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When I'm flying an IFR flight from California to Denver, Co, in a 737 airliner, the ATC will say this" "...fly heading XYZ until recieving suitable navigation, proceed direct when able."What exactly does this mean for me? I was getting this ATC call right after I reached the T/C point. I was flying using the LNAV. Should I have turned the LNAV off and gone the heading it told me to go? I was a little apprehensive because it would have placed me in a huge banking turn away from the green route line on the ND. Seemed a little odd...What do you think?- Kareem

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there are a number of places.did you ask for direct a future checkpoint? if so, fly the heading, until you can navigate to the checkpoint on your ownif you missed a checkpoint, you need to fly the heading, progress the missed checkpoint, and the fly the rest of your planeither of those applicable?

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It seems to happen frequently. I usually stopped the sim thinking that my FMC programming was wrong. Your second possibility may be applicable. LEt me ask this. At what point do I activate the LNAV? Do I wait until ATC gives an indication for this or do I just turn it on at my own judgement?- KAreem

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Hi Kareem,When you hear "fly heading xxx until recieving suitable, proceed direct when able" all ATC is telling you is to proceed direct to the waypoint. You see, in smaller aircraft that are equipped with and flying based on VOR-VOR naviagation, that next waypoint might be further than the raw signal reception range. So ATC is telling you to fly a certain heading until you recieve a suitable signal to navigate with. When you recieve that signal, you can then adjust your heading to fly directly to the waypoint by yourself.I suspect this is not the issue you're having, since you have some fancy LNAV modes at your fingertips ;) Wheather you use LNAV, or HDG SEL, or HDG HLD, it doesn't really matter from ATC's perspective. ATC is telling you to fly directly to the next waypoint - HOW you do that is up to you.I'm guessing you're missing some waypoint along your route and ATC wants you to go back and get them. Remember, you have to fly within 2nm of a SID or STAR waypoint, and 5nm while enroute. If you suspect you've missed a waypoint, use the Dir Checkpoint option in RC and ask to fly directly to the next suitable waypoint along your plan.Also, one of the most important parts of RC is the first line in the RC window display. It shows you which waypoint RC is expecting you to fly to, it's bearing, and distance. That is your gospel ;) Any time you're lost, or seem confused about what RC is trying to tell you, follow that first line and you'll be fine.And finally, to prevent any 'errors' between your route of flight and the flight plan, try to export to BOTH the aircraft FMC format AND the FS9 format that RC uses at the same time. By this I mean, create your plan using your planner, and then export to FS9 format (used for RC) and to the FMC format (say .rte). This will help prevent any waypoint errors between the two and they will be in sync.Let us know how you go,Subs

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Where does RC allow me to export flight plans to FS9 version? I'm using FSX.

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RC only reads plans, not export them.It will read both formats.

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Yes Ron is correct - RC only reads them. What I meant was when you use your planner and create a flight, then when you export to FS9 format (read by RC), also export to any other format you require (such as to your FMC). By doing this at the same time, or immedietly one after the other, the chances of all waypoints in all the files being in sync with each other is much better.It's just to avoid mistakes, such as the FS9 file saying "AMBLE..OMLET..ONOXA" and the FMC file saying "AMBLE..LISSA..ONOXA". When all files are in sync, everything works much better :()Subs

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Following on what Subs suggests, I include my SIDs and STARs (common waypoints if runway specific and the runway is not known during planning) in the flight planner before exporting to FS (for RC and others as required such as Active Sky) and if used the FMC. Some planners facilitate this and then let you edit out specific waypoints before export.When the aircraft is loaded I import using a CO_ROUTE (company route) procedure in the FMC. All of the waypoints now coincide with what RC sees.On arrival in the FMC DEP/ARR page I only load the IAP for the approach (such as ILS RWY 36R) when announced by approach for position awareness. I exclude the IAF if necessary (dump it from the LEGS page when closing the DISCO) if I have received vectors and just use the final portion if I want LNAV to follow it or keeping the IAF if I'm coming in with an IAP declaration such as when conducting procedure turns and mandatory descending racetrack patterns (similar to holds). Having it available in the FMC also facilitates the missed approach handling navigation until you declare your intentions to ATC. I do not load STARs into the FMC from its database to avoid conflicts. They are already in the FP and like SIDs have been expanded to a series of waypoints in the planner for export.

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Maybe a better flight planner is needed that would be less apt to cause problems. I've heard about third party flight planners but I'm not sure which is worth the time or $$$.

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The different planners shouldn't really matter. I think they are mostly just ease-of-use issues. Some give a moving map display for example, and others give you more flexibility in the route planning such as including NAT tracks or airways. There should be no problem using the default FS9/FSX planners though. JD uses them exclusivly, while the rest of the beta team use all kinds of planners from A to Z ;)They should all work though, and RC handles them with no problems at all.Subs

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For FSX I occasionally use the default planner and usually end up screaming when I try to include additional waypoints to create a SID. If you accept the auto-route option it's okay.I've now switched to vRoute for FSX use. It's free to use and contains thousands of plans. The plans don't include the SID waypoints but are otherwise excellent and there are options to export to many formats. www.vroute.net/ There is a Premium service which includes a fuel calculator. See the link for details.For FS9 there's nothing to match FS Navigator but sadly it wasn't updated for FSX.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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Yeah, I'll need to try another flight planner to see if that will help. I'm still missing the waypoint or for some reason ATC keeps saying that I'm not flying the flight plan that's in the FMC box. And then the critique really lets me have it at the end of the flight. But the ILS landing worked like a charm for the same flight.Right after takeoff, at about 1500 feet, I click on the CMD, VNAV and LNAV. And then wait for ATC to give heading instructions. Generally that works fine for about the first 20 - 30 minutes or so of the flight and then suddenly, ATC says, United 5711 have strayed from your flight plan? Turn left heading xyz.... until suitable navigation... Ish!- KAreem

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RC in its status window shows the heading it alway expects you to fly along with the next waypoint it expects you to go direct to. Be sure if you are on LNAV that the top of your LEGS list agrees with that information.When RC tells you to resume under your own NAV be sure you double click the top waypoint L-LSK and EXE it to set your LNAV route as a direct-to. Do not return to the original path shown on your ND/FMC.How long are your legs? If they are greater than 200 nm there can be a difference in the route due to great circle navigation differences. Also while probably not applicable some PMDG users have installed sceneries that changed the magnetic deviation declaration file in FS that caused route discrepancies. Other users have found FMC LNAV errors when using both FS9 and FSX and the registry points to the wrong sim. The fix is on the downloads section of flight1.com.RC does not care about your FMC plan but expects you to fly the plan you filed with FS. Your FMC plan must be the same as that.

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Thanks so much for your help and insight. This is extremely helpful. I will check to see that the LEGS list agrees with what's shown in the status window. I have seen that information being referred to there but mostly for the ILS runway heading information.As for RC telling me to resume under own nav, I keep waiting to hear this call but it never comes for me. Maybe I've heard it once; I have heard ATC saying it to other AI aircraft though, just not me.As for your last point, I'll have to check to far it is between waypoints. I usually pick and choose a couple of big airports (to ensure ILS approaches) to create flights to/from. The flights are usually short hops, around 150-275 miles in length. And as for scenery enhancements presenting a possible problem with magnetic deviation, this has crossed my mind before. I've wondered about that. I'll check for updates. I'm using Ground Environment X (GEX).Continuing in the work...- Kareem

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