hi guys, I am trying to wrap my head around a couple of basic concepts that are still  unclear  to me. If i could have your feedback and put me on the right direction that would be great.  (ps sorry for the non technical lingo here...still learning)

 

1) Following tutorial 1 and 2 i tried to build my own flight emulating a real Southwest flight that takes place daily from KMDW to KBWI. The actual route is on Flight Aware and I noticed that some way points are not available in FSX and I assume this is because FSX navdata are old and obsolete. So my question is, do you guys fly the 737 using FSX ATC or not at all (which makes it quite unrealistic)? if yes how do you deal with having wayponts in 737 FMC that do not exist in FSX?

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2) Second question, related to #1: STARs and SIDs available from AirNav are current of course, the NavData of PMDG 737 is the 1108 cycle which is older and the FSX NavData are even more old!

if what i say is correct how do you bring everything on the same page? i know Navigraph can give you the most recent NavData which I assume matches the most recent SIDs STARs from AirNav and this is for a fee. Any non for a fee option out there?

crazy thought: would it be easier to bring 737 FMC NavData back in time to match FSX navdata if these are not upgradable (are they?). I know this would make it less real but consistency here across softwares (FSX to PMDG 737 to SIDs STARs database is more important in my opinion). 

How did you guys deal with all this?

thank you

 

There is no current way to update the navdata fully to a current AIRAC or cycle without paying. Navigraph and Aerosoft NavDataPro are the two options that are similarly priced IIRC...

 

The only issues that occur IMO with the fsx navdata being old are when you approach a default airport runway whose ILS frequency has changed (or a VOR approach with a changed VOR frequency). Then you have a mismatch between the PMDG NGX FMS database and FSX. Otherwise, if you use a Navigraph or NavDataPro subscription, you can keep the database fairly up to date, as you do not need to update the database with every released cycle, unless of course you have the money to do so

 

THere is also the issue of an updated addon scenery with the wrong ILS frequencies sometimes. In this case, you can edit the respective airport's file to reflect the real-world ils frequency change. You can also install an update provided kindly for free by a French gentleman I believe:  http://www.aero.sors.fr/navaids3.html

 

The caveat here is that the FS flight planner may crash on you... then again, if you use the NGX, then it is likely that you will be planning your flights with tools other than FSX' internal flight planner...

 

A

 Copy/paste your flightaware flightplan into one of these free websites then download the FSX flightplan, your waypoints will all be there.

 

http://www.simbrief.com/home/?page=home

 

http://www.simroutes.com/fb2/ParseRoute.aspx

 

 

 

If you want to realistically fly SIDS/STARS without the default ATC giving you wrong instructions you need to invest in an addon atc program. I USE PF3.

 

 

How did you guys deal with all this?

 

Welcome to the forum. The above answers by Andrew and Peter are great, and should get you on your feet.

 

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will do, thanks for the info

 

Andrea De Biase