How do you navigate airline flights?

[Guest TimQ]

How do you guys who fly airliners navigate your flights? By this I mean, do you do a FS Flight Plan, GPS direct, using J airways... etc? I am trying to learn how to do more realistic navigation.

[bobbyjoh 11]

Tim,I build a flight plan with FSBuild, which has numerous ways to get the plan. On most flights it is along Jetways, or over the oceans I use the NATracks to Europe, or the standard ocean routes over the Pacific. Once the flight plan is built, I load it up in the PMDG FMC, which of course is the way the airlines do it. Using the IRS in the plane and using LNAV I can go anywhere. As you can see from signature banner, I use Radar Contact to provide ATC. Direct routing depending on the time of day is not too common. However, last year on a flight from Miami to Denver we were given a direct route to Garden City, which is the initial fix for Dandd STAR into Denver.Using a good flight planner like FSBuild gives you a lot of options.Hope this helpsBob

[Guest TimQ]

I should say I am looking for stock or freeware options...

[bobbyjoh 11]

There is alwasy the FS Planner Tim, but it is so limited.Bob

[Guest jettjokk]

I use the PMDG 737 also but differently. There is a websitehttp://rfinder.asa.link.net/free/called Routefinder. You can subscribe but you can also get good routes for free. Just put in departure/destination and I set alt between 19000 and 33000 and Routefinder always comes up with a route using the correct DP and STAR and high alt jet airways. Then I let the FMC in the 737 construct the rest of the route except, of course, the arrival runway. Have to wait for that until 50-70 nm from the airport because I then re-create that FMC flight plan in FS9. It's pretty hard to find the fixes right now on the FSPlanner map but I think I can get a converter to convert a PMDG flight plan (.rte) to an FS9 flight plan (.flt) to speed this up. This allows me (with some work when ATC calls to start vectoring) to use the LNAV function in the 737 until ILS intercept.With the DP and STAR charts one could directly create an FS9 flight plan that followed the necessary fixes. So this could be done with any plane that uses the default GPS's.I have also filed IFR GPS direct with no waypoints between and when ATC calls select one of the alternate approaches closest to the STAR I want to fly.DanS

[Guest RonB49]

Hi Tim,I use the default flight planner in FS9. Having never used anything else, I don't find it limiting at all. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose. I file high altitude IFR (J-Routes) and find it does a decent for domestic flights. For flights over water, I usually have it plot a direct great circle route then drag the route to the appropriate waypoints to follow a J-route over the land areas. R-

[Guest TimQ]

Thanks for the link.So is stock FS just pretty limiting for realistic navigation like this?

[JP_Visser 3]

http://rfinder.asa.link.net/free/i use that website,then convert the waypoints to the wanted format using brain,a pencil and paper,and plug them into this:www.simufly.com/inswhich is fitted in a DC8 from here:www.simufly.com/hjgas i have most sid/star charts,i can also directly feed the sid/star waypoints into the ins from the chart.finally,i fly my flights on vatsim,i never fly offline anymore :)and i'm having loads of fun too :)tataJP.

[RogerPotie 0]

Bob,Does Radar Contact manage better the ATC situations (such as landing near mountainous area) than the default FS9 ATC ?And does it work for the whole world ?Roger

[Guest TimQ]

What is the difference between an INS and a Flight Managment Computer?

[Guest Nexus82]

INS is solely a navigation system. It does not know the limitations and performance envelope like the FMC does.An FMC can give you optimal altitudes to fly at, aswell as speeds for cruise, take off and approach etc.In general, the FMC is much more integrated to the aircraftWell that's the very basics of it :)