Hi there,can you please explain which is the best procedure to have the whole thing ready after descent?I want to say that, surely you have METAR for scheduled landing apt before taking off, but.... how do you manage transition, STAR & final APPR?Thanks in advance for helpingLuigi ;-)

Some help:http://www.flywestwind.com/WTC/Pprograms/approach.htmRegards,Ed

Yeah! i juse Active Sky 2004 for the METAR forecasting which i get before startup. the best weather engine after my opinion.When it comes to the approach planning it depends a bit on which aircraft you fly.. but i`ll give you an example of how i do it:say im flying B737-600 PMDG and i`ve started my descent forLondon Heathrow. since ATC is so limited in flightsim i have no clue to which runway i`ll get for sure before im about 50 miles out.Usually the weather forecasting is so accurate that the runway ive selected (by looking at the forecast winds) usually gives me the correct active runway.As i descend i use STAR charts which you can find in here in the avsim library or flightsim.com or you can buy SimPlates 2004 whichis an awesome product from flight1.com that gives you some 18000+approach plates AIP`s and proscedures for you to print out in PDF format. very simple to use.I select the transition best fitting my flight. in real world this is much more strict and contolled, escpesially in dense airspace such as London, New York etc...(pilots always try to get the most cost saving, time sparing approach they possibly can get.)The information given to me on the STAR chart i simply plot into the FMC (usually i keep it updatet with SID/STARS proscedures from navdata.at (current cycle: AIRAC 0504) So the proscedures are stored in the FMC, if not i`ll manually plot them in with an optional hold. ATC never instructs you to hold in flightsim 2004 as far as i know.I also select which approach i would like into the active runway,either its NDB approach, VOR/DME or ILS or GPS/RNAV. all this depends on the airport and in real life pilots have the opportunity to select their approach proscedure as they desire, but they dont always get what they want.The approach plates are also ment to use for airplanes without FMCand therefore there is more work to do without an FMC because you have to set headings and bearings yourself (i love that too!:-)The approach proscedure you choose must also depend on weather conditions and so on, and if you want a NON-monitored or monitoredapproach.. im not gonna explain that because i dont understand everything myself yet!!As i pass through the transition i take up the AIP for the active runway, which gives me info about entrance to the glideslope, restriced airspace and altitudes and also information about Go-around proscedures. and ofcourse it also gives you the localizer frequenzy.as i select my approach in the ATC window it might happen that they give me other instructions than the STAR plate youre holding in your hand. i usually ignore ATC now because the tracks they send you on is more like a jolly ride going way out of the intended approach sometimes. as i get closer i can watch as the localizer is being capturedand i press the LOC button on the MCP. As i finish up my flows and checklist i make shure ive got the right runway for approach and i hit the APP button which guides the aircraft according to the slope, both in height and directionals.at about 2000 feet i turn of the autopilot (depending on the weather condition etc. it variates when i turn the AP off, and if youre flying airbus you have to use it all the way down.. but i rearly make a fully automated landing)and i make shure i am properly aligned and pay attention to the PAPI`Swhich is the red and white lights telling you if youre to high(white)or to low(red) the PAPI`S are usually in a four light config whichmeans that two red and two white lights are perfect approach slope.every approach is different, simply because weather changes and so does the weight of the aircraft and the traffic density.any more questions? wouldn`t surprise me if you got confused..im not the best explainer on the earth...Yngve

Thanks for helping my friends.Yes i'm a bit confused.I usually fly my approaches following Radar Contact vectors and then ILS on final: this is quite simple. What i'd like is learning about TRANSITION and STAR for flying my approaches like a PRO using FMC.I've never been able to feed my FMC with STARS and TRANSITIONS data :-( i do not know which transition i should fly and which star i should select...I usually file my flightplan using FSNavigator and after that i export it in FS2004 and also in my aicraft FMCLuigi ;-)

then go to a vatsim artcc site via vatsim.net,and find a preferred route,most of these routes start at the transition of the dp,and end at the star transition.then,by getting the charts,you can easily spot which dp and/or star is for you.most fmc's accept the fix-airway-fix method to input a route afaik.tataJP.

>I usually file my flightplan using FSNavigator and after that>i export it in FS2004 and also in my aicraft FMCOnce you know the runway in use for your destination then there are only limited number of STARs and transitions that go with this runway. Which one should be selected? The one that results in least complication for the pilot. You can of course depend on some flight planning tool to pick the STAR for you but if you want to mimick real-life operations you should be able to switch runways/STARS during the flight since specially on long haul flights by the time you get to your destination they may be using different runway than the one you selected during your preflight. If you fly sophisticated say Boeing aircraft you can always switch to the MAP mode on your ND and see how this STAR looks to you. If it looks weird - take another one. You must be proficient in using your FMC however - there is no way around it.Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpg

>I've never been able to feed my FMC with STARS and TRANSITIONS>data :-( i do not know which transition i should fly and which>star i should select...>>I usually file my flightplan using FSNavigator and after that>i export it in FS2004 and also in my aicraft FMCok! you should start searching for maps and STAR plates (plates being the piece of paper showing you the very approach as it physically will be) The airports you mostly fly to are the ones you should get SID/STAR maps over. it really isnt that hard, believe me!!In the beginning i could bearly understand what in the worldthose weird numbers with dots where! and i had no clue to what a RNAV or Transition was!FSNavigator is very helpful, i used to have it myself until i learned how to fully use the FMC. Dont forget that you can also print out the very map of youre route in the default Flightsim planner. that way you can start practiceon flying with the maps.go to this site here and search for the SID/STARS, AIP and transition proscedure maps you want to have : www.fscharts.comAnd you should also scan the file library for any videos on how to use the PMDG FMC. I know www.Flightsim.com has got some uploaded videos (tutorials) on the B737NG FMC.remember, the only way to find out which star you should fly is by figuring out the most economical and safe way to get to the final approach. If you are approaching say.. KSFO airport from the east,you should have a KSFO STAR transition plate in youre hand showing transitions and approach proscedures for flights arriving from the east. (i think its named PORTE arrival)That way you will easily figure out which transition to select. Yngve

I could not have sad that better myself:-)Yngve

thank you very much again my friendsLuigi ;-)