Hi allI have been flightsimming for a number of years, but i have never taken it really seriously, and fly all my routes direct from arrival airport to departure airport...Can someone tell me what the need for a flightplan that covers many different waypoints, and usually takes detours from the quickest route... Is it due to weather? Are there certain routes jet aircraft have to take to avoid cities? Are all flightplans the same for the same route, or do they varie from day to day?DO planes ever fly direct, in a straight line, not following waypoints?Many thanksRichard

Hi RichardOk1) There are thousands of different airways across the world. You can think of an airway as a road. Why do aircraft follow airways and have non-as the crow fly routings - well for the same reason as when u want to go from A to B in a car u can't just go directly from A to B, you have to follow different roads. That is the very simple explanation.Airlines, such as BA, have company routes for each of their flights. These are many different routes from departure to destination. Factors such as poor forecast wx/turbulence, ATC industrial action, commercial preference etc all have some bearing on which is route is chosen. So it is not likely that the same route from A to B is flown all the time.AFAIK airways are not built to avoid densely populated areas but airport departure/arrival procedures (SID's/STAR's) often are as the aircraft are closer to the ground are obviously more noisy.Although at a guess airways may not be implemented to cover areas of importance, for example nuclear weapons sites maybe or other secretive areas.Generally planes never fly direct, unless the departure and destination aerodrome are very close together I would suspect.My answers are not the best I apologise, I am basically only an aircraft enthusiast and am not really into this side of things, I'm sure u may get some better answers off someone else.Also, I urge you to start flying realistically! It's much more kinda satisfying! Plan your flights properly using proper routings!Cheers boss :-)

Cheers for the reply! I think i will have a look at some flight plan utilites when FS2004 finds its way onto my doormat..On FS2002, when you select "Use high altitude airways", is that like creating an authentic flightplan?I use autopilot, ATC, ILS approaches, but never flightplans.. Not really as real as it gets lolMany thanks

Hi Richard,Strange as it may seem the routes are not there for the aircraft. They are there so that the ATC job (a safe, orderly, expeditious flow of traffic) can be achieved. Aviation is a pretty conservative industry, as it should be, since lives are at stake. Back in the old "glorious" days, when radar was a gizmo that soldiers played with, and navigation from navaid to navaid (NDBs) was the norm, somebody come up wih this bright concept of giving names to the tracks linking them. Air routes wore born, and it will be awhile before they die. Nowadays the name of the game is capacity vs demand.Capacity of the ATSPs (Air traffic Services Providers) to absorb the traffic Demand.The fact that flight are planned via a "standart" path (the air route) makes ATC planning a LOT easier.Air Routes are (for the moment) the cornerstone of the system.Think of your regional supermarket. The real big one. Yep, thats the one. In the one I go to, they have overhead cameras wich actually count the number of costumers going in so that they can open or close cashiers to avoid overloads when its time to empty the trolley and pass the cash (sorry I meant the plastic). Now imagine that people could go in and out of the supermarket by a multitude of Direct entries and exits (and of course we assume that everybody is honest and will stop by the cashiers if they have purshed an item). Feasable? No problem during the slow periods (thats why ATC gives a lot of DCT routes). But on Saturday afternoon, you bet that the supermarket manager will make sure that he wants to know how many people are in the place and what the trend is (usually based of what happened last Saturday, and the ones before that).Ups I kind of got lost there, and it turned into Flow Management 101. Hope it helped a bit. :-)

Cheers, im getting the idea!In FS2004, do AI aircraft follow these routes? or do they fly direct from A to B

Cheers, im getting the idea!In FS2004, do AI aircraft follow these routes? or do they fly direct from A to B

They do (more or less unfortunately) fly direct GPS route.