This is the one area I've never really gotten right.I fly the NGX mostly now, but this is also a problem for me in the LVD as well.Without ATC to actually tell you which one to use how do you guys go about picking them based on your departing runway or the direction in which you are approaching?Every now and then I'll luck into one that works with my route or the runway I'm departing on but usually I end up with route continuity problems and can't fly the approach right.Also, do you set the airport as your final waypoint (let's say it's JFK) and then input the STAR via the Approach page or do you use the waypoint before, then enter the STAR which will include the airport itself as the E/D?

Edited February 22, 201214 yr by bonchie

First, check the NOTAMS and weather at your departure/arrival airports. This will give you an idea of runway restrictions and winds so you know what to expect, as well as what the departing runways are. As for selecting the STAR, knowing which runways are being used for arrivals is helpful in combination with what direction you are approaching the airport from. With this info, you can look at charts and NOTAMS for the airport at websites like www.airnav.com. In the real world, ATC will assign the STAR, but we often don't get this in FSX. In these cases, you can also look up recently filed flight plans at http://www.flightaware.com under the"pilot resources" area. Here you can find what SID/STAR has been used most frequently between two selected airports.

Edited February 22, 201214 yr by audiohavoc

FSX ATC is not very accurate or realistic. I rarely use it anymore. I have watched several JustFlight videos of real airliners going from point A to point B and the landing runway is provided to the pilot in advance through ACARS by the home office of the airline - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Communications_Addressing_and_Reporting_System. So, when they get into the area of the airport, all they need to do is request landing from ATC. Same goes for departing. They know in advance the runway for takeoff. So I simulate ACARS. I know the takeoff runway and the landing runway (as they were provided to me in advance from my home office). I just need to set up the FMC with the proper SID/STAR, contact ground for taxiing instructions, and take off. I rarely request landing instructions through the ATC as it's not realistic. I simply land using a STAR and the approach glideslope. Of course, FSX will make sure there are aircraft on the runway, whether coming at you from an opposing direction or in your way for a landing. It's part of the 'game'. I'll land anyway (no crash detection), exit the runway and request taxi instructions. That's about as real as I can get. Sometimes though I'll fly the SID/STAR then open up an IFR flight plan as I near the destination. ATC will then give me instructions for landing and I can modify the runway for landing in the FMC. I'll follow the directions of the Controller until I land. A little more realistic as arrival runways change frequently and I'm under the control of an ATC Controller. Maybe we'll see more realistic ATC and implementation of ACARS in future flight simulators.Best regards,Jim

Shane has it there. The way I do it, not really different, is to 1. Choose RWY, accoring to NOTAMS or Metars. 2, Choose STAR corresponding to the RWY and approach direction. (N,S, E, W). By choosing the RWY first the FMC will bring up the procedures to be used with the runway.

And if you're not sure about the RWY, you can always program the FMC's alternate route with a second RWY and associated STAR, so you can just activate the alternate route if needed.Cheers,- jahman.

In using FS ATC I find using RNAV STAR and approach with transition often works best. You can tune the ILS and use it if you want but from ATC standpiont RNAV often gives more realistic results IMHO. A shortfall is that FS ATC doesn't know about RNAV RNP approaches so you would have to add the approach with ADE if you want ATC to give one to you (assuming you have an RNAV RNP-capable FMS). You have to cheat a little because FS ATC can't do a radius arc leg.scott s..

... Of course, FSX will make sure there are aircraft on the runway, whether coming at you from an opposing direction or in your way for a landing. It's part of the 'game'....

This is what caused me to seek out online ATC. One day I just got tired of the 747 that for some reason always cut me off while I was on the localizer, like some car driver with road rage would cut off somebody in an intersection. It totally ruined the immersion for me. Luckily, starting flying online was the best decision I ever made when it comes to flying simulators. It massively increased the realism, plus it forced me to learn how its really done in real life instead of half-assing it, FSX style. I would very much recommend everybody to start flying online, its easily the best addon for FSX, and its free as well!

