Hello everybody,

I'm new to Prepar3D (v4.5) and the PMDG 747 QOTSII. A few days ago I decided to get Prepar3D and all the "must have" addons, because I want to start with learning & playing it. I like the 747 really much and for my first flight I choose a route from Frankfurt/Main (EDDF) to Dubai (OMDB) with a B747-400(ER)F from Emirates (Livery: https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxacrp&DLID=198432 ) and created my flight plan with simBrief. I watch a lot of tutorials and PMDG manuals to learn the meanings of all these technical switches and the FMC. Now when I wanna type in the route in the FMC unter the RTE1-page some waypoints are missing, like UL124 or L319. After research I find out that there is the possibility to keep my Navdata updated with things like Navigraph. But is there a way to keep it on a more updated state than I have now on my 747 (IDENT-page on my FMC says: "NAV-DATA: AIRAC-1702 FEB02MAR01/17") without paying money? It doesn't even has to be the newest state for me, but maybe one where I can use planners like simBrief. I paid a lot of money the last days for addons and stuff and it was definitely worth it, but I'm not a friend of monthly/yearly subscriptions.

I'm such a big newbie in this world but maybe you have some helpful answers for me 🙂

Sorry for my english, I'm not a native speaker.

Thanks!

Adrian

You can buy a monthly subscription to Navigraph, download the latest navdata updates, and then cancel the recurring monthly subscription.  You won't have access to their charts after the subscription expires, but the navdata set you downloaded will remain usable.  Over time, though, you'll start seeing problems again, as Simbrief uses current nav data.  You could buy a good standalone flight planner that uses the same navigraph data (like PFPX), update both your aircraft and PFPX databases, and then use that data in both your flight planner and acft for as long as you like, and they'll always match.

But no, there are no free updates to the latest data...it takes a lot of work to keep a worldwide database up to date.

Regards

2 minutes ago, w6kd said:

Over time, though, you'll start seeing problems again, as Simbrief uses current nav data. 

That's not the case - Simbrief provides AIRAC 1803 (I think) free to all users.

Other cycles have to be unlocked through a Navigraph subscription. If you purchase the current cycle from Navigraph, in addition to updating your addons you can unlock it in Simbrief and it will continue using that until such time as you tell it to use a different cycle.

16 minutes ago, skelsey said:

That's not the case - Simbrief provides AIRAC 1803 (I think) free to all users.

Other cycles have to be unlocked through a Navigraph subscription. If you purchase the current cycle from Navigraph, in addition to updating your addons you can unlock it in Simbrief and it will continue using that until such time as you tell it to use a different cycle.

OK, thanks for the correction. 

So you can purchase a monthly Navigraph subscription, update your acft databases, unlock that AIRAC cycle on Simbrief while the subscription is active, and then cancel the subscription but continue to use that AIRAC cycle in both your acft and Simbrief after the subscription has expired.  Is that correct?

Regards

 

That is correct!

Thanks a lot! I didn't thought about this, but the idea sounds great. I did a bit more research about Navigraph and I think I'll give it a try.

Greetings