I downloaded a flight plan from Simroutes.com today to load into my PMDG B747-400x. The flight plan contained several Lat/Long legs in it and when I uploaded it into the FMC, I discovered only the first few fixes were present. The rest of the flight plan was missing. I looked the plan over several times, downloading it several times thinking there was some kind of corruption in the file but nothing turned up.

 

So I compared the new one to other flight plans I had gotten from Simroutes.com and discovered the problem. Someone has been at work on the Simroutes.com webpage and when flight plans are recoded for PMDG they are created using a homegrown app by Simroutes.com where they had been using FSBuild in the past.

 

As a result the Lat/Long legs are not being converted into the format PMDG expects. As an example, the leg for the flight I built contained:

 

5500N 09200W

2

DIRECT

1 N 55 W 92 0

0

0

0

 

PMDG expects the flight plan to read like this:

 

5592N

2

DIRECT

1 N 55 W 92 0

0

0

0

 

A little cumbersome to change the route, especially if there are several legs.

 

A word to the wise.

I'm puzzled why you don't create your own flight plan in the PMDG FMC with all the waypoints, etc., and then save it in the PMDG FMC. I use FSBuild and use that to prepare flightplans for PMDG flights. There are several websites where you can download the realtime flight plans and then put those into the PMDG FMC.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Apparently I didn't make myself clear. I create flight plans all the time using the PDMG FMC and I download flight plans all the time using Simroutes.com. What I was trying to explain is: some of the longer overwater flight plans use multiple Lat/Long waypoints which are cumbersome to enter manually. Simroutes.com was very useful in converting those waypoints into PDMG format.

 

Now they don't!

'longer overwater flight plans use multiple Lat/Long waypoints which are cumbersome to enter manually'

 

I have up to date nav cycles and I use Flight Aware flight plans when present to mimick real world flights. I copy the string and paste it into the Flightsim Cmdr flight plan menu to create flights and there are very few days where I don't have to enter manually certain waypoints. Much of the time it is due to multiple waypoints w/ the same Ident. If you don't like to take the time then extend your waypoint distance or just fly direct. I don't mind entering waypoints as it keeps me on my toes. I am sure others may do something different but entering waypoints is part of flying.

I understand your point but if I flew for a real airline, the route with all the appropriate waypoints would already be a part of the company software. I wouldn't have to enter anything except the flightplan name.

 

The only reason I even brougt this up was to inform other pilots if they are expecting Simroutes.com flightplans with Lat/Long waypoints in them to work like they did it is not going to happen. The .rte file will need to be edited so it will look ike it did when Simroutes.com used FSBuild.

 

I don't care how you make your flight plans and I don't care whether you use Simroutes.com for anything.

I copy the Nat track into simroutes,and it works for me in PMDG 747.

For example, KBOS/LIRF

 

https://pilotweb.nas.faa.gov/common/nat.html

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