Which AIRAC

[Guest Gordius]

If I am right there are two sources for the latest navdata update. The old favourite www.navdata.at and another http://planepath.com. I am still using 0513 from NAVData. I prefer to be up to date but I am not sure whether to use the second source. What are your experiences with planepath? Are you waiting on NAVData? Where does the PSS one come from? Can I use Planepath now and go back to NAVData when it is again up to date?Andrew Brownhttp://www.crazypilots.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

[Guest Mariner]

Andrew,Its important not to get the rationale of the two sources mixed up. The Navdata site produces the monthly update to the navdata for the various flght planners and payware FMC data (ie the AIRAC) from the DAFIF data published every 28 days. In addition to this and as an extra service Richard produces the AIO (All in One)file which includes the SID/STARs submitted by individuals to his site. These of course are only updated/amended at their individual authors leisure. At the Planepath site, Terry Yingling, produces SIDs/STARs 'ONLY' based on the current DAFIF data. It is important to realise that this collection of procedures, although current, is not complete as the DAFIF data is produced by the Defense Dept and does not include all civilian airports.There is a very good explanation for PSS FMC data at the relevant forum either through his site or at:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...mesg_id=8&page=

[Guest NormanB]

In answer though to your main query Andrew, we get ours from Richard Steffan @ NAVDATA

[Guest Mariner]

With out wishing to flog a dead horse, the point I was trying to make is that SID/STAR data from NavData is not necessarily accurate because individual authors have submitted them to the Navdata site and Richard just bundles them altogether as an additional service. They are not updated by Richard and not all of the authors remember to do so. The SID/STAR data from the Terry Yingling @ planepath is up to date and current because they are produced monthly from current DAFIF data. However Terry does not produce any data other than the terminal procedures ie no amendments/additions to waypoints, airways etc. As the DAFIF data does not include SID/STAR info for all the civil airports in the world, especially outside the USA, then to achieve the best solution, once you have updated the monthly AIRAC file from Navdata, you should add Terry's SID/STAR data and then finally update Terminal Procedures data with individual files from the Navdata site that either do not appear in the FMCs list of SID/STARs or if they do are more up to date than those from Planepath(not very likely)!As I posted earlier all this is very well explained in the Planepath forum.The problem at the moment is that due to real world commitments Richard has not been able to update his AIRAC files for 4 months, so there is a mismatch between that data and current AIRAC 0604 data being used by organisations such as VATSIM - which I think is probably at the heart of the original query.

[Guest Gordius]

Norman and Dave,thanks for the advice. I now understand better how the two work and what is contained in them. My problem came when trying to input a real life flightplan and the data did not match although of course there was a workaround. I have become used to entering certain SIDs STARs manually for those missing or just flying them from the chart but having more complete data would of course be useful. BTW IVAO not VATSIM but same thing I am sure when needing to be up-to-date.Thanks againAndrew Brownhttp://www.crazypilots.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/