directory (c:\temp\sidstars).

(3) make another new subdirectory under temp called converted (c:\temp\converted).

(4) start a command line and change to the temp directory.

(5) enter the command:  aiconv   .\sidstars\*.*   .\converted

(6) answer the series of questions aiconv.exe asks you.

(7) aiconv will warn you about smaller airports not being found in the database, keep pressing enter.

(8) pick out the files from the converted directory you want to use (they begin with the icao).

(9) put them into an AISIDSTAR working subdirectory (e.g., c:\aisidstar12\all us airports).    

(10) create an AIDISTAR.ini file to point to the new working subdirectory (e.g., STAR=.\all us airports\*.* SID=.\all us airports\*.*).

 

Regards,

-Roland

[Pete Dowson 558]

(9) put them into an AISIDSTAR working subdirectory (e.g., c:\aisidstar12\all us airports).    

(10) create an AIDISTAR.ini file to point to the new working subdirectory (e.g., STAR=.\all us airports\*.* SID=.\all us airports\*.*).

Isn't this way of operating going to severely impact AISIDSTAR's performance? Will it be reading thousands of files and trying to use all of them?

 

I wondered if it would be better to have AISIDSTAR automatically select airports which are reasonably near the user's aircraft, i.e. within 40-60 nm? Or alternatively, automatically reading, say the loaded FSX plan and using that to determine departure, arrival and maybe interim airports?

 

Regards

Pete Dowson

[Bryn 72]

Flying the PMDG MD11 today out of UNKL (with aiconv'd SIDs and STARs), AIDSIDSTAR12 put my plane into slew mode.

[russianspd 10]

Isn't this way of operating going to severely impact AISIDSTAR's performance? Will it be reading thousands of files and trying to use all of them?

 

I wondered if it would be better to have AISIDSTAR automatically select airports which are reasonably near the user's aircraft, i.e. within 40-60 nm? Or alternatively, automatically reading, say the loaded FSX plan and using that to determine departure, arrival and maybe interim airports?

 

Regards

Pete Dowson

This is what I had understood to be the next upgrade. Scanning as you go. Would make it a lot simpler. When I converted all aiports from PMDG it came out to just over 27,000. AISIDSTAR kept crashing. So I subbed out all files in the PHNL folder and am just adding the airports I am going to and from and the surrounding major ones.

Could you also respond to my secondary questions I had posted earlier. Curious to know how it has performed for you.

 

Clipper,

What is the busiest airport you have run AISIDSTAR at? What were your observations with traffic levels and how the program handled them? What was the ratio of go arounds for every good landing?

[bblackkbirdd 6]

Hi - I would like to try out v 1.2 of this interesting program.

 

Question - can anyone tell me where I tell AICONV.exe to get the SID and STAR files FROM?  Do I point it to NavDataPro, which is what I'm using for navigation data?  I'm not that savvy, so please if you could make it a concise (and simple?) explanation, I'd appreciate it greatly.

 

BTW - I would like to use the Airport KBOS for one - so, if you could make your description specific to that - that would be terrific.  Thank you!!

 

Pete, are you around?  :lol:

 

 

Thanks, Guys!

 

Best,

Ray L (Blackbird)

 

P.S. - ok - I think I figured out where to send AIConv to get the SID STAR info it needs - now this begs a different question - do I copy that info to a NEW directory, then let AICONV work from that NEW Directory, or just let AICONV get its info out of the original directory, and let it save the CONVERTED files to a SUB directory off a new directory that I have created?  Did this make sense?

[bblackkbirdd 6]

Hi again.....Ray L here.....never mind my previous post.  I figured it out.

 

Ray L.

[chrisal 9]

Hi

Has anyone tried this with P3D?

 

Cheers

Chris

[bblackkbirdd 6]

Hi, Guys and Gals!  it's the Ol' Blackbird (Ray L) here for a moment -

 

Well, I really like this AISIDSTAR program so far.  One prob, though - for me.....

 

Once I'm in the air, and just a couple of miles away from the airport (in this case KMHT to KPVD), my plane is put into SLEW mode, and if I press "Y" to take it out of that mode, in a couple of seconds, it goes back into SLEW mode again and again.  I was flying my Realair Beech Duke B60 (non-turbine).  I got tired of this, brought the AISIDSTAR "window" into focus, and hit the ESCAPE key to terminate AISIDSTAR.  Once I did that, FSX went back to normal flight - no slewing.  BTW - the only 2 airports I have "Active" in the AISIDSTAR.ini  are KMHT and KPVD.

 

I am using OpusFSX for weather, Traffic X for my AI traffic, and ProATC for my ATC control.  These all normally work perfectly together. 

 

Any ideas why the slewing?  I really like this program - would like to see this anomaly corrected.

 

Thanks......

 

All best,

Ray L.

 

P.S. - I am going to try same flight with the default C172 and see if it gets thrown into slew mode.

[bblackkbirdd 6]

Okay - Ray L is back.  Problem is still here - my plane (this time, Default C172) gets thrown into SLEW mode almost as soon as I'm airborne.  Only way I can stop it is to stop AISIDSTAR.  Too bad - I hope this can be corrected, otherwise I can't use this program - was really hoping to.  Seems like a really cool idea.

 

Anyone (Roland?) with any ideas?

 

Thanks!

 

All best,

Ray L (Blackbird)

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

Oh yes, the default C172, the aircraft I've flown hundreds of time around airports while monitoring how AISIDSTAR was vectoring. :wink:

Since you're having problems with the default C172 though, can you please verify what version of Simconnect you are using? Go to the Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK directory and right click on ConfigSDK.exe, properties, details. Please let me know what product version number you see.

I check to make sure the program doesn't take control of user aircraft. First, it only subscribes to AI sim objects, second it checks the "is_user_sim" flag. I've added a third check in the newest beta version (please give it a try).

http://www.mediafire.com/download/rajm9829d21rf01/AISIDSTAR12F.zip

The third step in the new version is, if AISIDSTAR finds that the is_user_sim flag has been set at any time, the object ID of the aircraft goes into a "do not process" array. I'm pretty sure this third step is unnecessary, but just in case the "is_user_sim" flag is unreliable, I'll also track by object_ID.

 

EDIT: link updated.
 

bblackkbirdd, on 23 Jun 2013 - 11:51 AM, said:
Hi, Guys and Gals! it's the Ol' Blackbird (Ray L) here for a moment -

Well, I really like this AISIDSTAR program so far. One prob, though - for me.....

Once I'm in the air, and just a couple of miles away from the airport (in this case KMHT to KPVD), my plane is put into SLEW mode, and if I press "Y" to take it out of that mode, in a couple of seconds, it goes back into SLEW mode again and again. I was flying my Realair Beech Duke B60 (non-turbine). I got tired of this, brought the AISIDSTAR "window" into focus, and hit the ESCAPE key to terminate AISIDSTAR. Once I did that, FSX went back to normal flight - no slewing. BTW - the only 2 airports I have "Active" in the AISIDSTAR.ini are KMHT and KPVD.

I am using OpusFSX for weather, Traffic X for my AI traffic, and ProATC for my ATC control. These all normally work perfectly together.

Any ideas why the slewing? I really like this program - would like to see this anomaly corrected.

Thanks......

All best,
Ray L.

P.S. - I am going to try same flight with the default C172 and see if it gets thrown into slew mode.