claviermichel

I dare to disagree with this comment. The equations proposed are in fact accurate for both take-off and landing distance (with a sign diff). Instead it would have been more appropriate to say that there are actually programs which are doing it for you such as TOPCAT or if you want to spare 10 minutes on an excel sheet you can create your own spreadsheet based on the formulas given in the second post.Cheers

This may be what you are looking for: http://www.topcatsim.com/?page=download in the middle of the page you will find a section called user guide. Ju8st go there and download.Cheers

This is very true. As an example: PSX from Aerowinx may not be expected to be released before 2012 or 2013. This is the price to pay if you want to get a professional simulation. The Topcat new flight planner has been in development for ages and may finally be available during the summer/autumn of this year. The list could go on and on for those add-ons which needs thousands of code lines to be up to the expectations of the new brand of armchair pilots. However there is a drawback in this constant search for more sophisticated add-ons which is the learning curve and the time one will have to spend to master them half-way. There may be a day in the non too distant future where you will get two different markets with each its own selection of add-ons. The first one will satisfy those who do not want to invest time in learning / mastering highly sophisticated software or have substantial aeronautic background and a second one which will be the "fire and go" market with much less accurate replicas of the professional softwares for the average simmers.Just my two cents.Cheers

Hi,PFPX will be a flight planner no less no more. If you are looking at take off / landing loading sheets you will still need TOPCAT, if you need weather datas injected into MSFS you will still need ASE or REX or similar, if you need charts and moving maps you will need Aivlasoft EFB or FSC. What I am trying to say is that there is no software which will be an all in one solution. Having said that one must recognize that putting too many different functions under one hood rarely give the perfect tool you dream of. In my opinion the guys at TOPCAT are really good at what they are currently doing so are the guys at HIFI and Aivlasoft, so let them continue to be specialists in their own field rather than demanding a mix of expertize in one software. The important issue is that these above average softwares must interact with each other either directly or through MSFS.Cheers

Subject: Fwd: Written by a Delta pilot and published by Derek Adam on the Aerowinx 744 forumsquoteInteresting reading and makes you think about Nil Alternate fuel!Written by a Delta pilot re approach to Tokyo during Japanese earthquake..I'm currently still in one piece, writing from my room in the Narita crew hotel. It's 8am. This is my inaugural trans-pacific trip as a brand new, recently checked out, international 767 Captain and it has been interesting, tosay the least, so far. I've crossed the Atlantic three times so far so the ocean crossing procedures were familiar.By the way, stunning scenery flying over the Aleutian Islands. Everything was going fine until 100 miles out from Tokyo and in the descent for arrival. The first indication of any trouble was that Japan air traffic control started putting everyone into holding patterns. At first we thought it was usual congestion on arrival. Then we got a company data link messag advising abou tthe earthquake, followed by another stating Narita airport was temporarily closed for inspection and expected to open shortly (the company is always so positive).>From our perspective things were obviously looking a little different. The Japanese controller's anxiety level seemed quite high and he said expect "indefinite" holding time. No one would commit to a time frame, so I got my copilot and relief pilot busy looking at divert stations and our fuel situation, which, after an ocean crossing is typically low.It wasn't long, maybe ten minutes, before the first pilots started requesting diversions to other airports. Air Canada, American, United, etc. all reporting minimal fuel situations. I still had enough fuel for1.5 to 2.0 hours of holding. Needless to say, the diverts started complicating thesituation.Japan air traffic control then announced Narita was closed indefinitely due to damage. Planes immediately started requesting arrivals into Haneada, near Tokyo, a half dozen JAL and western planes got clearance in that direction but then ATC announced Haenada had just closed. Uh oh! Now instead of just holding,we all had to start looking at more distant alternatives like Osaka, or Nagoya.One bad thing about a large airliner is that you can't just be-pop into any little airport. We generally need lots of runway. With more planes piling in from both east and west, all needing a place to land and several now fuel critical, ATC was getting over-whelmed. In the scramble, and without waiting fo rmy fuel to get critical, I got my flight a clearance to head for Nagoya, fuel situation still okay. So far so good. A few minutes into heading that way, I was"ordered" by ATC to reverse course. Nagoya was saturated with traffic and unable to handle more planes (read- airport full). Ditto for Osaka.With that statement, my situation went instantly from fuel okay, to fuel minimal considering we might have to divert a much farther distance.Multiply my situation by a dozen other aircraft all in the same boat, all making demands requests and threats to ATC for clearances somewhere. Air Canada and then someone else went to "emergency" fuel situation. Planes started to heading for air force bases. The nearest to Tokyo was Yokoda AFB. I threw my hat in the ring for that initially. The answer - Yokoda closed! no more space.By now it was a three ring circus in the cockpit, my copilot on the radios, me flying and making decisions and the relief co-pilot buried in the air charts trying to figure out where to go that was within range while data link messages were flying back and forth between us and company dispatch in Atlanta. I picked Misawa AFB at the north end of Honshu island. We could get there with minimal fuel remaining. ATC was happy to get rid of us so we cleared out of the maelstrom of the Tokyo region. We heard ATC try to send planes toward Sendai, a small regional airport on the coast which was later the one I think that got flooded by a tsunami.Atlanta dispatch then sent us a message asking if we could continue to Chitose airport on the Island of Hokkaido, north of Honshu. Other Delta planes were heading that way. More scrambling in the cockpit - check weather, check charts, check fuel, okay. We could still make it and not be going into a fuel critical situation ... if we had no other fuel delays. As we approached Misawa we got clearance to continue to Chitose. Critical decision thought process. Let's see - trying to help company - plane over flies perfectly good divert airport for one farther away...wonder how that will look in the safety report, if anything goes wrong.Suddenly ATC comes up and gives us a vector to a fix well short of Chitose and tells us to standby for holding instructions. Nightmare realized. Situation rapidly deteriorating. After initially holding near Tokyo, starting a divert to Nagoya, reversing course back to Tokyo then to re-diverting north toward Misawa, all that happy fuel reserve that I had was vaporizing fast. My subsequent conversation, paraphrased of course...., went something like this:"Sapparo Control - Delta XX requesting immediate clearance direct to Chitose, minimum fuel, unable hold.""Negative Ghost-Rider, the Pattern is full" top gun quote "Sapparo Control - make that - Delta XX declaring emergency, low fuel, proceeding direct Chitose" "Roger Delta XX, understood, you are cleared direct to Chitose, contact Chitose approach....etc...."Enough was enough, I had decided to preempt actually running critically low on fuel while in another indefinite holding pattern, especially after bypassing Misawa, and played my last ace...declaring an emergency. The problem with that is now I have a bit of company paperwork to do but what the heck.As it was - landed Chitose, safe, with at least 30 minutes of fuel remaining before reaching a "true" fuel emergency situation. That's always a good feeling, being safe. They taxied us off to some remote parking area where we shut down and watched a half dozen or more other airplanes come streaming in. In the end Delta had two 747s, my 767 and another 767 and a777 all on the ramp at Chitose.We saw two American airlines planes, a United and two Air Canada as well. Not to mention several extra Al Nippon and Japan Air Lines planes.Post-script - 9 hours later, Japan air lines finally got around to getting a boarding ladder to the plane where we were able to get off and clear customs. -that however, is another interesting story.By the way - while writing this - I have felt four additional tremors that shookthe hotel slightly - all in 45 minutes.unquote

