I fly the PMDG 737-800 NGX in Flight Simulator X and I find it a hair pulling experience to have to move my cursor around to type in routes of 50 waypoints on that tiny FMC. Does anyone know of any hardware modules of FMS..or more accurately the CDU, preferably identical to that of the 737 I can buy and use? Or any alternative solution. I own FSUIPC. Note it needs to work with FSX and the PMDG 737 NGX!

 

Any help is very much appreciated (:

Virtual CDU:

If you have an ipad, go to the apps store and look up Virtual CDU, or the corresponding sites for other tablets.

 

Around $20 and is easy to use.

 

You will never look back.

 

Good Luck.

Thank you very much! Found one for my android tablet using that search term. Now maybe I won't need a painful 40 minute preflight to enter my route! (: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.virtualavionics.vcdu

Use Company Routes

Does Virtul CDU work in fsx full screen mode?

You can use this site to generate a route, then download it in PMDG format. Drop it in the PMDG flight plans file, then you can select the route under co route..5-7 clicks max.

 

http://www.simroutes.com/fb2/ParseRoute.aspx

Thank you very much! Found one for my android tablet using that search term. Now maybe I won't need a painful 40 minute preflight to enter my route! (: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.virtualavionics.vcdu

40 minutes????

You either need to use company routes (saved routes) or enter the route using airways and not by painstakingly adding individual waypoints. If you use something like vroute it will provide you with the route description (as in airways and intersecting waypoints) on those airways. All you need to do is enter the first waypoint on the first airway on the right hand side of the route page. Next enter the airway from that way point on the next line down on the left hand side. Enter the next airway under the first one and so on. You will see the intersection waypoint appear on the right hand side. Keep doing this until you reach the last airway waypoint and then put the last waypoint on that airway on the right hand side (as it needs to know where you want flight on that airway to end as it does not join another). A bit of practice and it should take you no longer than 3 to 5 min to do a complete FMC preflight. Does the PMDG FMC allow you to use a keyboard for entry like the iFly? That would speed things even more.

It was perhaps an exaggeration  Feels like 40 minutes anyway,  I know very well how routing work thank you, and Ive had plenty of practice. I fly for a virtual airline and follow the airline routes so simroutes is rather useless to me. I should perhaps explore if my virtual airline lets me export the route 

 

and yes you can double click the scratchpad to enter by keyboard, but as waypoints are just 3-5 letters i don't really feel any efficiency gain from doing that

I recently purchased VirtualCDU and I can also confirm that it works perfectly. No lag, crystal clear on my iPad, very easy to set up and the developer is very responsive. Easily the best $20 I ever spent.

 

Jay

Lexi

 

Not sure if this helps, but Vroute premium I believe lets you create your entire flight plan in a few clicks, and export it to tons of different types, such as PMDG Flight plans etc, so no more clicking and entering in the CDU to setup the flight plan...

 

It connects to VATSim too, and obviously can be used for non-VA flights...

I'm a total newbie to all this though....