I'm still getting used to the FMC (first aircraft I've used with an FMC believe it or not), and have managed to get everything set up fine.. until it's time for the approach. I take the whole STAR thing from the tutorial and whatnot and use it for whatever airport I'm coming in to, but I get this labyrinth of routes coming up that the plane tries to follow, one time I even had a route that took me back to the previous waypoint only to come back where I started for the approach.. if I even manage to make the approach. You could say my question is how to know which STAR/transition to use? I've read the manual.

The question of the year... Some will probably reply that you can use charts, and some that you can use programs that supposedly make PMDG-compatible flight plans like FS Commander. For my own experience on using the later with NGX, and about NGX tendancy to make pretzel-like approaches, see another thread I started this afternoon. Henri

I loved learning how to read Sid and Star charts.I use Navigraph software and cheap pay ware charts - most are not up to date, but very useful for constructing flight plans, altitudes, distances, etc.When you know what Sid or Star to use it is very easy.Chris Farrell

OP you should get Vroute. You can get routes up to date with latest Ariac, calculate required fuel based on aircraft type, payload and winds. Has a global Map showing not only all the online aircraft and their flight plans but also has the actual airspace borders which is prettynet

oh yeah it also gives you links to get the charts for you ARR and DEP airport. Vroute really is a must

The way to think of it, is like motorways/freeways if you American. They are the main route in your flight plan, so the airways are these major roads that you fly along, they have a name and along them they have various points joint them all up, or where you switch onto another major road. Now just like when you drive from home to somewhere before you can get onto one of these major roads you have to drive along some minor ones down your street onto another roared before you can get to adjunction to join this major route, that's a SID. It's the bit that is specific to a runway that connects to this route, and depending on which route you are taking and where you want to join it, depends which sid you like to choose, as others suggest it easy to find SIDS/stars charts online, many countries produce these charts for free, EAD website will give you pretty much th whole of Europe.Now stars are just like SIDS really, they the bit you use when you come off the the motorway to get to your friends house, so the star you choose is firstly based on a point that is connected to the airway you flown down, they then sometimes have transitions which connect to various approaches or runway specific, this varies on the airport. When it comes to then trasitioning from the star to the approach you will often have various options, this is where novices sometimes get confused, because often the entries you see here are based on flying procedurally so be where atc wouldn't vector you, in real world not very common, this is also often where you will see that by selecting one of these it may involve looping back on yourself to fly from a beacon outbound to establish onto a approach, they actually fun to fly procedural approaches, as they often contain many elements for you to achieve, heights, speeds, radials to intercept etc, and even maybe holds. In real life at busy airports you would never fly them and would be vectored off the star at some point, and sequenced into the traffic and onto the ils, or final approach radial for the approach, you can simulare This by just using heading select to th faf or some point just before that.If you do some searching on the net you will find loads of info on flight plans, routes, and flying various approaches, if you have a specific airport you like flying into, then again you bound to find loads on info on routes stars etc, but try downloading some charts and google info about them so you can Start to understand all the info contained on them, it will make your flying experience more fun, also look to the likes of Vatsim, and again if there places you enjoy flying, ask the regional atc there for info about flying into there and routes used, or look at th Vatsim site for that sector, they often have a fast amount of correct real world procedures for how it done in real life, occasionally they get in wrong, but Vatsim lot are very good at trying to emulate what real world does.If you got some specific examples of where you confused then try posting them on here and I'm sure some will walk you through the charts and procedures to follow.

Thanks JC75, I'll try using Vroute for my next flight plan to see if it gets any better. If not I'll take a few shots of the messed up STAR approach to see if we can get somewhere.

Watching this thread with interest - transitions seem to be the big tripping-up point for me at the moment!

You need to make sure the FMC contains no initial route waypoints within the star. So your flight plan in the FMC should have a waypoint, then the destination, with that last waypoint occuring before the first star waypoint, otherwise the LNAV will turn it around

You need to make sure the FMC contains no initial route waypoints within the star. So your flight plan in the FMC should have a waypoint, then the destination, with that last waypoint occuring before the first star waypoint, otherwise the LNAV will turn it around

So, if I'm flying from EGKK to EHRD (rwy 24) I need to select the SID (CLN5P), then the airway (UL620) and then a waypoint BEFORE the transition that isn't part of the STAR?

If your flying in the USA you can get any Airport Chart Free from http://www.airnav.com . Once you are there Click on the Airports tab and type in an Airport. Or the quick way which I do is just bring up google and type the name of the airport. The Chart is usually the first or second link and will See AIRNAV and then the Airport name. Example. if I need Boston Charts. Go to Google, and type KBOS Charts. If you wanted Miami type KMIA Charts. If you do not know the Airport Code then type Boston Airport Charts or Miami Airport Charts. Most of the time you can find other Airports outside the USA on Google as well. The best thing to have is a Flight Planner such as FSBUILD or FS Commander for example. Both these programs will make your flight plans for you and then you choose the SIDS and STARS then it will export the entire flight plan directly to your FMC.

So, if I'm flying from EGKK to EHRD (rwy 24) I need to select the SID (CLN5P), then the airway (UL620) and then a waypoint BEFORE the transition that isn't part of the STAR?

Yes. Otherwise you'll fly along all the preplanned waypoints, then turn back to the start of the star. You can file for these waypoints, but when you enter the star in the FMC, just make sure you delete any conflicting waypoints.

To add to Paul said, another thing you can do if you want to use a specific airline route, go to flightaware . com .. click on live tracking, search for whatever airline, airport, and even aircraft type, and it will decode the real world flight plans for you so you can see every single waypoint along the route.. It also tracks altitude and rate of climb/descent, step climbs. etc.. .. cool stuff..

EGKK to EHRDDVR8M DVR UL9 KONAN UL607 FERDI HELE2R Leaving Gatwick on Runway 26L based on the current winds will take you out on DVR8M SID, then you head east a bit then NE to the HELE2R STAR. and then Runway 24 Approach. I made that with FS Commander 9.

Hey Paul, which one is better, FS commander or FS build?