Flight Operation Center.

I have nearly pulled the trigger on FOC many times.Are they still actively updating the navdata?

Is vRoute general aviation friendly or is it geared more towards the heavy iron?

vRoute is basically a database of IFR flightplans. I'm guessing that there are more routes between the larger airports, so perhaps some bias towards heavy iron, but there are several GA aircraft with fuel calculation models - Realair Duke, Dreamfleet Baron, Eaglesoft Citation II SP and Citation X, FSX King Air, PMDG Beech 1900, and Flight1 Mustang.One edge that vRoute has over any other flightplanner I know about is that the routes are validated before they are accepted into the database. Tools like FSBuild, Flightsim Commander, and Routefinder generate many routes that will work in the sim but are not usable in the real world (in particular if you want to fly in the heavily regulated European airspace). Depending on how real you want things to be this may or may not be of interest to you, but if you want to fly online on Vatsim or IVAO this is a big plus.Note that the you can use the vRoute database itself without having to pay anything, just get the freeware version. The payware version adds various bells and whistles (fuel calculation, export of the flightplan in various formats, enroute weather information, etc) but if you don't want this stuff you don't have to pay for it.

I have nearly pulled the trigger on FOC many times.Are they still actively updating the navdata?

Me too, but as far as I know there have been no navdata updates since July 2009. The website is a mess, though, very hard to find current information there.

Hi,I am totally into heavy iron, in the USA I use real world routes from Flight Aware http://flightaware.com/, then transfer the routing to FSBuild http://www.fsbuild.com/, works like a champ. Outside of the USA I use route finder http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/ and put the data into FSBuild. Bob

I dont use FSBuild but I agree that http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/ is great, especially for free. Between that and flightaware.com and http://www.vatroute.net/web_showfp.php?list=dep I have all I need for free for flying airliners.

I have nearly pulled the trigger on FOC many times.Are they still actively updating the navdata?

http://forum.navigraph.com/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=1532

I dont use FSBuild but I agree that http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/ is great, especially for free. Between that and flightaware.com and http://www.vatroute.net/web_showfp.php?list=dep I have all I need for free for flying airliners.

How do you get total trip fuel required (based on upper level winds) for you aircraft?

http://forum.navigraph.com/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=1532

Richard (Navigraph) is on a four month vacation until October 2010 (I think it is) so no product developments during his personal holiday.

How do you get total trip fuel required (based on upper level winds) for you aircraft?

You can only get the total trip distance from that site. I have to use ASE to retrieve the upper level wind info, then use a fuel burn chart to factor how much fuel I will use for the distance + winds combined, plus any additional fuel for an alternate destination if forced to divert.Using the site above may take a little more time/work to figure out the fuel required with winds, its not a big deal to me, especially for just sim use. I have never really found a need for payware flight planners betweem what is available for free online, but thats just me. Some may want or desire a one stop flight planner, or if you belong to a VA maybe they might require one be used. So far in the last 7 years I have never run out of fuel and always land with around the amount of reserves I factored in, so for me it seems to be working fine, but maybe others might want even more precise calculations.

You can only get the total trip distance from that site. I have to use ASE to retrieve the upper level wind info, then use a fuel burn chart to factor how much fuel I will use for the distance + winds combined, plus any additional fuel for an alternate destination if forced to divert.Using the site above may take a little more time/work to figure out the fuel required with winds, its not a big deal to me, especially for just sim use. I have never really found a need for payware flight planners betweem what is available for free online, but thats just me. Some may want or desire a one stop flight planner, or if you belong to a VA maybe they might require one be used. So far in the last 7 years I have never run out of fuel and always land with around the amount of reserves I factored in, so for me it seems to be working fine, but maybe others might want even more precise calculations.

There are several ways to get fuel burn requirements with FSBuild. The method I use after building the route, is to go to the US National Weather Service site and get wind charts. Tracing my route over the wind charts I can get an average wind component. FSBuild then allows the pilot to input payloads, winds, taxi times, holding time, and alternate destination. This is all done in a single table and then re-run build. The type of aircraft burn tables are in FSBuild and when you get the log it will have required fuel for that aircraft.Many FSBuild users and ASE users can get the two programs to work together and it will insert the current upper level winds into the build route, also giving required fuel. When I start ASE I check my manual calculated wind component against the ASE wind route component. I have used this technique all over the world and never been short or over on fuel.Bob

You can only get the total trip distance from that site. I have to use ASE to retrieve the upper level wind info, then use a fuel burn chart to factor how much fuel I will use for the distance + winds combined, plus any additional fuel for an alternate destination if forced to divert.Using the site above may take a little more time/work to figure out the fuel required with winds, its not a big deal to me, especially for just sim use. I have never really found a need for payware flight planners betweem what is available for free online, but thats just me. Some may want or desire a one stop flight planner, or if you belong to a VA maybe they might require one be used. So far in the last 7 years I have never run out of fuel and always land with around the amount of reserves I factored in, so for me it seems to be working fine, but maybe others might want even more precise calculations.

What aircraft(s) do you fly?Where do you get the fuel burn charts from?Does the fuel burn chart cover takeoff, climb and cruise at various flight levels?As for the wind .. how does fuel burn and trip times get calculated for headwind or tailwind or and other wind direction?

