43 minutes ago, Agrajag said:

Then, as usual, there's the situation of not knowing what the arrival runway will be when I get there. I still don't get quite how that works in real life. How can I tell for sure what the wind will be like at an airport whose ATIS I can't get until I get there?

Most STARs in the United States are valid for multiple runways and simply have transitions that you swap to if the active runway changes. What you'd do is plan for the current active runway in your FMC, and when you receive descent clearance, ATC will say "descend via the (name of the arrival), runway (runway number) transition." 

Ex: "SWA1262, descend via the ROBUC3, runway 4R transition."

 

In the FMC, you'll usually see multiple entries for the STAR based on the runway transitions available.

Ex: ROBUC3.4L, ROBUC3.4R, ROBUC3.15, ROBUC3.33, etc.

Edited September 15, 20205 yr by FlyingInACessna

34 minutes ago, FlyingInACessna said:

What you'd do is plan for the current active runway in your FMC

Well that raises part of the main question which is, how do you know the active runway at your destination? In VATSIM this was a continual problem. I'd built a plan in SimBrief and expect say runway 8 and instead get 26. Since that's entirely the other end, the STAR isn't even the same. Or am I confused again? <grin>

By the way, this is one of the challenges working in the KingAir where it's not quite a G1000 and no one really has posted much about how to edit a flight plan mid-flight. 

Edited September 15, 20205 yr by Agrajag

Admittedly, I didn't watch all the videos so this may have been mentioned already but one of the best features for me is the Navigraph Cloud, not just because it allows you to use your tablet but also any other computer, in my case, my MacBook. I'll have the map running on my MacBook and an approach plate on my iPad at the same time. And, of course, this doesn't impact my PC's performance other than the fact that Simlink is running. It's incredibly flexible with any combination of external devices you might have, regardless of OS.

43 minutes ago, Agrajag said:

Well that raises part of the main question which is, how do you know the active runway at your destination? In VATSIM this was a continual problem. I'd built a plan in SimBrief and expect say runway 8 and instead get 26. Since that's entirely the other end, the STAR isn't even the same. Or am I confused again? <grin>

By the way, this is one of the challenges working in the KingAir where it's not quite a G1000 and no one really has posted much about how to edit a flight plan mid-flight. 

As far as your preflight planning goes, all you can do is check the wx at your destination and plan for the most usable runway into the wind. You may have to wait until you are close enough to pick up the ATIS to know for sure which runway is in use. Depending on the airport, and if the winds are relatively light, they may not be landing on the most obvious choice of runways, considering the wind only, since other factors come into play with regards to traffic management into that airport.

If you are going into a larger airport with D-ATIS you can check ahead of time with any number of different apps.

There's a free D-ATIS app which works fine if that's all you want.

Sorry, US airports only.

 

Edited September 15, 20205 yr by air-ick

12 minutes ago, air-ick said:

There's a free D-ATIS app which works fine if that's all you want.

Found this yesterday and it's pretty useful for US. Slight annoyance that it's not on PC, but I just used and Android emulator to run it on my PC or I can keep my phone handy. Soon I might as well just buy a damned plane with all the tools I've got around here now.

I've also yet to be able to build my own plan in Charts (I decided to give it a shot yesterday given all the great feedback) and all the videos make it look simple, but the examples I pick all end up with a ..... spaghetti route.

1 hour ago, Agrajag said:

Well that raises part of the main question which is, how do you know the active runway at your destination? In VATSIM this was a continual problem. I'd built a plan in SimBrief and expect say runway 8 and instead get 26. Since that's entirely the other end, the STAR isn't even the same. Or am I confused again? <grin>

By the way, this is one of the challenges working in the KingAir where it's not quite a G1000 and no one really has posted much about how to edit a flight plan mid-flight. 

You check the METAR online and make an assumption. You should always check enroute & destination weather before flying. 

 

If the weather changes and the active runway is different, approach will assign you a different STAR before you reach that part of the route. If there’s no controller, then you decide which runway to land on (after checking the winds on the METAR).

I, too, have looked for a PC/Mac program that displays D-ATIS but to no avail, just phones and tablets that I can see.

47 minutes ago, Agrajag said:

I've also yet to be able to build my own plan in Charts (I decided to give it a shot yesterday given all the great feedback) and all the videos make it look simple, but the examples I pick all end up with a ..... spaghetti route.

What city pairs have you tried? Do you start with the autoroute feature or are you building the whole route yourself?

I find Navigraph Charts great - the moving map feature (when Simlink works...) is a real boon and the ability to pin the charts I need to a quick-reference bar and call them up with one click is fantastic on Vatsim. It's also great being able to overlay the charts on the world map in the Navigraph web app.

I've never used their flight planning. For UK and European IFR on Vatsim Simbrief works fine, with a little manual tweaking of departures and arrivals.

On Vatsim you can cheat by displaying the text ATIS long before you get into radio range and setting up the FMC accordingly. Knowing your final en-route fix and the arrival runway normally makes the STAR easy to guess and the transition obvious, and Navigraph can display an overlay of all STARs on the map so you can easily rule out the ones you won't be using. Having this function available when flying somewhere like Frankfurt on Vatsim is a godsend.

I find it's a bit more challenging to go full realism: set up box 1 with what I hope will be the STAR and transition, and have the backup plan on box 2. If ATC gives me something completely different, well, that's when I earn my virtual pounds for being the driver!

5 hours ago, Agrajag said:

Then, as usual, there's the situation of not knowing what the arrival runway will be when I get there. I still don't get quite how that works in real life. How can I tell for sure what the wind will be like at an airport whose ATIS I can't get until I get there?

many have herein mentioned reviewing destination metars ....... the better appreciation of arrival weather is from a review of its TAF.

you might also remember particularly at coastal airports the influence of diurnal trends on what most likely will be the landing direction (am off-shore, pm on-shore effects).

in the real, it is much easier as ATC plan ahead for weather changes on advise from meteorology observations / specialists. for example, if a front is approaching, they will assign STARS for that situation and not for current conditions even to the extent of requiring downwind operations for those touching down 10 mins before the front but upwind for those landing in the stronger gusts after the front.

bottom line ..... no sim can do predictions like the real (also sim metars are historic & not necessarily as current as a real atis) & the weather in the sim will most likely change if your arrival (STAR) begins 30 mins before touchdown.

there is only one atc addon i know which can predict when using historic data. 

i could continue, but i think you get the "drift".

Edited September 15, 20205 yr by vadriver

23 hours ago, Agrajag said:

could get their upgrade to add in Charts

I use charts desktop all the time along with Navigraph SimLink.