Hello Everyone,
 
I have prepared a little sample app that changes the Active Runways (TakeOff, Approach and Landing) for default ATC and sets some other non blocking features.

You just need to download the zip file and copy the folder to your P3D Documents\addons folders. Works with P3D v4 and v5.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/as0zp2owmug1xdp/ATCAPI.zip?dl=0
 
The config.xml XMLfile lets you configure ICAO and the active runway Departure and Landing names and approaches, and a set of non blocking parameters for AIs in airport taxi operations.
 
If you are not going to set active runways, just take out all  <Airport> </Airport> elements, and you will have only the non blocking features.

There are other parameters you can configure (see below)

It is an alpha/beta application, I appreciate your testing and feedback.

Let me know how it goes.
 
Thanks!
 
Federico

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8' ?>
<Parameters>
    <Airport>
    <ICAO>KJFK</ICAO>
    <ActiveTakeOffRunway>
        <Runway>R04L</Runway>
    </ActiveTakeOffRunway>
    <ActiveLandingRunway>
        <Runway>R04L</Runway>
        <ApproachName>KRSTL</ApproachName>
        <ApproachType>ILS</ApproachType>
    </ActiveLandingRunway>
    <ActiveLandingRunway>
        <Runway>R04R</Runway>
    </ActiveLandingRunway>
    </Airport>
    <enableFastTakeOffs>1</EnableFastTakeOffs>
    <allowTakeOffDistance>6000</AllowTakeOffDistance>
    <taxiSpeedLimiter>20</TaxiSpeedLimiter>
    <enableRollthenTakeOff>1</enableRollthenTakeOff>
    <nonBlockingUserAircraft>1</nonBlockingUserAircraft>
    <minCrossingRny>1000</minCrossingRny>
    <isGUIVisible>1</isGUIVisible>
    <deployEarlyFlaps>1</deployEarlyFlaps>
</Parameters>

Brief of each:

ICAO: ICAO name if you are going to set Active Runways and Approaches is needed. Only one ICAO is allowed at the moment.

ActiveTakeOffRunway: Name of the active runway for Takeoffs for the ICAO entered above. If more than one entry is present, the sim will assign to each a probability based on the number of entries (2 => 50%, 3 => 33%, and so on)

ActiveLandingRunway: Name of the active runway for Landings for the ICAO entered above. If more than one entry is present, the sim will assign to each a probability based on the number of entries (2 => 50%, 3 => 33%, and so on)

ApproachName (Optional for ActiveLandingRunway) and ApproachType (Optional for ActiveLandingRunway): Name and Type of the approach to fly for that active runway. ApproachType needs to be present if ApproachName is entered. You can get this from your ADE information. If BOTH not included, ILS approach for that runway will be selected. See example XML above.

EnableFastTakeOff == 1, will line up and then take off. Faster than the default hold.

AllowTakeOffDistance (in meters), will allow AI to take off if an AI is landing same runways when the distance is < AllowTakeOffDistance (ex 6000 meters, will let take off if landing AI is further than 6000 meters)

TaxiSpeedLimiter, is the limit to the 20 knots default speed. you can increase it (taxi speed on runways is capped at 35 knots by default AI behaviour)

enableRollthenTakeOff.== 1, will let the AI lineup while the AI which lands and vacates the runway
 
minCrossingRny (in meters). Lets AI cross runways/taxi intersections if blocking AI is > than minCrossingRny. There are also other ground algorithms that prevent non blocking situations with AIs and airport scenery/simobjects
 
isGUIVisible turns on or off the GUI. Just leave it in 1 = On for the moment.

deployEarlyFlaps. If set to 1, will deploy flaps when start taxiing, overriding default behaviour.

 

Edited November 21, 20205 yr by fs1

Hi Federico, nice add-on !

One issue I saw is that an ai ac holding short rwy entered the rwy when another ai ac just landed as it now should, but never took off. It positioned to the rwy heading and got stuck there. Another one took off but started the roll way after the landed ac exited the rwy.

Thanks again, will be trying it out and helping when I can

1 minute ago, SergioN said:

Hi Federico, nice add-on !

One issue I saw is that an ai ac holding short rwy entered the rwy when another ai ac just landed as it now should, but never took off. It positioned to the rwy heading and got stuck there. Another one took off but started the roll way after the landed ac exited the rwy.

Thanks again, will be trying it out and helping when I can

Thanks. Did the landed AI vacated the runway? Can you upload a screenshot? Thanks, Federico

Yes in both cases the landed AI vacated the rwy

another issue I'm seeing is that with flaps 1 setting almost all AI never descended and it resulted in multiple go arounds, when I disabled this option everything went smooth in that respect. BTW my AI's are from AIG AI Manager

Edited November 18, 20205 yr by SergioN

1 minute ago, SergioN said:

Yes in both cases the landed AI vacated the rwy

Can you replicate this? What addons/scenery airports are you using? Thanks

Just now, SergioN said:

another issue I'm seeing is that with flaps 1 setting almost all AI never descended and it resulted in multiple go arounds, when I disabled this option everything went smooth in that respect

I will check this. You mean with deployEarlyFlaps == 1? Thanks

21 minutes ago, fs1 said:

I will check this. You mean with deployEarlyFlaps == 1? Thanks

I've inserted a 0 (cero) instead of the default 1.

I'm out of power right now, 😞 , when it's up again I'll try to replicate it

The test was made on rwy 11 with tropicalsim SAEZ scenery, I only included the ICAO and RW11 in the .xml file.

Thanks @SergioN for the testing. Bug will be fixed and posting a new DLL.

24 minutes ago, fs1 said:

Thanks @SergioN for the testing. Bug will be fixed and posting a new DLL.

Thank you for supporting this hobby, great add-on by the way, it makes the flow of AI in departing airport very efficient indeed.

Hi @fs1  thank you for this wonderful little tool. It works quite good and it's good to see a nice distribution of landing and take-off flows. And finally be able to decide which runways are used!

 

One thing I noticed though. The app controls every plane only once. So it controls the landing runway for a certain aircraft. But when it has landed, and has been on the stand, and is departing again, it's using the runways set in de AFCAD again. 

26 minutes ago, fclaass said:

Hi @fs1  thank you for this wonderful little tool. It works quite good and it's good to see a nice distribution of landing and take-off flows. And finally be able to decide which runways are used!

 

One thing I noticed though. The app controls every plane only once. So it controls the landing runway for a certain aircraft. But when it has landed, and has been on the stand, and is departing again, it's using the runways set in de AFCAD again. 

Thanks @fclaass. Yes that is a known issue. I will work on it to re-engage the AI. I will let you know when that feature is incorporated.

Thanks!

 

Great little DLL. Thanks for this, Federico!

Have not played with the runway/approach selection yet and only tested the other features (deployEarlyFlaps=0 just as a precaution). But the takeoff and landing tweaks work nicely and really improve the traffic flow. Tried EIDW, EGKK, and EGSS and had no problems there.

Only had one occurrence where one aircraft lined up behind a landing aircraft. While waiting for the traffic to vacate the runway, a second aircraft lined up after maybe 30 sec after the first one and both waited on the runway for takeoff. Separation was then maintained during the departure after the landing traffic had vacated with the second aircraft departing in a normal time after the first one. But only could see this once and might be bad luck. All in all a significant improvement.

And sorry for not getting back earlier to you in summer. Life went crazy busy and sim time was limited on my end.

Thanks Christoph, glad to see you are liking it.

Let me know if you are able to replicate the that issue. Thanks!

Keep up the good work, Federico!