First off....THANK YOU to Tim and the entire PMDG crew for the best virtual flying experience yet! (And I've been flyin' PC's since Bruce Artwick's original sim). I took my first flight in the Ng today, from KPDX to KMSP....everything worked perfect! However, I need a "mini-tutorial" on combining FS 9 ILS ATC and the FMC. I did research and learn how to use pln2rte to convert the plans. Here's what I did....Selected AC, created FS ILS flight plan, converted to FMC format, initialized FMC, loaded .rte plan; got ATC clearance and RWY assigment, entered those. The only big problem was, how do I know which SID/STAR to select since FS9 ATC doesn't assign one? Or do I just not use SID/STAR with the "phoney" ATC? Any guidance (no pun intended) would be most appreciated. And although I'd love to fly online with VATSIM, since I'm about to be camping in Saudia Arabia for a year, that won't be possible.One side note......On my first attempt at the flight, FS ATC totally FORGOT me!! Had me vectored on HDG 015 until I was almost into British Columbia.....had to re-file enroute! Second time was the charm though....although I had to resort to HDG mode for departure and arrival due to not knowing how to setup the RWY with SID/STAR to coincide with ATC.Thanks again for the best add-on I've ever seen for FS and look forward to your advice!Earl M Hilton"BlazeFytr"HC823BL"If you're able to tell others about your landing.....it was a good one!"

It is impossible to see what SID / STAR is appropriate for the relavant runway, unless you have approach charts or familiar with the airport. Dreamflights 737 had a map view where you can play around with the SIDs/STARs and see the exact one to use.

Heres what I do to see which STAR to use at an airport.I create my route on the route page and then activate and execute it. Once thats done I turn my Navagation Display (the one which has a picture of your plane with a pink line on it, im not sure what its real name is) from MAP to PLAN. Then I go into the fmc and go to the legs page, and then press STEP until I get to the last waypoint and then I go to th DEP/ARR page and select my STAR and the Nav Display should still be on your last waypoint so you can see the airport, therefore seeing the STAR. If, however, your last waypint is too far away from the airport so you can't see it, simply create a runway extension on that runway, then use the step method to get to waypoint RX-01 (01 being your runway) and you will be able to see the airport and therefore your star.I hope I havn't lost you because my fingers have been going quicker than my brain.... just let me know if you don't understandHappy Flying

Thanks for the suggestion! Will give it a try on my next flight. 'Nother quick question....is it neccessary to select a SID/STAR or with FS ATC can we just program the dep/arr runways? Which method is suggested by the experts here?Sorry for the seemingly ignorant questions, but I'm trying to learn as much as possible before I head to Saudia and lose my internet access for awhile! Thanks again for your help!Earl M Hilton"BlazeFytr"HC823BL"If you're able to tell others about your landing.....it was a good one!"