Since PMDG products won't allow you to put actual SIDS and STARS to save a flight plan with, I thought I'd just find the sid/star that I wanted to practice, and add them in as normal waypoints. I know that's not normally done in the real world, but I'm not in the real world. My question is as above,  does RC4 know if you're using a SID or STAR? Also, can you configure it to use the rules for them?

RC only knows waypoints, not SIDs or STARs.

 

Include the waypoints for those in your plan and then on the Options screen select No Alt Restrictions in the Dep Procedure section.

 

You will need to fly within 2 miles or less of those waypoints until 30nm away from the airport to receive credit for having passed them. RC will leave you alone to fly the SID until 30 miles out.

 

On arrival you can fly the waypoints for the STAR but bear in mind RC's unbreakable rule is that you have to be at FL110 / 11000ft or FL120 / 12000ft 40nm from the arrival airport.

 

Once you have contacted Arrival you have a choice of either following vectors or flying the remainder of the STAR by choosing Req IAP Approach then selecting the runway. You'll be left alone until approx 6 miles out when you'll be instructed to contact Tower.

GPS flight plans can't include SID/STAR. Instead when they include the Transitions, appropriate SID or STAR will usually become relevant.

GPS flight plans can't include SID/STAR. Instead when they include the Transitions, appropriate SID or STAR will usually become relevant.

 

 I am not sure what you are trying to say here, but real world with /G aircraft I have filed plenty of flightplans that include SIDs and STARs, although technically departures and arrivals are assigned by ATC. Its more of a preference, hey ATC I would like this arrival.

 

 With the MSFS default built in GPS your statement is correct, it is not coded with DPs or Arrivals, however many high end third party add-ons includes this capability.

 

 Ray has the best answer on arrivals. RC does not assign STARs as stated by its developer and I like Rays work around for following a STAR to completion.

I am not sure what you are trying to say here

Seemed pretty straight forward, if you are heading to the transition you can select the relevant STAR. Since SIDs and STARs include waypoints that we fly toward but not over, it makes no sense to have them in the FS GPS plan file that FS ATC (RC4, FSX, Vox etc.) uses.

...perhaps you are keen to mention your real world experience Ken, and it is commendable, but what I'm saying is filing real world flight plans and using the sim and simulated ATC are a little different. A similar confusion pulling up PMDG for not allowing SID/STAR in the co-route is also unfair comment since it's working within the constraints of the sim. If we are heading toward the transition we are onto whatever STAR we want from that, simply load it up.

 

Another interesting point can arise; why have a .PLN associated with the flight (or .FLT if starting from file) when we have the .rte file co-route to load into the FMC? If we make the .PLN and .rte the same and load the .PLN with the flight, the FSX/P3D ATC, running the AI traffic, proceeds in a fashion that fits with the User aircraft, great if we are using FSX/P3D ATC. But even though the FSX ATC is not contacted when RC4 is used, when the sim starts up the runways in use are chosen by FSX/P3D ATC according to your location, and starting AI traffic can be confused otherwise. It may not show up much but on an big airport with L, R, C, and other runways it makes a difference.

 

Essentially, Radar Contact 4 uses an AIRAC navaid database made from files of comma separated values. It does not have any SID STAR data like the PMDG. I was contacted by a friend that had included the waypoints from a STAR and found one took him over 100 Nm away. The waypoint was in the STAR as a heading, not a flyover. So makes no sense to include the waypoints from SIDs and STARs in the GPS .PLN file.

Is worth having a capable add-on flight planner AIRAC updatable. I use FS Build which has a mode that lets you build from the route grid as well as auto or pasted in.

 

See if you can get any useful tips from this paper I authored:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/owuz7p2ohx7y7st/fsb%20tips%20and%20update.pdf?dl=0

I'll second FSBuild - it's old - not pretty - but does everything you need it to...

 

My normal procedure is to grab a real world route from Flight Aware and just paste it in...

 

Regards,

Scott

 

 

 

Seemed pretty straight forward, if you are heading to the transition you can select the relevant STAR. Since SIDs and STARs include waypoints that we fly toward but not over, it makes no sense to have them in the FS GPS plan file that FS ATC (RC4, FSX, Vox etc.) uses.

 

A transition is many cases is more then a single waypoint, so I think what you are trying to say is head to the first point in the transition and don't load the rest of the procedure into RC. That may be a little too far out on some STARs and cause the dreaded "You are off your filed flightplan" annoyance for RC.

 

As far as flyby and flyover waypoints that is more of  a coding of the procedure itself. To state that all waypoints on a DP or STAR are flyby is incorrect. Now it is true that RC gives you credit on all waypoints is flyby is true, but that is a software limitation. 

 

Even in the real world we have errors in aeronautical data. It is not just .csv that are subject to errors.