Airport Charts

[VFRHawk 16]

OK, so I'm spending a fair amount of time flying the NGX for a VA I've just joined, and I'm finding that I'm constantly tabbing out to Pro ATC/X during taxi (both ends of the flight) to check where I should be going.  I'm sure in real life pilots have airport charts, but that's about the best solution I've found so far for viewing the in game airport layout - I've got the demo of Navigraph's charts product installed, and whilst it's great, it has the same problem most products I've found have in that it shows the real world airport layout, which often doesn't match the in game one.  So does anyone have any suggestions for ways to view the in game airport charts?  In must be possible as Pro ATC/X displays the info.  Either in the sim itself, or externally on something like a tablet.  I guess I could try running Pro ATC/X on a separate PC, but I don't a have second PC near my main rig.  I do have a powerful android tablet - the Nvidia Shield - but I don't think Pro ATC/X runs on android, so that doesn't really help.  I've also tried using the GSX FollowMe car, but that only helps on landing not taking off, and it's very slow.

Graham

[Guest]

Why not make the ProATC window smaller? In that case it won't block the entire view and you can keep on controlling your aircraft. I do this all the time whenever I use charts. Sometimes they even fill half the screen but I can still see what is happening in the plane. P3D works in some sort of pseudo full screen mode so to me it never feels like I am leaving P3D: it is as if I am using pop-up screens. Works like a charm. Don't need a second PC or tablet for this.

EDIT After reading your posts again: you talk about tabbing out of P3D to ProATC but: did you know P3D has two options which makes tabbing out no problem at all and thanks to which I can go to any program I want as if it is a pop-up? Disable Pause on taks switch and disable Mute on taks switch and you are done. (Can't check the exact naming right now.) When you do this you can call up ProATC as if it is a pop-up in P3D! As I said, works like a charm!

[Egbert Drenth 250]

29 minutes ago, VFRHawk said:

....it has the same problem most products I've found have in that it shows the real world airport layout, which often doesn't match the in game one.  So does anyone have any suggestions for ways to view the in game airport charts?  

Is that the problem of Navigraph or of the in-game-scenery??
Most payware sceneries (if not all) represent the airports in it's current state, provided the scenery is not too old.
The default airports however (incl taxi ways etc) all were based on Jeppesen charts from the past. In due time there may be some differences.

If you want to have actual airport 'charts' based on your current scenery, you may want to install an application like Little NavMap or EFB (Electronic Flight Board).
They actually scan your scenery and based on that, generate electronic airport maps. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Egbert Drenth said:

If you want to have actual airport 'charts' based on your current scenery, you may want to install an application line Little NavMap or EFB (Electronic Flight Board).
They actually scan your scenery and based on that, generate electronic airport maps. 

As the OP said ProATC does that too and so Little NavMap or EFB would still result in the same problem he has: the need to alt-tab out of P3D. But that is no problem at all if you set the correct options in P3D (see my post above). With these options having to go to ProATC shouldn't be a problem at all anymore.

[VFRHawk 16]

It's not a problem, just a little clunky.  If I could either get the charts out to my tablet or even better onto the kneeboard in game that'd be ideal - I can work with tabbing, thats what I do now with PATC - but hoped there might be a slightly more elegant solution..

Graham

[pgde 571]

Try the freeware Little Nav Map which you can see the parking spots when you zoom into the airport. It reads directly from FSX/P3D. Does a lot more than this -- check it out! Generally available!

[Guest]

Some people just don't read. 

[Lenny777 299]

5 hours ago, VFRHawk said:

OK, so I'm spending a fair amount of time flying the NGX for a VA I've just joined, and I'm finding that I'm constantly tabbing out to Pro ATC/X during taxi (both ends of the flight) to check where I should be going.  I'm sure in real life pilots have airport charts, but that's about the best solution I've found so far for viewing the in game airport layout - I've got the demo of Navigraph's charts product installed, and whilst it's great, it has the same problem most products I've found have in that it shows the real world airport layout, which often doesn't match the in game one.  So does anyone have any suggestions for ways to view the in game airport charts?  In must be possible as Pro ATC/X displays the info.  Either in the sim itself, or externally on something like a tablet.  I guess I could try running Pro ATC/X on a separate PC, but I don't a have second PC near my main rig.  I do have a powerful android tablet - the Nvidia Shield - but I don't think Pro ATC/X runs on android, so that doesn't really help.  I've also tried using the GSX FollowMe car, but that only helps on landing not taking off, and it's very slow.

Graham

Second monitor works wonders

[VFRHawk 16]

13 hours ago, Lenny777 said:

Second monitor works wonders

Like a fool I gave my second monitor to a friend who's screen blew up... 

[vgbaron 3,491]

Navigraph has an android version of desktop. I use it on my tablet.

 

Vic

[tutmeister 695]

6 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

Navigraph has an android version of desktop. I use it on my tablet.

Problem is though, as the op stated, navigraph current charts are the real life charts and don't match a lot of the default airports. Proatc matches the airports but isn't available in a tablet.

Bit of a conundrum if you don't use lots of after market airports.

Chris

[skelsey 765]

I would suggest the easiest solution is probably simply to update the airports.

One of my main pre-flight actions is to check whether I have updated scenery for the destination. If not, a quick search of the excellent FSX freeware scenery list usually turns up at least an updated AFCAD and often something much better.

No need to spend hundreds of pounds on payware scenery for every airfield -- there is plenty of freeware out there that at worst will simply update the layout and navaids to current standards. Often though it will go much further than that and make the airport look much better than the default.

I only really buy payware for home base or places I visit a lot!

[vgbaron 3,491]

27 minutes ago, tutmeister said:

Problem is though, as the op stated, navigraph current charts are the real life charts and don't match a lot of the default airports. Proatc matches the airports but isn't available in a tablet.

Bit of a conundrum if you don't use lots of after market airports.

Chris

True but I have found that most of the charts match the P3D db even though outdated. Then there are some that are really different or the approach is non existent in the db or Navigraph.

I guess the question for the OP is which is more annoying, having to alt tab screens or the occasional missing chart.

Vic

[VFRHawk 16]

Hmm, I guess if I was confident it was only an occasional chart that'd be wrong I'd probably live with that.  I think what put me off a little was that the demo airport for Navigraph Charts that I tried - Alicante - was quite different from what was displayed to what's in game.

Maybe I'll take a months subscription to charts and AIRAC with Navigraph and see how I get on with it - you can just take a month at a time if you take both I believe?

Graham

[Guest]

Yes, you can take one month. It might also be a good idea to take a subscription to FSAerodata: this brings the entire sim world on level with Navigraph (VOR, LOC, NDB, ILS, etc.). Missing runways will still be missing but the navdata itself will at least be the same throughout. Which is quite something. That's a lot better than having navdata from 2006 in the sim.

The shortest FSAerodata subscription costs around 9 dollars or so for 3 months and it uses the same cycle as Navigraph. In fact, afaik you need a Navigraph subscription to use FSAerodata.