xplane 11 other aircraft about 15 feet above ground onVatsim

[Jan Naslund]

Hi,

 

When i fly on vatsim i often see the other aircraft on airports floating about 15 or so feet above the ground. Not all of them but most of them.

 

I have xplane 11.05r2 and i am using xEnviro 1.07 and XSquawkbox 1.3.3. I also have XPUIPC 2.0.0.0 64-bit

 

Curious if someone has experienced this and if so, what the reason can be and can it be fixed?

 

Best Regards / Jan

[David Lovell]

I have found that for other aircraft to be running along the taxiways and runways, rather than floating in the air:

 

1) I have to use "flattened" airports, rather than runways following scenery contours. FSX airports are generally flattened, X-Plane aimports sometimes markedly not so. Having said that, I only flatten airports in XP11 if there's a kink in the scenery mesh, such as at EGBJ towards its southern end.

 

2) I have to have the weather reporting the same pressure as them, and our altimeters set of to that value. One hectopascal out is 30 or 40 feet. So any difference in the atmospheric pressure or the altimeters and 15 feet is easy to achieve.

 

When I see other aircraft floating, I think how odd it must be for them to see me appear through the floor on takeoff, or disappear through the floor on landing. At least in a small GA aircraft.

 

Hope that helps,

David

[Jan Naslund]

Hi,

 

I have removed the "runways following scenery contours" setting but i still see aircraft floating. Sometimes i have also see some AC's inside the ground

 

Is it determined that it has to do with the airpressure?

 

It sounds logical as i use xEnviro and i am getting my weather not trough Vatsim but from some other source (no idea which one) and the "floating" aircraft could get their pressure setting through Vatsim. As you say, this could be the reason. Perhaps the difference is only 1 Mb or less but it's enough to make the aircraft appear to be floating.

 

Thanks for the answer! Very informative.

 

Best Regards / Jan

[Dace Nicmane]

I don't think the altimeter setting matters while on the ground. When you change your altimeter, your plane doesn't go up or down, just the numbers on your instruments change. However I don't fully understand how it works. I know the differences are because different simulators have different ground elevations for the airport. In some airports the differences are more pronounced, but I'd say for the most part I see other aircraft correctly on the ground. I have X-plane 10.

[Luka Stevens]

It's just the elevation difference between FSX/P3D and Xplane, not much you can do about it.