Tower simulator BAO. Make your own scenarios

Among the many ATC simulators we have seen ever since PCs were available, this piece of software is still leading , and leading way ahead of any other in this field ! It is the BAO (Apollo Software) Tower simulator for Aerodrome / Tower control. BAO stands for Bruch Artwick Organisation. Bruce Artwick is a name that will be written in the software history and is non other than the designer of the Flight Simulator series ever since 1977. This software originated the MS Flight Simulator. The Tower Simulator circulated around 1993, however , around 1995 there was a deal between BAO and Microsoft , the latter continuing the production of the Flight Simulator series. It is not known exactly what was the fate of this Tower simulator in this deal, we only know that there was something left of this BAO firm who is still its owner and that its designers did not consider any further development ever since. One may suspect that design-wise there was a possible link (?) with the Wesson company producing the TRACON-Wesson Approach simulator. This TRACON program was very popular in the end of the 80s and beginning of 90s; its syntax became a kind of a universal guideline for PC based simulation scenarios and the syntax of the main Tower simulator files follow a very , very similar form

BAO apparently had in mind to expand this Tower Simulator because in its files there is room for a number of parameters that were not finally activated. From the exercise text one can see that this simulator could have included a large number of traffic events and conditions almost equivalent with those available on Professional Tower Simulators. The effort was, however , abandoned and despite requests from various users , BAO was ( and is still ) simply stating that this program is no longer supported. Today it is classified by users as abandonware . However , the many friends that this software has created in some 10 years of its existence did not give up and tried to continue on their own and it is thanks to their efforts that by some minor modifications and useful solutions that this software is kept alive and active.

Windows Compatibility

A File problem

In the middle of 90s the Windows 3.1 and 95 were famous and BAO Tower Simulator was made to run on them. People who tried later the Win98 version were happy to see it being compatible . I personally bought this software in Luxembourg , the kit with the disquettes and manual came from Germany and I have run it in Win3.1, 95 and 98 but this was not the case later with the NT and XP versions. This made BAO Tower simulator to become a ‘forgotten’ software from the market. Recently I have found a site where you may still download the installation files of BAO Tower Simulator in zipped form. They definitely run 'as is ' on Win98 and Win98SE. Have a look at :

http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=1178

(next to TRACON version I for DOS and Windows vesrion II)

I also found them at http://www.scenery.org/atc_sims.htm but it was reported by many that these files do not work

There you may download 8 files that correspond to the 8 initial installation diskettes of BAO. Unzip everything on a common directory and run the setup file to install it. However : There are people who made it run in Windows XP !!! This is a fact ! After some good combined effort from the European ATCers mailing List the solution has been found. So ....

BAO Tower Simulator runs without any problems in Windows XP

provided you do 2 very easy modifications :

1] Update the Msvcrt20.dll file : BAO uses an older version of this file found in its root folder. But , XP users already have the updated file in their XP system ! Replace this file with the equivalent one (same name but different size) found in WinXP at C:/Windows/System32 directory . That is simply copy the C:/Windows/System32/ Msvcrt20.dll file into the root BAO Tower Simulator directory , usually something like C:\Tower. Say , yes , to the prompt to replace it. And that is all…..

Caution : In case you want the old file to remain there, just in case someone wants to use it with a non-XP windows version, then first rename the older Msvcrt20.dll file to something like _ Msvcrt20.dll file (my favourite way of renaming) before you copy-replace it with the above mentioned method.

Then ...

2] Get the wing32.dll file. This may come from a friend or you may download it free from the internet at : http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?wing32. In actual fact this file should be installed immediately in the XP's C:/Windows/System32 when using the SETUP.EXE from the files downloaded from the http://www.scenery.org/atc_sims.htm site. If however , for some reason this file is found omly in your root directory then you have to move it to the C:/Windows/System32 , that is delete it from the root directory and put in C:/Windows/System32 . Upon starting the program will check that the wing32.dll is not in the root directory but in C:/Windows/System32 . If desperate contact me. This process is explained , in italian , in http://www.tkk.it/var/tower/tower.html - I’m sure you will all understand what is says

A possible XP setup problem

Another problem that may occur, as detected by our friend Tim tim1261@tpg.com.au in Australia , may happen due to some refusal of XP to load 16 bits files (?) , at its present setup. So Tim was initially receiving this error message :

It looks to be a default setup problem. By the help of Microsoft Tim found the solution and he runs the program successfully now. The actions to be taken , according to his e-mail are the following :

First load your WINDOWS XP cd into the tray
then go to START, then to RUN
type in CMD & it will open a command box, then type in the following & pressing ENTER after each command line

It is seems to me from the above that XP was not expecting some 'older habits' of DOS and has some 'left-outs' which are recuperated with this expansion command. So with this intervention XP gets back its older 'potential'

A big THANKS to Tim !

