Greetings fellow Simmers.I've been having this problem that I recently discovered. I've been flying Dreemfleet's 727. I'm currently flying a trek around Africa with it and am doing so via routes that I managed to find online. This is the thing. Majority of the time the radials that are associated with the routes on real-life charts are not the same on FS9. That means when I intercept a route and follow the radial, before long the FS9 ATC will be giving me vectors back on "course".I'd like to know if there's a way I can find out what radial FS9 has associated with each route. Thanks in advance, guys.

Greetings fellow Simmers.I've been having this problem that I recently discovered. I've been flying Dreemfleet's 727. I'm currently flying a trek around Africa with it and am doing so via routes that I managed to find online. This is the thing. Majority of the time the radials that are associated with the routes on real-life charts are not the same on FS9. That means when I intercept a route and follow the radial, before long the FS9 ATC will be giving me vectors back on "course".I'd like to know if there's a way I can find out what radial FS9 has associated with each route.Thanks in advance, guys.

I have had a similar problem. It doesn't seem to happen all the time but every now and then it does and it annoys the heck out of me. Often I end up using the default GPS to maintain the track that ATC expects me to follow, even though it's not the radial shown on the flight plan.... I don't know a solution but will be interested if someone can solve it

Keep in mind that FS9 nav data is based on 2003 or even earlier.

If real world charts are current they can deviate on VOR radials from the year of the FS9 data. VORs are calibrated to work with NAV radios using magnetic headings. In the real world these deviate a bit each year due to changes in the earth's magnetic flow. Route maps show the airways vector from a VOR based on the magnetic deviation from true north at the time the chart was published. Different locations have different deviation direction and amount. This is why in certain areas runways are renumbered every few years since they are rounded to their magnetic heading divided by ten. Since not all areas have the same amount of yearly increments that is why some areas are more sensitive to changes and accuracy.RNAV data (GPS and FMC IRS based) coordinates are not subject to magnetic changes since they are plotted fixes however some GPS type displays indicate course and others indicate track for deviation. At higher altitudes AGL the airways have a wider tolerance width in fact where an airway is bidirectional even with direction oriented altitude separation you can be advised to track just to the right of the center of the plotted airway to avoid conflict with approaching traffic. In many locations the magnetic annual deviation is small enough to fit well within the airway width.Note that the localizers including portions of the ILS system in NAV displays are not course setting dependent as that is a different type of signal than a VOR.More is explained here;http://forum.avsim.net/topic/336155-magnetic-variation-updates-for-fs9-and-fsx/FMC's will use 'raw' data as in VOR reception when within a certain distance of a VOR as opposed to calculating position by coordinates in the database compared to GPS reception.

Keep in mind that FS9 nav data is based on 2003 or even earlier.

AFAIK, FS9 ATC doesn't "know" anything about radials or VORs. I think everything is point-to-point based on the waypoint lat/long that gets entered into the flight plan. At least in the US, VORs are only adjusted to magnetic north when FAA decides it needs to be done. Charted radials should be based on the established magvar of the navaid, not the prevailing magvar at the time the chart is printed. FS9 uses the magvar in the VOR record to compute the radials. Note that in NE Canada, they set all the VORs to true north, not magnetic.scott s..

One more thing to note is that the magdev.bgl doesn't change the airport runway numbers. You need to change the AFCAD for that.

Okay guys. Thanks a lot for the input. Unfortunately I understand/know all that has already been said. I'm a real world air traffic controller so how VORs work, magnetic variation and so on are all familiar to me. What I am asking is this: Is there a way to dig through the FS9 files to find out what radials, bearings, etc are used to represent each route? They simply must be there since they are defined. I just want to know if there is a way to find them. Thanks again.

Have you updated your mag dev data? http://hsors.pagesperso-orange.fr/If you follow a radial based on a current chart and FS9 still uses old mag devs, FS9 will think that you are off-course. I may be wrong but I don't think FS "stores" the radials for every route; it just watches your position with respect to waypoints. If it thinks you need to fly radial xxx to ABC and you actually radial yyy, it won't be happy.

They simply must be there since they are defined.

Not so. In FS routes (airways) are built up from waypoints. The .compiled .bgl files only contain the coordinates of the waypoints with no bearing information. This is derived on-the-fly as needed during the flight.

