Hey guysSomething that made me very happy to know when PMDG announced the features to be included on this bird was the possibility of using real life ARINC 424 Format, same format used in real life, and that would make possible RF-Legs, something that the actual Navdata standard doesn't permit.Is that feature still being planned for the future of PMDG 737NGX, or has the idea been given up for a future project because of some unkown problem?Sorry if this topic has already being covered before, I don't follow the PMDG forum daily anymore, like I used to do when this bird wasn't ready yet/Thanks!

Is ARINC like an AIRAC cycle or something completely different?Jimmy Burke

ARINC is the name of a company and they are the world leaders in ground-to-air communications.ARINC 429 is not a data format but is the standard avionics data bus used in most commercial aircraft.The standard PC data bus for network communications is Ethernet and is much faster and more advanced than the now somewhat outdated ARINC.The fact that the NGX does not yet support RF legs has nothing to do with ARINC. It is because the data providers Navigraph do not have this feature for the NGX.Fred.

Is ARINC like an AIRAC cycle or something completely different?Jimmy Burke

ARINC 424 data is published by Jeppesen on a similar monthly cycle to AIRAC. ARINC is an airline industry standards organisation which publishes standards for a variety of airline uses (avionics, navigation, data, simulation, etc).

ARINC is the name of a company and they are the world leaders in ground-to-air communications.ARINC 429 is not a data format but is the standard avionics data bus used in most commercial aircraft.

ARINC is a company, but it does not actually design or manufacture anything. It writes standards to which avionics manufacturers build their equipment, amongst other things. These standards ensure your kit works with everybody else's.Alec was talking about ARINC 424 which is the standard airline navigation data format, as used by Jeppesen and real world FMCs. ARINC 429 is also a data standard to which ARINC 429 databusses are designed. It defines which bits mean what in the data words on the bus and standardises the ID labels they use.====================Changing from Navdata (which most other addons also use) to ARINC 424 standard would be a major change (a complete re-write in fact). Not to mention the fact that a worldwide Jeppesen data subscription is very expensive and unlikely to be made available at a price affordable to hobbyists. Perhaps PMDG were talking about a utility to read ARINC 424 data and integrate it with the existing navdata?Kevin Hall

ARINC 424 is a specification, one of many that ARINC has deveoped to assist in standardizing aircraft avionic systems, including the FMS. ARINC 424 is used by all FMS sytems. The ARINC 424 specifiction defines among other things the leg types, or path-terminator combinations, that the may be used by the procedure designer when developing an terminal instrument procedure (see US AIM 1-2 for description of the ARINC 424 leg/path-terminator types). FAA 8260 series procedure design Orders and ICAO PANS-OPS specification define how the ARINC 424 code should be incorporated into the design a terminal procedure to ensure that the RNAV system can fly the prescribed track.The number of ARINC 424 leg types that the NGX and other add-ons using NAVIGRAPH-supplied nav-data is limited. DME arcs, Procedure Turns, Hold-to-Altitude (HA), and of course Radius-to-Fix (RF) legs are just a few of the specialized leg types in the ARINC 424 specifications that these add-ons are not capable of using. PMDG did make a comment about incorporating RF legs into the NGX at some time in the future. I am hopeful that they will do so. By the way, the iFly NGX claims to incorporate RF legs, but my experience with that program and with RF legs leads me to confidently say that this claim is bogus as the iFly NGX does not track a true "radius" between two fixes that is defined by another fix, which is not charted on the procedure, but rather included in the nav-database.I would not worry too much about RF legs. Add-ons and NAVIGRAPH will eventually have to incorporate it into their offerings since RF legs will become a standard part of new RNAV SIDs and RNAV STARs in the very near future.Happy New Year,Rich Boll

Exactly, you folks seem to know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I remember PMDG promissed us to implement ARINC 424 legs in the future for the NGX, and I hope they still plan on doing that. Let's hope PMDG can give us an update on whether this is still planned or not. It would sure be amazing to see this get implemented for the first time!Happy new year guys!

So, can anyone from PMDG give us a hint if that feature is still planned? Thats one of the stuff that most made me happy about the 737NGX, and it's being ages since I heard anything being said about it.Thank you guys

We didn't "promise" this - we said we were trying to work out a deal for real life navdata - 424 support is useless if we don't have the data for the RNP procedures and stuff. That obviously has not happened yet - we are still working on it, but I'd say the probability is low at this point, the providers want a ton of money for the data.

Not what I wanted to hear :( but thank you for the update! I had that on my mind for quite a while.Yes, I wondered that when I first read about this supposed feature, where would the real world data come from, and of course, which would be the price. I'm sure they won't charge less just because it's not being used on a real aircraft, since the data is the same.

I think that most of us are ok without the actual approaches, what I think most would like is the ability to create our own approaches using our own sources. I think we would simply like the ablility to create radius to fix approaches. Is that ever going to be possible?

Have to agree, would be good to see the NGX capable of being able to fly these procedures, even if self programmed. They will become very common place shortly across Europe. Shame the suppliers don't see the potential source of income that could be generated by supplying the data, and offer it at a sim rate to pmdg to sell on. I'd be more than happy to pay to subscribe to it.

Anyone?

the providers want a ton of money for the data.

Show them the NGX and they'll change. :(

How much money are we talking about? Depending on the yearly subscription price, I believe there would be demand between NGX users to have actual RW data onboard their addons. Of course, nothing absurd, if they're asking for 300 dollars each user then there's no place for Simmers using this database.

Edited February 7, 201214 yr by Alec

Even now it is hard to create these arcs manually with the fmc. NGX currently does not support creating radial waypoints from prior custom ones. Hope this functionality is included in the future, maybe along with others.Marcus Jian