FSNavigator Question?

[Guest]

Just wondering if you have to plan your whole flight from within FSNavaigator, or does it pick up your flight plan from FS2002. I downloaded it but it seems sort of complicated to plan a flight. I guess if that's the way it is done, what is the easiest way to plan? Just drag and drop from origin airport to destination and then navaids along your intended route? It makes sense to me but seems sort of tedious. Just wondering if anyone can enlighten me. Thanks alot.

[Francois_Dumas 10]

Planning a flight is real easy actually (allthough you can make it as complicated as you like of course).If you position your mouse on any location on the map (enlarge it a bit first so you can see where you are ;-) ) and then right-click, it brings up a menu from where you can choose 'Add to flightplan'. Just click on that an presto, the location is added to your flightplan.If you click on an airfield, it will assume you are landing (and the program will adjust altitude, Beginning or End of Descent etc.).If you select (on the menu bar on the right) L or H (Low or High Routes) the program will display all the routes and waypoints that you could wish for. You can add the waypoints to your flightplan the same way.Have fun ! :-outta Francois :-wave[table border=0 cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0][tr][td valign=bottom" align="center]"At home in the wild"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][link:avsim.com/alaska/alaska_052.htm]Don's Alaskan Bush Charters]"Beavers Lead the Way"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][br][tr][td valign=top" align="center]http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/logo75b.gif[/td][td valign="top" align="left" colspan=2]http://www.fssupport.com/images/moose2.gif[/td][tr][/table

[Guest]

Yep - FS Nav is easy for flight planning. I select the airways feature, then when you hover the mouse over a waypoint or beacon, it tells you which airway it relates to. So I then drag it on to my flightplan. And, as Francois rightly points out, it sorts out end of climbs and beginning of descents! However, I found the climbout altitudes are a bit unrealistic - I prefer to step-climb to cruise - so I tend to take off the automatic altitude setting feature, until I am at cruise level, and pass FSNav's estimate of where EOC would be. Then I switch it on, so you get a nice descent profile for landing.Rob

[Guest]

Well, it really depends on the type of flying you do.If you do mostly general aviation flying, you can have FSNavigator import a flightplan from FS2002 (you'll probably have set FS2002 to use either Victor airways or GPS direct routes.)If you fly heavy iron (i.e. commercial aviation), then FS2002's flight planner is complete garbage.If you want to fly commercial aviation, the way to really build the flightplan is by hand:1. Check the FAA website to see if there is a preferred IFR route. Let's use a flight from Newark, NJ to Miami, FL as an example: The indiactes that there are 3 preferred routes from EWR to MIA - Water (1), Turbojets (2), Turboprops (3). We'll choose #1. So - the route is: KEWR WHITE J209 ORF J174 DIW AR14 METTA AR1 HOBEE HEATT-STAR KMIA.Well - we see that there are 2 Jet Routes (J209, J174) with the start/end segment points, as well as two ATAR Routes (AR14, AR1), as well as a Standard Terminal Arrival (HEATT-STAR) listed. We can do one of two things - use FSBuild to plug in this route and let it automatically find the proper DP (Departure Procedure) and STAR, then export to FSNavigator, or input it directly into FSNavigator.2. So - Let's input directly into FSNavigator. Click on the inputline of FSNavigator, with the ID Code checkbox selected. enter in KEWR and hit return. A bunch of Newark (KEWR) entries will pop-up (one for the airport, and a bunch for each runway.) Let's keep it simple and select just the airport - right click on it and select the Add to Flightplan selection. KEWR should now appear on the plan window.3. Look on [link:www.clearanceunlimited.com]Clearance Unlimited to see the intermediate segments for each of the 4 airways, and, while we are at it, an appropriate DP from KEWR.4. We see that an appropriate DP is the Newark 6 departure, vectored to Colt's Neck VOR and then to WHITE, which happens to be the 1st waypoint in the FAA preferred route.5. The airway segments are as follows: J209: WHITE, CYN, VILLS, SBY, SAWED, ORF. J174's segments are ORF, EDDYS, GILMA, CLAPY, DIW. AR14's are DIW, METTA. AR1's are METTA, TORY, LOTUS, HOBEE, RSNIK, TARPO, BLUFI, HEATT, LONNI, VKZ.6. The STAR waypoints are HOBEE, RSNIK, TARPO, BLUFI, HEATT, LONNI, KAINS, VKZ, with radar vectors to KMIA after KAINS. Note that from HEATT onward, you are on both AR1 *and* the HEATT5 STAR.7. Inputting all of these into FSNavigator, by typing the id into the search box, then selecting to add to flightplan will result in the following waypoints being entered, in order: KEWR, COL, WHITE, CYN, VILLS, SBY, SAWED, ORD, EDDYS, GILMA, CLAPY, DIW, METTA, TORY, LOTUS, HOBEE, RSNIK, TARPO, BLUFI, HEATT, LONNI, KAINS, KMIA.8. The STAR requires you to cross HEATT at 16,000(landing east) or 11,000 landing west, so you will want to set the HEATT altitude manually in the flightplan so that FSNavigator recalculates a TOD point.9. If flying online (or if this were a real flight), the flightplan is sent to the controller in a form of "shorthand" that looks like this: KEWR.EWR6.WHITE.J209.ORF.J174.DIW.AR14.METTA.AR1.HOBEE.HEATT5.KMIA where a single dot represents the start/end points of airways, STARs, DPs, etc. and double dots represent "direct." So if you didn't have a DP or STAR, the exact same route would look like: KEWR..COL..WHITE.J209.ORF.J174.DIW.AR14.METTA.AR1.LONNI..KAINS..KMIANow - once this is entered in FSNavigator, you can save as FSNav flightplan, export back to FS2002, or any of a number of other formats.Hopefully, I didn't confuse you too much.

[Guest WorkingStiff]

If you're gonna go all out; FSBuild is the way to go. You can input the FAA preferred routes and it gives your flightplans in multiple formats including FS2002, FSNavigator, Squawkbox and most add-on aircraft.You can find FSBuild at: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/a...er1/fsbuild.htmAlso, here's a brief tutorial I wrote over a year ago on this topic: http://www.tecpilot.com/users/erniealston/JGordonTut.htm

[Guest]

There is another quirk to FSNAV that I have never sorted out.As I make the flightplan, the landing speed is never right.In addition (at lkeast on my system), it something to the autopilot so that no matter what you do, you can't slow down (and therefore can't land). Switching the autopilt off, you still can't slow down, and the AP Airspeed light stays on.I may be doing the flightplan wrongly. This is my sequence:1) Click on departure airport2) Click on appropriate SID3) Add a waypoint about 30 miles from the airport I am landing at4) Click on appropiate STAR 5) Click on arriving runwayCan anyone help?ThanksVrystaat!

[Steve Dra 7,604]

2 things.1. Your can edit the aircraft profile and tell FSNav what the typical landing speed is for your aircraft (Or just pick a profile that matches your aircraft's specs.)2. "Switching the autopilot off, you still can't slow down, and the AP Airspeed light stays on." The solution here is that you can't turn off the AP from the cockpit first. First you have to:A) Switch to FSNav (F9) and 1st click the Fly FP button, :( Click the AP AND IAS (which enables you to disconnect the autothrottle) to turn them off. C)Then you can switch off the AP and AT from the cockpit and they will stay off.I've been bitten by that one on short final more than once! :-lolRegards,Steve Dra