So I just found a link to a program that edits the approach paths in FS9 ("FS9 Facility Editor" which should be on avsim) based on the PMDG cycles. It works great, but I'd like to find out how to use the new RNAV approaches in my flights. I'm guessing I need an FMC for this. Right now, I'm not into doing payware, so would using iFly's FMC work using a panel merge?Essential questions with needed answers:-How to fly RNAV approaches?-Do I need an FMC?-Can I use iFly's FMC gauge in a panel merge?Any answers greatly appreciated!

You can use an FMC or an approach GPS. Someone else could better answer your other questions. As for flying the RNAV approaches, they are pretty straight forward. Get you an RNAV approach plate from NACO into an airport you're familiar with. The structure is much like any other non precision approach, using MDA (minimum decent altitudes) rather than DAs (decision altitudes). Give the approach plate (or *terminal procedure chart* if you nit pick) a good study. They are very simple. If you have problems, perhaps I can find or even make a tutorial on these things for the tutorial system.

While I'm at it, RNAV isn't always just GPS. Certain approaches require radar coverage and surveillance to initiate the approach. The plate will say "Radar Required" if this is true.

You might find this link useful, if you want to try and do something akin to RNAV, but to be honest, I don't think you are going to be able to manage it (with total realism in an airliner) without at the very least some serious gauge programming and ATC tweaking:http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/RNAV.htmAlmost certainly the FMCs that are freeware will not be up to it. In fact most payware is not likely to be up to it either, with as far as I am aware, only the Level D 767 with its emulation of the Honeywell Pegasus FMC coming close to the kind of stuff necessary for RNAV in FMC terms, and that's not all it would need. Even then, the procedures are not in FS anyway, so you'd probably also need an ATC tweak that could emulate the automated interaction with the aircraft and the ground based aids. This would require linking the ATC operations to the aircraft in an automated fashion, or at least a convincing emulation of it.Full on RNAV needs a few things to be put in an airliner besides a souped up FMC (actually a lot, since there are in fact several types of RNAV including RNAV GPS and RNAV RNP). Most of that gear comes under the FANS-1 standard (Future Air Navigation). Equipment-wise, typically an aircraft might need the following:A relatively up to date FMC with quite a few of the options many airlines did not originally opt for when they specced their aircraft (this is usually just a software update, but not a cheap one). Your best bet for that is the Level D 767 for FSX with that Pegasus FMC. You'd need a CPDLC (Computer Pilot Datalink Communications) system. That's the bit that the aircraft uses to communicate automatically with ATC so the crew don't have to monitor HF, and that's going to be tricky in FS. That system also needs a minor tweak to the audio alerting system so that it chimes (like when a selcal message is received) to alert the crew to ATC contact, I think there's a light added to the panel too as a visual alert. You'd probably need an upgraded GPWS (Ground Proximity Warning System), possibly with a terrain profile radar (DBS make a payware gauge that can do that), and/or an augmented GPS (Global Positioning System) or GBAS capabilty (Ground Based Augmentation System), plus IAN (Integrated Approach Navigation) gear. The PFD screens are different when IAN is fitted and it is a necessity if you want to fly full RNP stuff, since you need the NPS (Navigation Performance Scales) displays which show the RNP path and VNAV/LNAV deviation (these are bit like the ILS needles on a standard PFD).As if all that wasn't enough you'll find the ATC and AI of FS getting in the way of things too unless you reprogrammed it. It's a bit of a bummer, but that's the way it is currently.At some point one of the major developers might have a convincing stab at the capability to do RNAV properly in an airliner, but don't hold your breath waiting, as it will require some serious work and clever stuff to pull it off. Best bet is probably the forthcoming PMDG 737 for FSX (currently six months away at the earliest according to PMDG), which may feature some of that capability, but that's only a guess.Al

Al, Rnav doesn't necessarily mean "FMC". It simply means navigation between "points in space" without a need for a ground navigation facility. The only thing the FMC is doing in an Rnav approach is making the decent more gradual and efficient, "nipping the altitudes" at the fixes. In short, I shoot an RNAV approach into my local airport for practice every week in a 182RG, it has a GNS430. Not exactly an FMC. Edit: Speaking of the Level-d, my fs9 Level-d does beautiful RNAV approaches.

Yes, I know that, but the question was not 'how to do the odd bit of RNAV', but 'RNAV approaches'. And to do that, i.e any and all of them in the way the airlines are mandated to do them, you need some serious gear in your aeroplane. That's just the way it is, because you are not acting alone when doing it in an airliner, you become part of an integrated system.Al

I see . I just think it's important to get a base knowledge of the term, so it's not misused later. A correlational understanding is much better than a superficial, skin deep understanding (far as I'm concerned).