Flying the Oldies

[Joseph Colehouse]

I've decided that I want to fly vintage aircraft more after spending the last 17 years using the FMC every chance I get, especially now the DC6 is looking like it's about to hit MSFS,  I would like to fly it on the network under IFR but using older more authentic nav methods like VOR-VOR, so my question is where can I find VATSIM compliant flight plans using the VOR-VOR method, I use simbrief as my flight planner if that helps. Thanks

[Robert Shearman Jr]

It's not easy, and SimBrief is NOT well-optimized for the task.  But here's an overview of the process I use. 

 

[Joseph Colehouse]

Thank you 

[Alistair Thomson]

Spectacular idea! This lovely aircraft is ideal for that kind of flying. Navigating with NDB, VOR, DME and vectors, backed up with the Mark One eyeball once visual which is made so possible with MSFS2020 scenery, is really good fun. And challenging of your piloting skills! Real flying, as opposed to the "push-a-button-and-kick-back" scenarios which are so predominant these days on VATSIM.

22 hours ago, Joseph Colehouse said:

where can I find VATSIM compliant flight plans using the VOR-VOR method

Bearing in mind the performance limitations of the DC-6, you may have difficulty finding a flight plan like that ready-made, but with a map it is possible to join the dots yourself and produce a flight plan which you would be happy to follow.

I'm sure that any clued-up VATSIM ATC would be able to accommodate a flight plan like that, just like real ATC did when the DC-6 was flying regularly.

[Dustin Rider]

For a quick and easy solution, you can plug in your departure and destination airports into Skyvector.com's flight plan form and it'll give you V or J route options, depending on what you put into the altitude field. It will also give you ATC preferred routing if there is any. I believe the altitude window defaults to 8000, so make sure you update that if you want high-altitude routing.

If you're going to the big airports, you'll probably want to do a little looking ahead to see which SIDs and STARs you'll likely be assigned. There aren't nearly as many available for non-RNAV props, and you may just end up on preferred routing, or SOP/LOA routing which can be difficult to plan for, but should still be navigable with conventional avionics.