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SouthportGuy

Best way to study and practice routes

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(Context: I've been flying FSX for a year almost everyday. Used to direct IFR and VFR flights. Now I'm a newb to PMDG and using routes properly.)

 

I really enjoyed the PMDG tutorial for flying to Dubai. The step by step instruction on how to program the route into the FMC went fine. What I'm having trouble with is practicing finding my own routes and then entering them properly into the FMC.

 

When I use a tool like Simbrief to save/copy/paste the route file, when loading the route into FMC something goes wrong. "Do I have the SID selected properly?" I ask myself. Is the SID connecting properly with the route? So I'm not sure how I'm able to really know if the route I've entered is valid and will work.

 

If the flight is IFR and you don't yet know what runway the ATC at your dest will assign to you, why am I asked to enter the STARS at the start of the flight if I have no clue what runway I will receive yet?

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When I use a tool like Simbrief to save/copy/paste the route file, when loading the route into FMC something goes wrong. "Do I have the SID selected properly?" I ask myself. Is the SID connecting properly with the route? So I'm not sure how I'm able to really know if the route I've entered is valid and will work.
 
If the flight is IFR and you don't yet know what runway the ATC at your dest will assign to you, why am I asked to enter the STARS at the start of the flight if I have no clue what runway I will receive yet?

 

Hi,

 

For the way to study and practice routes, you can find some help:

http://www.avsim.com/topic/481120-airwayroute-help/

 

Regarding the STAR, who/what is requesting you to enter the STAR at the beginning of the flight? 

You can perfectly take off and fly to the TOD without having selected a STAR/approach/runway on the T7. As long as your route is correct from the takeoff to the cruise, the FMS doesn't need to know your STAR so that LNAV/VNAV work, until the first point of the STAR or the TOD which ever is earlier off course.

Also, for some airports (often in US, less common in Europe), each STAR leads to all the runways via vectoring. So whatever the landing runway is, you can still select it at the beginning.

Finally, you can also try to guess what will be your runway at destination based on the TAF, the airport "habit" (some airport uses the same runway more than 80% of the time), or experience in that aiport.

Don't be afraid to select everything at the beginning. If you were to be wrong, and ATC would give you another runway and STAR, you can just simply change it the in the CDU while in flight. The RTE and LEG page are not "locked" in flight and can be modified in many ways without any issue provided you know what you do.


Romain Roux

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Avec l'avion, nous avons inventé la ligne droite.

St Exupéry, Terre des hommes.

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I really enjoyed the PMDG tutorial for flying to Dubai. The step by step instruction on how to program the route into the FMC went fine. What I'm having trouble with is practicing finding my own routes and then entering them properly into the FMC.

 

As long as you're flying in the US or Canada, you can get routes off of sites like FlightAware, but you can also use SimBrief, as you've found.

 

I'd argue, though, that you'd have a better experience if you learned how to route yourself. You don't need to do that all the time (I still snag routes off of FlightAware regularly, to save time, when I can), but it helps you understand the route structure more completely, and answer questions before you even have them.

 

Here's a very old video I made that's a visual version of a tutorial I'd written here on AVSIM:

 

 

 


If the flight is IFR and you don't yet know what runway the ATC at your dest will assign to you, why am I asked to enter the STARS at the start of the flight if I have no clue what runway I will receive yet?

 

You aren't, actually. We gave that example in the tutorial to make things simple and keep all the entries together. You can certainly put it off until later in the flight if you'd like. Keep in mind, though, that you can change it rather easily by going back to the DEP/ARR page and selecting a different approach.


Kyle Rodgers

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As long as you're flying in the US or Canada, you can get routes off of sites like FlightAware, but you can also use SimBrief, as you've found.

 

I'd argue, though, that you'd have a better experience if you learned how to route yourself. You don't need to do that all the time (I still snag routes off of FlightAware regularly, to save time, when I can), but it helps you understand the route structure more completely, and answer questions before you even have them.

 

Here's a very old video I made that's a visual version of a tutorial I'd written here on AVSIM:

 

 

 

 

You aren't, actually. We gave that example in the tutorial to make things simple and keep all the entries together. You can certainly put it off until later in the flight if you'd like. Keep in mind, though, that you can change it rather easily by going back to the DEP/ARR page and selecting a different approach.

I'm viewing your youtube tutorial and I've hit a snag. In Airnav.com, for airport CYYZ scrolling to the bottom to show the Instrument Procedures it says "There are no published instrument procedures at CYYZ."

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I'm viewing your youtube tutorial and I've hit a snag. In Airnav.com, for airport CYYZ scrolling to the bottom to show the Instrument Procedures it says "There are no published instrument procedures at CYYZ."

FlightAware is US and Canada. AirNav isn't. You'll need to find a chart provider in Canada to get charts there. I can't remember if they're publicly available.


Kyle Rodgers

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FlightAware is US and Canada. AirNav isn't. You'll need to find a chart provider in Canada to get charts there. I can't remember if they're publicly available.
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Kyle Rodgers

 

Go to Fltplan.com. Register for a free account. Then browse to "Navigation". 


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Since I'm very new to flying routes I have a question. I'm used to flying IFR with atc giving me all of my vectors. How would ATC be interacted with in a situation like the PMDG tutorial where the routing is "calling the shots" as to altitude/vectors? I'm so used to ATC spanking me for any wrong moves I make with heading and altitude.

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Since I'm very new to flying routes I have a question. I'm used to flying IFR with atc giving me all of my vectors. How would ATC be interacted with in a situation like the PMDG tutorial where the routing is "calling the shots" as to altitude/vectors? I'm so used to ATC spanking me for any wrong moves I make with heading and altitude.

 

Tutorial #1.5 goes into this a little more. Unfortunately, if you're looking for realism (and therefore, a realistic answer to that question), you can't use FSX's ATC. Instead, VATSIM and IVAO are decent approximates. People will usually say that PilotEdge is the most realistic, but its current coverage area is very small, compared to the legs of airliners. Great for what it is intended to be 9a training aid for flight schools and your average general aviation students, mainly), but not so much for the global flyer.


Kyle Rodgers

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When entering the route into the FMC, When I select my departure runway it then shows the available SIDs. Why is the SID that a tool like Flight Aware suggested not available on the FMC screen?

 

Here is the route I was given: AVSEP2 SSM YQT GOVIT GOVIT6. For for runway 33R AVSEP2 doesn't exist as an available SID. And runway 33R is the active runway.

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