VFR flight levels |
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bobkk47
Check-In Staff Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Location: Calif. Points: 9 |
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Posted: 05 Mar 2010 at 7:23pm |
Does anyone know if Traffic X VFR AI aircraft adhere to the VFR flight levels while enroute? For example, here in the US (not sure of the rules in other parts of the world), VFR traffic heading 000 to 179 magnetic fly at odd numbered altitudes plus 500 feet, ex: 5500, 7500, 9500 etc.
VFR aircraft flying 180 to 359 magnetic fly at even numbered altitudes plus 500 feet, ex: 4500, 6500, 8500 etc. |
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freddy
Chief Pilot Joined: 29 Nov 2008 Location: Melbourne, Aust Points: 1339 |
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Nope, as far as I am aware, they do not. This is not a Traffic X thing ... the functionality for that is not programmed in to Flight Simulator.
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Chuck Morse
Ground Crew Joined: 14 Apr 2009 Points: 70 |
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One of the pieces of information about each flight plan is the cruising altitude. I have not looked at the TCC recently to see if it allows you to specify the altitude, but every flight plan has one. If the TCC won't show it to you or allow you to change it, other flight plan editors will. I also have not examined the TrafficX flight plans closely to see if they adhere to the rules, but I would suspect not.
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Chuck Morse
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twright
Chief Pilot Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Location: London UK Points: 3303 |
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We don't fly VFR levels like that in the UK. Flying VFR, you can fly whichever direction and whichever altitude you like provided it is outside of forbidden zones and within a certain altitude range - like I think the ceiling for VFR near my local airport at Biggin is 2500ft, because above that there is the jet traffic flying the SIDs and STARs in and out of Gatwick and Heathrow. It's a good idea though. I've always been taught that it's good practice to fly at very odd altitudes like 2250ft rather than 2000ft, as it's less likely someone's also going to be flying at the same altitude!
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Kind regards,
Tom |
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bobkk47
Check-In Staff Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Location: Calif. Points: 9 |
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Thanks for the replies, Gents. Well, I checked myself. I followed a VFR flight, as listed in the TCC, a Cessna Caravan departing 1Q1, a small general aviation airport located in So. Calif, at 10:13 local time, enroute to KAVX, (Catalina Island, Calif.) The AI Caravan flew up to FL 150 and stayed there while enroute until it started its descent into KAVX. Since it flew at a magnetic heading of around 160 for most of the flight, and it was VFR, its cruise altitude should have been 15,500. So the answer is, VFR AI aircraft DO NOT fly at the technically correct altitude(s) (as prescribed by the US Federal Aviation Administration). But, when you consider all the other positive aspects of the program, it's a minor point (IMO).
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freddy
Chief Pilot Joined: 29 Nov 2008 Location: Melbourne, Aust Points: 1339 |
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To further expand on Chuck's post ...
TCC does not provide the user with an option to specify the altitude. I find this a strange omission considering the previous version, Traffic 2005, did have that. They gave us the candy (in the previous version), but then they tooketh away in this version).
Correct, other flight plan editors do allow you to specify altitude.
Traffic X flight plans do adhere to the rules of the FSX SDK. Traffic X uses the SDK's "Trafficdatabasebuilder.exe" program to compile the BGL. If you are familiar with the technical ins and outs of the FSX SDK and its file structures, then you can manually edit the files created by Traffic X and make the specific adjustments that you want ... eg, altitude. However, the work involved for that is fiddly, time-consuming, and is not forgiving of any mistakes. I would therefore not recommend this to the casual user. (Actually, you could probably import the files that Traffic X creates in to another editor and use that to make the changes. Although having not attempted that myself, I wouldn't know for sure.)
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Chuck Morse
Ground Crew Joined: 14 Apr 2009 Points: 70 |
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Thanks Freddy. That is basically what I do, but I also would not recommend this for the casual user. Because I found AIFP to be a good traffic editor I decompiled the TrafficX bgl file and used AIFP to make the necessary changes. Having read some of the posts on this forum I now realize that I might have been able to do things better by starting with some of TrafficX's source files but for now I am sticking with this process.
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Chuck Morse
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freddy
Chief Pilot Joined: 29 Nov 2008 Location: Melbourne, Aust Points: 1339 |
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Yep, once you find a process of managing your AI that works for you, stick to it.
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