In FSX, an IFR flight is implemented and managed as such by ATC by selecting "IFR" in the FSX Flightplanner and then loading the flight plan. Since PMDG has its own flight planning, how does one activate an IFR flight to be managed as such by ATC when flying the PMDG 747-400X ? When I tried flying IFR with a flight plan created within the PMDG 747-400X, ATC treated it as a VFR flight.

Same as FS9, you can try creating a .pln flight plan that mimics the PMDG flight plan... FSBuild creates both rte and pln files simultaneously for you. However, since the AI ATC is very unreal and has no knowlege of SIDs and STARs I doubt that it is used very much in this caliber of simulation. You might give RadarContact or VATSIM a try.. both camps have many fans.

>>FSBuild creates both rte and pln files simultaneously for youWhat is FSBuild ? >>since the AI ATC is very unreal What does "AI" stand for ?Thanks again.

See http://www.fsbuild.com/FSBuild is a popular flight planner. I like it because it allows you to use either canned or custom flight plans, downloads the latest real world oceanic routes and saves flight plans in both MSFS native and PMDG formats, which I then use for the flight and input into ASX so it also has the flight plan for weather generation.AI stands for Artificial Intelligence.. strickly a marketing moniker added by Microsoft. The ATC engine simulates small airfield operations well enough for gaming but, in my opinion, far short of simulating real ATC (and that would be very difficult in their defence).I think RadarContact is much better, but even it cannot duplicate the "experience" of flying into KORD or KDFW. The complexity of ATC is probably not within reach of a consumer-orientated simulation.

Dan,>>which I then use for the flight and input into ASX Please forgive my ignorance but what is "ASX" ?Thanks again.

no apology required.. ASX is ActiveSky X by HiFi Sim... popular weather add-on.

>>which I then use for the flight and input into ASX so it also has >>the flight plan for weather generation.Does "weather generation" mean to generate pre-selected weather along the route/flightplan OR does it mean to a) obtain the actual, current weather along the route and :( display it using the enhanced graphics capabilities of ASX ?Having a tough time understanding where/how the companion product XGraphics fits in.... do you know anything about it ?I know FlightEnvironment X does not have weather generation capabilities so how does it differ from ASX ?ThanksZach