FMC Falling Short of Destination

[Flyboy85 0]

I purchased NGX a few weeks ago - and I'm glad I did.  I'm having one small problem.  I load a flightplan, have the current AIRAC, and the route terminates at least 100 miles from the destination.  I use simbrief.com to plan my flights, and on their map, everything checks out.  What am I doing wrong?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Marc Eichler

 

[spesimen 135]

if simbrief is assuming that you are using a STAR, it will only put the transition waypoint from the star into the flight plan, and it's up to you to select the ending stuff including the intended runway, approach, and STAR from the arrival page in the FMS (the DEP/ARR button gets you there)

 

if you mention which airport or flightplan it would be possible to be more specific with the answer..

 

cheers!

-andy crosby

[Flyboy85 0]

It doesn't seem to matter which airport...But let's say I'm flying KORD-KPHL, I'm lucky if my FMC recognizes any waypoints past KUNV, so I'm forced to then use a default flight plan and default ATC to bring me the rest of the way.

 

I actually don't use SID/STAR, as to be honest, I have no idea what exactly they are (well, I know what the letters mean).  It's a little confusing/frustrating, as I subscribed to Navigraph pretty much for NGX, and I'm not getting all the way to the destination.

 

And before anyone suggests it's my Navigraph, I just subscribed within the last week, so that's all current.

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance,

 

Marc Eichler

[Driver170 42]

Have you tried out the tutorials that come with the NGX? just take your time and were all here to help so ask away

 

Like what andy said have you entered a STAR that connects the last waypoint of your enroute flightplan waypoint?

 

Can you post up your flightplan route and maybe one of the guys over the pond can see where you are going wrong...

 

Have you ever heard of PFPX? Thats a great piece of kit to plan your flights according to certain regulations. I'm in the UK so use EU-OPS or EASA. And it is not free!!

[Alpha Floor 237]

Hi FlyBoy85.

I recommend you fly the tutorial flight. Also this video of mine might help you in programming the FMC, it's for the 777 but it's not all that different than the 737. From 19:53 onwards I program to route "up to" the last enroute point, that's what your route might look like. Then, while in flight, I program the rest of the route consisting of STAR and approach, have a look here.

 

I don't know how the flightplan that you loaded into the FMC looked like, but as Andy said, it might drop you at the last Enroute waypoint so that you choose the approapriate STAR.

 

If you don't know what SID/STAR are, I recommend you to figure it out first of all

For that I recommend you check out these fantastic videos by Kyle: SIDs and STARs and Example.

[GolfSierra 5]

I agree with Driver170, PFPX is a great piece of software and I would highly recommend it for everyone who wants to plan his own flight plans. Especially if you fly PMDG aircraft, because PFPX can also utilize the Navigraph database and therefore you won't have any discrepancies between the two systems.

 

If you also purchase TOPCAT (Take-Off & Landing Performance Calculation Tool), which integrates seamlessly into PFPX, you also get the respective performance settings for your takeoff and landing.

 

If you're interested in how PFPX works, Alpha Floor already mentioned Kyle's YouTube channel. He has some great videos on PFPX and TOPCAT as well.

[Jimm 437]

I can sympathize with the OP.  SIDs and STARs were always intimidating to me but after hunkering down and really reading up on it (as well as subscribing to Navigraph), my fears instantly disappeared and I find that flying tubeliners again is much more fun...as long as your SIDs and STARs are correct.  Recently, I have tried several times to fly from EGKK to LFPG and I cannot for the life of me figure out why the STARs on the Navigraph charts don't translate to my FMC properly.  I always have to hand fly the last leg.  Now, flying from EGCC to ESSA, no problem. I can program the STARs on the FMC well before descent to the last waypoint and everything comes in perfectly.

 

In any case, flying the tutorials is recommended and if reading bores you to tears, there are a slew of Youtube vids to watch of people like Matt Davies, Froogle, and even Kyle Rogers, who show you how to program everything, but you do need the right tools for the right job.  PFPX does a pretty good job of flight planning but I still found that SIDs and STARs were best to program in manually.  You can still get by with Simbrief, as well as Routefinder (http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/ ), and for METAR weather, you can also go on the cheap here ( http://en.allmetsat.com/index.html ).  You can't go wrong with Navigraph though for charts.

 

-Jim

[Bobsk8 12,582]

Get Pro ATC X and it will automatically assign a sid and star for the airport and runway according to the weather. It will also load the flight plan into the NGX FMC. 

[Alpha Floor 237]

It's not that complicated, really.

 

When you drive with your car from Washington to Chicago, you look on the overall map of eastern US and see, okay, I need to drive the Interstate 270 to Frederick, from there the I-70 till it intersects the I-76, from there etc. until you reach the Chicago Skyway.

 

Now, the SID is what connects your house in Washington to the I-270, and the STAR is what connects the Chicago Skyway with your mom's house downtown. Or rather, it's what connects it with your mom's street. The Approach would start when you enter the neighbourhood and it will lead you to the MAP which is your mom's driveway. Now be careful not to scratch your dad's car or you'll have to go-around and divert to the alternate

 

And yes, I had to poke around with Google Maps cause I've never been to the US xD

[jrw4 624]

In FAA-land, it's probably easiest (and totally free) to refer to the FlightAware web site's Route Analyzer at

 

http://flightaware.com/statistics/ifr-route/

 

It provides you with the most recent history of the routes that have been (and shortly will be) flown by the real word airlines

 

For KORD --> KPHL 54 recent flights have used

 

MOBLE ADIME GERBS J146 CXR EWC JST BOJID1

 

where the BOJID1 is the STAR at the Philadelphia end. FlightAware also lists the selected cruise altitudes (most recently in the range FL310-FL390. On the ORD end, no SID is shown, but the OHARE1 would have been filed and flown. This is a vector SID in which ATC provides vectors to the first waypoint, MOBLE in this case.

 

All of the suggestions above concerning the tutorials and videos are excellent. If you're just starting and want not to fly SIDs or STARs, be aware that many US airports easily capable of B737 operations have no SIDS and/or no STARS. For example, in upstate NY alone, KSYR has neither, while KROC and KALB have no STARs and vector SIDs only which you can simulate just be flying yourself to the first waypoint. So KORD --> KALB is commonly flown as 

 

EBAKE WISMO POSTS PADDE SVM DKK ALB

 

Hope this helps. You can find all of the US airport charts at http://aircharts.org/#. Have fun.