My Thoughts  on Flight Simming In 2006

Well the New Year is on us and I  take stock of where I am in the Flight Sim world. Most of us have purchased the current edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator FS2004.  (Having bought many add ons for the previous versions which are now on the shelf never to be used again.) 

Shortly Microsoft will roll out yet another version. I have no plans to update to it after purchasing yet more add ons for the current version. With excellent add ons of scenery and aircraft and indeed textures for night ,winter, spring ,summer,fall, what can this new program do better than the current version. 

The Microsoft flight planner is inflexible why do they not get a Flight Management Computer like some of the add on aircraft ?. The world is constantly updating airways nav aids etc. Why cannot Microsoft do an AIRAC monthly update, like we can get for the FMC computers?. Why can they not  get better cockpits?.

What is for sure you are going to need high graphics cards and plenty of RAM memory to get any gizmos to work. Why is it that non of the adds on  work with the new version ?. It should be an industry standard that we should be able to work to and not get left with shelves full of software we cannot use.

Currently For me the PMDG 737 and Level D 767 are the best products every made for aircraft flying.

FS Enviroment is good for the clouds and sunsets and is a pleasure to randomize. So far Microsoft Flight Simulator has given me many hours of pleasure but I feel a line has to be drawn at update versions that are not compatible.

Preflight Planning for a Good Trip

Lets have a look at flight planning and flight preparation for  FS 2004.  Hopefully I can give you some tips. For those that have the default program my first tip is go and get one of the add on aircraft with a FMC.

Level D767 

PMDG737

Airbus

 Then work out which area of the world you want to fly in and go and get some freeware from www.avsim.com or www.flightsim.com  libraries. You might want to get some environment  textures to. Some excellent scenery is available at Aerosoft .  

For about £28 you should be able to get a set of High Level Radio Navigation Charts for the whole of Europe. This is well worth it for helping you flying around and you need to know the safety heights. A copy of  SimCharts is also useful for arrival departures and airfields.

 Charts can also be got from the internet by download. 

From this site charts are linked . 

Once a month the real world organizations update navigation  aids etc . By clicking the AIRAC  link you can update your add on FMC.

If you do not have charts you can get an automatic route from  http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/ 

All you need to do is enter the two airports 4 letter ID codes and the whole route will be printed out for you like this

ID      FREQ   TRK   DIST   Coords                       Name/Remarks
EGLL             0      0   N51°28'39.00" W000°27'41.00" HEATHROW
MID     114    198     26   N51°03'14.00" W000°37'30.00" MIDHURST
BOGNA          151     25   N50°42'07.00" W000°15'06.00" BOGNA (SFD 258/015)
BENBO          151     18   N50°27'05.00" E000°00'37.00" BENBO (SFD 195/019)
HAWKE          151      6   N50°22'27.00" E000°05'25.00" HAWKE
XAMAB          151     12   N50°12'16.00" E000°15'53.00" XAMAB
VEULE          151     25   N49°51'24.00" E000°37'12.00" VEULE
RESMI          145     99   N48°34'07.00" E002°11'31.00" RESMI
PEKIM          128     31   N48°16'33.00" E002°49'32.00" PEKIM
PILUL          146     15   N48°05'00.00" E003°02'53.00" PILUL
PIMUP          160     35   N47°32'25.00" E003°23'15.00" PIMUP
PIXIS          160     39   N46°56'25.00" E003°45'14.00" PIXIS
PODEP          160     18   N46°39'26.00" E003°55'25.00" PODEP
MOKIP          107     50   N46°26'56.00" E005°05'37.00" MOKIP
MILPA          107     34   N46°18'09.00" E005°52'47.00" MILPA
GVA     115.75 108     11   N46°15'14.10" E006°07'56.00" GENEVA COINTRIN
GVA02          139      2   N46°13'46.38" E006°09'54.09" (GVA 137/002)
MOBLO          139     34   N45°48'35.00" E006°43'22.00" MOBLO
VEROB          139     42   N45°17'44.00" E007°23'22.00" VEROB
TOP     114.5  139     30   N44°55'31.50" E007°51'41.97" TORINO
NEDED          141     18   N44°41'38.00" E008°08'26.00" NEDED
LAGEN          141     24   N44°23'39.00" E008°29'53.00" LAGEN
ANAKI          141     15   N44°12'04.00" E008°43'32.00" ANAKI
IXITO          141      5   N44°08'05.00" E008°48'13.00" IXITO
UNITA          141     15   N43°56'40.00" E009°01'30.00" UNITA
KAFEE          141     11   N43°48'00.00" E009°11'31.00" KAFEE
KONER          141     23   N43°30'17.00" E009°31'48.00" KONER
MAURO          141     25   N43°11'17.00" E009°53'15.00" MAURO
ELB     114.7  141     35   N42°43'50.00" E010°23'45.00" ELBA
GILIO          133     32   N42°22'00.00" E010°55'34.00" GILIO
LIRF           120     68   N41°48'16.11" E012°15'02.87" FIUMICINO

EGLL SID MID UN615 XAMAB UL612 RESMI UM975 PIXIS UY612 PODEP UL612 MILPA UM135 TOP UL50 ELB UM729 GILIO STAR LIRF

More on the highlighted in a minute when I cover the FMC

Before you start flight simulator work out your fuel requirements and get the weather from  http://euro.wx.propilots.net/ 

Type the airports 4 letter id in the Metar box you can then get the up to date weather for departure arrival and diversion airfields 

Use your Aircraft Load manager and get the weights 

If you have FS Environment press randomize and get new clouds and textures.

Now  Load Flight Sim get yourself to the departure airport fuel the aircraft and download the real world weather from the internet this should match your weather reports for now.

Now tune in the ATIS get your departure runway and QNH.

Open your FMC

Note the bit from the bottom of the flight plan

 EGLL SID MID UN615 XAMAB UL612 RESMI UM975 PIXIS UY612 PODEP UL612 MILPA UM135 TOP UL50 ELB UM729 GILIO STAR LIRF

Program  departure and arrival airports   in  the route page and select the departure runway.now go to legs page and enter  in  top left MID

Now go to route page and then click next under mid on the left enter the airway UN615 as you press it a box opens on the right. This box is the waypoint  you want to go along the airway to where you go onto another airway or final approach . In this case XAMAB.the next line down enter the next airway which is UL612 on the left and on the right XAMAB put RESMI do this until the route is completed. Activate this and all the other waypoints for the route are put in automatically. 

I will leave you to program the rest of the route and enjoy the flight. I never use the microsoft flightplanner it is too time consuming. If the weather is IFR then you can use the flightplanner to do a brief  IFR plan and then cancel it when you get airborne.

Exit