The merits of this program

It is a talking version ! Pilots will call you and read back all clearances. Phraseology is more 'American' than 'European' but this is not a problem. What is more , a fan (Tom Heaney), dared to intervene on many files and introduced new and/or additional type names and own voice callsigns. Have a look at : http://www.ags.uci.edu/~tmheaney/SNA/Tower/howto.html.

But this is mainly for fun. There are many other more serious merits to it :

Very easy direction of the eyes view by simple click-an-drag of the right mouse button anywhere . Smart and simple solution which I hope other designers would imitate. This is how you finally get a 360 view out of a flat PC screen !
Very efficient moving camera from Tower and/or Cockpit to see anywhere in the field or around a plane
Binocular view and Spotting plane function
Day-night ambient lighting and shades change according to clock time.
All basic aerodrome lights visible
Surface Movement Radar and Approach Radar with full controls for turns and headings
Strip bays for arrivals and departures - there is possibility to activate your printer for strip printing if you want
Easy selection of aircraft by clicking on strip or on radar label
Acceleration and deceleration of traffic movement on ground is superb . The kinematics were very well designed
Acceptable traffic silhouettes and simple liveries . Modification of names and performance of the types data bank possible - but 3D graphics remain the same
Easy key input of commands on air and ground ; handout on-line
All dialogues appear on text form as well
Easy to read and comprehend ASCII text exercise files (*.sim) - you may crate your own exercises
Clock accelerated / decelerated using F10 and F9 keys. Pause key - the specific 'coffee and pretzel' button to stop running-resume
Easy arrangement of the windows for strips and radar displays according to user's settings that can be saved and used as default on start (save setup)
All files with data necessary for the airspace and exercises are simply ASCII texts. Use NOTEPAD or any other editor and save always in TEXT format but maintain the file extension .SIM . Those who have done many modifications with TRACON will find it even easier as the rules remain almost identical
Although made for fun , yet , it may help a lot the own learning of beginner ATCOs for problem solving. Many pieces of software do have a considerable effect on students if traffic is handled in user made scenarios. In some cases even expensive simulator systems can not do better. And …the possibility of crossing runways traffic is also compatible with international basic requirements for ATCO Tower training

Screenshots

Here are some pictures of the 3D graphics of aircraft in the program. There is a natural degradation of the pictures due to the JPG format :

A MD80 taxiing

A MU2 while leaving parking 1

A Challenger CL60 vacating RWY 09

A nice binocular view for a parked Fokker 27

Some 'Heavies' (DC10 and L101) moving on the apron

Making random scenarios

To create random scenarios you need to choose the NEW SCENARIO from the File menu of the program and set accordingly the details of the following windows :

a) NEW SCENARIO

Set the Airport : (Canyon Field , or O'Hare or Washington ) , set the Traffic rate of aircraft per minute and then go to the SETUP

b) SETUP

Here you set the Runway(s) in use under Available Runways. Strange as it may be, you may use any runway combinations you like even the 9 and 27 both active (!) – Good God ! You may of course re-direct traffic to the one you finally want while the exercise runs.

For the exercise start time you enter a value in Time of Day : this is your only chance to set it and will be so set for ever(!) and for all other exercises even those created by you, until changed by a new such setup. It can not be changed individually in each exercise

Commands

The HELP menu that works on line and therefore can be advised at any moment when running an exercise, includes a set of Commands on the Air and On The Ground. The On The Air one includes as well heading instructions for radar and you may behave like a radar controller in the airspace around you . This practice is not true for all Tower controls but it is slowly coming into use in many areas.. You may also instruct with headings and/or relative turns and you may simulate a hold with a 'Make Right/Left 360". The latter is useful for VFR traffic waiting sequencing in the queu of IFR approaches but works with any type of traffic anyhow. You also have an 'Extend Downwind' command which you have to terminate by an 'Establish on Finals of Rwy ...' command.

Making your own scenarios !

Here, my intention is to make you try to work out your own scenarios. May I also highlight another important aspect . The fictitious CANYON aerodrome included in it , was used by US and Canadian ATC trainers as an example for beginner ATCO Tower students. It does have quite an important training effect for those who 'play' with it and even more for those who design their own scenarios.

