do i have to pay to update my data in my nav for the fmc

Yes, Navigraph and Aerosoft NavDataPro are the two choices.

You can just ignore it, as long as you use the same navdata for your flight planning. We fly in a fake world so it is not as important as the real world.

 

If the message is annoying you go to your Flight Simulator X folder, look for the PMDG folder then NAVDATA folder. Look for a file called fmc_ident and open with notepad. Change the date in that folder and save.

 

Navigraph is not that expensive and does give you various pricing options.

thanks its just a bit annoying paying for the PMDG NGX then haveing to pay for nav updates

You could ignore it, just keep in mind if you fly online through VATSIM/IVAO, or even if you use current charts, you will need current data.

You only paid for the NGX, not the navdata... It costs money to keep the data up to date.

thanks its just a bit annoying paying for the PMDG NGX then haveing to pay for nav updates

 

Yes and no...

 

As mentioned, you don't have to pay for it.  You could just as easily fly without the updates.  The problem is that airspace changes, fixes are born and die off, and procedures change because of it.  Someone has to do the work to format that data for the sim (and you don't even want to know how much they pay for access to that data, worldwide).  They pay for it, and they do work for us to format it for us.  It's only right that we pay them for that cost and their work.

 

Neither the fact that the real world data changes, or the amount charged to keep this data up-to-date is under the control of PMDG.  I can see how it might be perceived as frustrating, but in the end, it's rather understandable.

So far I'm still using the original nav data.. One reason is my scenery is pretty much stuck

at a certain date, and I worried about new changes not being compat with my scenery

as far as approaches and such.

But... they recently changed all the departures out of Houston as one example, and

I've been considering breaking down and updating it so I can run the current newly named

RNAV SID/STARS.. One example, HOU to DAL. Ran the CRIED departure for a long time,

but now they are using the DREMR1 RNAV departure.

I'll have to update if I want to go that route. I'm still using the CRIED dp for now.. The path is

pretty much the same with a different name. And CRIED is still a listed dp.

Overall doesn't matter to me too much, but if one wants to be like real world...  :|

Every once in a while my nav data expires.. I just edit in new dates, and I'm good to go for

another 6-12 months..

Updating Navdata in FSX can cause problems with scenery that has not been updated. Runway numbers and courses that have been corrected in the Navdata can be different to scenery AFCADS. Luckily the PMDG aircraft have an option to override the Navdata and set to FSX localizers.