l would love to learn how to properly do a flight plan, like entering a SID the the flight plan then the star... could someone help on this... l have fsnav latest version.... also how do l calculate decent... EG... l`m at 25,000ft at point A and l need to be a point B at lets say 5,000ft how do l would out my rate of decent? Also with the flight planning can you store these flight plans away somewhere and do people collect them to use later. would love to know what people do. Thanks best regards Paul

>l would love to learn how to properly do a flight plan, like>entering a SID the the flight plan then the star... could>someone help on this... l have fsnav latest version.... also>how do l calculate decent... EG... l`m at 25,000ft at point A>and l need to be a point B at lets say 5,000ft how do l would>out my rate of decent? Also with the flight planning can you>store these flight plans away somewhere and do people collect>them to use later. would love to know what people do. Thanks>best regards PaulHi Paul,You made me to remember my first days in this forum. Thanks for that :) From what I have learned during these two years, I will try to explain you a bit the procedure I use for planning my own flights. However, these procedures may be quite different depending on the type of aircraft, route and other factors. But the principles are about the same I think.Well, as a start point I would suggest you try several flight planning resources on the web like http://www.ofplan.net (requires free membership) or http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/ (no membership required) just to familiarize youself with the way routes are planned. Sometimes the data they provide may differ probably depending on the software they use but they both are pretty good in finding the shortest available route between two waypoints. BTW, Route Finder (rfinder.asalink.net/free) is always updating using the latest AIRAC (current to be AIRAC 0604).If you however, decided to start everything from scratch as I did recently :) then you should 1) spare enough time to work out your plan (I usually spend about 2-3 hours for the whole route planning and it doesn't matter what type of aircraft I use) ; 2) get sufficient information on the following IMPORTANT factors directly affecting your flight performance:- Weather (METAR, TAF, wind speeds, etc.)- Airport data (taxiways, runway positions, available runways, ATC frequencies (Tower, Ground, Delivery, etc.))- En-route data (area restrictions along the planned route, etc.)- Other factors like "Did I take my camera to take some pics around?" :)FSNAV: Well, I would advise to use default FSNAV SIDs/STARs with caution as they are not pretty much reliable and sometimes outdated. I prefer dowloading PDF documented SID/STAR charts and inserting the waypoints into FSNAV manually, because this way I, as a captain, will be 100% sure that I will not be greeted and accused of violating flight rules by FAA personnel at my destination airport :) It's really funny to do all stuff by hand. Hope you'll be accustomed soon too if not go crazy with flight planning.Good luck and do not hesitate to ask as many quesitons as you like. Hope this information will be of some use for you.Regards,Rustam

Thank you soooo much for taking the time in writing to me regarding this hehehe l thought no one cared :) anyway bud thanks sooo much l will take my time in this and plan my flight 1 day ahead exept for weather, and alteration in rwy use ect...Paul Jones

>l would love to learn how to properly do a flight plan, like>entering a SID the the flight plan then the star... could>someone help on this... l have fsnav latest version.... also>how do l calculate decent... EG... l`m at 25,000ft at point A>and l need to be a point B at lets say 5,000ft how do l would>out my rate of decent? Also with the flight planning can you>store these flight plans away somewhere and do people collect>them to use later. would love to know what people do. Thanks>best regards PaulHi again,Just want to fill in some gaps I made in my previous reply. >l`m at 25,000ft at point A>and l need to be a point B at lets say 5,000ft how do l would>out my rate of decent?If I understand you correct then you would probably deal with four main factors being your SPEED, DISTANCE TO GO, ALTITUDE and TIME to get your rate of descent. Basic calculations suggest that, for example, if your aircraft's speed is 300 knots and you plan to cover a distance of 100NM descending from 25,000ft to 5,000ft then:1. You calculate your delta altitude being 25,000-5,000=20,000 (this is an altitude you plan to cover to be at 5,000ft after 100NM)2. Then, you calculate that at a speed of 300 knots a distance of 100NM will be covered in 0.33 hours (100/300) or approximately 20 minutes (0.33 x 60 minutes).3. Knowing TIME it's easy to get the rate of descent: 20,000ft (delta altitude) divide to 20 minutes and you will get 1000 feet per minute descent rate. Regards,Rustam