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Guest Stephan

Difference between FSNavigator and the build in Flight Planner.

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Guest Cougar_DK

Hi I'm still learning in this wonderfull MS world and stumbled onto the FSNavigator product. But since I'm a newbie its pretty hard for me to judge if this is a must have product. So would any of you comment something about the differences between the build in flight planner and FSNavigator?CheersMark

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Guest A321

FSNavigator is In my oppinion a must have product. It is great, it runs inside of Flight Sim, and is not only a flight planner, but it gives you immediate situational awerness. You can view all the runways and airports, you can use it to find out ILS Freq, approach headings. It will even has a built in FMS, so you can use to fly your planes, but it only works with the default Auto Pilot, it also supports SIDS & STARS, it will Autogenerate your flight plan, all you need to do is choose a Depature and Arrival Airport, Or you can build your flight plan yourself.The list is endless. Its great just to be able to press F9 and have a birds eye view of where you are. When im flying VFR I also use it to see what the Minimum alt is at the area im at, yes it even tells you that.It can also export the flight plan to FS2004, as well as other programs.The interface, is truley genious, you can display as much or as little as you want on the world map. In short FSNavigator is an awesome product. I could not wait for it to be upgraded to FS2004 compatability.FSBuild is flight planner only, and it runs outside of FS. Argubley it auto creates better flight plans, but only slightly In my oppinion. FSBuild can export flight plans to more addons, than FSNavigator, for example the PMDG 737, PSS Airbus and 777 / 747, and even FSNavigator. where FSNavigator wont export to many Addonons.Get FSNavigator as soon as you can, you wont be dissapointed.If you can get both, then do so, but if you can only get one, get FSNavigator.The built in flight planner, is just a basic flight planner, and dosent really let you do much, to be honest I never really use it, expect to load up flight plans from FSNavigator, or FSBuild.Hope this helpsJason

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Yup, what Jason said only 10 times over...Cheers,Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern AustraliaIntel Pentium IV 3.0GHz (800FSB) Socket 478 pins CPU w/Hyper-Thread Technology MSI 875P NEO FIS2R, AGP 8X, i875P ICH5R Chipset with Gigiabit LanKingmax 512MB PC3200 Double Data Rate (DDR) RAM CAS-2.5- 400MHz Rated x 2BUILT By ATI (Original) Radeon 9800PRO w/TV Out & DVI 128Meg DDRTEAC DV-W50E, 4x DVD-R/ 2x RW, 16xCD-R, 8xCD-RW, 16xDVD, 32x CD-ROM Internal Drive Only Western Digital Raptor 36.0GB HDD IDE, 8MB Cache, 5.2ms, 10,000rpm , S-ATA, w/DataLifeguard WD 40Gig HD for dataATX 470W Pentium IV Power Supply CESkyhawk Jupiter Aluminum CaseHyundai -ImageQuest P910 , 19" Multi-Scan Digital MonitorHercules Game Theater XP, 6.1 speakers Dolby

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Guest Cougar_DK

Hi Jason, thanx for the answer.One question though, you wrote "It can also export the flight plan to FS2004, as well as other programs". What do you mean by that?That it is available in the "F10 menu, flight plan" and the GPS can see it or?CheersMark

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Guest A321

>Hi Jason, thanx for the answer.>>One question though, you wrote "It can also export the flight>plan to FS2004, as well as other programs". What do you mean>by that?>>That it is available in the "F10 menu, flight plan" and the>GPS can see it or?>>>Cheers>>MarkHi, Well once you have created your plan in FSNavigator FS2004 will not know that you have created a plan.***For example.***I create a flight plan from New-york (KJFK) to Miami (KIMA) in FSnavigator, and now i want to fly it IFR in Flight Sim. So I export the flight plan to FS2004, and load it up. Then it will be treated as if i created it FlightSim. But now I can see the plan in FSNavigator and track where I am. once the plan has been loaded in to Flight Sim, the plan apperas in the GPS, and ATC will route me along the plan. So now you can use the Autopilot in FS, or you can use the FMS and Autopilot form FSNavigator to fly the plane. The reason you export it to FlightSim is so that Flight sim can use it, otherwise FlightSim has no idea of the plan. This is just one of the great features of FSNavigator. I suggest you download the manuals from FSNavigator's website and read through them. Trust me just buy it, youll love it, and its so easy to use.By other programs I mean it can export the flight plan to Squak Box as well, which is a program you can use to fly on line. I would not worry about this at the moment. Just know that it can export flight plans to various other things, but mainly to Flight Sim.If you need more help just let me know.Jason

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Just one thing to add to all the praises of FSNav sung here, and something I am surprised no one has mentioned - you can actually see it!The defualt planner sits in a little window and AFAIK you cannot resize it.FSNav runs within FS9 so whatever size you have FS9 at (usually full screen) FSnav displays at that size. You can easily see airways, waypoints, VORs etc, makes route planning a joy.Someone mentioned FSBuild and its ability to output flight plans in different formats. If you are new to flight simming I guess that function will be of little interest at the moment, however if you do need that ability you can get the free version of FSBuild, create your flight plan in FSNav, manually enter it in FSBuild and get FSBuild to convert the plan.My own view of FSBuild is it is a nice program with lots of features but for European flying I feel it leaves something to be desired. It is not as easily updated as FSNav either when new navigation data is released on a monthly basis.For flying in the USA FSBuild is fine, they tend not to have as many changes in their navdata compared to Europe.I agree with all the others, if you are at all serious about flight simming, espcially flying jets around the world, FSNav is a 'must have' program. It was one of the first programs I bought when I started simming with FS98.Get it, you'll not regret it :-)

