I'm planning on getting TOPCAT for Christmas and had a few questions.

 

1) In TOPCAT's supported planes, it lists "Boeing 737-800 (BBJ2)".

 

Sorry if the answer is obvious, but I fly the 737-800 Southwest Livery from you guys. I know the seating was tweaked to reflect SW planes (no first class). The blanket question is does TOPCAT work for all liveries downloaded through PMDG's livery manager?

 

2) TOPCAT is a takeoff and landing performance calculator. I realize there are many many other cheaper / free options out there to do similar calcs. I am under the impression that TOPCAT is the best and worth the money (mostly because the training manuals specifically said to get TOPCAT).

 

TOPCAT comes with a PFPX bundle option. PFPX being a flight planning tool, and I've found people saying there are other free very comparable flight planning tools (Simbrief specifically), so Im going the cheap route and getting TOPCAT alone, not bundled. Is it still the case that Simbrief will accomplish what PFPX can do but for free?

 

Also, it takes time to learn programs. I expect it to take time to learn TOPCAT to its full extent. I also understand that sometimes there are pre-requisites to some programs. To this point, I've spent about six months learning the basics of how to fly the NGX, learning the basics of flight planning and navigation concepts, and the concepts that go into takeoff and landing performances. My question is now that I know the basics, am I ready to jump into TOPCAT? My concern being that currently my route planning consists of first trying to pull a route off flightaware, and if a route does not exist going to the VFR / IFR maps available at skyvector and planning a route (in conjunction with Airnav's IFR charts / plates) - nevermind choosing a proper alternate airport. My fuel quantity is currently determined by having a basic understanding of the concept, but when it comes down to it, is provided via spreadsheet.

What are the prerequisites for TOPCAT? Do I need to learn a flight planning program such as Simbrief first? Or can TOPCAT work by plugging in routes / fuel quantities as I am getting them now? Do I have to learn about alternate airports? I will be getting Active Sky too, does TOPCAT need weather info to work properly, and is this weather information available out of Active Sky?

 

SO many questions, am I overthinking it?

 

1) In TOPCAT's supported planes, it lists "Boeing 737-800 (BBJ2)".

 

Sorry if the answer is obvious, but I fly the 737-800 Southwest Livery from you guys. I know the seating was tweaked to reflect SW planes (no first class). The blanket question is does TOPCAT work for all liveries downloaded through PMDG's livery manager?

 

Ignoring the weight/balance tool, weight is weight. Use the "Adj Zero Fuel Weight" option (over on the right), and from there, it doesn't matter at all.

 

2) TOPCAT comes with a PFPX bundle option. PFPX being a flight planning tool, and I've found people saying there are other free very comparable flight planning tools (Simbrief specifically), so Im going the cheap route and getting TOPCAT alone, not bundled. Is it still the case that Simbrief will accomplish what PFPX can do but for free?

 

PFPX does a few more things that SimBrief cannot do, but only if you're really willing to get pretty far down into the details. If you're not into route planning on your own, or route optimization, then just use SimBrief.

 

What are the prerequisites for TOPCAT? Do I need to learn a flight planning program such as Simbrief first? Or can TOPCAT work by plugging in routes / fuel quantities as I am getting them now?

 

If you can read a dispatch sheet and can recognize the basic airports and weights thereon, you're fine:

• Click W&B (at the top)
• Enter departure airport
• Enter arrival airport.
• Find dispatch fuel. Enter dispatch fuel.
• Find trip fuel. Enter trip fuel.
• Find ZFW. Enter ZFW.
• Find PLDW (LDW). Enter LDW.
• Click Takeoff (up at the top)
• Update weather
• Either accept the AUTO weight calc, or set the dispatch sheet's PTOW (TOW)
• Set config (I use optimum unless I know the operator forces a set value for flaps, etc)
• Change runway to runway ATC assigns
• Compute

...profit.

