Airport Operations

deighton

Seinpaal
In a real life situation at a large airport, a pushback tractor hooks up to the nose wheel and pushes the airplane to the engine start-up position. Then it disconnects and goes back to its parking spot. The plane starts the engines and proceeds to the runway.

Challenge:
Can this procedure be done in TANE using driver commands (editing a session/drivers) without having to either 'drive' the tractor OR the plane?
 
I would think that the plane starts its engines to low idle, at the passenger loading ramp, just before it rolls off to the side, out of the way ... so the operation would be just like when 2 locos are coupled, they both back away slowly, and one decouples from the other, and goes onto a siding track

Is there a large complex airport like Christchurch on the DLS ?
 
Simple answer is Yes. Place push back tractor near a named TM with no driver. Your pilot commands when ready would be
Move to train at TM = driver of plane moves to tractor with all his commands
Couple to Aircraft = Couple to aircraft name or couple at TM
Drive to = move to Push back point TM
Uncouple
Drive to TM = Puts tractor back at the named TM
Move to train at TM = Driver moves back to the plane waiting at the TM with the rest of his commands.


Heathrow airport is on the DLS and is as exact as it can be with regards runway, taxiways and parking locations. I am just adding the proposed third runway to it and this version will have more automated take off and landing instructions built into the session.
 
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If you are using any of my startup aircraft or pushback tractors, you need to start them with the B key or the startup rule, <kuid2:60238:80004:1> Aircraft Engine Start Command. Be aware that after you couple the tractor to the aircraft, they become one unit, so all keyboard commands and triggers (<kuid2:76656:24060:1> Aircraft Action Trigger - TS12 & T:ANE version) will apply to both original units as one. See the config descriptions of the assets for how they function.

As Ish says, latest aircraft information is contained in the New Aircraft thread.

Ian
 
WOW! Thanks for all the answers. I can see I have some experimenting to do. I will let you all know how things are going!
 
Having worked in aviation, prototypically speaking, the Aircraft will go through the start up checklist long before any pushback even connects to the plane. Reason: Part of the startup requires an op-check of nose steering funtion which cannot be done while hooked up to anything. I would suggest the plane be fully started and ready for taxi before moving the tractor and towbar into place.
 
Having worked in aviation, prototypically speaking, the Aircraft will go through the start up checklist long before any pushback even connects to the plane. Reason: Part of the startup requires an op-check of nose steering funtion which cannot be done while hooked up to anything. I would suggest the plane be fully started and ready for taxi before moving the tractor and towbar into place.

I agree. I have been working on my pilot's license myself. However, I have experienced several times when the plane has been pushed back and engines started away from the terminal. In this case I would like to have the plane and the tractor act as separate consists with two different drivers. This is still a challenge.
 
So ... Just do that ... Install a driver in the plane, and another in the tractor ... and register your game, in order to get support

What do you mean 'register my game'? It is registered. Problem is that as soon as the tractor connects with the plane, they become one consist and any further commands for the tractor are gone.
 
Both usernames: deighton and deightonc show no train stop timelines by your name

You have to drive manually at times, and decouple manually, AI does not always work
 
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You cant have two drivers in a single consist. Reread my earlier post where it says NO driver in the tractor. Park empty tractor at TM PBT (PBT/PBP = name of TM) add the following to the pilots commands.

Move to train - at TM PBT
Couple - to plane or Couple at TM - if plane has a named TM in front of it.
Drive to TM PBP - This is the name of the TM that you need to push back to.
Uncouple
Drive to TM PBT - this returns the tractor to its starting TM
Move to train - at TM PBP

The pilot will now continue with the rest of his commands. The above commands could be put into a schedule and then just use the copy schedule command in the pilots list at the point he is ready to push back.
 
Success!! I guess I was just being stubborn and trying to get two drivers in one consist. So, now to the next challenge: when a plane lands, it does so at a particular speed until it hits the runway and then the brakes are on. However, because the plane is navigating to a TM on the taxiway (which has a slow speed), it starts to slow down considerably. How do I overcome that?

Thanks for the help, Stagecoach!!
 
The last time I flew I had tan khakis on, the air turbulence was bad, you could feel the airspeed rapidly slowing down as the plane dropped from 10,000 feet, on a sharp nosedive angle ... when the wheels touched down, the reverse thrusters felt like it was going to rip the plane in two.

You could reduce speedboards in the air, just before landing, and increase speedboards for a short distance upon touchdown, and place several ever decreasing speedboards incrementally to the TM

When de-boarding, I thanked the pilot for getting us down safely, and told him that I now had my brown pants on :mop::hehe::mop:
 
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The last time I flew I had tan khakis on, the air turbulence was bad, you could feel the airspeed rapidly slowing down as the plane dropped from 10,000 feet, on a sharp nosedive angle ... when the wheels touched down, the reverse thrusters felt like it was going to rip the plane in two.

You could reduce speedboards in the air, just before landing, and increase speedboards for a short distance upon touchdown, and place several ever decreasing speedboards incrementally to the TM

When de-boarding, I thanked the pilot for getting us down safely, and told him that I now had my brown pants on :mop::hehe::mop:

So, the moral of the story is that when flying, wear dark clothes!!!!!
 
Having worked in aviation, prototypically speaking, the Aircraft will go through the start up checklist long before any pushback even connects to the plane. Reason: Part of the startup requires an op-check of nose steering funtion which cannot be done while hooked up to anything. I would suggest the plane be fully started and ready for taxi before moving the tractor and towbar into place.

Hi. This procedure must be for light aircraft??

I've commanded pushbacks for heavies (737 and A330) for years and they aren't allowed to use nose-wheel-steering while stationary unless grease plates are located under the tyres so they can turn freely - too much stress is induced. In fact, to prevent this stress (and the possible shearing of any attached towbar and broken human legs) the nose gear is hydraulically isolated all the time unless they are moving under their own power i.e taxiing. The only exception to this rule I have ever seen is in the case of main-wheel remote control pushback tugs, where the pilot steers to the command of the pushback commander walking alongside while the aircraft is in backwards motion.

As to the original post, in my experience engine start with heavy aircraft is almost always commenced while the aircraft is undergoing pushback, and often both engines are running by the time the disconnect point is reached on the taxiway. I've never tried it, but I imagine this would be difficult to reproduce in Trainz.
 
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Hi. This procedure must be for light aircraft??

I've commanded pushbacks for heavies (737 and A330) for years and they aren't allowed to use nose-wheel-steering while stationary unless grease plates are located under the tyres so they can turn freely - too much stress is induced. In fact, to prevent this stress (and the possible shearing of any attached towbar and broken human legs) the nose gear is hydraulically isolated all the time unless they are moving under their own power i.e taxiing. The only exception to this rule I have ever seen is in the case of main-wheel remote control pushback tugs, where the pilot steers to the command of the pushback commander walking alongside while the aircraft is in backwards motion.

As to the original post, in my experience engine start with heavy aircraft is almost always commenced while the aircraft is undergoing pushback, and often both engines are running by the time the disconnect point is reached on the taxiway. I've never tried it, but I imagine this would be difficult to reproduce in Trainz.

Indeed, as I am finding out, it is not possible to reproduce the exact procedures. I suppose we have to stick with trains since TANE is not a Flight simulator!!!:(
But having said that, I still am very impressed with what you CAN do in TANE. Still an excellent simulator!
 
After all these years of using this simulator I finally figured out that the schedule belongs to the driver. Now, just for argument sake, should the schedule not belong to the consist? If this were so, then the driver would only be needed to execute the schedule. This way you could have two locos joined with just one driver! Or two drivers!
Any thoughts on this??
 
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