Hello all, my first AVSIM post.

Ive been a long-time casual user of FS9 and now FSX.  Over the last few months I've been getting more interested in real world techniques for commercial airline flights and since Christmas I've been mastering the 'Freemium' 757 from Just Flight.

Now I don't intend this thread to become a discussion on the comparable merits between this aircraft and other superior pay ware models; suffice it to say, I LOVE this aircraft and it is just the level of on-board systems immersion that I want.

My question; does anyone know if this aircraft is sufficiently equipped to be able to fly SIDs and STARs?  And whether there is a way to programme 'direct to waypoint' manoeuvres into the FMC.  I'm most interested in joining the VATSIM network but I'm only prepared to take this leap if my aircraft is capable of achieving the necessary procedures that I'm likely to face within the online community.

Anyone who has experience of using the JF 757 on the VATSIM network, I would be most interested to hear your experiences with it.

Cheers

Seb

I know that this doesn't really answer your question about the JF 757, but I recommend the Captain Sim 757.  It does all the things you're looking to do and more.  I went from the Freemium 757 to the CS 757 and it took a little bit of studying and watching tutorials but I mastered it in a week or so.  It was fun learning.  

By the way, you can fly Vatsim without sids, stars, etc. capabilities.  I did for years.  Just let ATC know you don't have those capabilities and they'll provide vectors.  Take the plunge!  It's well worth it.

Yes, the JF can do all those things, but, not by default, it will require some work on your part to give the aeroplane that capability (and aboout 20 quid).Get hold of this add on:

http://secure.simmarket.com/ernie-alston-integrated-simavionics-group-1-(isg1).phtml

That will enable you to add a fully-featured Smiths FMC (i.e. the same as what you would find in a real B757) into your freebie 757, so it will appear in the VC, and as a 2D pop up panel. Then you can indeed have your freebie 757 do all the same stuff as any fancy payware FS airliner. It's not too hard to add those things; it does require you to modify the VC's config file if you want the new FMC to appear in the VC of your aeroplane, but that's not really that difficult to do and the add on does come with tutorials on how to do that. for example, here is one such tutorial:

http://www.isgsim.com/tut1/isg_tut1.htm

If you don't want to go to the trouble of doing that, then as bobterri suggests, the Captain Sim 757 is another alternative. It does cost 35 quid, but it is a very good, realistic simulation of the real thing (shame it ain't around Christmas, they usually sell it for ten quid at that time in their Xmas sale).

By default, the JF freemium 757 can only load default FS flight plans and although its FMC can do Direct To waypoints, it can't add SIDs/STARs, as it doesn't have a fully featured Departure or Arrival page on the FMC, because it is intended to be a simple to use fun aeroplane, which it does very well, but you have to accept that limitation of it (unless you do as above and add a full FMC to it, in which case it can and will run better than the Captain Sim one, since that is quite heavy on FPS).

Hi

As an alternative between the levels of complexity of the JF Freemium 757 and the CS 757 I can recommend the Quality Wings 757. Medium complexity, fair price (most resellers have it for 20 - 25 bucks in the store), lots of free liveries, the whole range of variants (!) and coming with an FMC that allows you to program and fly SIDs and STARs.

Once you acquired the taste for flying SIDs / STARs I recommend subscribing to Navigraph and keeping your Navaids database of the QW 757 FMC up to date. At the same time you should use the free service from here: https://www.aero.sors.fr/navaids3.html to do the same with FSX itself. Using the "World Navaids Package" you can keep the FSX Navaids database in sync with the current Navaid updates from Navigraph.

Cheers

Frank

Edited March 25, 20179 yr by mdata

Thanks folks, that's three very helpful pieces of advice and some alternatives to consider.  Much appreciated, thank you.

I've not investigated this properly, but can the default FSX GPS fly a STAR, assuming the navaids have been updated? I've never tried accessing the procedures, my flying consists of getting vectored on an ILS intercept or visual. :D