If you openup a .pln file, you can see the expected lat-lon's. ATC gives you a certain ammount to wander off, and then vectors you if needed.

Not so. In FS routes (airways) are built up from waypoints. The .compiled .bgl files only contain the coordinates of the waypoints with no bearing information. This is derived on-the-fly as needed during the flight.

This is the answer. This is why VORs also have waypoints defined for them (at least, if they are part of the enroute structure). The waypoint files (AT9*) list each waypoint by name, ICAO region, lat/long. If they are on an airway, the preceding and following waypoint are listed. Thus, an airway is constructed by following all the linked waypoints for the airway. FS9 uses the term "Jet" for high level and "Victor" for low level, following US practice, but I think it takes any route name as found in other regions. Here is an example form AT9afri0.bgl, using Bgl2xml (from same author as ADE):

<Waypoint	  lat="36.5088890120387"	  lon="-6.72697484493256"	  waypointType="NAMED"	  magvar="3.5"	  waypointRegion="LE"	  waypointIdent="CLANA">	  <Route		 routeType="JET"		 name="UN857">		 <Previous			waypointType="NAMED"			waypointRegion="GM"			waypointIdent="KORNO"			altitudeMinimum="7620.0M"/>		 <Next			waypointType="VOR"			waypointRegion="LE"			waypointIdent="SVL"			altitudeMinimum="7620.0M"/>	  </Route>	  <Route		 routeType="VICTOR"		 name="A857">		 <Previous			waypointType="NAMED"			waypointRegion="GM"			waypointIdent="KORNO"			altitudeMinimum="2743.2M"/>		 <Next			waypointType="VOR"			waypointRegion="LE"			waypointIdent="SVL"			altitudeMinimum="2743.2M"/>	  </Route>   </Waypoint>

In this case you see waypoint CLANA is part of Hi level airway UN857 preceded by waypoint KORNO and terminating at waypoint SVL, which also is the VOR.scott s..

Talking about using current real world charts vs. fs9 data. The current charts for many locations have a different runway ident. Some add-on scenery is updated.A special technique is required to rename runways in FS9 not native to AFCAD to my knowledge.

One more thing to note is that the magdev.bgl doesn't change the airport runway numbers. You need to change the AFCAD for that.

Hi:The OP was talking about intercepting an airway and asked about the different radials for the airways on current charts. If not an RNAV intercept due a defined intersection by coordinates but using RAW data for an VOR/DME or VOR/VOR intersection that would affect the course settings read on instrumentation.For an FMC a place bearing distance fix could be created but the bearing if the OP uses current charts (as he states) could be wrong.In addition various fix discrepancies are discussed due to using current AIRAC data for the FMC in that link I supplied due to mag. drift.Regarding the northern latitudes of Canada where there can ber fluctuation problems some aircraft navigation equipment has the ability to switch between magnetic north and true north. As far the their radial definitions they can use either standard but the calibration of the course control for the RAW data receiver must be switched to match the published standard. (Ref: Recent articles in Airways Magazine on northern latitude flight experience.)

AFAIK, FS9 ATC doesn't "know" anything about radials or VORs. I think everything is point-to-point based on the waypoint lat/long that gets entered into the flight plan. At least in the US, VORs are only adjusted to magnetic north when FAA decides it needs to be done. Charted radials should be based on the established magvar of the navaid, not the prevailing magvar at the time the chart is printed. FS9 uses the magvar in the VOR record to compute the radials. Note that in NE Canada, they set all the VORs to true north, not magnetic.scott s..

Here is an example form AT9afri0.bgl, using Bgl2xml (from same author as ADE):

That's very helpful.

I'd like to know if there's a way I can find out what radial FS9 has associated with each route.

Hi.I don't believe FS9 uses radials in this way. The clue is in the way AI all fly great circle routes rather than a fixed heading.I suggest tentatively the following empirical method:Make a flightplan for the airway(s) you wish to follow by building it up from waypoints, then note the headings given in the flightplan. I don't think there's any more elegant way of establishing the FS9 radial for any airway: you have to do it empirically. Note that for very long legs at some headings a great circle correction might be necessary too (which would involve creating the same plan in reverse and looking to see which legs were more or less than 180° out).D