After flying in FS for a few years now, I'm getting sick and tired of STILL not knowing anything (usefull) about charts and airways and flightplanning and all that kind of stuff... I've read a LOT about these things the last years but somehow I just cannot connect all the info and grasp it all... Which is very frustrating...The last year and a half I have been flying the PSS Airbus offline without problems. I know it inside out. So switching buttons and so on isn't a problem for me. But I've always used the FS planner and imported those flights: never uses SIDS and STAR and so on or any chart at all. But somehow it doesn't satisfy me anymore... When I read messages of other serious advanced virtual flyers I don't know what they are talking about... How do they know which airways to use...? All those ADF en VOR turns or whatever the make at approaches and so on... I want to know it all too! But I just can't find the COMPLETE and comprehensive info I need...So I thought: let's ask... I'm surely not the first one to ask this but even the Search function didn't lead me to a COMPLETE tutorial on this matter. And by complete I mean a tutorial which start with the question:' You are sitting in the cockpit of a big airliner (the PMDG Boeing 737 for instance) at airport A and you want to fly to airport B the official way'Now what should I do...? There are so many different kind of charts out there... (SIDS, STARS, approach, airways) and I don't know which one I need to make a decent plan... How do I know which airways to use? And which SIDS and STARS? Do I really need those approach charts? How do I read them? When? And how do I know which SIDS and STARS to use with any airport and approach chart? What should I do with all the info about VOR en ADF? Do I need that still in a big airliner? Question, question, questions...I am a real manual nut: I read all my manuals from A to Z and I love it, but unfortunately there is no complete manual about this subject. At least not that I know off... So PLEASE show me the way... There MUST be a complete tutorial about this all! Or a site or a book... whatever! I want to get serious with my flying! HELP!

What I've done in the past is try and find online charts etc, and there are a lot if you look. However, the other day I looked on ebay usign 'Jeppesen' as the search and within 1 day I had on my doorstep a Jeppesen ringbinder full of all the stuff you're looking for! I couldn't believe I'd messed about for so long :-)Oh, the best part was it cost me

Jep publishes complete study material for aerial navigation using IFR charts.I'm sure there's other sources as well.Check their website or any store selling Jep charts and/or pilot training supplies.

Hi,>I am a real manual nut: I read all my manuals from A to Z and>I love it, but unfortunately there is no complete manual about>this subject. At least not that I know off... So PLEASE show>me the way... There MUST be a complete tutorial about this>all! Or a site or a book... whatever! I want to get serious>with my flying! HELP!there are some explanatory arcticles over at the Jeppesen Website, called the Chart Clinic ,maybe you'll find something there (I printed them, but I still have to find the time to read them).I think Paul's tip is great. I think I have some eBay searching to do.RegardsOliver

Hi,Well, this is what I do.Firstly get FSNavigator, it helps a lot when flying like this.In FSNavigator, set your Dep and Arr runways, let it calculate a route using Airways and SID's and STAR's.Once you have done this it will give you a very, very good idea of how to plan using airways, SID's and STAR's.FSNavigator will tell you which SID's and STAR's to use, you can then look for real charts for these.When you are comfortable with FSNavigator working the route out for you, do it manually in FSNav, and check your manual route against FSNav's route, you will soon see how easy it is.In fact, I find this type of flight planning one of the best parts of FS.As for VOR and ADF, it really all depends on the type of aircraft and the airport, there are still many airports that use my favourite type of approach, an NDB approach, so yes, you need an ADF for that.Also, VOR's are used to define airways, by radials and distance, for example ISEC KONAN could be defined by a radial and a distance from a particular vor, but again FSNav will have all this information for you.Maybe it would be an idea for you to lay your questions out in a logical format, that way we could answer them one by one.Try this linkhttp://stoenworks.com/Tutorials/IFR%20Introduction.htmlAlso Dauntless software, http://www.dauntless-soft.com/PRODUCTS/SimPlates/frame.html, produce a set of CD's with thousands and thousands of charts from all over the world, I use this extensively, and its quite cheap tooI am sure a google search on the subject will turn up a lot more information than I could give you.CheersDan.

There's also the IFR Low Altitude Enroute Charts (for continental US) formerly published by Desktop Wings, and still evidently sold at the following URL:http://www.flightsimcentral.com/ifratlas.htmlIf you haven't looked at anything by Desktop Wings before, I also can highly recommend the VFR Topographic Atlas (also sold at Flight Sim Central). I've had both of these for several years now, and they've enriched my flight sim experiences immensely.- David

I use the Desktop Wings IFR Atlas all the time for low altitude US planning. I use the FAA high altitude charts for jet simming as the whole US is on three charts for $4 each approx.For international info enroute I have two volumes of The Pilot's Freeflight Atlas - one for Europe, parts of Asia, Middle East, and Africa and the other for Canada, US, and Mexico - at about $25 US each. They are printed on tough material as an adjunct to IFR charts for airline pilots who wish to know what they are flying over. They are topgraphical maps at 1:2,000,000 reasonable scale that have on them navaid frequencies, id, and location, some outstanding landmark locations, airport id, location, and type class by runway surface and length, etc. Most importantly, waypoints by id are also plotted. I use these for where I do not have enroute charts to create flight plans and for GPS and direct-to VOR tracking. The VORs do not have compass roses, but average mag. variation for each map is shown. There are numerous tables of info included. Maps of political boundaries are included.If you desire a generic world topographical atlas, consider the Oxford Essential World Atlas. No airport or nav info though.I also have the dauntlesssoft plates as posted to fill out the missing info acquiring the bundle including the three update CDs. Besides plates for many International airports, airport info from two sources is included, preferred routes for major airports, and other good info.

