Did you know? (Loading FPs into the PMDG FMCs)

[Q_flyer 766]

I saw a post yesterday where someone said that they were thinking of buying PFPX purely to "save flight plans in the PMDG formats" to save time.

 

I therefore thought I'd post to mention in case anyone did not know, that you can in fact save flight plans for the PMDG aircraft (NGX and 777), that can be loaded directly from the FMC    -for FREE!

 

* I have not included the MD-11 in the above list because it can load default FSX flight plans.  I've not included the JS41 because I don't use it.      I have not included the 747 because I have not tried / tested in yet, but I am sure it will work too.

 

The website that will provide you with .RTE flight plans for use in PMDG aircraft is Simroutes, but please note, there are some manual naming actions that have to be done with the flight plan, before they will work!  

 

Now, the first thing is that although Simroutes does contain some of it's own flight plan routes, it's only for the more common routes, so you probably need to create a flight plan route first.   You could do this using the default FSX flight planner if you wish, or even better, using :-   http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/

 

Once you have a flight plan route in an abbrievated format (thats the format that has the ICAO airport codes, the waypoints, and the airway, eg.  EGNT DCT RAPUM UP16 CROFT POL DCT EGNM ), simply go to Simroutes and enter it into this page :-

 

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

 

IMPORTANT!

 

- You need to enter the two airport ICAO's separately in their fields, not in the main "Route" field.

- You need to make sure you MISS OUT the words "SID" or "STAR" if they are written in your abbrieviated flight plan

- Do not use the dropdown "SID" or "STAR" fields.... leave these, and choose SIDs and STARs in the FMC.

 

Ok, so once you have followed the above instructions to enter the abbrievated flight plan into Simroutes press the "Generate" button.

 

Now take a look down the various rows of information on the next screen until you see the word DISPATCH.  Look along from here to where you see a dropdown list and "Download Flight Plan".

 

Select "PMDG" on the dropdown list, and press "Download Flight Plan"

 

When the flight plan downloads (it will be in RTE formal) drag it to your desktop (we're not done yet! .... it currently won't work in modern PMDG releases!).

 

OPTIONAL:   If you also want the flight plan in default FSX format (for FSX ATC), select that from the dropdown list too, hit the "Download Flight Plan" button again, and place the downloaded .PLN file in your Flight Simulator X Documents folder.

 

Ok, now, you need to double click on the downloaded .RTE flight plan to Rename it.    You need to leave the file name just as it is, but add 001 at the end.    Eg..  a .RTE file called EGNTEGNM, would become EGNTEGNM001

 

Now place this file into the appropriate folder:-

 

NGX

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS\NGX

 

777

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS\777

 

Now, load up FSX and go to the NGX / 777.   Power up the aircraft and go to the FMC's RTE (or Route) page.   In the CO ROUTE field, enter the name of the flight plan you just created.   Remember the '001' part, and remember not of course, to include the '.RTE' file extension! ............ So in my example I would have entered EGNTEGNM001 into the NGX or 777's FMC RTE page's CO ROUTE field.

 

Hit enter, and enjoy your flight plan.   :smile:

 

If you also made a default FSX .pln version of the flight plan, go to the FSX Planner, hit 'Load' and load the flight plan you created and put into the Flight Simulator X Documents folder.

 

I know most people are aware of the above, but hopefully it will help some that were not.

[cva1077 68]

I use SimBrief in conjunction with routefinder.

 

They recently added support for the PMDG flight plan format and the PMDG 777 "wind request" format.

 

You still have to find a route yourself (flightaware/routefinder/etc) but when you enter it in, it will run fuel calcs, ETOPS (including entry/exit and ETPs), enroute wind and fuel predicitons for every waypoint and a pretty route map at the end :lol:

 

Supports a whole load of different aircraft and has different OFP formats LIDO, BAW and DAL, with more updates to be added in the future

 

I recommend you go and check it out!

[vadriver 247]

dave

 

+1 ... and +10 for the time you spent on "ways to flightplan".

 

if i may, i'll add that my source of "contemporary" routes is flightaware, but you need to make sure your airac cylcle is "contemporary" as well !!

 

in the above, every so often i check that a route used the last time ago is still the one, not another ... thus that cycle thing of checking airac (in your aircraft, & not necessarily pfpx)!

[BobP 56]

There is another way that seems to be left out of discussions. You can create a flight plan with any tool and manually enter it in the CDU.  I'm pretty sure I can manually enter a route faster that editing flight plan names.

 

Bob

[Q_flyer 766]

There is another way that seems to be left out of discussions. You can create a flight plan with any tool and manually enter it in the CDU.  I'm pretty sure I can manually enter a route faster that editing flight plan names.