For people with deep experience in TRACON, it was very tempting to start getting into the modification of the BAO Tower Simulator program files were text data are stored and try to create some ‘own’ scenarios. There is another important element , however : one should have time , much time to spend and experiment. Unfortunately I am not one of those fans. Yet , due to the TRACON experience and some luck I managed to identify most of the logic of the program on creating simulation scenarios ( files with *.SIM extension as with TRACON).

Like TRACON , BAO-Tower Simulator allows you to run scenarios created randomly by the program , then save these scenarios under your own name to run them again later. In a similar way , all you have to do is to ‘copy’ the syntax of program-made scenarios and try to apply coherent modifications. After a number of trial-and-error business here is what I could offer you : A ‘decoding’ of such a simulation file which will enable you , with some restrictions , to create your own exercises.

So here is such a *.SIM file :

I have in blue the original file text
with black my own notes-explanations
The red text highlights parameters that you should not affect
the bold green highlights the parameters you should modify to create your own exercise.

Any such file starts with the following standard header :

TOWER Simulation File Version 3.8

!!! THIS FILE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USER MODIFICATION !!!

!!! USER MODIFICATION CAN CAUSE UNPREDICTABLE BEHAVIOR !!!

Do not get scared . What follows in this article is enough for you to be able to ignore it. You may also completely delete this message.

Now more on the exercise information that follows :

[SimInfo]

Sector CYN.SEC

Aircraft 15

Vehicles 0

Minutes 50

Seed 1107803975

SimType NORMAL

SIM file text Meaning Remark

[SimInfo]

Data-Block Header ; necessary for the program. The first data-block

NOT TO BE CHANGED BY THE USER

This is the only absolutely necessary data-block that has to be defined and appear first of anything else in an exercise *.SIM file

Sector CYN.SEC

Sector file of geographical data where the scenario runs : CYN.SEC (The Canyon aerodrome / sector) , for example

TO BE SELCTED BY USER ACCORDING TO THE SITUATION – Please verify the existence of the sector file and put this scenario in the same folder where the data for this sector exist

Vehicles 0

Number of Vehicles

NOT TO BE CHANGED BY THE USER

The present BAO Tower Sim version does not use vehicles but it was a feature intended for the full version.

Once I had replaced 0 with 1 and for a while a car(?) appeared outside the field running on the grass ! Then I replaced it with a 2 and an unknown PA28 did a low-pass over my field without any radio contact; it was not detected by the radar ! When I set a 7 the exercise refused to start !

Aircraft 15

Flights to be activated in the present scenario

THIS NUMBER MUST BE SET BY THE USER . It must be equal or less from the flight plans existing in the exercise. If more then the exercise will not load

Minutes 50

Exercise duration in minutes

Time duration of exercise ; should cover the activation time of the latest flight. For more than an hour you should right an integer above 60 , ex : 90 for 1h 30 min

Seed 1107803975

Exercise generated number

INDIFFERENT TO USER ; the field must exist however regardless of the number .

Probably a number during the exercise creation which , as in TRACON-Wesson, regulates the randomness of selecting between the various callsigns the program uses

SimType NORMAL

INDIFFERENT TO USER ; the field must be there for the exercise to run.

Probably , as in TRACON, triggering some unusual conditions if the word NORMAL is replaced by another

[Description]

[Objectives]

[Description]

Simple open text follows below this data-block to describe the exercise events

USER MAY ENTER under either his own text to store any info like exercise objectives or stored flight plans for future use. Do not use any strange symbols, though, just plane words - you never know. This text is disregarded by the exercise. In some professional simulators this is called the 'Pedagogical File' or the ‘Pilot Log’

[Objectives]

Simple open text follows below this data-block to describe the exercise training objectives

[Environment]

Pilots Perfect

Emergencies None

Equipment Perfect

CloudConditions Clear

TstormCoverage 0

Ceiling 10200

CloudTops 11200

Visibility 11.000000

Below the [Environment] header the parameters are NOT TO BE CHANGED BY THE USER and have a meaning only for the special variable conditions that the program could have been configured to allow for some extra weather. Due to the resemblance to the TRACON-Wesson syntax , one may understand how these data could affect the run of an exercise , if supported by a fully developed program version. Any changes I tried myself did not produce any effect even for the most obvious ones. For example , when I set visibility to 3 ( miles I suppose !) I could see still beyond 5 nm. No effect with clouds either. This header and its content, however, must appear in the exercise , else the exercise will not run

