Air Routes were introduced in the 2013 version of YSFlight and haven't gained wider popularity with map maker since then. Experience with Skipper and the YSRP Server have shown that the AI AirRoute behavior is a bit quirky.
I'd like to start this topic and get people's experience playing around with air routes so that we can develop a more complete picture of the behavior and can get this part of YSF more used.
Stock Hawaii Default behavior
There are two air routes on this map. One with propeller aircraft that fly to various way points around Oahu on the "Oahu Scenic" Air Route. Two aircraft on this route (one starts airborne) fly the route indefinitely. After each circuit, they land, refuel and then take off.
The second air route is between Oahu (HNL), Maui, and Hilo, with 2 B737s and 1 A320. All the aircraft takeoff, but the one traveling from HNL to Maui gets near Maui before slowing and deploying flaps and diverting to Kona. All the other aircraft make it to their destination. Once all aircraft have landed, they will refuel if a truck is near them, but then do not take off again.
Test 1
I look in scenery editor showed that the longest Maui runway was about 2000m long, so it was thought that this might be part of the issue. I replaced the B737s and A320 aircraft in the FLD with the S-3 Viking default aircraft because all three stock aircraft have 2000m Landing Distance DAT Variables. All three S-3 Viking aircraft made it to their target destination with no diverts, but keep the same behavior of not taking off again. Because the B737, A320 and S-3 all have 2000m landing distance DAT Variables, this variable definition does not prevent the B737 from landing at Maui.
Please share your own experiences and experiments with Air Routes! I'm curious to know:
- Is there a way to get airplanes to cycle between airports indefinitely? How about multiple airports like Hawaii?
- Is there a way to determine if an airplane is too big for an airport?