Co-route on the FMC

[Guest JTH]

Hi everyone.I've completed the 747-400 tutorial here, which has been very helpful, I'm sure many of you will have done it:http://smithplanet.com/fs2004/pmdgAnyways, in that tutorial, you fly from KLAX to KEDW and at one point you enter "KLAXKEDW" in the scratchpad of the FMC and hit the co-route button (button 3 on the right). This automatically fills in your origin, your destination and the runway you are departing on (25R, in this case).So to try a different flight from that in the tutorial, I used the Flight Planner to create a short flight from London Stansted (EGSS) to London Heathrow (EGLL). When it got to programming the FMC, I entered "EGSSEGLL" and pressed co-route but it said something like "not in database" and wouldn't accept the route. So I manually entered EGSS as the origin and EGLL as the destination but when I went to activate it and pressed the executive key it would refuse to activate and just go back to where it was.So I'm basically wondering how, in the situation I'm in, to program a flight from EGSS to EGLL? And why does the co-route method only work for the airports in the tutorial? (In the tutorial I even replaced KEDW with KATL, but it said KATL wasn't in the database!)Thanks in advance for any help...

[SwervR1 1]

The tutorial worked because the flight was already available to the FMC. When you created the flight plan with FSBuild (or similar) where did you export the plan to?

[Guest JTH]

Hi, I didn't use FS Build, I just created a flight plan with the simple "Flight Planner" feature of FS2004. Surely it's not required to download a program and run it to set a flight plan each time just to use the FMC with the 747 is it?Also, what do pilots do in real life? Is the route already programmed for them into the FMC just as it is here?Thanks in advance for any help.

[Byrna 0]

Hi JTH,The FMC for the PMDG planes saves its files in a folder on your hard drive which is DIFFERENT than where you save them when you create a flight plan with FS2004 flight planner. Hence the FMC cannot find the file in the PMDG flight plan folder because it was created with FS2004 and resides in a different folder.PMDG flight plans reside in the following path (fill in " X" with your drive letter where FS2004 is installed) ==>X:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9PMDGFLIGHTPLANSFS2004 flight plans reside in the following folder ==>X:Documents and Settings[iNSERT YOUR PROFILE FOLDER NAME HERE]My DocumentsFlight Simulator FilesThe files have an RTE extension. I believe you CAN move the FS2004 files and rename them so PMDG FMC excepts them but I'm unsure. There WAS a discussion about this in this forum back probably in August when the 744 first came out. The FMC for PMDG cannot import FS2004 flight plans yet so I don't know if you can insert the routes/legs of your existing FS2004 flight plan into the FMC of a PMDG plane yet by simply renaming your FS2004 flight plan files and moving them...If anyone knows how to do this, please let us know.John

[Guest JTH]

Thanks John, that's cleared up a lot.If that is the case, how would you normally go about creating a PMDG flightplan that the FMC can read when you want to fly the 744? And do you just use the option in MSFS to go to a certain airport with a certain plane or do you could create a Flight Planner flightplan as well as the PMDG one?Also, in real life, does the FMC need a pre-programmed flightplan or do you just program it in the cockpit before flight like I was trying to do?Thanks in advance once again for any help!

[ronzie 21]

I use the 737NGs which are similar.If you manually enter waypoints including crossing restrictions into the FMC along with departure and destination data, and it activates without errors, you have in one of the FMC pages to the option to save the route.To retrieve this route go to index, nav data, flightplans, click on next page if required to advance the list of stored plans, and LSK the name of the plan that exists. The plan name will now be put into the scratchpad. These are the plans that have been stored in the PMDG database in that proprietary format. What is neat about these is this format includes altitude crossing restrictions if entered. You then go to the first page of RTE, LSK on CO ROUTE, and it should transfer since you know it is in the database.To avoid redundant data entry I prepare my plan in FSBuild 2.22 and export it after building in both PMDG and FS formats simultaneously. The PMDG plan performs as described and I use the FS9 export for Radar Contact and Active Sky (weather app). This keeps everything synced up especially when using RC as ATC. I'm sure it applies to FS ATC as well.Other planners may offer the PMDG format.

[Byrna 0]

Unless you use the method (or similar program) to what Ron Ginsberg describes above, yes, you have to enter your flightplan via the FS2004 map and then enter all the waypoints again in the PMDG FMC. But once you enter the PMDG flightplan, make sure you choose the "copy route" option under ROUTE button, page 1. This is save the FP in the PMDG folder under the departure/destination airport names followed by a number which is increased (incremented) by one each time you save the same route again.Example: Los Angeles LAX to New York JFK would be saved as "KLAXKJFK001" in the PMDG folder. If you save it again (after modifying the legs perhaps due to mistakes you made etc...) then, it will save another file with name "KLAXKJFK002".The PSS Airbuses have the great option of importing existing FS2004 flightplans but PMDG does not have this feature yet.John