Hi,Topcat is not a flight planner as such but a solid and serious help for take off and landing performance calculation a look at their website will show you what I mean: http://www.topcatsim.com/. The word is out that sometime this year the authors of Topcat will release a flight planner software which is said to be reasonably professional. I even read comments saying that there are similitudes with the LIDO software used by several airlines here is the link: http://www.pfpx.com/. In the meantime there are few alternatives. One is FSBuild which "does the job" for the average simulation user (fuel calculation with wind components integration, export to a lot of flightplan formats etc...) webpage here: http://www.fsbuild.com but it lacks professional features. FOC (Flight operation Centre) from Danur is antique but very professional more here: http://www.danur.com/frontpage/index.htm. Warning learning curve is steep. So if I were you I would wait a few months for the flight planner from the Tocat authors.now if you are geographically bound in your flights ie. you mostly fly within Europe or the US there for both continents specific flight planning softwares available which are not that bad. I am not at home right now so I can't give more specifics but I am sure someone will. Just remember for Europe the name is FlightPlanPro.Cheers

Sorry I should have said TOPCAT is not in its current state a flight planner.

This looks almost identical to the Flight Operation Center dispatch briefing. Be aware the learning curve of FOC is very steep but the results are worth the efforts. If you are going to invest in this software subscribe to the weather data updates but do not subscribe to all airac cycles (much too expensive) quarterly or semi-annually updates are fully sufficient.FYI TOPCAT is neither a flight planner nor a complete dispatcher it is merely a take-off and landing dispatch help.Cheers

Brian,It is really a personal choice. Having worked for years with several well known people on the update of airac cycles for Aerowinx and MSFS add-on aircrafts I can tell you that changes between cycles do not exceed 0.08% of the total amount of data included in one cycle. History shows that most changes relate to parking charts, gate numbering and alike. Terminal procedures are rarely amended. Updating cycles every 4 - 6 months is fully sufficient. One way to check if an update is worth the cost is to read the NOTAMS published by Jeppesen. Should critical changes appear for your favorite aiports then you should update.Some people like to have fully updated airac on a 28 days cycle like it is done (mandatory) in the real world but in the MSFS world it is a bit excessive at best. Cheers,

Not really difficult as such indeed but it needs a good understanding of the chart and to accurately follow the procedure especially DME and ALT.

