Wrong Runway

[Garry]

Hi Steve

when i load up IF pro and select my departure airport EGGP

it always picks the wrong runway normally 09 but default atc and activesky says 27

any ideas ran indexers etc but no change

Cheers

Garry

[Steve Waite]

Hi Garry,

The departure (and destination) runway is decided by the winds (mostly). SO you have to say where does IF know the winds coming up?

With an external weather system:

Since IF doesn't know the winds coming up you must find the wind direction that is going to be depicted by AS and put that in IF weather page wind and speed, before building the flight.

If you don't get the runway you want to leave on - Edit the flight in Flight Gen to select the desired runway
and rebuild. If there is indeterminant winds, <4 knots, the default runway is chosen as depicted in the airport data.

With IF weather the winds are computed for the complete flight start to end which obviously can't be done ahead of time, without knowing, so the planner knows the weather predicted automatically with IF weather.

[Garry]

Many thanks for the prompt reply i thought by giving the path to AS in IF it would pick it up

Cheers

Steve

[Steve Waite]

IF does everything without the sim running, before the sim runs, but we need a weather prediction first.

The problem is that we need to run AS first to get the winds. Then we go back to IF to insert the direction and speed and build the flight, then start the flight again.

[Steve Waite]

if IF could only do the work when the sim is running then it's a no-brainer to get the weather from AS and insert the winds and get the active runway and so on. But instead we use it to create a pre-built flight since it's also a test harness and requires custom weather to inject no randoms.

[Steve Waite]

...I forgot to mention that if you check out the export files there's one for wind speeds and directions with increasing altitudes. It's in the PMDG exports section, the same weather file as the one output by AS except depicts IF weather so make sure to load up the AS one when using internet weather.

[Steve Waite]

When you start a flight with IF weather the ATIS comes on with the current weather and ATC is primed correctly. 99+% of the time IF predicts the ATC preferred runway correctly even with left right and other configurations, depends on the taxi distances to the runway starts and some other factors. However, again this is pretty hard to predict when everything goes on, so expect a change of runway when you get to the airport just as in real life.

IF could in fact read the weather file as well and so be instructed to build a new route based on that information - requires booting up the sim with AS first before going back to IF to do the route proper. But so far putting in the figures on the IF weather page from the weather forecast before building the route hasn't been deemed too important to automate ahead of other stuff - maybe it'll come soon.

[reecemj]

So putting in the winds direction before the flight has no effect on the atc of p3d? When using a another weather app..

[Steve Waite]

ATC and ATIS are instructed by weather injected into the sim at the right time only..

If the weather app starts up in the sim correctly then ATC and ATIS should reflect the winds injected as they do with IF weather. If you find with other weather apps that's not happening, check that the weather app is configured correctly.

When we put in the winds in IF weather page and not use IF weather, that simply asserts the desired wind directions for the planner. We insert those values from the weather report predictions.

Remember that downloaded weather might not reflect the actual weather you really have as it changes quickly within a two - three hour window.

[Steve Waite]

...so a reason for IF weather other than it need not be online, is that it is not a prediction, it is pre-planned and not subject to changes. Also importantly, IF does not inject random numbers so that its job as test harness is complete.