Radar Contact Identifying the undesirable of two waypoints with the same name

[Guest Sam McClive]

Hi,Today I was doing a flight from KMIA to MGGT when RC identified the "MAXIM" waypoint in my flight plan as another "MAXIM" waypoint that was located 1500 miles away:-mad !! I was forced to cancel my whole flight. How can I make sure this never happens again?

[jd 57]

can you send me the .pln?for the time being, rquest direct the checkpoint after maximjd

[PeteP 2]

"RC identified the "MAXIM" waypoint in my flight plan as another "MAXIM" waypoint that was located 1500 miles away..." I think you'll find that it was your flight planner that caused this error, not RC. Radar Contact does not have its own nav aid/intersection database but gets their names and locations from the information contained in the flightplan. So, if one of your waypoints is not where you expect it to be, the fault is with the plan and the planner that generated it."How can I make sure this never happens again?"Check the plan you've generated before using it. You don't say which planner you're using so I can't offer specific advice but most I've come across have some sort of map for you to see the route you've planned or can generate a nav log with bearings and distances between waypoints - a 1500 mile detour should show up very clearly on either. Failing that, you could always open the generated .pln file in Notepad and check that the lat/lon information is changing in a logical sequence - again, a 1500 mile error should show up clearly.Pete

[Guest Sam McClive]

Hello again,The flight planner I use is the online flight planner at simroutes.com, which is free. I just enter in all my waypoints I get from routefinder and it generates a chart that gives distances, bearings, etc. It also creates a map, and the map for this flight was showing the correct "MAXIM" waypoint so how could the error still be in the flight planner?By the way jd, I will send you my .pln file shortly.

[ronzie 21]

Open up your .pln file in a text editor and look at the format. You'll see lines like this:title=KMSP to KMDWdescription=KMSP, KMDWtype=IFRroutetype=3cruising_altitude=27000departure_id=KMSP, N44* 52.55', W093* 13.18',+000841.00departure_position=17destination_id=KMDW, N41* 47.09', W087* 45.08',+000620.00departure_name=MINNEAPOLIS-ST_PAUL_INTLdestination_name=CHICAGO_MIDWAY_INTLwaypoint.0=KMSP, A, N44* 52.55', W093* 13.18', +000000.00, waypoint.1=FGT, V, N44* 37.51', W093* 10.55', +06000.00, waypoint.2=SHUZE, I, N44* 21.27', W092* 50.26', +14000.00, waypoint.3=UKN, V, N43* 16.48', W091* 32.14', +27000.00, waypoint.4=DBQ, V, N42* 24.05', W090* 42.32', +27000.00, waypoint.5=CVA, V, N41* 42.30', W090* 28.59', +27000.00, waypoint.6=CVA42, I, N41* 15.55', W089* 45.43', +27000.00, waypoint.7=BDF, V, N41* 09.35', W089* 35.16', +27000.00, waypoint.8=MOTIF, I, N41* 13.46', W088* 30.03', +18000.00, waypoint.9=MINOK, I, N41* 28.07', W088* 21.47', +12000.00, waypoint.10=JOT, V, N41* 32.47', W088* 19.06', +11000.00, waypoint.11=KMDW, A, N41* 47.09', W087* 45.08', +000000.00, This one was produced from FSBuild with the include altitude option on used by some other apps, not this version of RC.You can see waypoint coordinates are generated by the flight planner and these are what are used by RC.Ther only coordinates that come to mind are airport facilities (runway information and airport centers). Those are derived from its scenery database building utility.