 

 

EDIT:

One thing you'll want to know is that the table that results from the calculation is there for you to use your discretion. Basically, it's giving you the lowest acceptable margin, along with increasing margins as you lower the assumed temp (if the aircraft profile has assumed temp allowed). From there, you can select one to your liking. As an example, if my company's "SOP" was that you must have a margin of 250m or greater, I would select +46, even though +47 or higher is listed as possible:

 

Do I have to learn about alternate airports? I will be getting Active Sky too, does TOPCAT need weather info to work properly, and is this weather information available out of Active Sky?

 

SO many questions, am I overthinking it?

 

Alternate airports? For TOPCAT? No. SimBrief Auto assigns them. PFPX guides you through that as well.

 

As far as weather goes, yeah, you're over thinking it:

The point of ActiveSky is to pull real world weather and put it in the sim.

So, if TOPCAT is also pulling real world weather, then they don't need to be aware of each other. They're implicitly aware of the other's function by both referring to a common source.

1. Nominally TOPCAT works for aby 738. Mass is mass. You might need to fiddle with numbers to make what you see in TOPCAT loading screen fall more in line with what you see in NGX

Note: NEVER use TOPCAT loading screen to actually load the NGX. What I do, is click up a load in TOPCAT and then use the ZFW output to plug into NGX.

 

2. TOPCAT is a performance calculator with a loadout screen and a rudimentary fuel guesstimate function to use before you get some proper numbers.

PFPX and Simbrief are both quite serious route planning softwares, one web based, one client software; one free one paid. 

 

Feel free to use whichever. I recommend SimBrief, it's plenty good and it's free. PFPX might be somewhat more powerful, but it's more complicated and quite expensive.

The difference that further happens in there is, that SimBrief will not populate TOPCAT fields, you'll have to do it by hand, and obviously SimBrief doesn't integrate TOPCAT in it's UI (which I think is irrelevant for you)

 

3. TOPCAT is not particularly difficult to operate. Understanding the whole Performance subject is much more difficult, but it is definitely doable.

 

4. You can just plug in your estimate or have TOPCAT do a (very crude) estimate for itself. It can even suggest an alternate. Not neccessarilly a very good alternate, but an alternate.

 

5. TOPCAT can get the weather info it needs from NOAA, IVAO, VATSIM and I think probably from the sim itself. You just click a button.

Works very well with ActiveSky

Thank you for the responses. If people continue to read this thread and you use topcat, please post any tips you may have or problems you may have run into and I will use it as a reference in the future. 

It seems like TOPCAT is a beefier version of the spreadsheet I am currently using to determine takeoff configurations. The one I'm currently using seems unrealistic (I seem to get the TO-1 flaps 5 assumed temp 45 no matter what the weather / runway / weight input I use). 

As for flight planning... well for what I want to get out of the sim at this point in time I am fine with. Afterall... for the average commercial pilot, aren't all the routes predetermined anyway? At least the daily routes between cities each particular airline services. Not like many private pilots who fly for the joy of flying own a 737 and need to plan out a route between two random cities. The 737 is a workhorse, not a pleasure craft. 

As for flight planning... well for what I want to get out of the sim at this point in time I am fine with. Afterall... for the average commercial pilot, aren't all the routes predetermined anyway? At least the daily routes between cities each particular airline services. Not like many private pilots who fly for the joy of flying own a 737 and need to plan out a route between two random cities. The 737 is a workhorse, not a pleasure craft. 

 

Predetermined as in planned by a dispatcher? Yes. The average person flying a 737 isn't having to come up with the routing, fuel and performance numbers. It's all part of the package handed/emailed to them. Many routes are 'canned' (a default route found to be advantageous/efficient on the 'average' day by the airline), but can flex based on weather, or high wind days. Some are very much set in stone unless there is exceptional weather, like the prefroutes between NY and DC.

Correct, in the case of a commercial pilot, he / she gets this stuff handed to them.

