I'm missing intersections in Europe

[Barry Cobbley 1012215]

I tried to join a fly in today. Tried to schedule a flight from LCZH to EDDF. I used FS2004's flight planner because that loads the GPS waypoints. However, when I filed and connected, I was informed that my route was incorrect. I used VATroute as instructed to get routing, but cannot program GPS with waypoints or find another way to navigate to them properly. Is there some data source for my GPS for Europe so that I can program in waypoints as instructed? Also, I have a source for enroute charts but printed on 8.5 x 11 looks like microfilm. Any thoughts there?

[Gabriel Adei]

Barry I am not in EU and hardly fly there but I will take a swat at ur question. Generally on Vatsim all the ATC prefer "preferred routes" which mimics the real world routes very well. FS is hardly any close to real world and hence if u use the FS routes to fly on Vatsim ATC is sure to tell u that u dont have the right route. If you dont have an FMS for the airplane you r flying u can try a freeware vasFMC ( search the web for it) which I hear is very good but I have not used it before myself. It simulates FMS where u can program the route [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned in there and fly with it like an FMS. If not u have to polish ur VOR navigation and fly each leg by hand which i do a lot and it has sharpened my VOR navigation skill. No thoughts on ur printed charts other than the PDF file might not be set right. Good luck.

[Alex McGillicuddy 1001707]

Barry, I had this problem too, if I understand your description right. Anyway I think what you are trying to do is to somehow insert or program waypoints into your GPS that have been different to your filed flight plan. There is some very good websites where you can find ATC approved routes, like www.simroutes.com, or there may be more for Europe. There is however a website which is www.fsroutes.com where you can type in waypoints and then download it to FS. Then just load the flight plan and it should be on your GPS. I use this all the time with FSX. I hope I understood your problem, if not just let me know.

 

Cheers

 

Alex

[Bill Casey]

You both slightly missed Barry's point, it was a fly-in to Germany and he used VATroute to find his way in - VATroute is the VACC-SAG flight planner and they ask that all pilots flying into the Swiss/Austrian/German airspace use it, so Barry did exactly the right thing in that respect. Unfortunately FS in whatever flavour does not have all the latest AIRAC details in the GPS and will not have all the necessary waypoints, especially for some of the transitions in Germany.

 

Barry, if you're flying the default FS aircraft or other non-FMC equipped aircraft then, as suggested above, vasFMC is a good way to go. It allows you to program the route as provided by such things as VATroute and provided you update it with the lastest AIRAC details (waypoint and airway updates) it will follow the route for you.

[Barry Cobbley 1012215]

Thank you all for responding. As a newbie here, this VATSIM community has been really helpful.

 

I did some checking/reading while your responses were coming in. FYI, there are a couple of things that can help solve similar problems including:

 

The Flight Planner in FS (at least in FS2004) allows you to drag and drop the route segments to include/exclude various waypoints/airports/navaids etc. If the FS database contains the necessary data this might work as a solution. You can also modify/create a .pln file (somewhat painstaking) to include any user defined waypoints. I tried this and was able to fly the appropriate route from LSZH to EDDF last night...unfortunately well after the fly-in, but at least it worked.

 

I think I'll try a vasFMC next. Thank alot, everyone!