Hi,Here is a link to an incident report at Chambery, France which happened on February 7, 2010 http://avherald.com/h?article=4345e4bd&opt=0Although the aircraft involved was a B737-300 the approach can be simulated with a B-737 NG. I hope serious simmers will educate themselves with this type of approach which in itself is not very difficult but necessitate a precise reading of the chart. The report includes the AIP chart and FDR report graphs. Interesting reading anyway.Cheers

Hi Benjamin,Have you ever tried BlackBox FlightLogger at http://www.utr-online.com/Software.asp?page=4In my opinion much better than GE. Works on windows 7. In the payware section FSFlight Keeper is certainly the best available at the moment.Cheers

Hi Jean Paul, long time no hear. You have both FSX and FS9 on drive D right? have you installed PMDG 744 on FSX prior trying to install it on FS9? I vaguely remember a similar problem was discussed ages ago (maybe on this forum). If I remember correctly you should install PMDG 744 on FS9 before installing it on FSX otherwise you get stuck. Anyone with more in depth knowledge correct me if I am wrong. Anyhow, I would recommend the following steps:1. uninstall PMDG 744 if installed on FSX2. Even if there is no prior installation of PMDG 744 on FSX run a good professional registry cleaner to erase all PMDG related registry entries.3. Install the FS9 version of PMDG 744 first then the FSX one./Cheers and if you are in Jember in January I may visit you (I'll be in Madiun a month or so).

A new version called PSX is in the making and may be on the market around the end of the year. The ACARS services you guys are talking about were developed for the B744 but could be used with any aircraft. However, some of the information available may not be relevant to the MD11. Setup is not easy but it is an experience in itself if you want to understand how ACARS works in real life.Cheers

Hi Bill.EFBFSX is a very useful application which goes well beyond showing charts. You will need Adobe reader to be installed on your PC to be able to run EFBFSX. It is highly recommended to install EFBFSX on a second computer and to use it exclusively form the remote PC if you want to avoid problems with the PMDG aircrafts due to the limited amount of unused "windows" in the panel.cfg of the MD11. My advise is go for it you will not regret your purchase. Have a look at the FSwidgets site: http://www.fswidgets.com for more information and their dedicated forum.Cheers

Thanks for the info and links

I highly recommend FOC. Looks like an antic but it does a great job at planning, dispatching and weather integration. Fuel flow calculations are very accurate. Steep learning curve however. Don't bother subscribing to airac updates they are too expensive.If you want to go the cheap way. Get the fuel flows for climb, cruise and descent on the net. Get a few simple math formulas also on the net. Buy yourself a couple of pens and a ram of paper and do the fuel calculation by yourself. After a couple of tries you will get it right and achieve a high precision. with the satisfaction of having achieved a professional dispatcher exercise. There is also a profesional dispatcher for all PMDG products which was created by Karl-Heinz Wichmann. It is an excel based semi automated workbook which gives you fuel consumption for the MD11, B747 and B737 with an accuracy of +/- 0.2% on all routes exceeding 250nm. Shorter routes can show inacurracy of up to 1.2%. If you need Karl-Heinz's email let me know by pm and I will contact him.Cheers

Hi,Has anyone of you tried the T/O calculation on this website: http://todc.sas.dk/todc/virgin/index.htmand how does it compare with TOPCATCheers

Hi,Why don't you try to fly online either on VATSIM or IVAO. If you mostly fly within Europe you may consider IVAO which offer extensive ATC coverage for numerous european airports/airspaces. The United States are by far, better covered on VATSIM. Flying online under ATC coverage is the closest to reality which can be offered these days as far as ATC is concerned. To familiarize yourself you may join a virtual airline first. Most of them offer gradual training and PIREPS. Both IVAO and VATSIM have extensive reading material for both controllers and pilots. To fly online you need to download from the respective providers small software which are fairly easy to use. The only thing you definitely need is an internet connection and of course to knowledge of piloting.Cheers

Although not very realistic there is a groundhandling application available for both FSX and FS9 on the Avsim library. Don't remember the name but if you do a search with the keyword "groundhandling" it will pop up. As far as I recall it handles both pushback and taxiing and is fairly easy to install.Cheers

Mike,Have a look at the following thread http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtop...36&hl=acarsIt may help you as far as ACARS is concerned.

Hi Keith,An easy way to check where the problem is:1. Download sqawkbox (it is free)2. Uninstall FSInn3 Install squawkbox4. Re-do one of the flight where you encountered a voice problem After this check you will be able to ascertain which software creates the problem.Cheers

Hi,Guess you are referring to the Ulrich Tebin documents. As far as I know the origin of these documents is somewhat dubious and has never been proven free of copyright constrains. Believe me if Boeing had given permission to PMDG to disclose all data / tables for the MD11 for sure PMDG would have included these tables in their documentation.

Hi Noel,As far as I know home cockpit builders are using project magenta software for their purpose. I found a solution which consists of virtual desktops on the main frame the one running FSX whereby I undock sub panels on the virtual desktops and I installed a remote computer manager program to visualize the virtual desktops on the other PCs. Work just fine. Now I have FSX running on PC1 overhead panel on PC2 and FMC as well as other sub panels on PC3. Exactly what I wanted.Cheers