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Guest A321

Thanks Vulcan,I missed the one of the most obvious, and one of the greatest features.FSNavigator is just a superb program.Jason

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Guest LLgaz

Also, you can use FSNavigator to fly Holds......You can use it in your multiplayer connections like Vatsim where it acts like a TCAS and shows you everyone around you.Once you're in autopilot, you can just click on any area on the map and choose "fly to here" and FSNav will fly your airplane there for you.Acts as an FMS and even has altitude and speed restrictions.....and tunes your radios, both Comm and NAV and the OBI.You can use it to change the position of your aircraft. Eg. if you're sitting at KJFK, and you want to start your flight from KBOS, instead of going to the FS menu, just click on KBOS, choose the correct option from the drop down box and it will position your aircraft at KBOS at the correct gate that you choose (that's right, you actually see the correct position of the gates at the airport)The "move aircraft to" feature may not be available for FS9 though.The list of things that FSNavigator does goes on and on and on........I was so impressed that I actually paid for it. (I was one of the lucky ones that got the 30th download or something and was able to get a free liscense key..............I thanked the programmer in an email then I purchased a real key)This has always been, in my opinion, the Best addon ever created for Flight Simulator. Anthony

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FS Navigator gets my vote for No. 1 FS add-on.It makes flying the sim very much more enjoyable. It gives you an awareness of where you are at all times in relation to the world at large, and other near-by airports (and the zoom range in outstanding). The ability to move the aircraft to any new place, anytime, is also very nice. And the self-contained interface to aircraft's autopilot is superb, allowing simple drag and drop of radio frequencies from the very complete FS Nav airport graphics and airport stat information. All the autopilot functions can be enabled right in the program itself without having to display the actual aircraft radios. A "right click" drag gives quick distances between any two objects. The thing I probably use the most is the "Fly to Here" command, which is no more than a simple click on any point on the program's world-wide map.The ILS paths are large a clear, and when combines with "drag and drop" of frequencies, and "Fly to Hear", it makes ILS landing really alot easier, and alot more fun.Altitude requirements to get over terrain are all plotted out. Distances to airports and time are all calculated. And the program even automatically dims at night to cut glare from a second monitor.When combined with a second monitor, this is truly the ultimate. I would not even consider using FS again without it. And the program interfaces with the second monitor perfectly, as it did FS 2002.As others have said.... This program was done "right", and this is frankly why I get a ltttle frustrated at some of the secondary "less than even good" MS offerings within the basic FS program itself.Bob (Lecanto, Fl)On a related note to my last comment...The top down view (Ctrl-S & +/-) in FS 2004 is good. In fact it is really good, even outstanding (and great for taxi-ing). But think of what it could have been if it had of also included some of the FS Nav features. (By the by... Be sure and zoom out until you see the whole world, and progressive-taxi works too in this view)

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One thing that I did not notice in all the above posts is that you can download FSNavigator and try it for free. You get 20 uses before it needs registering. http://jdtllc.com/images/RCsupporter.jpg------------SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS------------ Dell Pentium 4 at 3.2GHz with 800MHz FSB 1GB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz 128MB DDR ATI RADEON 9800 Pro 21 inch P1130 FD Trinitron CRT Monitor 120GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive Sound Blaster Audigy 2 with DVD Audio WindowsXP Home Edition with Microsoft Plus!


Tom

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Guest Cougar_DK

Ok will do - thanx for all the feedback.Mark

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>I agree with all the others, if you are at all serious about>flight simming, espcially flying jets around the world, FSNav>is a 'must have' program. It was one of the first programs I>bought when I started simming with FS98. ** Dissenting Opinion ** I am not afraid to say I don't share everyone's enthusiasm for FSNav. If you are a 'serious' simmer you should actually -not- get it. Why ? First - its FMC, autopilot has little to do with reality. Also viewing where you are (top view) - you will be better of practicing with realistic avionics like GNS 530 that do the same thing but at least introduce you to real equipment. In short FSNav is 'nice' but it has a great chance of making out of you an -armchair- pilot. Ask yourself this - are there any real pilots flying with FSnav in their cockpit today ? The last I checked there is no aircraft on the market that offers FSNav in its avionics stack.As a pure reference for waypoints, navaids, it is ok (a substitute for paper aviation charts perhaps) - but then the price may be judged too high. But don't let it fly your plane or verify current position - you are then becoming less serious about flight simming.Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

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Guest Stephan

You're right that FSnav itself is not realistic but it substitutes for realistic tools and means. Or who here as paper maps of all the places of the earth, employs dispatchers and ATC Controllers?BTW: the Garmin GPS in FS9 also has the top view to your position.

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