Hi fellow simmers,Some questions I need answered please.1.Can anyone please explain the Airac cycles, what they are, how they work and what they do. Also how the Navigraph system works.2.When ATC is called by the departing aircraft and they say "United 1234 with Juliet" or it could be with "Mike" what is the phonetic reference to the "J" or "M" or other letters.Thanks allAlla

Hi!I don't think anyone needs to write a one-person lecture when everything is already thoroughly explained in the net if you do a short search.However I did the brief search for you. So, here's what AIRAC is and how it works:http://www.eurocontrol.int/aim/public/stan...cadh_intro.htmlAnd here you can learn how to purchase and use the Navdata AIRAC:http://www.navigraph.com/www/fmsdata_about.asp

Thanks, Rafal, that's really useful information to have.BTW, you can also update the default FS9 AIRAC information here (http://www.btinternet.com/~gb.mitch/index.html), latest update April 2010.;)

2.When ATC is called by the departing aircraft and they say "United 1234 with Juliet" or it could be with "Mike" what is the phonetic reference to the "J" or "M" or other letters.

That's the phonetic identifier of the current weather information. If you tune the ATIS, it can contain a statement such as "inform departure you have juliet".

The difference in phonetic letter identifier for the ATIS information simply indicates to ATC that the weather info the aircraft crew have, is current, which is why the crew read that letter back to ATC.The airport ATIS message changes every hour, and each time a new one is recorded, it gets a new consecutive letter of the alphabet assigned to it, that is unless there is a significant change in weather, in which case a new one will be recorded before the hour is up. You will often hear something relating to that on an ATIS report, if the word 'NOSIG' is used, meaning no significant change from the last weather report and probably nothing significant expected within the hour, which will tell you that the present weather conditions are expected to remain that way for some time.Al

Thank you to all who responded to my questions. As a newbie we all have a learning curve to encounter and it's forums like this that help us out.However' it's a pity that Rafal reply was somewhat aggressive. Obviously another member also benefited from his reply, so perhaps I am not the only one who didn't fully understand airacs.Thanks againAlla

Rafal reply was somewhat aggressive

It's your right to judge. From my point of view I was the first who cared to answer your post, then I spent some time to do the search for you (which you could easily do yourself), then I gave you ready links which I believed will be best for you to follow. If this is aggressiveness then please accept my apologies.

RafalPlease don't take this the wrong way.You are probably correct that the poster could have searched himself for answers to his AIRAC question, but surely the point of having forums like these is for simmers new and old to seek answers to there fltsim queries.I have posted (and will continue to post)all sorts of questions that no doubt i could have tried gooooogling,but I prefer to get answers straight from the horses(even flying ones)mouth.We must look after are newbies.Cheers Andy :(

We must look after are newbies

Sure, Andy, I always help whenever I can. Hence the links I found, selected and provided for his use. And I don't care about hearing 'thank you' at all. Just a strange feeling to be accused when trying to help really. :( Never mind.