I guess I would be fine getting handed that package, as my goal with this sim would be to replicate a flight in the life of a Southwest pilot. I choose Southwest because this is the airline I fly most often (they are the cheapest), not because they are the best airline to be a pilot for (so I've read).

But, since that isn't going to happen, and the PMDG NGX does replicate the fact that the info on the package needs to get entered into the plane and used for the flight, I'll have to figure out how to generate that info (via TOPCAT). Route planning, though, is unnecessary (at this point in time anyway) as most routes I'll be flying are those 'canned' routes. 

But, since that isn't going to happen, and the PMDG NGX does replicate the fact that the info on the package needs to get entered into the plane and used for the flight, I'll have to figure out how to generate that info (via TOPCAT). Route planning, though, is unnecessary (at this point in time anyway) as most routes I'll be flying are those 'canned' routes. 

 

Yeah, just get them from the real dispatchers by grabbing them off of the real flight's page on FlightAware.com. Copy/Paste into SimBrief. Done.

Regarding alternates, TOPCAT does have a handy search facility that lists a selection of suitable airports to use. Annoyingly it doesn't use the distance it works out to calculate the alternate fuel.

 

Simbrief does provide an alternate for you, but you can override it (the one it chooses is sometimes very strange).

Kevin: I found SimBrief alternate choice actually quite smart if sometimes counterintuitive. One of these days I'll ask about it.

Peter,

 

It would be interesting to know what criteria Simbrief uses. I only override it if I know the airliine SOP is a different choice, or sometimes if it comes up with an alternate in a different country. Recently on a short hop from Cardiff to Gatwick, it proposed Brussels as the alternate.

Kevin/Peter,

 

My understanding is that Simbrief looks at various criteria including runway length, approach aid availability and forecast weather and destination and the proposed alternate for the arrival window.

 

So if there is a large area of storms/high winds/low visibility etc it could well come up with an alternate some miles away, and there's no reason why it couldn't be in another country.

 

For what it's worth I do think it tends to be slightly overenthusiastic. If the forecast is OK at the destination (which 9/10 it's perfectly flyable) I'll override it with a closer "fuel" alternate. If a diversion is more likely then I'll look at what it's chosen and consider the "commercial alternate" options.

While the alternate can of course be in a different country, that could make things very difficult for passengers. I would imagine it's not an option an airline would select unless there was a very good reason.

 

It would be useful if Simbrief provided an outline of their alternate selection criteria in the user guide. That could give users an insight into why a particular airport was proposed.

Oh absolutely -- of course, there will be a list of "commercial" alternates in order of preference, and I suspect in most cases if a suitable airport is available in the same country then it would be selected.

 

Regarding how the alternate selection works -- this from a post by the developer in the Simbrief forum:

 

 

 

When choosing an alternate, the system uses the following criteria:

• The weather forecast (TAF) must meet alternate minima. This varies based on the airport's approach types, but generally the lowest ceiling/visibility forecast the system will accept at the forecast landing time at your alternate is around 600ft/2SM. The system will also avoid any freezing rain, thunderstorms, and other indicators of bad weather.
• Suitable airports must fall within a certain distance from the destination; not too close (so that any unexpected weather or other phenomenon at your destination won't also affect your alternate) and not too far (so as to reduce the alternate fuel burn and time). 50nm to 300nm can be considered a rough area, but it varies.
• Priority is given to the best equipped airports which satisfy the 2 above criteria. The number of ILS approaches, runway lengths, etc are all considered. In real life, airlines also prioritize their hub airports and maintenance bases, but this doesn't apply to SimBrief.
• If no suitable airports are found initially, the system will expand the search to look for farther airports. This can happen if a big weather system is affecting a wide area around your destination.

While the alternate can of course be in a different country, that could make things very difficult for passengers. I would imagine it's not an option an airline would select unless there was a very good reason.

 

I can imagine that it'd be easier to jump across the channel if whole of England was under probable mist or what have you. I don't think it being abroad should be that much of an issue, being in EU.