Simple question and I doubt that there is a simple answer.I have all of the PMDG add on's for FSX. I also have FS Commander by Sascha Felix and his team. I have been pretty satisfied with leaving things well enough alone and using the ARINC cycles provided by both PMDG and FSC. They are however, a bit out of date. So, here's the question.If I update the ARINC databases for both PMDG and FSC, will that result in incongruities with FSX? In other words, if those are updated, will I have misalignments with ILS, ADB's, VOR's, etc? Seems to me that if you cannot update FSX's nav database, and you can the other two, you are going to end up with problems. Can someone explain how to take this challenge on if there is a potential problem?

Simple question and I doubt that there is a simple answer.I have all of the PMDG add on's for FSX. I also have FS Commander by Sascha Felix and his team. I have been pretty satisfied with leaving things well enough alone and using the ARINC cycles provided by both PMDG and FSC. They are however, a bit out of date. So, here's the question.If I update the ARINC databases for both PMDG and FSC, will that result in incongruities with FSX? In other words, if those are updated, will I have misalignments with ILS, ADB's, VOR's, etc? Seems to me that if you cannot update FSX's nav database, and you can the other two, you are going to end up with problems. Can someone explain how to take this challenge on if there is a potential problem?

Yes it could! If there is a change in frequencies at an airport like say for ILS, that is reflected in an Nav update, then there will also need to be an update of the airports AFCAD to match. This happened last year for Frankfurt (EDDF), when ILS frequencies changed.

Simple question and I doubt that there is a simple answer.I have all of the PMDG add on's for FSX. I also have FS Commander by Sascha Felix and his team. I have been pretty satisfied with leaving things well enough alone and using the ARINC cycles provided by both PMDG and FSC. They are however, a bit out of date. So, here's the question.If I update the ARINC databases for both PMDG and FSC, will that result in incongruities with FSX? In other words, if those are updated, will I have misalignments with ILS, ADB's, VOR's, etc? Seems to me that if you cannot update FSX's nav database, and you can the other two, you are going to end up with problems. Can someone explain how to take this challenge on if there is a potential problem?

Welcome to my world Tom. :( Sure it could be. Runway changes, additions, approach changes, deletions, etc. It seems many want realism but it is seldom truly found in FS if current data is an absolute must.Regardless, it is what it is and if data "currency" is a big thing (and I am assuming it isn't) then these things are expected and no fault of FSX or the developer that allows users to update.Its a simple discrepancy matter of visual vs. data. If you can live with that, update! Best,JimJim

Jim,Well, that doesn't encourage me to step out on my own to solve a problem that far more talented folk than I could not solve. If it ain't broke, don't... Well, you know. :(

Welcome to my world Tom. :( Sure it could be. Runway changes, additions, approach changes, deletions, etc. It seems many want realism but it is seldom truly found in FS if current data is an absolute must.Regardless, it is what it is and if data "currency" is a big thing (and I am assuming it isn't) then these things are expected and no fault of FSX or the developer that allows users to update.Its a simple discrepancy matter of visual vs. data. If you can live with that, update! Best,JimJim

Tom, consider all FSDB as frozen in time. Consider all Navigraph DB types as up to date real world.The conflict happens when you arrive at an airport with a new runway which wasn't present when MS froze the DB.Many AFCAD the FS airport to new specs and the new DB then works well. Otherwise the conflict remains. :(

Forgive my ignorance, but what are ARINC cycles? Is it like AIRAC but for military use or am I way off?

My my Tom, thought you had gone into virtual hibernation, you could say thing for me too after retirement. Tom I keep all my data up to date with Navigraph, http://www.navigraph.com/www/default.asp. Using all of their facilities I am good for my LDS 767, FSX and FS9 programs like Radar Contact v4 and FSBuild. Keeping current does prevent stale data from creeping into an approach which now has a ILS change or new runways.Good to hear from you, hope you stay well.Bob JohnsonDetroit

My my Tom, thought you had gone into virtual hibernation, you could say thing for me too after retirement. Tom I keep all my data up to date with Navigraph, http://www.navigraph.com/www/default.asp. Using all of their facilities I am good for my LDS 767, FSX and FS9 programs like Radar Contact v4 and FSBuild. Keeping current does prevent stale data from creeping into an approach which now has a ILS change or new runways.Good to hear from you, hope you stay well.Bob JohnsonDetroit

Provided you keep your airport afcads current as well. If not a frequency change in the nav data will not sync with the airports nav frequencies in FS. What I usually do when I plan a flight, (especially for a long flight) is check for the most updated afcads for the airport pair I am flying (Especially the destination, and check with the charts for it at flightaware to make sure frequencies match. If none is available or they still mismatch, I will edit the airport and correct them before my flight. It's a little more effort, but it results in less problems at approach time.

Tom,This really isn't a big deal in my experience - most actual radio navaids like VORs and ILSes don't change very often if ever. What changes are stuff like the SID/STAR waypoints, RNAV stuff etc. Those things are all self-contained within addons like ours, FSX doesn't even have to know about those waypoints unless you're using ATC. That's sort of a moot point anyway though since FSX ATC doesn't know about terminal procedures aside from a few approaches. There are ways to make the ATC aware of your route without using the FSX flight planner though - FS Build 2 can export anything to an FSX compatible flight plan that you just load - it defines everything in it with LAT/LON, so FSX ATC can still be aware of the waypoints.I've always flown with current data and it's rarely an issue for me that FSX can have different data in the internal database. If you don't have the current AIRAC cycle, it can be very difficult to do stuff like flying online, loading up a site like flightaware and pulling a real world route off of it to use, etc.