yos233

Thanks! I am not too familiar with these types of charts. Just how are you supposed to use these comprehensive resources? Do you just make rough estimates from the diagrams, or is there a more precise way (e.g., how would you apply this data to the descent forecast page in the FMC?)? I wasn't quite sure how this all worked—I thought there would be ATIS-like stations that you could tune to near each station/waypoint. Then you could determine the sum of the wind vectors and use that precise figure for fuel and descent planning.

If you use the images, then you will have to estimate average winds along the trip.

In the US however, there are text-based wind reports at http://aviationweath...cts/nws/winds/. Wind data at each station is given in tens of degrees, knots, and a temperature. So example text DEN 2923+05: The wind is going to be 290 at 23kts, and a temperature of +5.

(PS, you can get the wind images in PDF form by clicking the blue dot instead of the number)

... Because wind data is difficult to find outside of the United States (at least mainly in Asia, where I usually fly),...

I actually have a worldwide wind resource from NOAA. http://aviationweather.gov/iffdp/ Never be without wind again!

But there's a cheat for the CG if I remember when I had the 747. On the scratch pad? I'm not saying the real one has sensors.

PMDG does include with the 747 (and 737) an atomatic CG calculator. By pressing the CG button with nothing in the scratchpad, it will give you your current CG (and calculated trim),

Well, that fixed that problem, but I'm still seeing #REF under approach speed and arrival runway usage for both destination and alternate. In addition, I'm seeing #VALUE under pressure for the departure airport.

I fixed that now. Sorry for the trouble. I should note that with any complicated METAR (Like one with runway visibility) will error. A spreadsheet makes it very hard to apply different algorithms for different METARs, so I can't account for that. There are also some cases where a specific airport pair will not generate a route, giving an error. Neither of these will affect the fuel planning portion, but just be aware.

I had a look at it and am having problems with getting the alternate fuel and subsequently landing weight to display. It just says #REF and putting the mouse over the cell says the cell range wasn't found.

Yeah, sorry about that. It's hard for me to say that it is a Google problem (plus it makes me look lazy), but it is. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, just out of normal use. I have my flight data stored in another workbook, and it is just not reading the sheet correctly.

I'll do something about it.

EDIT: Problem fixed. I moved my data from the separate workbook to a different sheet in the Fuel Planner workbook. It shouldn't give #REF errors anymore.

I have built a calculator using the flight planning data straight from the PMDG manuals. Link to Google Docs

It has some additional features like automatic distance calculations and airport weather to make the planning process a bit easier.

This is a project that I did a few years ago. I solved the VHHX checkerboard IGS approach by creating a new airport (VHXX) and adding an ILS approach to a runway I hid beneath the hill.

The solution works for any version of VHHX you have, or if you don't have one at all, as well as any aircraft with a radio reciever. Instructions included. Avsim won't let me upload .zip files -> Google Docs

Now that Skyvector has world charts, make your own route. http://skyvector.com/

Nothing. I've done it many times, you're fine.

I get my wind from NOAA, http://aviationweather.gov/iffdp/. Select a location, then choose a time and altitude for a wind chart. Click the blue button for the pdf version.

...N307AS that was first shown in screenshots.

I might have the wrong photographs, but all the ones that I have use the tail number "N738PM," which is non-descriptive for any airline.

I kept most of the old photographs in a Picasa Web Album- Here. The oldest photos by PMDG are not there because they had already been removed by AVSIM.

I will bode no ill will to PMDG either way, but a discount would be nice. But then again so would some cake- To The Kitchen!

I won't speak for what PMDG might or might not be able to do. But reflections go in the base FSX are incredibly poor. Go find a lake and look through the reflection for that. Sometimes (or maybe all the time?) You will see a mountain in a forest reflected, even if there is none present.

Instead of using the FMC-based switch, you can alter the tail number of your aircraft. The NGX builds a file for per tail number, so if you use the same tail number it will pull the same data.

I suppose you might not really need to hear this if you are rebuilding it, but I can't "see" the site. It's all black right now.

I have AS2012 installed if I install REXe how do I use one for weather and the other for textures

how do I implement this

You can disable the REX Weather Engine on the REX configuration page.

Now if you wanted to be exact, here's the equation:

0.5 * (((Airspeed - Headwind) * 1.6878)^2 / Deceleration_Rate)

Airspeed and Headwind are in Knots

Deceleration_Rate is in ft/s^2

Result is in feet

That is your rollout once the brakes engage, you might want to add 1000 feet or so to simulate the "landing zone."

Loading a flight from the FSX Free flight screen is for loading positions and aircraft. To load the PMDG plans you must do that through the CDU. There is no way to do that from just FSX. Your FSX plans are in " My Documents / Flight Simulator X " (or the like).

If you can see the nose from the flight deck in the real thing I'm sure they would model it.

Or if you are doing a visual approach, you can type in how far out you want the centerline to extend after you select the runway on your DEP/ARR page.

In the full reply window, are you using the Attach Files option below the text box?

I would rather go for PPI over total size. I had two spare monitors in my house to choose from when I got my new flying computer. The first was a 48-inch TV screen, but only 720 pixels tall. The second was a 32-inch computer monitor that was 1080 high. The difference was phenomenal. On the 720 screen you had to zoom in pretty far to clearly read the smaller numbers. But on the HD-1080p monitor you could zoom out a lot further and still have the detail.

So my advice is to go for whichever has the highest pixel count, preferably vertical pixels, those make a huge difference.

That's an FSX thing I think. It doesn't automatically switch speakers in-game sometimes. You would have to open up the sound menu off the top bar and manually change the speaker settings.

Hope that solves it, and remember to add your name to your signature, it's a forum rule.

There is a very good freeware FSX airport editor at http://www.zbluesoftware.com/fsxplanner/. Download it and you can add/remove/change runway ILS frequencies, among others.

I use NOAA for my winds, http://aviationweather.gov/iffdp/.

(PS, when you go into it, always click on the blue dot rather than the number for .pdf form.)