Need Easy Tutorial-FMC

[Guest mikeallen]

Hi All,Well after flying & landing the PMDG 737-700 by hand, I have decided to see how the FMC works & how it flys by using the automated method.So to start off, I am stuck to be honest. I have installed the latest sids/stars from the navdata page at pmdg.Now what i am trying to do is do a flight from EGNT to EGGD. How do I import the flight plan from FS9? I printed it out which lists as follows which i pressume are waypoints.EGNTPOLBARTNNOKINKARNOMYNDAELGARMADLICUMRIEGGDI have downloaded a tutorial by Fred Clausen V2 but to be honest I am none the wiser when it comes to programming the FMC. So how do I install the sid/stars into the FMC as well as all the above.With regards to the FMC I am a complete noob so some kind of easy to follow tutorial would be ideal.ThanksMike

[Manny]

Check this out.http://brettdonahue.com/content/view/13/25Manny

[Guest brettdonahue]

Thanks for the plug Manny! Yes I thought too the FMC to be a bit difficult to figure out, even read a manual or two. After a while I sort of pieced everything together and thought it would be good to come up with something that wasn't straight from the Boeing manual. So the document that Manny is referring to is roughly 80+ pics with directions and explanations in my terms; as I am only a simmer I am not terribly knowledgeable of all the pilot lingo but I have tried to give you what has worked for me. The tutorial is for the 737 but the knowledge gained will help you for any other plane. I also use Flight1's ATR, Phoenix softwares 777 and LevelD's 767 and am able to get from point A to B most of the time And as I have mentioned before in the posts, if you have any questions you can shoot me a mailCheers and good luck.Bretthttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/800driver.jpg

[macpac22]

Good work Brett!Personally switching from FS freeware to PMDG 737 was a massive learning curve. I found the FMC very difficult to understand let alone program correctly. Searching around the web i always got pages full of complex instructions and things i really didnt understand. Id recommend this tutorial for all beginners, once you understand the basics it will enchance your FS experience, trust me once i completed my first FMC programmed flight i never looked back! Again great job Brett

[Guest dt1951]

Concur. A tutorial is a must to understand what the manuals say. The manual gives you "what", not "how".

[Manny]

Yup.. about the "what" and "How".You can't give someone an encyclopedia as a teaching tool. Its a reference material.If anyone has learned computer programming, its about writing code to say "Hello World".Thats the first step you need...and then expand from there.Manny

[Guest mikeallen]

Hi, & thanks for your replys.I have tried the above tutorial & I found it most useful indeed, very good & easy to understand.Now, i tried to use the same method in the tutorial going by step by step but flying from EGNT to EGGD. This is where It all falls flat.In the tutorial it seems it plans the route going from one island to another & says to go through the waypoints as shown in the fs9 map indicated by red triangles & the intersections, it seemed easy enough.I done the tutorial a coulpe of times so I got used to programming the FMC.So, I thought all i need to do now is load up myself at EGNT , fire up the fs9 map & start my route planning.Straight away i was stuck, no red triangles only un-named blue ones to be seen & no obvious way of getting from EGNT to EGGD.Could someone please explain how I get from point A to point B in UK airspace please, I am not interseted in some far flung island hopping or tutorials that fly from one US airport to another US airport as i only fly within the UK airspace.Your help would be appreciated.Mike

[Manny]

you already seem to have your waypints"EGNTPOLBARTNNOKINKARNOMYNDAELGARMADLICUMRIEGGD"Just enter those instead of getting it from FS9 MAP.Manny

[Guest mikeallen]

Hi,But what I seem to be missing is the sids & stars, how do i load these.THanksMike

[crvm]

You cannot chose any because there are not any to load for those airfields. That's not to say there are not any in RL (I do not know these fields since I fly US). The problem is that to create procedure files for every single airfield would require "alot" of work. I would look around and ask if anyone has created any procedure files for these airfields. AND, even without procedure files one can still use the FMC, there are many places in the world that actually do not have sids*stars yet airliners fly to and from them.[h4]Randy J. Smith[/h4]AMD 64 4000+|ASUS K8V DELUXE|SAPPHIRE ATI X800XT PE|MUNCHKIN 3200|80 gig SATA|DELL 1905FP 19" LCD|TRACKir PRO|PFC JEPPESEN MOONEY YOKE|CH PRO PEDALS|

[Guest brettdonahue]

Mike,It's Saturday here let me put together something that should work for you. I'll send you a note when done. But as Randy said MS FS is certainly not a complete program. Usually if you are interested in a particular area that is missing items or airports you will need to start looking for scenery addons and things of that nature. As far as the island hopping, apologies about that, I was in a hurry and it was a quickie trip without much excitement because I wanted to keep things simple. Perhaps I will write a more advanced tutorial that includes flight level changes and things of that nature; I agree it doesn't make sense to take a jet on a 28 minute flight, although that is what Continental Micronesia does.Bretthttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/800driver.jpg

[Guest Hurri]

EGNT doesn't have any SID or STARS. Not sure about EGGD.However, I recommend you have a look here:http://www.navdata.at/These are unofficial SID and STAR databases that are updated regularly. The official database on the PMDG website only contains the SID and STARS that the US Military felt important.Matt Day

[Guest mikeallen]

>Mike,>>It's Saturday here let me put together something that should>work for you. I'll send you a note when done. But as Randy>said MS FS is certainly not a complete program. Usually if>you are interested in a particular area that is missing items>or airports you will need to start looking for scenery addons>and things of that nature. >>As far as the island hopping, apologies about that, I was in a>hurry and it was a quickie trip without much excitement>because I wanted to keep things simple. Perhaps I will write>a more advanced tutorial that includes flight level changes>and things of that nature; I agree it doesn't make sense to>take a jet on a 28 minute flight, although that is what>Continental Micronesia does.>>Brett>>http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/800driver.jpgThanks Brett, that would really be appreaciated & no need to apolagise the tutorial was fantastic. I look forward to reading/doing whatever you are putting together.As for scenery, I use the UK2000 for my uk airports & I have just installed the latest sids/stars file (ALL in one) from tha navdata site.Last night I tried again to do a flight from EGPH to EGAA which is a short flight easyjet do in the 737. Straight away I was stuck on the flight planning part when I looked at the fs9 map.Brett, If you could show me some how I would plan a short flight within uk airspace it would be appreciated.I have had the pmdg 737 since it came out & have always flown it by hand & never used the autopilot or the FMC so I fell I am only using half of the product.Maybe someone could recommend a easy to use flight planner ? Are these planners compatible with fs9 & the pmdg 737?Looking forward to some helpThankssorry for the long postMike

[Guest mikeallen]

Hi,I just don't understand this now. I installed the all-in one file from the navdata site into the PMDG sids/stars file & I know there was a file on the navdata site for EGNT.But when I load up fs9 at EGNT runway 07, I input this into the FMC & it still does not list any SIDS for this airport.The file I downloaded & installed was from the sids/stars download section: PMDG-AIO.ZIP 804kb in size.Is this the correct file that shows sids/stars?ThanksMike

[Guest pjholl]

Go to your Microsoft Games/FS9/PMDG/SIDSTARS folder and check if its in there, if not try again.Paul