Hi -A month ago, I had no idea what SID's and STAR's were but then I sawa post here concerning ATC and navigation and it got me into tryingto learn more. I am reading the Jeppesen chart clinic series - they arereally helpful.I went to airnav.com and looked up some arrivals and departures and I washoping to find them in my DF Beech A36 GPS database but that databaseappears to be a number of years old.Is there any way to find charts that match the database? Does Reality XPoffer database upgrades?I almost bought the new chart series on CD from myairplane but then I realizedthat my database wouldn't have the same arrivals, departures and approaches in it.I'd like to get closer to 'as real as it gets' by flying actual airwaysthat a real pilot would fly but first I have to learn.BTW - a stupid question... if a faster plane is catching up to a slower planeon the same low altitude airoute, is passing allowed? How does that work? Do you just fly above or below or around? Will the FAA come and takeyour lisence away if you do? :-zhelp :)

Go to Garmin sitehttp://www.garmin.com/aviation/#download thir latest GPS Simulator. either 530 or the 430 depending on what you have. It would have the latest and the greatest Database. Reality XP works off the Garmin simulator. I think Aug 2005 is the last update."BTW - a stupid question... if a faster plane is catching up to a slower planeon the same low altitude airoute, is passing allowed? How does that work? Do you just fly above or below or around? Will the FAA come and takeyour lisence away if you do?"Its a good common sense Q. actually.When you file your flight plan (with the airspeed of your airplane in it) and get your your IFR clearnce. They use that Airspeed in your flight plan and they (the ATC Computer system) would make sure there is no other plane overtaking you at that TIME. You would be the only one at that point in time and space theoratically. This is the basic reason for getting an IFR Clearence and why you may not get what you asked for. There may have been others who have filed and gotten that airpsace at that point in time.If for some reason you decide to deviate from that initial filed IAS of 120 kts in your Cessna 172 and mush at around 60 kts or gun that Turbo charged jet engine in your modifed Cessna 172, you have to inform ATC of your new speed. (changes of 10% or 10kts whichever is greater need to be communicated to ATC and get new speed clearance), so they can see if they can accomodate you. and if you do change speed without letting them know, then yeah..they'll come after you or worse cause mid air collision. Mind you...you are flying IFR in clouds..there may not be see an avoid option.;)Manny

Hi Manny -Thanks for the help! My database now says 2005 instead of 2002 andI found arrivals that matched my downloaded charts. The departuresstill don't match for some reason but I'm closer than I was.

Database issues are something we have to deal with with the great RXP GPS. The newer version is fairly recent, but there are still going to be differences with various approaches.One thing I do so that I don't have these issues is to plan all my flights with FS Navigator with the same database as the garmin trainers. That way all my flightplans will match the GPS database.

I have found that, in general, the older Garmin database fits better with FS9, but none-the-less, you will get differences as the FS9 database is somewhat outdated.I actually have both databases saved, and toggle back and forth between the older, and newer, via the GPS trainer set-up page.This can be very frustrating, and can become more so if you fly a third-party scenery that has changed navaids, such as ILS frequencies.Then there are charts, which can throw another set of info into the mix depending on age.These occurrences are rare, but they sure are frustrating when you are trying to lock onto the localizer after a 3 hour flight, and the VOR comes up 'dead' because of a miss-match.I guess you could set-up custom waypoints for some of these issues, but that won't help you with frequancy issues. That simply takes a bit of 'homework', and adjust your info accordingly.Finally, you will find that approaches and departures are not found all that often within the Garmin database...at times...I find it best to select one from charts, and input the waypoints into the flight plan via the Garmin GPS by hand.