I downloaded the demo of FSNav and have a few questions. First let me say that I asked the same questions over at the FSNav forum, but they are kinda slow.What I would like to know is what the normal procedure is in getting FSNav running. This is what I do...I start fs9 and hit the "fly now!" button. I hit the F9 and FSNav starts and I begin planning my route. I press export and select FS2004. Then I have to select flight planner and select "load" and select the one I just exported and press yes to place my aircraft at the departure airport.To me this is a very complicated way of doing things. Is there any way to plan the route before I hit the "fly now!" button so I won't have to load the airport and scenery two times? In the documentation it says to hit F9 after I start fs9 but then nothing happens...I have to start press the "fly now!" button, and then of course I get the loading screen and I get placed at the airport, before I can call up the FSNav window.

I've been using FSNav for a couple years. It was the first payware add-on I ever bought, and I never regretted it.>To me this is a very complicated way of doing things. Is there>any way to plan the route before I hit the "fly now!" button>so I won't have to load the airport and scenery two times? InWell, FSNav won't run outside of FS9, so you can't plan your flight before you enter the sim. I think other planners might let you do this, so maybe they could include this in a future release. I'm not sure how many people have asked for this though. As you develop more flight plans, you will build up a library in your FS9 folder. You can load the FS9 format flight plans when you select "Create new flight" at the startup menu. If you are interested in using FSNav to fly the flightplan for you using the autopilot, then you will have to load it when you bring up FSNav using the F9 key. To load it, you would have had to save it in the FSNav format.I like FSNav, just for the moving map feature, since it will show your location at all times. It is useful for planning ahead, and as a quick reference for navaids, since the default map will pause the simulation. Also, the 5 minutes or so I spend making a flight plan and loading it up allows the AI traffic to get started, rather than everybody being at the gate when I start the sim.- Martin

Thanks for the reply, and I realise that I have to start fs9 before I can plan a flight. What I wanted to do though was skip the extra loading of the scenery and airport though. I guess this can be avoided to some extent when I get enough flight plans, but for now I have to enter the flight sim and load everything and then start my planning. Then I have to enter the fs9 flight planner and load the one created in FSNav...resulting in loading the airport and scenery yet again...this is very annoying.

When starting FS9 you could place your aircraft at the airport and gate you're going to use as the start of your FSNavigator plan. Then create your plan and when you load it into the FS9 planner you could tell it not to move the aicraft (because it's already there) and you would avoid the second scenery load.Ian

Ahh...good thinking. :)I just flew from Denver to Phoenix, but what I don't get is...why or how can I follow my planned route. When I'm getting close to Phoenix ATC sends me away from the flightplan I made in FSNav.

>Ahh...good thinking. :)>>I just flew from Denver to Phoenix, but what I don't get>is...why or how can I follow my planned route. When I'm>getting close to Phoenix ATC sends me away from the flightplan>I made in FSNav.Yeah, FS's ATC will vector you away once you contact approach. I think this is sort of like real life, since ATC needs to coordinate a lot of flights at this stage. If you don't like your approach, you can ask for a different one, but it won't necessarily follow a STAR. The alternative is to not fly IFR, and fly the flightplan VFR (not realistic maybe) which will let you use your STAR.- Martin

Really??...I was under the impression that following a STAR is what they do in real life and not follow some "random" path that ATC gives you.I guess I could fly it as VFR but that kinda defeats the purpose I think. I guess I was hoping I could create a real life FP and have ATC make me follow it, even on final.

Yea.....that has been debated here. If you want more information about what real life ATC does then visit the Radar Contact forums here in Avsim. But generally, in real life, ATC will vector you AWAY from the Published STAR when you contact approach and depending on how busy the airspace is, it may even vector you away before.This was a small problem in previous FS versions because FA ATC was unaware of mountains, etc.....so they would sometimes cause you to fly into mountains. However, in FS9, that seems to have been fixed. Also, they use the published IAPs for most airports now which is more realistic than previous versions. Hopefully, in the next version, STARS would be included as an option.FSNav is probably the best addon for FS ever produced.....go through the entire manual and you'll be suprised at the number of things it can do.

Thanks for the reply, it was very helpful.I really like FSNav and think it's a great product. I guess it's more real than the built-in FP, so that atleast is a good thing.