Been using FSBuild for years and I find it to be excellent and similar to what my company uses. True the navdata updates are becoming more unpredictable but Ernie is working a deal with Navigraph to get it included in cycle updates. As it stands he usually pushes a cycle update every 2 or 3 months. Like many I use flightware for routing to and from the US and its territories. rfinder.asalink.net/free/ does a reasonable job of route planning for flights not involving the US but lacks LAT/LON support for areas not covered in airways. FSBuild can fill in the gaps when this type of routing is necessary. Also I need to plug TOPCAT for the heavy iron guys. Remember than in most conditions, takeoff power for airliners is performed at minimum thrust for field/obstacle considerations. This makes the takeoff experience much more realistic and thereby enjoyable. FSbuild and Topcat are a marriage made in sim heaven.

What aircraft(s) do you fly?Where do you get the fuel burn charts from?Does the fuel burn chart cover takeoff, climb and cruise at various flight levels?As for the wind .. how does fuel burn and trip times get calculated for headwind or tailwind or and other wind direction?

With all due respect Vaughan, judging from all your questions you seem like you are trying to sell me a payware flight planner or debate the merrits of using one, of which I am not going to engage in.Look, using the freeware tools available to me, as well as the freeware fuel planning tools/charts I have collected thru the years from varioius FS sites/sources, I have managed to complete hundreds of flights both foreign and domestic in the LDS 767 in FSX and the PMDG 737 in FS9, all of which have been completed successfully with appropriate amounts of fuel left in reserve.Maybe freeware charts and fuel planners aren't as accurate down to the exact pound of fuel needed, but they have served me well through the years and I haven't had any virtual flameouts due to fuel exhaustion.

With all due respect Vaughan, judging from all your questions you seem like you are trying to sell me a payware flight planner or debate the merrits of using one, of which I am not going to engage in.Look, using the freeware tools available to me, as well as the freeware fuel planning tools/charts I have collected thru the years from varioius FS sites/sources, I have managed to complete hundreds of flights both foreign and domestic in the LDS 767 in FSX and the PMDG 737 in FS9, all of which have been completed successfully with appropriate amounts of fuel left in reserve.Maybe freeware charts and fuel planners aren't as accurate down to the exact pound of fuel needed, but they have served me well through the years and I haven't had any virtual flameouts due to fuel exhaustion.

I was interested in trying what you are doing.So, I asked you a few follow up questions:What aircraft(s) do you fly?Where do you get the fuel burn charts from?Does the fuel burn chart cover takeoff, climb and cruise at various flight levels?As for the wind .. how does fuel burn and trip times get calculated for headwind or tailwind or and other wind direction?

What aircraft(s) do you fly?Mostly the LDS767 plus the others in my sig.Where do you get the fuel burn charts from?One from LDS, others available from internet via google searches, and some from Avsim and other FS sites. One of the better ones from Avsim was lost after the Avsim website hack.Here's one you could try that I just found via google http://www.nofuel.thatssailing.com/flightsimulator/fuelplannerb763/default.aspDoes the fuel burn chart cover takeoff, climb and cruise at various flight levels?50/50, some of them will have you use your own calculations or estimations for that.As for the wind .. how does fuel burn and trip times get calculated for headwind or tailwind or and other wind direction?For the ones that do this I am not sure how they figure it. You would probably have to contact the developers of the said tools to see how they do the calculations. I just plug in the wind info and let it do the calculations and have never given much consideration as to how the developers programmed the tool/planner.It maybe easier in some cases to use a payware planner if you cant find any freeware fuel calculators available for a certain a/c however.

What aircraft(s) do you fly?Mostly the LDS767 plus the others in my sig.Where do you get the fuel burn charts from?One from LDS, others available from internet via google searches, and some from Avsim and other FS sites. One of the better ones from Avsim was lost after the Avsim website hack.Here's one you could try that I just found via google http://www.nofuel.thatssailing.com/flightsimulator/fuelplannerb763/default.aspDoes the fuel burn chart cover takeoff, climb and cruise at various flight levels?50/50, some of them will have you use your own calculations or estimations for that.As for the wind .. how does fuel burn and trip times get calculated for headwind or tailwind or and other wind direction?For the ones that do this I am not sure how they figure it. You would probably have to contact the developers of the said tools to see how they do the calculations. I just plug in the wind info and let it do the calculations and have never given much consideration as to how the developers programmed the tool/planner.It maybe easier in some cases to use a payware planner if you cant find any freeware fuel calculators available for a certain a/c however.

At the moment I am looking for fuel burn calculator for feelthere's new EMBv2 175/195 as FSBuild does not cover these models.Then I could "jury rig/edit" one of the other aircraft that FSBuild does support as a temporary fix.That is, until someone who knows how to do FSBuild Performance files provides them. Then the FSBuild program could do the plans automatically.Also noteworthy, feelThere's EMBv2 175/195 does come with a built in "fuel cheat" in the FMS/FMC to calculate the trips requirements and fill the tanks for you before departure ..... kinda nice!Thanks for the follow up information.I will have a look at the link and other information you posted.Have a good day.