I wonder if someone can explain the differences between PFPX and Topcat.   I am currently a Topcat owner and am unsure what PFPX will add or duplicate.

PFPX is a flight planning tool, just like the airlines use to create their crew briefing packs. It isn't for performance data like TOPCAT is.

 

http://www.flightsimsoft.com/pfpx/

 

http://flightsimsoft.com/downloads/Sample.pdf (makes one of these)

As a Flightsim Commander owner, I am having trouble deciding if this is a worthwhile expenditure.

As a Flightsim Commander owner, I am having trouble deciding if this is a worthwhile expenditure.

 

Seeing as your signature says you're a PMDG flyer, then absolutely, it'll be worth every cent.

 

Regards,

Ró.

I wonder if someone can explain the differences between PFPX and Topcat. I am currently a Topcat owner and am unsure what PFPX will add or duplicate.

As already mentioned, TOPCAT is for calculating takeoff and landing data. PFPX is for handling the part in between (more on this later).

 

While TOPCAT has tools for fuel and alternate planning, they are far from accurate.

 

Just to give you an example. In TOPCAT, you can select an alternate airport even if the runway is too short for landing or the weather is below landing minimums. PFPX on the other hand, should only suggest alternate airports, where you can actually land (based on weather and so on)

 

Next part is the fuel planning. TOPCAT calculates the shortest distance between your origin and destination (great circle distance) and then adds an fixed multiplier to the calculated distance (lets say 20%). PFPX on the other hand creates you a route that could be used in real world. It the also factors in the winds aloft to calculate the best guess of the estimated fuel burn.

 

We still haven't touched things like ETOPS, enroute alternates and so on, that only PFPX is able to do.

 

I hope this helps

 

(Disclaimer: This is based on reading the PFPX manual)

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention that, in the new "first steps video" (posted above), they do all the route, payload, fuel, ... planning in PFPX and then export the values to TOPCAT.

Edited August 24, 201312 yr by jpuustinen

If the price is right I may pull the trigger, got to see how much the PMDG 777 is first though.

As a Flightsim Commander owner, I am having trouble deciding if this is a worthwhile expenditure.

 

Now this is a tough one.

 

First of all, it depends on what level of realism you are after. FSC is good, when you are in a hurry, but you will not get the same level of realism that PFPX provides (and you may not want to).

 

One thing I find truly interesting is that in FSC, the NAT and Pacot tracks are free to download and use anytime you want. With PFPX you have to buy a PFPX server subscription if you do not want to manually import them to PFPX (first year is free).

 

All I can say is, go to youtube and look at the videos that are available for PFPX (or from the AoA NGX tutorials). You should quite soon see that FSC and PFPX are quite far appart from each other.

PFPX will get the job of planning our flights accurately, and most important, very fast! It takes me a lot of time to go, grab a Enroute Chart, find the airways, the entry and exit waypoints, etc. PFPX will have all this information in seconds! Plus all the weather info you need, fuel calculation. I think every serious simmer should have this software, more than anything else!

Well this is it: as I already own FC9, which does all of these things, I have no pressing need for this product in question.

Can flight commander export a flight plan into various payware aircraft formats?

Can flight commander export a flight plan into various payware aircraft formats?

 

Yes.

PFPX will get the job of planning our flights accurately, and most important, very fast! It takes me a lot of time to go, grab a Enroute Chart, find the airways, the entry and exit waypoints, etc. PFPX will have all this information in seconds! Plus all the weather info you need, fuel calculation. I think every serious simmer should have this software, more than anything else!

 

+1 on that.  I have to go to aviation weather websites, to get winds aloft, Metar and TAF, then find a suitable route assuming the same weather on another website, then figure out fuel burn and appropriate fuel load for my flight given the weight on another website, which is quite inaccurate, put it all together and hope for the best. 

 

This looks like it will be nearly all encompasing. Great for VA flying. Planning taking over 1/2 hour kinda sucks although in real world its probably more. 

It's worth the dough. In the real world the job of flight planning is delegated to someone other than the flight crew. They simply show up at the briefing room and pick up a big wad of paper with it all ready to go. They'll obviously check the weather, NOTAMS and expected loads but beyond that they're more concerned with prepping the aircraft for flight. The less time I need to spend faffing about with flight plans, choosing SIDS, STARS, fuel burn etc the better. Yes there are other products that do this but they're a bit ungainly to use at once or aren't very user friendly  - FS Build being a good example. From what I've seen PFPX is pretty much fire and forget and with a few mouse clicks gives you near as dammit the same bunch of paper that a real pilot gets at the start of his day. That'll do for me. 

To the people that want PFPX in order to speed up flight planning what's wrong with going on flightaware and finding the flight you want to simulate. I'll find the flight, use that route and planned altitude, and then use top cat to do my calculations. It takes me less than 10 minutes and I can't say it's ever left me without enough fuel to land with a few go arounds or more worth of fuel left over. Sure it's not realistic but it gets the job done fast while we wait for PFPX.

To the people that want PFPX in order to speed up flight planning what's wrong with going on flightaware and finding the flight you want to simulate. I'll find the flight, use that route and planned altitude, and then use top cat to do my calculations. It takes me less than 10 minutes and I can't say it's ever left me without enough fuel to land with a few go arounds or more worth of fuel left over. Sure it's not realistic but it gets the job done fast while we wait for PFPX.

 

True, but outside of the US, Flightaware doesn't give you any details of the route plan. I use http://www.edi-gla.co.uk/fpl/ for real world flight plans but you're still in the dark as to which SIDS or STARS to use, a job that could take a while at a busy airport with plenty to choose from. And your fuel is a crapshoot. Topcat only gives you a fuel burn so it can work out your landing performance. It's not designed to give you fuel burn to be used for planning. In FSX we just chuck a load of fuel on and away we go. In the real world the fuel burn is absolutely critical as taking too much is a sure fire way to bankrupt your airline and taking too little is a surefire way to kill yourself. So the fuel calcs are done with a very small margin and you need to keep an eye on it during the flight. Having 'just' enough fuel makes the flight more realistic and a lot more fun when it goes wrong at the other end.

To the people that want PFPX in order to speed up flight planning what's wrong with going on flightaware and finding the flight you want to simulate. I'll find the flight, use that route and planned altitude, and then use top cat to do my calculations. It takes me less than 10 minutes and I can't say it's ever left me without enough fuel to land with a few go arounds or more worth of fuel left over. Sure it's not realistic but it gets the job done fast while we wait for PFPX.

Here is a list of things TOPCAT doesn't do, that PFPX does;

 

- Fuel calculations based on variables (such as GRIB wind etc.)

- ETOPS/ETP/PNR calculations

- Step Climb Calculations

- Many more advanced flight planning features which are included in operators OFP's.

 

TOPCAT is a solely designed to be a performance calculating application, where PFPX is solely a flight-planning based software. Two different kettles of fish.