I enjoy flying from KLAX to KSJC and back, and I just learned the basics of the FMC...Can somebody help me plan the route from LAX to SJ, and back? I do not know which airways to use, nor which departure or arrival sid/stars to use. any help would be appreciated! I want to get aircraft charts but am unable to find them. thanks

Hey Big Al,I use a program 'FSBuild' (www.fsbuild.com, it's payware though) for flightplanning. It has SIDS, STARS and jetways build in as well as over 10000 real flightplans.For KLAX to KSJZ the FSBUILD route would be: KLAX VTU3 RZS ROBIE2 KSJC. You can also export your route to PDMG 737NG directly.I know there are other planners out there, just this is the one I use....Hope this is of some help!Johan

thank you, I will check out that program. Is it easy to use? i am new to navigating.Can I just put in my destination and departure airport and it will automatically select everything for me including departure and arrival sid/stars?

Actually according to the ZLA ARTCC on VATSIM ( www.laartcc.org ), the correct real word routing for this flight is:KLAX.GMN4.AVE.ROBIE2.KSJCThe return flight would be:KSLC.SJC8.AVE.SADDE6.KLAXYou can get the charts at www.myairplane.com or at the ZLA site...Ryan

Alex,In it's simplest form yes, fill in departure and arrival airport and the program will generate a flightplan for you (or use an existing one if available). In addition to that you can fiddle a lot and also create your own custom plans.I'm happy with it, but take a look at the website and compare to other products (FSNav is another well known product). Also you can ask for some advice on what programs people use in the general MSFS forum...(just covering my behind in case you don't like the program :-roll )Johan

Ryan,Thanks, wasn't aware of this site. As I do most of my flying in Europe it won't help me much but for US flights very usefull.As a matter of interest the site does say that between 21:00 (9pm) and 07:00am you're supposed to fly the Ventura DP as indicated by FSBuild.I guess there's more than one road to Rome (or SJ)....Johan

Thanks everyone for the replies. Now that I have the route, how would I enter it into the FMC? I haven't checked out the nav programs yet, I just want to see if I can do it on my own.How do I know what departure and arrivals to select? Theres 4 pages of them on the FMC.... help! thanks in advance.

Alex,There's a very good tutorial available for download here at AVSIM, it's written by Timothy M. Metzinger. http://library.avsim.net/sendfile.php?DLID=35813Good luck!Johan

I wouldn't worry too much about which is is the correct route. Especially if your not involved in online flying on Vatsim. But I think even the Vatsm ZLA guys would aprove the VTU3 departure routing.They are both quite good flight plans in either case.Regards.Ernie.