SID/STARs why aren't they appearing in FMC?

[Guest Celt]

Hi all . . . I've just bought the 747-400 having had fun with the 737NG for a while, and have installed it OK, then updated the navdata from NAVDATA.AT and the SID/STARs from planepath but when I program a route (say EGLL-KEWR) I get no SID/STARs in the FMC!!!? They are all there in PMDG/SIDSTAR but the FMC doesn't load them . . . am I missing something obvious?

[Guest s_L_Y_F_a]

Did you open the .txt file for that airport you are missing stars for? are there really SIDs/STARs listened in the respective sections? Sometimes there is a .txt file for that airport in the SID/STAR folder but there are no SIDs and /or STARs listened in that .txt file.

[Guest Celt]

>Did you open the .txt file for that airport you are missing>stars for? are there really SIDs/STARs listened in the>respective sections? Sometimes there is a .txt file for that>airport in the SID/STAR folder but there are no SIDs and /or>STARs listened in that .txt file.Yup, EGLL.TXT looks like a valid SID/STAR file . . . curiously I just landed at KEWR, and I did have STARs and the appropriate transitions and approaches . . . I wonder if it's just SIDs, and the way I'm entering them . . . I do a POS INIT, enter the starting airport (EGLL), then go to Route, and enter the starting airport again, at which point I get an FMC error "EGLL err: 05 rwy unknown", which I clear before entering the destination airport, and my departure runway from the ATIS (if known), though it makes no difference if I enter the runway here before I program the rest of the route or after using the DEP ARR page . . . although at EGLL there are no runways shown in this page and I have to enter the runway at the Route page . . . but at other airports the runway list appears OK in the DEP page, but under SIDS all I see is "NONE", regardless of the departure runway or airport, even though there are SIDS listed in the .txt file . . . Aaaaaaaarrrggghhh!Lateral thought . . .is there some kind of connect between the AIRAC data and the SID/STAR data cycles? As the AIRAC cycle is 0513 and the SID/STAR cycle is 0602 IIRC . . .EDIT: It looks like STARs are OK, it's SIDs I lack . . . . ??????

[Guest stang]

Hi, What's your name?EGLL is not available in the default set of procedures you get that are supplied by PlanePath.com. However, it is available as a download from navdata.at thanks to someone that uploaded it there. KEWR has some STARs and IAPs though so they should show up when KEWR is the arrival airport. Please go to the Terminal Procedures forum here at avsim.com and read the pinned post titled How to update PMDG procedures. It applies to the 737 and the 747. It may answer some of your questions.RegardsTerry

[Guest s_L_Y_F_a]

you can dl seperate SID/STARs for EGLL from navdata.at and than just insert the .txt file you dl into your SIDSTARs folderbtw sign your posts with your name, the local authorities don´t like nameless people posting around in their forum

[Guest Celt]

Well OK, I accept that EGLL may not have SIDs, except that I have an EGLL.txt in PMDG/SIDSTARS which does have SIDs in itI have downloaded as I said previously the navdata.at and planepath files following the procedures, and the EGLL.TXT file I have is the one that must have come from one or both of these downloads.After looking around it does appear the problem is with the EGLL.txt file as I can get SIDs working on US fields, but curiously not some major UK ones . . . EGKK is also missing SID/STARs but EGSS is OK, so it seems they are patchy as to which work and which don't, so I think I'm going to have to hack my way through the .txt files to try and sort them, unless someone can point me to a place which has a more complete set of SID/STAR procedures for airports outside CONUS . . .BTW, hopefully my sig has my name on now . . . strange moderation rules, as the mods know who we are, but then they don't allow signups from global email addresses like yahoo, but I found a way around that easily enough. I moderate a PC technical forum elsewhere on the net (if anywant wants to know who just ask, but I won't deliberately advertise in case "the authorities" don't like that either . . . ), and it's an odd way to run a forum, but hey if it works for them no probs . . .

[Guest Celt]

OK . . .going to be brutal, unless someone shouts DON'T DO IT!!!I'm going to backup the SIDSTARS directory, and them delete the contents, and then redownload the navdata.at SIDSTARS and the planepath ones, and then we'll see what happens . . . wish me luck . . .

[pilotpip 0]

Chris,The answer is quite simple and occurs for airports other than EGLL as well. In one of your other posts you list an error message - FMC error "EGLL err: 05 rwy unknown", this occurs when the SID/STAR file has a reference to a runway (in this case 05) that doesn't appear in the Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9FMCWPNAVDATAwpNavAPT.txt file for the airport. OK Heathrow has a runway 05 (and 23 for that matter), but they haven't been included in the wpNavAPT.txt file so when the SID/STAR file is read by the FMC it cannot match the Rwy05 entry and errors. The RNWS section should be as follows in the EGLL.txt fileRNWSRNW 09RRNW 09LRNW 27RRNW 27LENDRNWSAll should work as advertised after that... but don't quote me as if 05 or 23 have been included in the other sections they may need removing from them.They are possible excluded from the APT file because they are rarely used - I can't say that in all my time at LHR I ever saw 05 used for anything and 23 only when the winds put 27L/R out of crosswind limits for lighter aircraft, even then 27L/R were used for all departures and the heavies still used them for landing which makes for interesting ATC operation. No doubt someone will correct me as I know the charts show 23 SIDs!Regards Pip

[Guest Celt]

Great, well I think that was part of the prob, but another part was also probably that when I downloaded the navdata.at SID/STARs my winzip has been set to default to "don't overwrite" . . . doing a cleanout appears to have fixed it all and I now have SIDs and STARs . . . phew . . . cheers all . . .