Help with Flight Plans for LDS 763....

[PilotPom]

Hi guys, hope you all had a fantastic Christmas, and are looking forward to the New Year.

Ok, I have been having a ball with FS2004, Active Cam, and REX, and it seems to be going well. I decided to take the plunge and get a payware aircraft for added realism, and after much research I decided to opt for the Level D 767. I have not been dissapointed and am very pleased, and even seem to get good FPS which was a big concern of mine, but it's all good!

My question is, what software (if any) would you recommend to build a flight plan for the FMC that uses the default navigation points in FS2004? I don't really feel like having to enter all the waypoints etc. into the FMC manually (but I will if there is no other alternative) as a complex route could take a while, and I have read that this doesn't happen very often in the real world. I don't feel ready to join online simming such as VATSIM until I'm fully competent with all the functions of the aircraft, but I would still like to fly under the guidance of the default ATC in FS2004 so I can get used to using the FMC, auto pilot etc.

I have looked into several programs like FS Build, Simroutes, etc but the documentation seems very vague about default FS2004 ATC and its flight plans. I can generate a route and put it into the FMC under CO ROUTE and get show up, but when planning the same route in FS2004 it always comes up with different waypoints and intersections which leads me to believe that the FS2004 nav data is out of date compared to that of Simroutes for example.

Is there any way I can generate a route in FS2004, or any other program (that uses my default nav data) that can generate the same flight plan in both .PLN and .rte format? I know that REX will not provide the winds aloft data for FS Build, and I'm not ready to shell out for ASE just for that, so I'm not too worried about that now, but I still want to use the ATC in FS for the moment. VATSIM in the future, who knows!

The answer is probably a simple one, but after hours of searching the web I'm at a loss and any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks, Alex.

PS. On a side note, after using the LDS 767 and I hit end flight, FS always crashes to the desktop and restarts. Anyone else had this probelm? The sim is fine when running, just when ending flight. Only started happening after installing the 767!

[Nzeddy]

http://www.leveldsim.com/forums/default.asp

[deeknow]

Hey Alex, good call re buying the LDS 763, its a great machine even tho its been around for some time now.

Re the default FS9 nav data yes it will be WAY out of date. To save you a bunch of pain entering departure and arrival procedures I reccommend you splash out on a Navigraph update which includes data for the LDS763. This will at least save to the pain of having to enter SID/STAR waypoints, elevations, speeds manually.

You're still left with entering the enroute stuff but this is also much less painful with the Navigraph data as you enter an airway and the waypoint you want to terminate it on and the FMC will fill in all the intermediate waypoints it gets out of the updated database. If you plan to start flying online soon then an up to date nav data cycle will be pretty much essential.

see: http://www.navigraph.com

[Chairman]

When you buy the navdata update (you only need one, you don't need to subscribe) you'll be taken to a long list of files. One of them will be for the LDS763 and that's the only one you need, but make sure you download them ALL and rename them so you know what they are for.

Then when (not if ) you buy more addon aircraft you'll have the same series of navdata ready to install into them, to keep everything synched.

Gary

[AlisterC]

What are you looking for is Virtual Dispatch
Enter your route from sim routes in there, and once validated, you can then export it into Level D and FS2004 .pln formats at the same time.
The same route will then be available to your default atc and you can put it straight into the co route in your fmc.
I personally use the payware version of Vroute. That not only creates my route file for the Level D fmc, but also takes the hassle out of the fuel planning
Virtual Dispatch however is an excellent program, and brilliant that it is free too. If you have a navigraph subscription, you can also update the airac cycle for V.Dispatch too.

Cheers

[PilotPom]

Thanks for all the info guys, I'm going to have a look into Virtual Dispatch, and Vroute also looks quite interesting too. I'm going to try a flight tomorrow when I have the house to myself and the nieces and nephews aren't around driving me crazy with Rock Band and Singstar! I'd give my right arm for some peace and quiet!

The Navigraph data update which deeknow and Chairman mentioned... Do these update the nav data for the LDS 763 only, or for FS2004 also? I have a funny feeling that using the default ATC will result in them barking in my ear about not being in the right place when the FMC is following SIDs/STARs from a flight plan generated by one of the above mentioned methods.

I have been looking at Radar Contact 4 and was wondering if any of you use this program and what you think of it? From what I've read it seems a viable alternative to the default ATC as it handles SIDs/STARs and seems to flow better than the default.

Once again, thanks for all the input gents. I'm still quite the novice, but determined not to give up, and really appreciate the support and guidance you can offer.

Alex.

[Chairman]

I've never had any issues with FS ATC not knowing where I was going, but I don't use them very often.

FSBuild exports to everything at once, if I really want to use FS ATC I load the same plan I'm using for the LDS763 into FS, then the FS controllers know which waypoints I want to visit in what order which is what it all comes down to really.

Cheers

[deeknow]

QUOTE (PilotPom @ Jan 2 2011, 01:10 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Navigraph data update which deeknow and Chairman mentioned... Do these update the nav data for the LDS 763 only, or for FS2004 also?

Hey Alex. As Gary mentioned above you pay once for a single update (cycles are released monthly) and download databases for each aircraft you have (as many as you like). The LDS763 is one of dozens of machines you can download updated data for. There isnt one generic one to update FS2004 itself but there is one for the freeware VasFMC tool which you can use on default aircraft.
Here's a list of supported aircraft: http://www.navigraph.com/www/fmsdata.asp