flightplanning

[Guest Brettlee]

can anyone help with this idea. Im guessing that in order to fly ifr in fsx i nee to file a flight plan as if i dont its as if fsx doesnt know im in the air ie: i dont get vectors or any seperation from a1 traffic. as im using the pmdg 747 i was under the impression that all i needed to do was program my fmc and away i go but this isnt the case is it?. could you kind people tell me what exactly do you have to do for proper flight planning thanks Brett

[downscc 1,327]

Brett: The flight plan in the FMC is not read by MSFS, if you want to use default ATC the native flight plan needs to also be completed.The problems are twofold: First, the native flight plan cannot include the wonderful sidstars that you can use in the PMDG and the navigation database in MSFS is terribly out of date. Second, the default ATC is very limited. Give either VATSIM or RadarContact a try.

[craig_read 43]

Brett,As said above, the FSX ATC and the FSX nav databases are not really that user friendly, I take it you like to fly with traffic in the air and at the airfields?I generally ignore MSFS ATC as it's not very good at all, Radar Contact is by far a much more capable ATC system, and will much better meet your needs. MSFS ATC does not deal with SIDs, or STARs at all and this is really quite a crucial point of IFR flight. Even Radar Contact doesn't handle STARS or SIDs either really. But Radar Contact (RC) can be told to ignore what you're doing up to the first waypoint of your filed plan, so you can fly an SID without ATC hassling you. This is how I conduct IFR flights.1 - Plan the flight using weather and navigation information from charts such as those found on Navigraph and also using ASX weather. Using the weather information it is possible to predict which will be the active runways at your departure field and arrival field. More so the departure as distance to your destination will be a factor in the weather, obviously the further away the more likely it is to change and your runway predictions may be wrong.2 - With a planned flight plan noted down, select any alternate airfields you might want to use enroute (a stage you can skip).3 - Your plan might look something like this..EGLL (LHR) - WOBUN2F, WOBUN, PIPIP, N601 airway, MARGO, LANA1A, EGPF.. (think that's right).. So the plan will be.. WOBUN2F SID from Heathrow.. concludes at WOBUN waypoint.. then to PIPIN waypoint.. at PIPIN intercept the N601 airway and continue along it till MARGO, then at MARGO begin the LANA1A arrival to Glasgow.. (I've done that off my head and it could eb wrong but you get the picture)..That's enough to program the FMC, and if you have FSBUILD you can also output that plan into an FSX flightplan file and load it into FSX and Radar Contact.. whichever you prefer so you can get your ATC.. Bear in mind however that when creating your plan for RC, leave off the SID, and set RC to have an SID on departure.. This way the first waypoint RC will expect is WOBUN.. which is at the end of the SID.. Why do you need to do this?.. Well if you don't.. the first waypoint on your plan will be the first waypoint on the SID.. and RC will think this is where your plan will begin.. hence there will be all kinds of funny issues where you might even be told to turn back because you're not on your filed plan.. Sounds complicated I know but a bit of playing with RC and you'll know what I mean..I usually omit SIDs and STARs from plans I created in FSBuild for either the FMC co-routes, or FSX... However I usually like to programme the FMC from paper and verify it as I go.. for short flights like this it is easy.. FMC programming will be something like this..DIRECT WOBUNDIRECT PIPINN601 MARGOThat will be the route programmed... then on the DEP/ARR page.. enter the WOBUN2F SID.. and the LANA1A arrival.. shouldn't be any route discontinuities to worry about..If you save the plan in an FSX format using FSBuild, you can use the FSX ATC... same with RC.. if you load it there.. FSX ATC will direct you to WOBUN, and ruin your SID though... RC will leave you alone to fly to WOBUN via your SID.. and will only get involved in lateral nav from that waypoint..I don't know if that helps you.. I've waffled a bit here..CheersCraig

[ronzie 21]

Another option is to choose to use a planner like FS Build and use its SID/STAR database. You can then export to FS format and the PMDG FMC format. The FS format is then loaded into FS or Radar Contact ATC and the FMC format is loaded into your FMC via index/navdata/flightplans to get a list and put the name in the scratchpad, then RTE to LSK the plan into CO_ROUTE.Except for the IAP on arrival you would not use the FMC SID/STAR database. This way all waypoints are the same in your FMC and ATC plan.In Radar Contact there are certain overides of rules available that will let you follow your SID or STAR as filed in their entirety.There is one freeware flight planner I believe that can export to the PMDG FMC and at least the FS9 format. I prefer the payware FS Build which uses weather data from Active Sky to include winds and temperature to help in fuel planning provided in its navlog.Not an advertisement for RC but if you click on my tag below and navigate to the manuals area you can download the RCv43 manual. The tutorials and other sections in there can help in learning flight planning.

[Guest Brettlee]

could you tell me does radar contact work the same as vox in the sense of using voice comands instead of keyboard commands. does vox work with radar contact or are they totally seperate items? Id like to try vatsim but im not quite ready for that sort of interaction just yet, but id like to use a voice recognition program and be able to file proper flight plans as i was on about previous, could you suggest any avenues to explore b4 i am ready for vatsim?