Hello,Is it possible to create a flight plan using Flightsim Commander and uploading that plan to the FMC?. If not is there a planner out there that will work?.Thanks You

I assume your name is your Avsim name but you will still have to sign each post in this forum with your name, thank you! FSBuild is the way to go..........[h4]Best Wishes,Randy J. Smithhttp://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-5/196432/winglets_lg.jpg

Hi, I don't know a lot about Flightsim Commander but it seems to me, coorect me if I am wrong, that it is more like FSNavigator ie. a nice looking moving map but lacking professional tools. If you want some more serious planner then you should look at FliteStar from Jeppesen or Flight Operation Center. Both are approaching the professional level.Also, on the web there are excellent planners. Here are two which are free: http://www.pmflightplanner.com/ and http://www.fltplan.com/. Then you can find / request real world flight plans on AVSIM (Flightplan forum) which can easily be entered into FSBuild and converted to PMDG format as well as some good websites where against a minimal monthly fee you can access professional dispatchers/planners.As you can see there are many flight planners out there but as far as I know none can directly output a plan in PMDG format. FSBuild is the only one, but it is more like an elaborated flight plan converter rather than a planner/dispatcher even in its advanced stage.Michael

Hi Michael,As others have said please use your real name when posting.One flight planner than works perfect with the PMDG 737NG is FSBuild version 2.0. You can take a look at it here: http://www.fsbuild.com/Not only is it an excellent flight planner, but also gives you the correct fuel plan for your flight. When coupled with either FSMeteo or ActiveSky you can get the flight plan adjusted for real time winds aloft, which is an excellent feature now that winter is approaching in the northern hemisphere and the jet stream can cause havoc with your plan.Hope this helpsCheersBob Johnson

Hi Bob,In no way I want to denigrate FSBuild 2.1 but it is still more a converter than a real flight planner. Of course it can be used to some extend for fuel calculation and for weather corrections. However, if one wants to fly a route close to real world routing and conditions it seems to me that serious manual adjustments have to be made. This is why I suggested alternatives in my earlier post. Of course I reckon it is not a must to spend large amounts of money in top level planners or memberships to web dispatchers and for most simmers FSBuild may appear as the perfect tool.Michael

>In no way I want to denigrate FSBuild 2.1 but it is still more a >converter than a real flight planner....However, if one wants >to >fly a route close to real world routing and conditions it seems to >me that serious manual adjustments have to be made.Can you explain the requirements of a 'real flight planner' that Fsbuild does not meet ?.You said FSNavigator is lacking in 'professional tools'.What exactly do you mean by this ?I also have both Jeppesen FliteStar, and Flight Operation Center (FOC). FlightStar can make some crazy routes that require serious manual adjustments, and FOC believe does not generate routing, you can only manually enter routes into FOC (and its not that easy to do). How is this any different than how Fsbuild accepts manually entered routes ?I'm not trying to say Fsbuild is a Professional Planner. But I'm curious why for Flight Simulation its realism level is not enough that you instead recommend a almost $1,000 software program.Regards.Ernie.

Hi Ernie,As I mentioned before, far from me the idea to denigrate in any way the merits and qualities of FSBuild. I only indicated that there are some alternatives which can be used if someone wanted to get deeply involved in planning and dispatching. I guess you are right no flight planner is perfect and manual adjustments have to made in all planners I know of. I also mentioned that price is an important factor. I also realize that flight simulation is and will remain a hobby and that the current standards of addons such as FSBuild are as close as it can get to real life planning. Being a great fan of FSBuild myself I sincerely apologize if I gave the impression that it was not up to the most demanding. It was certainly not the intend.Michael

Hi MichealOk, I did not consider what you were saying as trying to 'denigrate' Fsbuild. I just was interested in what your realism standard was.But I think we should point out the advantages and limitations in the Flight Planners that have been mentioned.One of the keys to plotting the best route between the Departure and Destination airports is selecting the starting and ending waypoints. This is a feature Jeppessen FliteStar does very well, which makes it an excellent route generating program. Probably the best of all the mentioned programs. But its limitation of course is the price.Fsbuild is not as good as FliteStar in selecting the best starting and ending points. This does sometimes result in a strange or less than perfect routing. Though we have added workarounds for this by having a preferred departure and arrivals database, and a wildcard feature in which you can force Fsbuild's autogenerator to create a route between two specified waypoints which greatly improves the route generating capabilities of Fsbuild. But the truth is many Fsbuild users are unaware of this wildcard feature and believe they are only stuck with the route initially generated by Fsbuild's autogenerator. The Fuel calculation feature in Fsbuild however is as good as any Professional Planner. Even the ones used by the Airlines. This has been confirmed as such by Airline Pilots and Dispatchers. It was compared side by side with the ones the Airlines where using , the margin of error was very similar to LIDO, Navtech, etc.Pmflightplanner is an Excellent route planner (its back end is the LIDO professional engine). It does an excellent job of plotting the shortest airway paths between two points, better than Fsbuild. But it does have its limitations 1) 'You' must specifiy the starting and ending waypoints. Which means in most cases pmflightplanner cannot make a route for you unless you know before hand the starting and ending waypoints. This knowledge of starting and ending waypoints is something many FlightSimmers will not have. 2) There will be are many occasions where Pmflightplanner will return a message that says 'cannot create route' for the specified waypoints. Because PmFlightPlanner sticks to airway routes only, and it cannot build a route using 'direct' and airway routings. Therefore there will be several occasions it will be unable to plot a route for you. Forget about any sort of Translantic routes withut some serious manual intervention. 3) Its a web based system with the limitations that come with it. One is you are totally dependent on the web site maintainers for any sort of changes or corrections. If there's any sort of error in the database, you are stuck with it until they get round to fixing it.FOC (Flight Operations Centre) is designed for the Professional Dispatcher in mind. Being so, it has many features that although are very realistic have almost no application in Flight Simulation. Plus FOC works on a concept of pre determined trunk routings which of course of you work for an airline you will have such pre determined routings to plug into the FOC program. FOC is really more for the very sophisticated user, and its UI will take some time even for the most serious FlightSimmer to become comfortable with.Fltplan.com, a very nice system, but only available for continental US routes (does not support Alaska or Hawaii), and you still have to enter your own fuel numbers, etc, etc. Fltplan.com does not appear to be a route generator, but rather it seems to be relying on a database of stored or preferred routes. Which means it does not appear to give you a flight plan between airports that are not near prefferred routings.Regards.Ernie.

Hi Ernie,Thanks a lot for this extensive outline of the pros and cons of major flight planners/dispatchers. I guess I am spoiled having unlimited access to LIDO based datas.Michael