Vatsim traffic is being shown with incorrect wake vortex category on the ND traffic information symbol

The aircraft here is listed on Vatsim as aircraft type A359 and correctly identified as a heavy on vatsim Radar, however the traffic information symbol shows it as a medium.

the traffic information window on the SURV - TRAFFIC Page does not list a wake turbulence category at all.

FCOM Reference:

 

Edited February 28, 20251 yr by CookieChiara
Renamed topic to more accurately reflect the contents

Furthermore, with FLT ID DISPLAY ON ND set to OFF, the ND should still show a basic aircraft symbol instead of just the TCAS other traffic symbol

Note also the padding issue around the TCAS symbol with the relative altitude overlapping the traffic symbol.

Yet another issue I discovered, had another traffic crossing opposite direction on the same airway, 1000ft above and in level flight, yet TCAS marked them immediately as an RA intruder from about 20nm out. To my understanding of TCAS and from how it's implemented on the A220 I fly IRL, that should only have resulted in a proximate traffic symbol at most. Of course I'm not too familiar with the A350 irl, but I cannot imagine that this represents realistic behaviour

Another issue I have noticed is that I never receive TCAS RAs. The ND will display the conflicting aircraft in red, but I never receive climb or descend instructions on the PFD.

Hi,

Thanks noted above items.

On 2/28/2025 at 9:07 PM, CookieChiara said:

The aircraft here is listed on Vatsim as aircraft type A359 and correctly identified as a heavy on vatsim Radar, however the traffic information symbol shows it as a medium.

We are aware of this one. We are parsing the traffic data via Simconnect from within the sim. The issue is the sim doesn't relay any variable wake turbulence data in any exposed variable that we can poll for this information from within the sim. Same is true for vpilot or other injected traffic such as FSLTL. We're looking at solutions but this is largely a "sim limitation" with regards to data available for the moment.

On 2/28/2025 at 10:44 PM, CookieChiara said:

Yet another issue I discovered, had another traffic crossing opposite direction on the same airway, 1000ft above and in level flight, yet TCAS marked them immediately as an RA intruder from about 20nm out. To my understanding of TCAS and from how it's implemented on the A220 I fly IRL, that should only have resulted in a proximate traffic symbol at most. Of course I'm not too familiar with the A350 irl, but I cannot imagine that this represents realistic behaviour

This one should be fixed as of v1.0.2 update.

4 hours ago, Awemeter said:

Another issue I have noticed is that I never receive TCAS RAs. The ND will display the conflicting aircraft in red, but I never receive climb or descend instructions on the PFD.

Is this in the incidences mentioned above by Chiara, where traffic is "erroneously" flagged as red on ND when they aren't really a threat? Or do you mean in genuine instances where traffic should have been threats? Just for testing I tried with FSLTL injected traffic and was able to receive RAs for genuine traffic threats.

Thanks!

On 3/10/2025 at 5:45 AM, richboy2307 said:

We are aware of this one. We are parsing the traffic data via Simconnect from within the sim. The issue is the sim doesn't relay any variable wake turbulence data in any exposed variable that we can poll for this information from within the sim. Same is true for vpilot or other injected traffic such as FSLTL. We're looking at solutions but this is largely a "sim limitation" with regards to data available for the moment.

To me an obvious solution would be to use a table of the most common aircraft types to lookup the WTC, and just hide the indicator if the type isn't on the list. As a user I prefer no info over incorrect info. Just something to consider

On 3/15/2025 at 11:22 PM, CookieChiara said:

To me an obvious solution would be to use a table of the most common aircraft types to lookup the WTC, and just hide the indicator if the type isn't on the list.

Yep that is what we're working on as a backup. We are still hopeful for a native solution sim-side, as that is most beneficial to all products, and especially on Xbox with regards to Multiplayer/AI traffic.

Thanks!

It would appear to me that even in 1.0.4 the relative altitudes are still not correct, ENT7741 is showing at the same altitude as me on Vatsim, yet 700ft below on TCAS.

QNH in the area was 1007, so I have a hunch that you're comparing the traffic's true altitude to my pressure (or indicated, I have no way of telling) altitude instead of using pressure altitude for both like the real TCAS does.

57 minutes ago, CookieChiara said:

It would appear to me that even in 1.0.4 the relative altitudes are still not correct, ENT7741 is showing at the same altitude as me on Vatsim, yet 700ft below on TCAS.

QNH in the area was 1007, so I have a hunch that you're comparing the traffic's true altitude to my pressure (or indicated, I have no way of telling) altitude instead of using pressure altitude for both like the real TCAS does.

I am pretty sure this is less of an ini issue but a sim/vatsim issue. I remember reading a post on the vatsim forums a while ago about the sims and their different atmosphere simulation causing issues but this was a long time ago so I cant find it n

 

Edited March 19, 20251 yr by Awemeter

6 minutes ago, Awemeter said:

I am pretty sure this is less of an ini issue but a sim/vatsim issue. I remember reading a post on the vatsim forums a while ago about the sims and their different atmosphere simulation causing issues but this was a long time ago so I cant find it n

I kinda doubt it because the planes are displayed at the correct altitude so the data must be somewhere.

Since this is a consolidated TCAS issue topic. I am on V.1.0.6 and had this encounter.

It was a B789 and the tracker clearly shows a GS of 422 kts. But it shows 764 on TCAS. My GS is around 560 (eastbound on NAT) so it can not be closing in speed.

To be honest, i can not remember the TCAS correctly showing GS in any version yet.

Anyone else have this issue?