A little bit more on SIDs/STARsSID/STAR; Standard Instrument Departure/Standard Terminal Arrival Route Or as it is now called:DP/STAR; Departure Procedure/Standard Terminal Arrival RouteLet’s say you fly an IFR plan generated by FSX and use FSX ATC.On departing; you get your DP from ATC. On arrival; you get your STAR from ATC.If the plans included DP/STAR, then they must know beforehand what ATC is going to do. Or provide a plan for every eventuality. Instead, the plans roughly start and end from TOC/TOD and the rest guided by ATC. If you are going alone, you know how to turn onto an approach when you arrive, and that is part of the fun, getting it right, and meeting your ETA.Ideal Flight plans are very well enhanced versions of the type of plan FSX builds, which leave DP/STAR to ATC on the day.StevePS Flight time and distance is accounted for by IF's fuel and time calculatons for the most likely DP/STAR for the route.

Steve,I tried a glider flight with IF.:-\KLGB - CA89, Aerosoft Discus X.I selected IF WX and made sure the rename box was checked. Flight loaded and I was sat on the runway in a downpour.Despite the rain I took an aerotow to 2000' AGL. I turned back and joined the track. I flew at best L/D speed. I needed to find a further 1600' to reach the first TP but that looked highly unlikely given the rain was still falling. I continue and do find occasional pockets of lift, but not enough to warrant a 360' turn. Following pic is about 8 mins in,in sink and down to 820'Preparing myself for a landing on the highway, I spotted the runway lights of KFUL. I made for it and landed without incident.Cumulus would be nice Steve. The wet stuff isn't :)

Steve,ENZV - EGSS seems to stump IF.(KARLI P603 BUSOM P144 GOLUM N866 UPGAS UN866 BUKUT UP7 BARMI)

Steve,ENZV - EGSS seems to stump IF.(KARLI P603 BUSOM P144 GOLUM N866 UPGAS UN866 BUKUT UP7 BARMI)

Hi Dean,Yes weird just looking into that, the flight builds in the opposite direction ok.What about the glider flight. Are you saying you had rain but no clouds?regards;Steve

Steve,ENZV - EGSS seems to stump IF.(KARLI P603 BUSOM P144 GOLUM N866 UPGAS UN866 BUKUT UP7 BARMI)

Do you find it works if you try it again? If you type egss into the search box on the map screen, remember to press "search" first so that EGSS shows in the drop down before choosing "new dest".Steve

Although I found thermal activity around KLGB, it is mostly urban and so the temperatures are fairly even everywhere.For soaring, choose areas with different land classes so you can get more chances of cool areas surounding hot.By the way; there is no need to have thermals turned off by renaming the thermals file, however there are plenty of thermals with IF's thermal & ridge running, but you cannot locate them with spring shapes or birds.Steve

Soaring; I was just testing and getting good lift from a narrowing valley with the wind heading down the valley. Also good thermal lift, around 5m/s, along a Spanish coastline and over a small town on a river.A little about the new feature; Airport Subsets:Create a new textile in the Profiles\Airports foldere.g. Bush Airports.txtRun IF, go to the Flight Generator page and choose Bush Airports in the subsets box at the bottom.Go to the map page and find the airports you want to include and use the popup menu command “Add Airport to Subset” to fill the file.The flight generator will only find airports included in the subset file.

Hi Steve,Yes, it rained the entire flight. I didn't see any Cumulus clouds to aim for. I take your point about the choice of urban landscape. I'll try some other flights in some of my favourite gliding terrain where I know I can find lift, ie Innsbruck with a Southerly wind.Can you explain exactly where you drop a PLN on the Airport screen? I have tried every location to no avail. Can you not add a Browse button next to the 'Add route to favourites' to enable us to load the PLN straight from the Flight Simulator X Files folder?

Hi Steve,Yes, it rained the entire flight. I didn't see any Cumulus clouds to aim for. I take your point about the choice of urban landscape. I'll try some other flights in some of my favourite gliding terrain where I know I can find lift, ie Innsbruck with a Southerly wind.Can you explain exactly where you drop a PLN on the Airport screen? I have tried every location to no avail. Can you not add a Browse button next to the 'Add route to favourites' to enable us to load the PLN straight from the Flight Simulator X Files folder?

Yes, there is always a million and one things to do...In the meatime, can you drag your plan onto the main IF screen, where you select profile,plane,weather, etc.or drop your plan onto the IF icon.Raining, no clouds? did you have another weather engine running?What was the date and time, the weather is always the same on the same date/time/location, I will try it here...Thanks, and best regards;Steve

Yes, there is always a million and one things to do...In the meatime, can you drag your plan onto the main IF screen, where you select profile,plane,weather, etc.or drop your plan onto the IF icon.I have dragged the PLN onto every icon, graphic and symbol there is on the opening screen. It remains showing Flight Prep: Ready.Raining, no clouds? did you have another weather engine running?No other weather engine is running. What was the date and time, the weather is always the same on the same date/time, I will try it here...Try today, 14:10 local. KLGB - CA89.Thanks, and best regards;I Beta test for a number of other add-ons. I don't mind. Steve

Steve,Thought I would try one of my VA flights in Oz - YPLM to YPKG. It threw up an interesting routing ;)YPLM GASCO GEL AMERY KINTO YPKGWhich Navigation Cycle are you using and can it be updated?

I have dragged the PLN onto every icon, graphic and symbol there is on the opening screen. It remains showing Flight Prep: Ready.

I had that problem, if the plan is saved in the old style (FS9) format then it will not be accepted by IF - if it is saved in the FSX format then it will work, FSX itself is equally happy with either - unfortunately IF only seems to like the new (XML style) plans..... (which the planner I use won't do !!)G

Steve,Thought I would try one of my VA flights in Oz - YPLM to YPKG. It threw up an interesting routing ;)YPLM GASCO GEL AMERY KINTO YPKGWhich Navigation Cycle are you using and can it be updated?

I get YPLM BOOLA LYONS MEK YINGA WALLI YPKG with a baron 1/Jun/2011 16:23Taking the W854 to MEK and then the W276 to YPKG, both low alt routes.IF wil try to find up to 4 routes if it can do them, andpresent at different times.The routes will try to stick to waypoints and routes for the aircraft in use.If there are no waypoints for that type it will make a route from any type of wp if available.You can use your fave flight planner to create your precise plans.Sorry only FSX XML plans accepted at the moment.Steve

I had that problem, if the plan is saved in the old style (FS9) format then it will not be accepted by IF - if it is saved in the FSX format then it will work, FSX itself is equally happy with either - unfortunately IF only seems to like the new (XML style) plans..... (which the planner I use won't do !!)G

What planner are you using G?

Very glad to have people around like you Dean.I genned a route for the glider:KLGB TUSTI COREL CA89 Weather Reports Local: Very Good, 21/Jun/2011 14:15A lovely day, no rain! Are you sure there is nothing else running to send metars to your FSX?With "Follow Airways" selected in the flight genner and a baron 58 i get:ENZV KARLI NAMIK BUSOM INBOB LEDBO CLN42 ABEDA BANEM EGSSIF's notbeen stumped, there are just no nav wp's en route. If you have chosen VOR to VOR routes, then there are none on this one so will appear to be "Direct to Destination" gps route.Thanks;Steve