Help for an old timer please.

On 5/20/2024 at 8:57 AM, Vineguy said:

So, are you saying that if I load a flight into the FMC I could start at a gate or runway and not contact ATC for clearance etc.?

Sure. You can start wherever you want, and you don't ever have to talk to ATC. I never use the included ATC because it's so terrible. When it isn't directing me to fly into mountains or deciding I'm not allowed to descend from FL400 until 20 miles before I get to the airport, it's sending me to the wrong runways for takeoff or making me climb and descend over and over again because the hills below me change my AGL.

On 5/20/2024 at 10:59 AM, Vineguy said:

Just to clear up some misgivings many of you have. I have flown over 10,000 hours for two virtual airlines. I know most of the rules of the road regarding airspace, altitudes, speed etc. Very comfortable executing visual and ILS landings. The reason I haven't had to program a FMC is because since 20006 I have been flying the MS default B737-800 using FSX and P3D and it doesn't have a FMC. I guess I will just have to watch a couple YouTube videos etc. to learn how to accomplish this.

I am familiar with computers and have built 5 computers to keep up with the flight sim updates. 

The FMCs aren't usually too hard to master, and even the default airliners in MSFS benefit from setting things up in them (it's nice to know the V speeds, etc). The good news is once you learn one, you can figure the others out pretty quickly. They're all fairly similar to each other.

On 5/20/2024 at 4:09 PM, Roy Warren said:

Thank you Abrams for taking time to explain all this.  I was about to take the plunge, but I don't won't to have to go through all this.

Roy

I have never encountered any of the problems that poster has. BATC is not always perfect (it is, after all, an alpha release) but on the whole it does a very good job and is light years ahead of the default ATC.