Hi Guys

 

I have flown to all my way points from Australia from Adelaide to Melbourne, and then the 737NG does not know how to navigate, I selected my STAR before Takeoff. Do I select a STAR before Takeoff?, or after Takeoff?

If its after Takeoff, around what time do I select a STAR and fly to my Destination?

 

As far as I know, the FMC will do everything to get me from Departure Airport to Destination Airport, so if someone can direct me to where I can get all that information, I would appreciated

Kind Regards

 

Tharanga 

Hi,

 

You can select the STAR either before of after takeoff, it doesn't make much difference for the beginning of your navigation.

 

The STAR should be selected before you reach the top of descent. I would suggest to select it at least 100nm before the TOD as t can make it move along the route closer or further.

 

As for the informations regarding Australia, you can find them here:

http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/aip/current/dap/AeroProcChartsTOC.htm

 

so if someone can direct me to where I can get all that information, I would appreciated

 

 

You can get all of that information by doing Tutorial 1 and reading the Introductory manual. There is a wealth of information to be found right in the PMDG documents that come with the NGX and are now on your computer. The document are at FSX\PMDG\PMDG 737 NGX\Flight Manuals.

 

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Might have a discontinuity. True most of the info you're looking for is in the tutorials... and discontinuitys are not all bad -

 

When programming in the route, many times if the transitions between your core route and the star aren't selected properly or available a discontinuity gets inserted in your route. If you don't remove the discontinuity, I believe the VNAV disconnects and won't pick up the first point in the star. Remove the discontinuity and it will continue to navigate. You can remove the discontinuity by first clicking on the LSK key left of the first waypoint after the discontinuity and then clicking on the LSK key at the discontinuity, then clicking activate. Then the route should hook up and VNAV can follow it.

 

You can select the star and remove the discontinuity at the gate prior to departure or at any point prior to the last waypoint in the route. You can remove the discontinuity while you're in the air.

 

If you're using weather and ATC, star selection at takeoff is a gamble. You can take a guess as to what it'll likely be based on checking the weather while you're figuring out all the other weather related stuff to program into the FMC. It'll usually work out as in general the runway you're directed to will generally line up with whats going on with the weather - and STARS work for multiple runways. But you still may have to hold off on the actual runway selection because sometimes the runway assignment is up to the controller - if there are two parallel runways for example. In that case you'll either change  your arrival runway after you tune in the ATIS on the way down or after you get assigned one by atc.

 

You might be running into the misconception that you have to have a route that can be followed by VNAV for the entire length of takeoff to touchdown. Lost that misconception and recognize that flying the old fashioned way is probably more common especially just after takeoff and as your coming into your arrival airport.

 

I use Pro ATC for my ATC and many times, as in real life, you are assigned the Star after you begin your descent, because the weather at the arrival airport might have caused a shift in runway operations. Pro ATC, when you contact approach, gives you the Star, Transition , and runway and approach type ( ILS, RNav, NDV, VOR) etc. This approach info could happen either before TOD or after you have already started your descent.  It is a simple matter to key this into the CDU , only  taking a minute or two at most, and then look for any discontinuities. I just started flying the 737 NGX, but years ago flew 767 and 737 for many thousands of  hours in MSFS. I find on the NGX,  that descending using level change works much better for me than using V Nav. I have better control of my airspeed and descent rate not leaving it to the computer. When climbing, I let V Nav do all the work.