Taxiing

Below we will show you the steps to create an agent that will have your aircraft taxi on the runway.

1. Create a new session with a controlled Cessna. Right click in the Knowledge Center white space > New > Session. Once in Scenario Editor, right click on the map > New > Cessna.

2. Create a new agent for the Cessna. Right click in the white space under the Agents Tab > New > Virtual Instructor.

3. Let’s have our Cessna on the ground at the McCarran airport. You can click and drag your newly placed Cessna to the airport and then change the Entity Settings in the General Tab.

For reference, the Cessna is placed at Lat N 036:04.582, Long W 115:07.616, and has a heading of 270 degrees. The aircraft is on the ground.

4. First, call the action to set the autopilot on.

Right click on the agent > Advanced > Call Action. Search for “ap” and check the Show hidden tokens box. Select ACTION_AP_SET_ON and click Add.

5. Set the Value to 1 to turn the autopilot on to True or On.

6. Next, call the action for the autopilot to set a heading.

7. Set the Value to 270, the current direction of the aircraft and the runway.

8. Call the action for the autopilot to engage the heading.

9. Set the Value to 1 to engage the autopilot in a heading hold.

10. For a real lesson, VI Guidance should be added, telling the trainee that the aircraft is about to taxi. Right click on the agent > Instructional Aids > VI Guidance.

Your agent should look something like this:

11. Call an action to release the aircraft’s parking brake (default setting when the aircraft is on the ground, engines running, is to have the parking brake engaged). Search for “brake” and check the Show hidden tokens box.

12. Change the Value to 0 to turn the action False or Off.

13. Next, in order to make the aircraft move forward, we must increase the throttle. Call the action to set the throttle lever input. Search “throttle” and check the Show hidden tokens box.

14. Set the Value to 35.

15. Save the Scenario and Agent. Label both as Taxiing Wiki.

16. Preview the agent to make sure the aircraft is performing normally and following a straight path. Make sure the agent is active and then click the preview button at the top of the Scenario Editor toolbar.

To go back to the Scenario Editor while in Preview Mode, simply press the Preview button at the top of the toolbar again.

17. In order to have the aircraft taxi off the run way:

We will have to gradually decrease the throttle to slow the aircraft down and then provide a new heading for the autopilot to follow.

18. Create a timeout so that the aircraft has time to build up speed and reach the area where the turn sequence will be initiated. After some trial and error, a 25 second timeout seems to be best. Right click on the agent > Timeout > change Duration to 25.

19. Next, decrease the throttle to 20. You can simply cut and paste the current action already in the agent and then editing the value. To cut and paste, select the Throttle action then press the Ctrl+C buttons, then select the 25 second timeout, and press Ctrl+V buttons to paste the new action underneath the timeout. Right click on the action > Edit > change the Value to 20.

20. After this throttle decrease, add another 10 second timeout and another throttle decease. This time change the value to 5.

Your agent should look something like this:

21. Next, set the autopilot to follow a heading of zero degrees. To call this action, cut and past the ACTION_AP_SET_HDG you already have in your agent and edit the Value to “0”. Add an 8 second time out after this action.

22. Finally, apply the aircraft brakes. Call the action INPUT_AC_FULL_BRAKES_PRESS.

23. When the Do an Action window appears, leave the Index box blank and type 100 for Value.

24. Again, save your scenario and agent and preview to make sure the aircraft is behaving the way the agent is set up.