ACSim: The Future

[Gareth Williams 840232]

Hi Chris,

 

I know that this has been on the back burner due to your commitment to the voice libraries etc etc , but I would like to know if it is your intention to take this excellent idea/implementation any further?

 

Specifically:

 

i:/ Injection of traffic at a specific fix/level/speed/heading at 'T+10' (where 'T' is start of session). It seems that at the moment it is necessary to either create the traffic 'on-the-fly' or have it in the *.acs file but further away.... (large aircraft, close-by; small aircraft, far-away... )

 

ii:/ Traffic is always injected on a heading, not inbound to a fix. This is related to another point here (in the forum) about traffic following the filed flightplan.

 

iii:/ I'm trying to build a kick-[Mod - Happy Thoughts] acs file for EGKK_APP but would like to be able to 'drop' selected traffic to make an easier scenario as required dependent on controller ability. I [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume that I either have to edit the acs file each time, have discrete graded acs files, or delete the traffic manually at run-time. I'm looking at a database solution to allow an active flag field to re-create the acs file prior to session start but wondered if you had any other ideas in the pipeline.

 

iv:/ Holds; at the moment it seems that holding is purely arbitrary. Any plans to allow hold definition on a per-fix basis?

 

v:/ Selection of active aircraft. The RW blip-driving systems here in the UK do not use a drop-down for command-input selection; rather the selection of the 'active' aircraft is made from a button selection. Instructions to that aircraft are then made using a combination of mouse and key inputs; I can create a rough form template for this if you are interested at all. I think it can be [Mod - Happy Thoughts]umed that ACSim with ASRC/VRC is a multi-screen environment.

 

Great training tool as is, but I think it has a lot more to give in the long term with sufficient development. Would love to get involved in further development of this brilliant, and currently unique, addition to the training opportunities we have available.

 

Regards,

Gareth

[Christopher Serio 823884]

At this time, it's not something that i can consider. I just have too many things going on. With regards to your 3rd suggestion, i've suggested a solution a few times in this forum. You should be designing scenarios (the ACS files) in blocks. Remember that you can open more than one scenario at a time. Boston has an ACS file for each runway (the departures) and has an ACS file for each STAR entry point and a bunch of ones for random VFR aircraft. If the guy is new, you only open one or two. If he's experienced, you open a bunch.

[Matthew Horan 901577]

I took a similar approach, writing situations for each STAR entry point into Halifax, as well as seperate for departures off each runway, and VFR.

 

Then mix and match as your student gains experience

[Gareth Williams 840232]

At this time, it's not something that i can consider. I just have too many things going on.

 

Yup, I know that feeling....

 

I like a challenge and would love to take your great work a step further.

 

ATB,

Gareth

[Marek Pola 843115]

I would have loved being able to taxi aircraft. Nothing fancy really, I as instructor could enter headings and speed as we do already, the only difference is that the aircraft doesn't take off and gain altitude. The we could simulate the entire departure without having pretend that the aircraft is still on the apron.

[Christopher Serio 823884]

I would have loved being able to taxi aircraft. Nothing fancy really, I as instructor could enter headings and speed as we do already, the only difference is that the aircraft doesn't take off and gain altitude. The we could simulate the entire departure without having pretend that the aircraft is still on the apron.

 

Marek, Ross Carlson has written something called the TWRTrainer which is designed for DEL/GND/TWR training (but it's not ready for release yet). I can't stress enough that the ACSim was NOT designed to do these things which is why it fails to do them well. Additionally, ACSim aircraft CAN depart. In fact i even included a bunch of sample departure scenarios in the installation and the flash animation that i linked in the sticky post teaches you how to get them to depart.

[Marek Pola 843115]

I would have loved being able to taxi aircraft. Nothing fancy really, I as instructor could enter headings and speed as we do already, the only difference is that the aircraft doesn't take off and gain altitude. The we could simulate the entire departure without having pretend that the aircraft is still on the apron.

 

Marek, Ross Carlson has written something called the TWRTrainer which is designed for DEL/GND/TWR training (but it's not ready for release yet). I can't stress enough that the ACSim was NOT designed to do these things which is why it fails to do them well. Additionally, ACSim aircraft CAN depart. In fact i even included a bunch of sample departure scenarios in the installation and the flash animation that i linked in the sticky post teaches you how to get them to depart.

Yes, I know, Chris. Thanks for your info. I've been fiddling around with ACSim for a week now and will use it for my first Student on Monday. I've promoted ACSim at VACCSCA and others have already started to use it during training. It's a great tool!

 

When I mean departure I mean a complete departure including pushback, taxiing and takeoff. I know about Ross' new tool but probably it won't be available in many months. Probably it would be a very small update to be able to taxi but I understand you are very busy.

[Christopher Serio 823884]

Marek,

 

You are correct that it will probably be a few months before TWRTrainer is release. You are incorrect in believing that making the aircraft taxi properly would be a simple task. That's why Ross developed a whole new program instead of just patching the ACSim.

[Marek Pola 843115]

Marek,

 

You are correct that it will probably be a few months before TWRTrainer is release. You are incorrect in believing that making the aircraft taxi properly would be a simple task. That's why Ross developed a whole new program instead of just patching the ACSim.

Don't get mad at me, Chris, but what I'm proposing is not very complicated. ACSim already has ability to make an aircraft gain speed once the speed is set. And then when speed is high enough it starts to climb. What I'm saying is that a threshold could be defined, say 50 knots, where the aircraft never leaves ground. Nothing else changed. But making this change and then test it properly and go through the software review etc will probably take as long time as Ross creating his software from scratch. I'm a professional software developer too so I know it takes time and effort - never mind.

 

Ross probably wants much more new functionality than that and taking over someone else's code is never easy, sometimes written in the wrong language, so I understand his motives perfectly, hehe.

[Ross Carlson]

Marek, I think you'd find that you simply don't have the time to provide manual, progressive taxi instructions to aircraft on the ground. If I understand your suggestion correctly, you would just give the aircraft a taxi speed, say 30 kts, and manually give it headings so that it turns to follow the taxiways. (This would require another modification to ACSim, that being a much higher turn rate when below 50 kts.) You can't realistically do this for more than a couple aircraft at a time, especially if you are trying to handle airborne aircraft as well. You'd end up needing an additional instructor just to handle ground traffic. And what would happen if you had two aircraft that needed a turn at the same time? One would end up missing his turn.

 

At any rate, ACSim is for airborne traffic ... trying to modify it to work for ground traffic would be misplaced effort, and only a half-baked solution.

 

Getting TWRTrainer completed and out the door will be my first priority after launching VRC. With TWRTrainer, you define "airport files" which describe the layout of the taxiways and runways, and you can issue commands such as "taxi K C D 27 HS 33l" and the aircraft will automatically taxi from where it is parked to the closest spot on taxiway Kilo, then turn onto Charlie, then Delta, hold short of 33L until told to continue, then follow Delta and hold short of 27. (Using KBOS as an example.)

[Marek Pola 843115]

Ok, you have convinced me, taxiing that way would probably not work very well. Thanks for your work, Chris and Ross!

[Chris Brew 814351]

I'd love it if IAS were used as opposed to ground speed so the program could use a simple calculation to get a TAS based on the IAS entered and the present aircraft altitude. That way I wouldnt have to keep tweaking airspeeds as aircraft climb and descend to make it more realistic. Then if that wasnt enough I'd like the program to take downloaded winds aloft (or simulated) and factor them into the aircraft tracks. Kidding aside the program is amazing as is and the best tool for training.