add ils from downloaded flightplan when star already there...

[Guest futureknight31]

Yes, another question(s) from the noobie :(I'm in the process of reading the documentation (and will definately finish it), but right now I'm tired and frustrated (in a good way...kinda fun to get the startup procedures down) anyway...I have created a flightplan in pmdg format (.rte) from simroutes.com from KATL to KCLT. Calls for dooly4 sid grd adena1 approach. Although dooly wp is in the plan, as referenced in the tutorial, I took the initial waypoint, KATL itself, and entered a sid from the database by selecting the runway then the proper sid...that seems to have worked okay but things seem to be bad on landing side...I figured my final steps would be do to what the tutorial says: take the next to last waypoint and input star/ils approach. Here's where I get confused. The waypoints preceding the final waypoint seem to be the star....so I 'm thinking I don't need to enter the star....but the final waypoint is not the ils, so the plane isn't going to land....I've tried various things such as trying to just add the ILS or putting the star in and then ils, but they all wind up with this f-plan discontinuity... what does f-plan discontinuity mean? Is it bad?again, apologies for previous threads that I've missed (i did try the search).sincerely,chris romaniello

[aentwis 61]

F-PLAN DISCONTINUITY is a break in the flight plan route. You need to enter the STAR you require as well as the runway available (ILS, RNAV, and so on), and any transition points required...If you have a discontinuity, click on the CLR (clear) button and then on the line select key next to the discontiuity, which removes the discontiuity... your flight plan is now complete, at least as far as the route is concerned... just check to make sure that the waypoint order matches the STAR and approach procedures, edit if necessary, removing any new discontinuities that occur...If you have doubled up waypoints because the simroutes route also has some of the STAR waypoints, then you can easily delete them...I hope this helps... and I believe this sort of information will be in the FMS manual...Andrew

[Richard McDonald Woods 168]

Chris,It is sometimes useful to leave a discontinuity between the end of your STAR and the first of the ILS waypoints, particularly if your approach chart contains a VECTORS instruction. If ATC are on duty they will then issue the vectors appropriate to getting you between the STAR and ILS. If ATC are not on duty then you can easily vector yourself.HTH,Cheers, Richard

[Guest]

Chris,If ATC are on duty they will then issue the vectors appropriate to getting you between the STAR and ILS. If ATC are not on duty then you can easily vector yourself.

With FSX ATC I'd certainly vector yourself...The best thing to do is to first select the landing runway and after that the STAR. Quite often when you select a runway the STARs that fit with it are displayed at the left of the MCDU screen: now you don't have to go through ALL the STARs. After that you can clear the disco's (or indeed leave the one before the final approach point) and check the plan using the PLAN button (underneath the MAP button on the FCP): using the up and down arrows on the MCDU, you can easily check each waypoint. This is quite important because very frequently STARs seem to make a mess of it all... leading you all over the place or towards places you don't want to go...I am still having troubles with STARs, specially since I don't have charts...! I do use FSCommander (shareware) before I start to fly but I always fly in Europe and 1/ you don't know for sure which runway you will be landing on and 2. STARs are often glued to a specific runway, unlike in the US where STARs lead you to the airport and not a specific runway. So when I know where I have to land I have to figure out which STAR to use, but the time for that is limited in FSX and MCDU doesn't give enough info to figure out what STAR I should use... So quite often I add STARs in the secondary flightplan until there is one that looks good... I don't bother with transitions because I don't know which one to use... FSCommander doesn't work with transitions and the names of them in the MCDU don't give me any clues...Maybe I should get FSBuild... does that program work with transitions? Still, it wouldn't be of much use because I can't plane the STARs and transitions before I take off... How do people who fly in Europe usually do this? Do you switch to FSBuild as soon as you know the landing runway and then... what? Enter it all manually? (BTW I always enter the flightplans manually because that's part of the fun for me! And also because the shareware version of FSCommander won't let you save plans.)

[aentwis 61]

Jeroen,check out this for Europe... http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/publicuser/...ic/pu/login.jspSkyvector.com is perfect for the US, with TACs, en route lower and upper charts, linked with airnav.com for the TP charts and airport maps...I have been using the Eurocontrol site for months if not years now... registration is for free, and a lot of charts are available, even en route charts, which can be really elusive...IMO, charts are a must, particularly if you are in the online environments of VATSIM/IVAO... It also makes planning a lot easier even when offline...Andrew

[Guest futureknight31]

thanks again for the replies. What I tried while waiting for replies was to add a waypoint for the ILS approach after the final holding fix and before the airport waypoint. It added a few waypoints (final approach stuff, I guess) in the f-plan discontinuity section...and it actually vectored me in to a landing...but...there seemed to be a break between the regular flightplan and this last part. after waiting for something to happen and turn to the final stuff, I just took manual control and turned towards the airport....not sure what I did, but somehow the fmc took things back over and it was a picture perfect landing.is it normal to have to have to manually take things from star to final? Guess that would be where atc vectoring would come in?amazing plane...amazing product...I imagine I"ll be even more impressed when I figure out what I'm doing, lol.

[downscc 1,327]

If you are flying in the US, please try the sidstar collection I provide for 68 locations. I provide routing between the star arrival and the ILS FAF in lieu of vectors... and they are as realistic as the actual traffic I observe at flightaware. The current collection is cycle_0902_sidstars.zip in the avsim libarary.

[Guest Totalbeginner]

If you have a discontinuity, click on the CLR (clear) button and then on the line select key next to the discontiuity, which removes the discontiuity...

Oh Man!! And all this time I've been going to LAT REV and adding it as the next waypoint. I knew there must be a more simple way of joining a discontinuity! :(