FSX-MS How to plan an Arrival

[Rizalini]

First of all, let me thank everyone in these forums. Every time I post a question, everyone is very informative and helpful, so thank you in advance everyone.

 

So I fly a PMDG 737 in FSX-SE, and have learned (thanks to help from you guys) how to use and program my FMC, plan my route, and plan my arrival using waypoints and ILC. My problem is that when planning my arrival, I am guessing at which runway to land at since I am too far for to contact ATC for landing instructions. What is the correct way to figure out where I'm supposed to land before I start my decent and approach.

 

Sorry if this is a stupid question, or should be a no-brainer. I appreciate everyone's help and knowledge on this subject.

Cheers 

[fppilot]

Anticipate only. It can always change.  Base it on the weather at the destination airport. Winds are the influence. There are a number of ways to determine the destination weather/winds when enroute.

[Rizalini]

So I'm assuming when you take wind into account at the destination airport, tailwind is preferred?  

[charliewards]

No... headwind. It’s best to take off and land into the wind.

[Jethro]

Headwind for both takeoff & landing, if possible. But there may also be a crosswind component (wind is like that) ATC will vector you to the right runway based on the weather/winds. But usually reliable wind direction indicators have been used to design the runway alignments.

[Rizalini]

Awesome!

As always, thank you guys for answering my rather simple questions and educating me and not making me feel like a dumb-word not allowed in the process.

Cheers guys, thanks a bunch.

[RGus]

You can also tune in to the ATIS frequency for the destination airport. Set on the COM channel (either COM1 or COM2) and you will begin picking up the broadcast early enough to make any changes in your expected approach to landing! It will tell you exactly which runways are active.

Rick

 

[cmpbellsjc]

50 minutes ago, Rizalini said:

Awesome!

As always, thank you guys for answering my rather simple questions and educating me and not making me feel like a dumb-word not allowed in the process.

Cheers guys, thanks a bunch.

If you are using AS16 for your weather program, which by the way is necessary to get the radar to work in the NGX, you can look at the AS16 pull down menu for the destination weather to get the winds or tune to 122.00 for the weather brief, assuming you filed a flight plan in AS16.  Once you know the winds, you can make an educated guess.

[tamsini]

Another quick way with AS16 is to click Conditions tab, enter ICAO code and it will display at the bottom, the active runways.

[Rizalini]

 

7 hours ago, tamsini said:

Another quick way with AS16 is to click Conditions tab, enter ICAO code and it will display at the bottom, the active runways.

 

11 hours ago, cmpbellsjc said:

If you are using AS16 for your weather program, which by the way is necessary to get the radar to work in the NGX, you can look at the AS16 pull down menu for the destination weather to get the winds or tune to 122.00 for the weather brief, assuming you filed a flight plan in AS16.  Once you know the winds, you can make an educated guess.

AS16 meaning Active Sky? Is that the same as Active Sky Next, or is it a totally different program?

So when planning my approach, get the weather and wind info for my destination. Make an educated guess as to which runway I will be landing on based on wind direction, and program my FMC for that ILS. After I contact the ATC for my approcah, I can alter the plan on my FMC if need be. Do I at least have that part correct? lol

[tamsini]

Active Sky 2016 (AS16) replaced Active Sky Next (ASN). And your assumptions for arrival strategy sounds pretty much dead-on.

[Jovabra]

I’m using Flightradar24. Actual and realtime landing and departure runways. 

Jo va Bra

[Bjoern]

Great information in this thread.

Personally, I use the information provided by Littlenavmap to anticipate my arrival runway. It fetches the weather from FSX, which, in turn, gets its weather from FSXWX. But in the end, it's all down to your ATC client (FSX, RC4, ProATC, etc.) when it comes to runway assignments.

[Raymond Gilbers]

Îm using AS16 as well but I noticed its better not to use the default ATC. So I fly without unfortunately :( I have been looking for a nice ATC addon but cant find a good one (recomendations are appreciated). I downloaded VOX ATC but I can get the voice recognition working. Anyhow I put 122 in a com and make an educated guess as mentioned above this works pretty good.