iFly B744 for FSX FMC

[Randy Tyndall 1087023]

I recently got an email newsletter from Fly Away Simulations concerning the free download of the iFly B744 available on their site. Curious about it, I downloaded it and so far enjoy the modeling that went into it. However, the FMC has me perplexed.

 

It operates almost identically to the FMC in the PMDG B744 I have for FS9...as it should. The newsletter from Fly Away even boasted the AIRAC was updateable from Navigraph. The readme stated it used either the PIC767 data or the PMDG data.

 

First off, as far as I can tell, the two datasets are vastly different, so the conjunction "or" has me confused. Secondly, the only one that seems to even remotely come close to working is the dataset for PMDG aircraft. Installing that the FMC displays that it is using the current AIRAC. I haven't found any five character waypoints the ROUTE page won't accept. That's good. Likewise, every airport airport I entered as either a departure or destination has been accepted. Also good. Equally nice is that with a few exceptions, like the M215 through the Caribbean, the Airways can be entered. Still good.

 

There's a catch, I cannot enter any VORs or NDBs in either the ROUTE Page, or the LEGS Page, or the FIX Page. I get "Waypoint Not in Database" error. Not good! I have searched and searched for fixes to this and the only one that is recurrent in many threads is that the wpNavAIDs data that is downloaded with the PMDG Dataset from Navigraph has NDBs within it that begin with a "1" and have 4 characters and two decimal characters. Confused? I mean instead of the typical NDB frequencies of 333.00 or 294.50 and so forth, the PMDG dataset has NDBs that have frequencies that are 1XXX.XX and the iFly is incapable of reading an NDB frequency that long.

 

So, the fix seems to be to look for NDBs with a preceding "1" in the frequency and delete them from the dataset. Seemed simple enough until I looked for those pesky NDBs with too many digits for the iFly to digest. Not that easy. Here is an example.

 

HENLEY DUNEDIN HL NDB -45.945884 170.161931378.00N

HENLEY DUNEDIN HL DME -45.945884 170.161931115.70H

 

Looking at the last character you see an "N" for NDBs and an "H" for Hi VORs/DMEs. Preceding that is the frequency for the NavAID. The NDB appears to have a frequency of 1378.00 but that is not true. You have to compare it to the hexadecimal lat/long position characters that precede the frequency. The "1" that looks to be the first character of the NDB frequency is really the last character of the NDBs longitude. It is like that throughout the entire file, so there is no easy way to spot an NDB with a "1" preceding the other three digits in the frequency.

 

Someone back in 2008 said the easiest way to spot them was to look for an "N" out of place by 1 position to the right (indicating a preceding "1" has been added to the frequency). That may have worked with the way PMDG did their datasets back in 2008 for FS9, but today's dataset entries don't conform to that "one to the right" tip anymore.

 

Long post, and for that I apologize, but I wanted everyone tempted to help to know exactly what the issue is. Has anyone fixed, or does anyone know of a fix to, this wpNavAID issue? I posted a similar query in the Fly Away Forums, but no response yet. The iFly website specifically states since the iFly B744 is freeware they cannot offer support for use issues of third party addons, such as a current AIRAC. The AVSIM Forums discuss this issue in the Unofficial iFly Forum section, but that is where I found out what the issue was (from a 2010 post) and what someone said would fix it, but doesn't.

 

I really do not want to go line-by-line through wpNavAids, single out all the NDBs and delete them. I use NDBs from time to time. Nor do I want to go line-by-line and look at the frequencies that "seem" to begin with a "1" and then look up the NDB somewhere to see if it really does begin with "1".

 

Any ideas? Anyone found the "definitive" fix?

 

Randy

[Charan Kumar]

I used it when I started on VATSIM, it was so good, when I eventually got the PMDG, I started it C&D, without looking at any manual.

 

I actually wrote some scripts to extract data from one of the AIRAC formats to the format iFly used, I remember doing waypoints, not sure if I did NDB and VOR. Besides, I don't know where those scripts might be. I have only reinstalled FSX like 10 or 15 Times.

 

The point is, it can be scripted to extract the right data, and the program can go through it line by line, I am not sure when I can get to it, but I will give it a try when possible.

[Bradley Grafelman]

Related thread: Searching for a Number String in Excel or Office

[Randy Tyndall 1087023]

Thanks for posting the resolution, Bradley. I came here as an afterthought to the thread in Computer Help and realized I should have closed this one with a link to the resolution.

 

Again, thanks so much

 

Randy...