Is a product like PFPX required for users to use the 777?

 

I have successfully flown the tutorial 1 flight to Dubai. Now I want to create my own flight. But when programming the departure entry and route entry it seemed that I need to be able know the desired airway and it's name. In the tutorial, the airway is told to you in the instructions. Now I just need help in knowing how to find research the airways/routing options and how to pick them properly. For instance, I'm trying to fly CYYZ to CYWG.

 

Edit: Very sorry about not signing the post. I wil edit my profile so that I will have a signature right away. Apologies.

Hi,

 

Required (mandatory) ? No. Advised/recommended? Big yes if you want to fly realistically.

 

There are numerous websites and softwares that can be used for flight planning and as source of information of routes and flight plans: and I will only give some examples I know but the list will hopefully be extended by other users as there are literally handreds of:

 

Flight planners:

_ PFPX (software / routing + fuel calculations)

_ Simbrief (website / routing + fuel calculations)

_ Fscommander (software / route planner)

_ FSBuild2 (software / route planner)

 

_ Simroutes (website / route finding only - no planning)

_ Route finder (website / route finding only - no planning)

_ Vroute (application / route finding only - no planning)

_ Real world flight plan database (website / real flight plans - no planning) http://www.edi-gla.co.uk/fpl/

 

Websites with route charts (not always up-to-date for some)

_ Navigraph (website and software)

_ Skyvector

_ World AIS (http://www.eurocontrol.int/articles/ais-online)

You do need flight planning tools but there are free alternatives to PFPX. www.simbrief.com will do everything you need except plan the route. It usually will suggest routes other members have used between those airports. If not there is a link on the website to routefinder which will find a valid route and give you the airways and entry and exit points. Then airport charts will help you identify the appropriate SID to take you to the airway.

Thanks Guys! I'm off to give your suggestions a try.

Some more help please. I used Simbrief to create a flight plan and then saved it to my Flight Plans folder in PMDG. I then went into the sim and tried to load the plan into my FMC. The FMC says the plan is not in the database. What am I doing wrong?

I'd like to know this too as I'm thinking of getting PFPX.

 

At the moment I've been using Flightaware to get real routes to fly, but this only provides US routes, which isn't much good as most of my flying is within Europe!

 

Does PFPX actually generate routes for you (ie you give it the origin and destination and it gives you a route and all the airways and intersections)? Or is it just a planner that you still need to give it this information?

I've managed to find the solution to the other problem I shared in post #5. Instead of saving the route (rte) file to the 77 flightplan folder, I saved the pln file. It worked now. Thanks!

How about this, a PFPX generated entire route other than SIDs and STARs for which you need to look up Plates?

Hi,

 

PFPX is full planner tool, which means that it will generate routes between an origin and destination airports taking into considerations the SID and STAR available (based on the AIRAC) and the restrictions of the airways (parity, altitudes and restrictions like CDR in Europe) and the weather conditions. If you want it to be up-to-date, you need a subscription to Navigraph or Aerosoft, just like for the FMC of the T7.

 

It accepts weather from either softwares like Active sky, or from real weather servers and can use Eurocontrol to check the accuracy of the flight plan in Europe.

 

The best if you want more info is to go to their website.

 

How about this, a PFPX generated entire route other than SIDs and STARs for which you need to look up Plates?

 

It does include the SID and STAR on the route even if it does not depict the SID and STAR themselves. After all, it is a planner tool, not a EFB, which means that it is design to issue a flight plan for the pilots on the dispatch side. For the SID, STAR and approach charts doesn't belong to the planning tool.

For those who are looking for a freeware alternative to PFPX...

 

The main thing missing from Simbrief is the ability to manually figure out a flight route. Of course Simbrief almost always provides several routes to select from, but there are times when one wants to manually create a route - especially if one wishes to avoid major weather or changes in the Jetstream, etc.

 

The freeware alternative for manually computing a route is SkyVector, and it provides many selectable overlays like precipitation, weather, IR, winds, TAFs, SIGMETs, AIRMETs, and others.

 

After manually computing the route, you simply copy and past it into Simbrief and you pretty much have everything else provided for by PFPX.

 

 

I wish you all terrific flights throughout the new year!