[WindLevels]

0 10 100

2000 10 100

4000 10 100

8000 10 100

12000 10 115

Below the [WindLevels] header appear parameters for the directions and speed of the wind. THE USER MAY CHANGE THEM. The first column indicates the altitude of the wind layer, the second its speed in knots and the third its direction. The 0 altitude is the one of the GROUND WIND and SHOULD BE CONSISTENT with the Runway used. A difference of some +/- 10 degrees from the Runway direction ( here the 09 ) is fine while the 10 knots speed is very normal for simple exercises. On the northern hemisphere the wind direction changes to the right due to the Coriolis effect by some 5 degrees every 5000 feet. Although this is not important for an aerodrome one may still insert these changes to this list without harming the exercise. This header and its content, however, must appear in the exercise , else the exercise will not run

[StormData]

Cells 0

Another data-block header apparently for a future creation of thunderstorm cells ; a feature not supported by this version. NOT TO BE CHANGED BY THE USER. Once I tried a 1 for the Cells but nothing happened. This header is optional and may be omitted without harming the exercise

[Waypoints]

A strange data-block header of unknown use. NOT TO BE CHANGED BY THE USER. This header and its content, if any, must appear in the exercise , else the exercise will not run

[Aircraft]

NWA127 B727 VFR -1 a 20:01 250 4500 2200 1200 9

VAN CYN Twr @FS

USA1679 B737 IFR -1 d 06:01 250 4498 9498 1200 9

CYN YDU Ctr @TO @LP @GG5

.......

This is the most important part for the exercise file

TO BE MODIFIED BY THE USER

and enter flights for her/his own scenarios

Below the [Aircraft] header the flight plans that are activated in the exercise scenarios are written. The following rules are important for the user :

· Each full flight plan occupies two successive lines without any blank line in between

Different full flight plans however may have blank lines between them for separators. The program does not use this feature during its own scenario creation but can be so arranged by the user
No other character/symbol except blank lines must be used between the flight plans. NOTE : semicolons (;) may be used as separators or comment line markers at the beginning of any blank line but never at the end of a non-blank one) . Any following text after a semicolon is not considered by the program. You may use this feature to enter your own text remarks on various parts of the exercise file. An available space for this reason is however reserved under the [Description] and [Objectives] headers. Any text written there stays as a text information not participating in the traffic
Callsigns appear only once in the scenario. Else , although created, no instructions can affect any other second identical call sign ; the program is confused

You may note that these are the very same rules with TRACON exercises

Here follows an explanation of the flight plan structure using the above flight plans as an example :

THE FLIGHT PLAN for an ARRIVAL
THIS IS THE FIRST LINE OF A FLIGHT PLAN WITH THE MAIN FLIGHT DATA - ROUTE IS NOT INCLUDED
NWA127 B727 VFR -1 a 20:01 250 4500 2200 1200 9
Item	Explanation	Note
NWA127	Callsign , aircraft ID	If the full callsign is within the program’s VOICE files then flights will call you as such. Else it is fully omitted from the voice part but it is normally activated and appears on strips and text commands
B727	aircraft type	Using from the ones existing in the Models.ini file
VFR	Flight rules type	Program creates always VFR types ! Not known why. You may replace it with IFR. Does not seem to have any effect
-1	Number of unknown purpose always appearing as -1.	It probably indicates a 'subsonic' type of plane but never tried any effect with 0 or +1. This number , however , must appear in the flight plan to make it work, else program crashes
a	Flight Profile	As per the Wesson TRACON ‘grammar’ this letter stands for ARRIVAL , while d stands for DEPARTURE. Note : p in TRACON stands for 'round' flights , that is departures returning later to land on the same field but this does not seem to work with this program
20:01	Minutes : seconds to activate flight after exercise start. If say start is at 14:00 , clock shows at this time 14:20:01	For arrivals this is the time at 12 or 13 NM finals before the RWY to receive the first call from that flight. Arrivals however are created with the beginning of the exercise and may be seen on the radar even from some 50 miles away. All arrivals follow a glide slope but if not Cleared To Land will execute a missed approach at about 2 miles before the RWY and will ask for a new approach. Those flights with a Touch-and-Go into their route - see second line of flight plan - will so ask and will not accept landing. You may use more than one Touch-and-Go into a flight plan
250	The speed of this aircraft while approaching.	Unknown whether this affects really the aircraft performance as defined by the program; most probably not