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Flight Plan Software

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Guest blackrat779

Hi, I have FSX Gold with PMDG's 747 running on Vista 64, my question is can you recommend some flight planning software for me that will work with my setup on this aircraft. I am very much a begginer and finding my way around the systems.Do I need flight planning software or is there a better way to do this? Does it integrate with the FSX ATC? Would I be better off getting a better ATC program, do they have flight plan software in them?As you can see lots of questionsStuart Cameron

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Hi, I have FSX Gold with PMDG's 747 running on Vista 64, my question is can you recommend some flight planning software for me that will work with my setup on this aircraft. I am very much a begginer and finding my way around the systems.Do I need flight planning software or is there a better way to do this? Does it integrate with the FSX ATC? Would I be better off getting a better ATC program, do they have flight plan software in them?As you can see lots of questionsStuart Cameron
Hi Stuart Welcome to the forums, have a look at this post from a week back http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=248916There are some very good tools out there and I know a lot of simmers take great pleasure in constructing a flight plan themselves. Personaly I just use the routes my VA provide, I use to fly with BA virtual and there ACARS system would download the flightplan right into the FMC from there website. I now fly with FEDEX and have to punch in and save the flightplan myself, the only changes I make are NATS if flying oceanic, but each to there own. Also check out VATAWARE for VATSIM flights it's a good place to pick up flightplans pre constructed http://www.vataware.com/airport.cfm?airport=egll As I'm sure your aware real world you have dispatchers doing the hard work for you. Rob

Rob Prest

 

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Welcome Stuart,welcome to the PMDG Family :(Are you new to flight simming as a whole or just the PMDG aircraft?It all depends on the level of realism you want to archive with your flight simming. There are several great tools for flight planning available differing in cost and functionality. There is not a program than combines ATC and Flight planning that i know of, so you need separate softwares.The best way to have a real ATC experience is to fly online in one of the big flight simming networks like VATSIM or IVAO. You will be talking to human controllers and fly under realistic conditions. The downside is, that flying aircraft like the 747 into big airports like New York or Frankfurt requires experience and the ability to read charts, follow procedures et cetera. For a decent offline ATC try Radar Contact. It sounds a bit artificial but is much better than the standard ATC of FSX.For flight planning I use several programs. Navigraph DAC to get charts, Active Sky to get real weather, TOPCAT to set my payload and calculate Take-off performance, FSBuild to create a flightplan and fuel considerations.This is just one possible combination but it works for me.

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Guest blackrat779

HiThanks for the replies, it really is appreciated. I'm new to all of this although some years ago I used to have one of the older versions of FS. This is the first time I have owned a PMDG aircraft and I think its brilliant. I'm getting the hang of starting up from cold and dark quite quickly, so the next logical step is programming the FMC.Presumibly I have to match my route on FMC with that on FSX or I wont get proper ATC, do any of the programs cover both ie set up ATC and go in to FMC as a company route?I would like to join a VA but not until I am ok at flying this ship. I have seen FSbuild and thought it might be my first choice but I didn't think it was compatible. On its homepage it doesn't mention FSX, have I got this wrong?Stuart

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FSBuild works on both fs9 and fsx so no worries there and you can copy and paste in flightplans from other sources - bit basic look to it but quite a good program for all it's small faults.There are fixes on the fsbuild forums if you get crashes, etc.Just remember - if you change something major in options you have to close the prog and run it again for them to take effect... eg changing from fs9 to fsx.John Ellison

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FSBuild will export FS9, FSX, and PMDG FMC plans (CO_ROUTE) for at least the 737 and 747 FMCs. I'm not sure about the MD-11.With RC 4 it is best to include the SIDs and STARs from your flight planner database so as you say everything is in synch. There are some fine points to bring up. Click on my tag below and gop to the download section to grab the RC 4.3 manual. It has some interesting information regarding flight planning and I think regarding synching with FMCs. If you search in the RC support forum here on AVSIM you'll also find some threads there regarding this.

Presumibly I have to match my route on FMC with that on FSX or I wont get proper ATC, do any of the programs cover both ie set up ATC and go in to FMC as a company route?Stuart

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HiThanks for the replies, it really is appreciated. Presumibly I have to match my route on FMC with that on FSX or I wont get proper ATC, do any of the programs cover both ie set up ATC and go in to FMC as a company route?I have seen FSbuild and thought it might be my first choice but I didn't think it was compatible. On its homepage it doesn't mention FSX, have I got this wrong?Stuart
FSBuild and similar programs support exporting your flight plan to FSX and PMDG route formats. They will be exported as small text files into the correct folders on your computer.All you need to do is load the FSX version of the FP to set up FSX ATC and later onboard the aircraft, load the company route into your FMC. The newer version of FSBuild supports FSX, I am sure. It also has a nice feature called "Auto-Build". You enter the depature and destination and it comes up with a usable flight plan.Of course you still have to do some manual editing, but its a great for a beginner. The user interface is a bit old fashioned but its clean and functional. It also has fuel planning functionality.Works great with the PMDG 737, 747 and MD11 (as the 11 uses the same route format as the 747).

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