Check out www.navigraph.comBRGDS Matt

I know how you feel. It was getting very frustrated trying to "fly IFR". When I started in FS4 a long time ago, my IFR flying was only tuning a VOR and doing a VOR-to-VOR navigation. When reaching the airport wich was of course always with good visibility I would simply look for the ILS frequency and simply make a straight-in landing. No procedure no planning. In real life I started to have flight lessons and when I got my Comercial and IFR license I realized how much I did not know when I was flying in FS4, FS5, FS98. In FS2000 I was flying already IFR approaches. Since I do not know your background nor wich country you are from, regardless of that you can do 3 things:1) If you got some money, you could just shoot some IFR basics in a simulator in a local Flying school with an instructor. It's not that expensive but I don't know if you will be able to actually spend some time there without any flying experience. Not that a good talking would probably resolve things.2) If you happen to know a real Airline pilot or even an IFR rated one he could teach you the basics at home using FS. Note that actually learning the basics in VFR/PP would help a lot too. 3) Fly for real!! ;-p

On top of the already good advice, let me add a few things:Now first let me say I am not a real-world pilot. I am just a simmer who has recently moved into trying to fly realistic IFR procedures. First step, get yourself a hardcopy of all the charts for a particular airport (preferably one you are familiar with). It needs to be big enough to have published procedures. Now for the continental US, you can get all the current charts for free at http://www.airnav.com/ Not sure about other parts of the world, you will have to dig a little deeper. I bought myself a $200 laser printer, a bunch of 3-ring binders, and some printer paper which is 3-hole punched already. Whenever I fly into an airport, I print every chart out (including the diagram) and stick it in a binder, organized alphabetically by airport code. Now you don't have to go this far, but it is much easier to fly with the approach charts in front of you. You can also simply save them or view them online, and alt-tab out of the sim to check them. Not as good, but it saves money and a lot of paper!Next, turn off all your AI traffic for the time being. AI aircraft do not follow sids and stars, so they will only confuse you and also pose a collision hazard and go arounds. Just turn them off until you get some practice. Now, forget learning sids and stars in the PMDG 737 or the PSS Airbus for the moment. Get yourself a nice slow GA aircraft. Anything you are comfortable with. I would recommend any small plane like the Cessna 172 (the Dreamfleet Archer works great as well) whatever you have which you are familiar with enough to use. The reason for this is you need to learn the approach flying slowly! Real pilots don't fly their first IFR flights in a 737 or an A320, so neither should you.Pick an airport and start flying procedures with VOR navigation only. Use the lessons in the links provided above. Once you get good with these, you can move up to the heavy jets and start flying approaches using the FMC. You can put back AI traffic if you want, once you get used to approaches. Just keep in mind that the AI traffic will not follow these procedures, and the ATC will not vector you to them. The best bet is to cancel your IFR flightplan when you are near the destination airport and fly the procedure yourself. Also turn off aircraft collisions, because the AI will not be expecting you to fly the procedures. Other links:For flight planning, check out this site:http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/It is great for planning IFR routes (and it is free!). There is an option for using SIDS and STARS, so it is likely this will generate a plan for you which has them built-in (if available). You can also get sectional charts for the US in the library here. Just search for the author, "Matt Fox". More IFR tutorial sites:http://member.newsguy.com/~flight/xplane/html/lessons.htmlhttp://www.navfltsm.addr.com/

If you have a pilot shop near you you can get free charts as well. All charts expire after a given period of time. Most expirere every 56 days. Today infact is the last legal day I can use my plates, low enroute charts, and airport facility directories for real world navigation which means I'll be buying the current publications and having to toss out these ones. Pilot shops have to do the same since they can not legally sell expired charts. Most shops are more than willing to give you all their expired publications since they're boxing them up and going to put the box in the dumpster anyway. These expireds have the front cover removed for refund purposes, but it contains no real useful information anyway. As MSFS's data is from around 2002 or 2003 (I figure 2002 because of the lack of certain airport changes), these charts will be MORE than current for the sim environment. VFR charts how ever are about 6 months and the current ones will expire on the 23 of December this year. I'd catch a pilot shop within the next few days if you hope to get them before their tossed out. Just ask them if you can have their expireds.Hope this helps.P.S. Thses publications have ledgends in them that the online charts will not. For instance, Terminal Publications Proceedure books (commonly known as plates) have about 3 or 4 pages defining the meaning of chart symbology. TPPs, by the way, are what contain Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs), Departure Proceedures (DPs formarly known as SIDs), Instrument Approach Proceedures (IAPs), and airport diagrams for large airports.----------------------------------------------------------------John S. MorganReal World: KGEG, UND Aerospace Spokane Satillite, Private 130+ hrs.Virtual: MSFS 2004"There is a feeling about an airport that no other piece of ground can have. No matter what the name of the country on whose land it lies, an airport is a place you can see and touch that leads to a reality that can only be thought and felt." - The Bridge Across Forever: A Love Story by Richard Bach

I'll help you. I'm a CFII and we are trained to answer just that kind of question. You can e-mail me at [email protected] and I'll step you through it.Rudi Hiebert

You might try FAA.GOVYou can download the private pilot handbook as well as theAirmans information manual and read till next august for free;-) DN

Have a look at Charles Wood's navigation tutorial http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/index.htm. It's primarily intended for smaller planes -- covers low-altitude IFR -- but very detailed. Doesn't cover SIDs or STARs. Will walk you through VFR sectionals, low-altitude en route charts, and instrument approaches.

Try this