 

Bob

 

You can enter a full flight plan into a CDU, quicker than you can click on a file and add '001' to it's name.

 

Wow!

 

This is really just about choice though.   It's pretty obvious that people can enter a flight plan manually into a PMDG FMC, but I gave a clear reasoning for the post;  I'd seen people talking about buying a EUR 41 product, just to be able to convert flight plans into PMDG's format.

 

Sometimes I prefer to enter the FP manually, but this wasn't a debate about which is best, it was because at least some people did not know that you can convert to PMDG flight plan format, using a single free resource, with the one further requirement of adding '001' to the end of the file name.

You still have to find a route yourself (flightaware/routefinder/etc) but when you enter it in, it will run fuel calcs, ETOPS (including entry/exit and ETPs), enroute wind and fuel predicitons for every waypoint and a pretty route map at the end :lol:

 

Cool :smile: ... you do get the pretty map with Simroutes also though.. :wink:   I did start using SimBrief and it is an excellent tool, but for me, it was taking an age to calculate and produce it's output.  So I went back to Simroutes for converting FPs to PMDG format as I find it a lot quicker            - but Simbrief certainly gives more dispatch info!

[cva1077 68]

 

 

it was taking an age to calculate and produce it's output

 

That is quite strange, as the longest I've had to wait is about 90 seconds.

 

Another option I just thought of is to enter the route via the FMC and then save it via the FMC, then if you want to use it again, it's quite simple to load it up.

[Q_flyer 766]

That is quite strange, as the longest I've had to wait is about 90 seconds.

 

Yes that's about the same here but Simroutes takes no more than 5 seconds to return the same conversion on my end. Of course, to re-iterate, I am purely just talking about the flight conversion to PMDG format process.  SimBrief does tons of other good stuff (fuel planning etc) that is well worth the 90 sec wait.     But purely for PMDG FP conversion, I find Simroutes a lot quicker

 

Another option I just thought of is to enter the route via the FMC and then save it via the FMC, then if you want to use it again, it's quite simple to load it up.

 

Yes, that is definitely still the fastest way of achieving it! ...... I always seem to forget to save my routes though!

[Spook 96]

Im sure this will help many people.

I've done it this way since useing the ngx  ( 2+ years)

 

P.s you must of had a stressfull 2-3 days...u had hair before...bit freaky...

[cva1077 68]

Of course, to re-iterate, I am purely just talking about the flight conversion to PMDG format process.

Oh, ok all clear now! I quite like the SimBrief flightplans, IMO it bumps up the immersion and realisim factor a lot, and its a "one-stop shop" which saves me time faffing around fuel planning on other sites or manually, which is why I continue to use it. If I only wanted to convert, I'd probably be using Simroutes though.

[Q_flyer 766]

Oh, ok all clear now! I quite like the SimBrief flightplans, IMO it bumps up the immersion and realisim factor a lot, and its a "one-stop shop" which saves me time faffing around fuel planning on other sites or manually, which is why I continue to use it. If I only wanted to convert, I'd probably be using Simroutes though.

 

Definitely.  :smile:    I use SimBrief for all of my properly planned NGX, AXE and Q400 flights.   But if I just want a quick and dirty flight plan conversion, I use Simroutes.

 

 

Im sure this will help many people.

I've done it this way since useing the ngx  ( 2+ years)

 

P.s you must of had a stressfull 2-3 days...u had hair before...bit freaky...

 

Thanks lol! - Neither pic is me, just that Vic Mackey (The Shield) has replaced Dexter Morgan :wink:

[BobP 56]

Sometimes I prefer to enter the FP manually, but this wasn't a debate about which is best, it was because at least some people did not know that you can convert to PMDG flight plan format, using a single free resource, with the one further requirement of adding '001' to the end of the file name.

 

Hi,

 

My reply was not intended to start a debate, just my observation over the years that some simmers do not consider manual routing. Have a great day!

 

Bob

[Q_flyer 766]

Hi,

 

My reply was not intended to start a debate, just my observation over the years that some simmers do not consider manual routing. Have a great day!

 

Bob

 

No problem Bob, a fair point! 

[vonmar 122]

Simbrief looks good.

 

But currently only pilots with Navigraph subscription can use current Airac data ... Aerosoft's NavdataPro does not currently support Simbrief.

[Q_flyer 766]

Simbrief looks good.

 

But currently only pilots with Navigraph subscription can use current Airac data ... Aerosoft's NavdataPro does not currently support Simbrief.

 

Ah that makes sense as I did have a couple of 'dead' routes for the AXE when using Simbrief.   Hence, I think Simroutes is safer for pure FP file format conversion.