This is what caused me to seek out online ATC. One day I just got tired of the 747 that for some reason always cut me off while I was on the localizer, like some car driver with road rage would cut off somebody in an intersection. It totally ruined the immersion for me. Luckily, starting flying online was the best decision I ever made when it comes to flying simulators. It massively increased the realism, plus it forced me to learn how its really done in real life instead of half-assing it, FSX style. I would very much recommend everybody to start flying online, its easily the best addon for FSX, and its free as well!

Mmmm, sure, I've been promising myself this for the past twelve months!

What do you guys think of ATC addons like VoxATC that dynamically assign SID/STARS based on weather, direction, etc.?Obviously, anything is an upgrade over the standard ATC but does it work pretty well?

http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/I use this to find a route between two airports. Select "ease trans" and it will set your flight plan to star/end at the Transition of a SID/STAR....and at most Airports you can get that same Trasition for all of the runways. That is the easest way to do it....but obviously you have to know what runway to takeoff/land...which is why I run Active Sky over a Network, and if AI get in my way I just "clear approach" with UT2 in the FSX meanu. While VATSIM is the primary way to get realism I find that very few Airports/Airspace that I like to fly in is ever controlled.

I just discovered vatsim this weekend. It is an amazing experience. Highly recommended.Regards,George

What do you guys think of ATC addons like VoxATC that dynamically assign SID/STARS based on weather, direction, etc.?Obviously, anything is an upgrade over the standard ATC but does it work pretty well?

it works reasonably well in my experience. as long as your flight path includes a transition that is in the star it will pick a good one a lot of the time. when you are using a plane that as the same data (like navigraph stuff) you'll find that if a star shows up with transitions in the fmc it is probably going to work well.it's not perfect..installation isn't that user friendly.. and i would say maybe 20% of flights i end up having to manually request a sensible runway. sometimes it seems to sometimes get confused about the wind... and will pick runways based on heading but ignoring the size or type of your aircraft... but its not a big deal, in these cases it's forgiving about letting you pick which approach you want and in that regard it's not much different than rc4, and better than stock which will outright refuse sometimes.anyway i like it enough that i mostly use it now instead of rc4 which i used for years. and either one is a huge upgrade over stock atc in terms of procedures...i think rc4 is better in a lot of ways in terms of being much more strict with adherence to instructions, better runway choice (and more solid integration with as2012).., however the ever-prestent 40nm altitude hard limit and the fact that you basically turn it off if you're doing a star sorta breaks the immersion for me..cheers-andy crosby

I like using the "ease transitions" option with http://rfinder.asalink.net/free to give me routes that could use SIDs and STARs for VoxATC. I'll pre-plan my departure and write those waypoints into my "ATC request .PLN file" and more often than not I'll also pre-plan the arrival and approach that I'd like. (Sometimes I'll leave the last waypoint in that pln file as the arrival transition and let VoxATC select a STAR for me.)I then write the .pln file and if I include all waypoints, VoxATC will 99% of the time recognize the SID and STAR I want, and even have the correct runways set as active.Depending on the a/c that I'll be flying, I'll write out a separate route file for its FMC, load that, and select the procedures from my FMC so I'll have the altitude and speed restrictions already dialed in.This works a treat an overwhelming majority of times that I use it. Every so often I'll get assigned to a parallel runway on departure rather than the one I planned for, but as long as I get clearance before I start programing my FMC, I simply go with what ATC tells me.

Another nice tool(you can try it free for 30 days) is here:http://www.aivlasoft.com/products/efb/index.htmlI find this to be very helpful when determining the direction of sid/stars as well as the active runways. It also has a GREAT map tool where you can choose your taxiways(for those on vatsim this is awesome). Just two of the hundreds of great features on this software package. I run the display on my laptop.

My vote also for EFB. It is particularly useful when there are multiple arrivals into parallel runways, helping you make sure you select the correct one.