Could somebody tell me what are these flightplans for? I am puzzled.Thanks.Abe

Hi Abe,The majority of the flightplans posted in this forum is used to simulate a real world flight.For example, if you take one of the MD-11 flightplans I posted yesterday:FDX1324 PHNL-KLAX MD11/H DOF/030828M083F390 MKK4 EBBER R577 ELKEY SADDE6FDX1324, pronounced as "Fedex thirteen twenty-four", is the callsign of the aircraft.PHNL-KLAX is the route: Honolulu - Los Angeles (if you want to look-up the codes yourself, go to http://www.airlinecodes.co.uk/aptcodesearch.asp).MD11/H is the aircraft (an McDonnell Douglas MD-11) and wake turbulence category (depending on weight; H = Heavy, M = Medium, L = Light).DOF/030828 shows the date on which this flightplan was flown (28th of August 2003).M083 is the speed the aircraft will fly on its route, in this case mach .83. Other notations are N0475 for 475 knots (true airspeed) and K0890 for 890 km/h.F390 is the flight level, FL390, which is the equivalent of 39000 feet with altimeter setting 29.92 inches or 1013 mbar.MKK4 EBBER R577 ELKEY SADDE6 is the route. It startes with a standard instrument departure (SID) with the name MKK4 (http://www.myairplane.com/databases/approach/Pacific/HNL_MOLOKAI%20FOUR%20DEP%20.pdf). For the waypoint EBBER the aircraft will fly along the route R577 to ELKEY. From there it will follow the standard terminal arrival (STAR) inbound Los Angeles (http://www.myairplane.com/databases/approach/arrivals/SADDE%20SIX.pdf).If you have a Flight Simulator add-on with a flight management computer (or a similar system), you can use the above information to simulate the real world Fedex flight.I don't know how much experience you have with navigating in Flight Simulator, but if you've never flown with real world routes/charts before, it can be quite difficult to make a start, although there are various good tutorials on the web (most of them are add-on dependent).I hope this helps, if not, feel free to say so and/or ask more questions... :)Cheers,http://home.planet.nl/~duijn181/cu2/koen.jpg

Thanks Koen,You/ve been a big help. The sites you furnished were very instructive also.I am fairly experienced with FS2004 and FSnavigator. I also like to add that I did work for TWA for about 30 years as service manager(flight attendant) and had a chance to look at flight charts and flight plans and quiz the pilots on numerous occasions. Always fascinated with aviation.One more question, please. Having furnished the flight plans - charts, is the TEXT applied directly into a flight planner or other application? Or does it have to be disassembled, so to speak, and the information inserted into another application?Thanks again, Koen.Abe

Hi Abe,I don't use FSnavigator, but I think there's no option to enter airway names (if there is, you can simply enter airway R577 as in the example flightplan above).From the flightplan, you'll see that the route is from EBBER to ELKEY via airway R577 at FL390. If you go here: http://rfinder.asalink.net you can enter EBBER, ELKEY and FL390 (twice) to get all waypoints on the route. The server will give back: EBBER ERWEN EXAMS ENGIN ETNIC ESCRO EKTAS EDSEL EDTOO ELKEY. I assume you know how to enter fixes in FSNav, so you can enter the above waypoints. After departure, follow the SID procedures and connect FSNav to the autopilot when you're at EBBER.FS should follow the real world route then... :)Cheers,http://home.planet.nl/~duijn181/cu2/koen.jpg

Thanks again, Koen!!CheersAbe