North Atlantic Track entry?

[MD11Captain 0]

Hi,For nearly all of my simulated flight, I choose to fly in and around Western Europe, and obviously, as a result, there is no need to enter co-ordinates due to the abundance of airways and intersections over this half of the continent. The other Friday however, I decided to attempt something a little more adventurous; a transatlantic flight. Whereas usually for long flights, I simply get a standard flight plan off RouteFinder, I decided to enable North Atlantic Tracks, and so there were some waypoints in the form of co-ordinates, however try as I might, I could not find an appropriate way to enter the data, leading to numerous format errors from the FMC, which led me to give up and simply go direct for over 1000nm of my flight plan. I thus ask you, how do you enter co-ordinates into the FMC?Thanks in advance, Charlie Reed

[Ioan92 63]

You have5400N 05000WI would enter that as 5405N in the routes page.

[basa 0]

You have5400N 05000WI would enter that as 5405N in the routes page.

Shouldn't be 54050N ?N&W is N at the endN&E is E at the endS&W is W at the endS&E is S at the endIsn't it ?

[Ioan92 63]

Shouldn't be 54050N ?N&W is N at the endN&E is E at the endS&W is W at the endS&E is S at the endIsn't it ?

Not sure, I haven't flown track in a long time. It might be true but I only remember the FMC taking 5450N* (corrected from 5405N)According to this thread over here: http://forums.vatsim.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=35382

[yos233 1]

The PMDG FMC users guide says that they need to be in NXXXX.X/EXXXXX.X or NXXEXXX format.

[Allan Burek 3]

5450N will work just fine in the 747 FMC.

[G-CIVA 62]

Ok,3 ways to input a LATLON into the 744 FMS:There is a method that codes the LATLON into a series of numbers & letters which are held in the NAVigation DATAbase...these coded WPTS occur at standard intersections at 20, 30 , 40 , 50 & 60W on the North Atlantic routes & are also used to code LATLON intersections in other areas of the world.So, 5300N 02000W is actualy 50 degrees North & 20 degrees West, coded as 5020N...this coded WPT may be entered on the RTE Page, the following are examples:N Lat W Long - N46W050 - 4650NN Lat E Long - N50E020 - 5020ES Lat E Long - S50E020 - 5020SS Lat W Long - S52W075 - 5275WWhere the longitude figure (E or W) is 3 digits:N Lat W Long - N37W125 - 37N25N Lat E Long - N06E110 - 06E10S Lat W Long - S20W125 - 20W25S Lat E Long - S06E110- 06S10The majority of LATLON intersections worldwide are 'coded' in the current PMDG AIRAC Cycle available from Navigraph.More interestingly if a coded version of the LATLON does not exist in the NAVigation DATAbase the user MUST enter the coordinates via the LEGS Page in the either of the following 2 formats:Expanded Format: N5300.0W02000.0orStandard Format: N53W020The expanded format is more often used where mins & seconds of LATitude or LONgitude are required, for example:N01030.0W010.30.0My personal preference is to enter all NAT LATLON entries in the Standard Format, or, where necessary in the Expanded Format, by doing this it is clear to the eye..useful on the North Atlantic at times of high workload when a full position report is required.

[downscc 1,327]

Can't add much to Steve's completeness except to mention you can see these for yourselft in the navdata file wpNavFIX.txt

[MD11Captain 0]

Thanks everyone for all your help; I had the most amazing flight the other day, all went perfectly and with a few bits from the AVSIM library, it felt like a real British Airways 747.

[G-CIVA 62]

it felt like a real British Airways 747.

Glad to have helped in a small way...all you need to do now is join us :(

[MD11Captain 0]

Glad to have helped in a small way...all you need to do now is join us :(

I've wanted to join a VA for ages, I just can't get VATSIM to work! I'll give it another go at the weekend, but as an aspiring commercial pilot (I'm still in school) British Airways would be my airline of choice (and BA Virtual my VA of choice )