help with flight planning

[Zac Coblentz 1136150]

i am a new vatsim user. until now i have been flying off-line fsx. I flew the basic direct gps flight where i just took off, hit the autopilot nav hold key and flew until atc lined me up for an ils approach. I have no clue how to file and fly a flight plan with sids and stars and waypoints and such or how to read charts. Does vatsim atc direct you to these waypoints or are you expected to follow them on your own? and does atc direct you to an ils approach or is a stars approach something completely different? Im sorry, i know i dont have a clue about any of this but i would like to have a place to start. thank you

[Larry James 901346]

i am a new vatsim user. until now i have been flying off-line fsx. I flew the basic direct gps flight where i just took off, hit the autopilot nav hold key and flew until atc lined me up for an ils approach. I have no clue how to file and fly a flight plan with sids and stars and waypoints and such or how to read charts. Does vatsim atc direct you to these waypoints or are you expected to follow them on your own? and does atc direct you to an ils approach or is a stars approach something completely different? Im sorry, i know i dont have a clue about any of this but i would like to have a place to start. thank you

 

Hi, Bryan. In conjunction to the very much input I'm sure you'll get from the PROs, start out with:

 

SIDs and STARS (PRC):

http://www.vatsim.net/prc/prc-ifrspec/sids-and-stars/

 

This helped me to get started, but I still have a lot of gaps in my understanding.

SID and STAR Tutorial video (From the stickies of Charts, Navigation and Flightplanning Help):

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=27628

 

Charts, Navigation and Flightplanning Help:

viewforum.php?f=28

 

-- L. James

 

--

L. D. James

[email protected]

http://www.apollo3.com/~ljames

 

 

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=27628

[Todd Ruth 815180]

To piggy back on what Larry was telling you about, I'd start at the VATSIM PRC http://www.vatsim.net/prc/. There is some good information there. Like everything in aviation, there is a lot of reading but it is one of those necessary evils!

 

As for some online flight planning, you can try http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/. This will get you the route to fly. To get some of the SIDs/STARs and Approach Plates you can use airnav.com. Also some of the Virtual ARTCC sites have preferred routed to certain airports that they like you to fly. It helps to look that up before you fly so you do not get an unexpected re-route! I fly a lot out West and know that LA (http://www.laartcc.org) and Oakland (http://www.oakartcc.com) ARTCC have some good stuff to look at. I'm sure the others do to, so it always helps to check it out the ARTCC you are flying in to see if there is any specific information that might help you out. Also, the controllers are professional and will help you out if you let them know in advance you might need some help.

 

Not to promote the VSOA org I'm in (http://www.usafvirtual.org), but if you are interested in military flying, our pilot training course takes you one more step above the PRC. Again, more reading but after you read about it the you get to try it and will learn a lot! Plus we have some good IPs that might be able to help out too.

 

I hope that helps a little.

 

Good luck,

 

Todd

[Wade Williams 877539]

This site is excellent for learning how to do navigation with conventional instruments and also includes topics on flight planning, chart reading, etc. Read every single page on this site. Really.

 

http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/

[Zac Coblentz 1136150]

okay i have now watched a bunch of tutorial videos and i get the whole sids and stars thing: its just a way for atc to put planes in a clean, straight line. I have looked at a bunch of charts and i think i understand them pretty well. I would like to make sure that i have this right though: first i got to flightaware.com and get a route. the first set of letters represent the sid, so i go to aeroplanner.com and print off the chart for that sid. I then program all the points on that sid chart into my fsx gps, and make sure they correspond to the waypoints listed on flightaware. i also do the same for the star. is this correct?

[Charan Kumar]

That sounds about right. Flightaware has almost all the flt plans for flights originating from the US.

 

Instead of loading the waypoints directly in your GPS, try this. Once you have the route from your source, Go to http://simroutes.com and under generate routes, plug in the ICAOs and SID/STAR and waypoints and generate it. The site let's u export it to a FSX (FS2006) or FS9 (FS2004) flight plan format. Open the .pln file in a notepad or ur fav text editor, verify all the numbers in sequence are there, if not renumber them and load it up in ur sim using the flight planner. Adjust only as necessary. You should be good to go!!

 

Also, check out http://pilotcerts.laartcc.org for more info on charts and flight training!!

 

Cheers, and keep the blue side up!!

[Nicholas Taylor 1104922]

I would like to echo Charan's last part. I thought I knew a lot about flying, and I still do, but the ZLA pilot certs have taught me a lot and I've only just completed the V-3 test.

 

Good luck! Remember, VATSIM is a learning environment and we're here to enjoy our hobby.