The 'Official' Screenshot & Tips thread 4 FSX enthusiasts & flight simmers.

ringo747 · 27 Jan 2013 at 15:06

I'm tempted to get the 777 from PMDG but if the 747 v2 was to follow closely then I'd get that. No point in trying to get 'type rated' on all PMDG products!!

PFPX should release in a few months. It will be amazing and will integrate with TOPCAT pretty well too I believe. It will be good for longer flights but for doing an hour hop across the UK you probably don't need it, you could get a route from the SIMSRD instead.

I'd be tempted to upgrade to a new gaming PC for FSX but not sure what to do.

shahpor · 27 Jan 2013 at 16:03

ringo747 said:
Plan-G is great - I only found out about it from the guys last week when we flew online. It's more for VFR flying and planning. For my IFR flights I use either the route generated from my virtual airline or else vRoute.

I'm eagerly waiting for the release of PFPX which is 'proper' flight planning software which is pretty much equivalent to real life. The detail is just unbelievable!

If you are flying the UK it is worth looking at SimSRD which is based on the UK standard routings.

To be honest I get nearly as much buzz from doing the flight planning properly as doing the actually flying itself.

Thanks again Ringo, great advice

I haven't got to grips with Plan- G yet, so I am sticking to the tutorial flights from PMDG where the route is preplanned for you. For example, I can select the airports I want to get to and the waypoints, but no idea about how to program the route to line up with the runway at the end? Guess I will just have to keep at it until I get it.

No definite plans on where to fly, but I would like to fly short hop in the UK and Europe with Heathrow as my default starting location. Think I might have to consider the UK2000 Heathrow addon cause it looks terrible at the moment

Vuvuzela · 27 Jan 2013 at 16:34

I'm really confused with thus OpusFSX :confused:

I still see default FSX clouds not the nice REX textures.

When I click add-ons on my menu bar I don't see Opusfsx there any more. In the spy window I'm getting a FSUIPC error. Do I need the full version of that?

Jason2 · 27 Jan 2013 at 16:37

Well I've just got that SimPlates x. Great buy! Thanks for the link.

Another thing I wanted to ask, does anyone know how to add vhhx to the PMDG CMD?

Vuvuzela · 27 Jan 2013 at 16:59

shahpor said:
Thanks again Ringo, great advice

I haven't got to grips with Plan- G yet, so I am sticking to the tutorial flights from PMDG where the route is preplanned for you. For example, I can select the airports I want to get to and the waypoints, but no idea about how to program the route to line up with the runway at the end? Guess I will just have to keep at it until I get it.

No definite plans on where to fly, but I would like to fly short hop in the UK and Europe with Heathrow as my default starting location. Think I might have to consider the UK2000 Heathrow addon cause it looks terrible at the moment

some useful tips here.

http://www.vatsim-uk.co.uk/website/pilot-info/

ringo747 · 27 Jan 2013 at 17:55

shahpor said:
Thanks again Ringo, great advice

I haven't got to grips with Plan- G yet, so I am sticking to the tutorial flights from PMDG where the route is preplanned for you. For example, I can select the airports I want to get to and the waypoints, but no idea about how to program the route to line up with the runway at the end? Guess I will just have to keep at it until I get it.

No definite plans on where to fly, but I would like to fly short hop in the UK and Europe with Heathrow as my default starting location. Think I might have to consider the UK2000 Heathrow addon cause it looks terrible at the moment

If you are flying the NGX then it would normally be IFR. Maybe you can use Plan-G for IFR too but it's mainly geared towards VFR (although I've yet to properly work out how to use it).

If you take a look at SimSRD try setting your departure location to Heathrow (EGLL) and then pick another location in the UK. It will list the default routing for a number of altitudes. It should also give you the appropriate SID/STAR to fly also.

The PMDG tutorials cover everything you need to know so keep practising! The FMC can throw up route discontinuities which won't join your route up properly - maybe this is the problem you are experiencing. You normally enter your route which joins you up with the first waypoint on the STAR. From the STAR you will normally be vectored by ATC, however, if you aren't flying online you can fly the STAR followed by a selected approach such as ILS or VOR/DME. You will need to ensure that the route, STAR, Approach are all joined correctly on the LEGS page otherwise there will be problems! If you switch to PLAN mode on the MCP, go to LEGS page in the FMC then click STEP to go through each waypoing in turn. This will show you if everything is joined up as expected.

Vuvuzela · 27 Jan 2013 at 18:20

Great flight this afternoon. Gatwick to Palma.

Got my clearance from ground, and then passed over to tower for take off. Once I was about 2000ft got hold of London_south. Once I hit Spanish airspace It was then Barcelona radar who vectored me to rwy27L LOC.
Palma tower cleared me to land and once landed, ground gave me taxi and stand clearance. So ATC almost the whole way down just French radar missing.

Oh yes I think I sorted Opusfsx out. The just not getting any data when I click high or low weather conditions??

!bluetonic! · 28 Jan 2013 at 07:59

Vuvuzela said:
Great flight this afternoon. Gatwick to Palma.

Got my clearance from ground, and then passed over to tower for take off. Once I was about 2000ft got hold of London_south. Once I hit Spanish airspace It was then Barcelona radar who vectored me to rwy27L LOC.
Palma tower cleared me to land and once landed, ground gave me taxi and stand clearance. So ATC almost the whole way down just French radar missing.

Sounded a great flight..

And because you all seem keen at the moment, if we want to meet on Mumble this week for a talk/lecture/discussion on 'FSX - The next steps'.. where we can talk IFR / VFR / FSX Setup / Mods, 737NG Cold and Dark to Engine start, Vatsim etc or just go flying, I'm available this week on the following:-

Tues 8.30pm - 9.30pm
Thurs 7.30pm - 9.30pm < - now unavailable.. Free dinner opportunity..
Sat. - Free most of the day..

Vuvuzela · 28 Jan 2013 at 12:42

!bluetonic! said:
Sounded a great flight..

And because you all seem keen at the moment, if we want to meet on Mumble this week for a talk/lecture/discussion on 'FSX - The next steps'.. where we can talk IFR / VFR / FSX Setup / Mods, 737NG Cold and Dark to Engine start, Vatsim etc or just go flying, I'm available this week on the following:-

Tues 8.30pm - 9.30pm
Thurs 7.30pm - 9.30pm < - now unavailable.. Free dinner opportunity..
Sat. - Free most of the day..

It was a good flight.

I will try this week. I'm going for an op tomorrow so maybe end of the week only.

I'm not sure how accurate this Opusfsx is? I'm flying into London and I have clears skies. I'm looking out my window and its overcast and raining :confused:

Martytoon · 28 Jan 2013 at 13:37

Vuvuzela said:
It was a good flight.

I'm not sure how accurate this Opusfsx is? I'm flying into London and I have clears skies. I'm looking out my window and its overcast and raining

Have you got FSX weather set to "User Defined"? I had similar problem with REX weather engine and then realised I had to change above setting. Perhaps the other thing is that we do seem to get very localised weather in the UK - the METAR for EGLL just shows scattered clouds and no precipitation - although even with that I would expect to see some clouds in FSX.

shahpor · 28 Jan 2013 at 15:27

Thanks for the link Vuvuzela. Will go over it in detail when I can.

And, as usual, thanks Ringo

Think I got the basic system sorted (what everything does and on which panel certain button are, etc), it is just the route planning and FMC inputs that are baffling me at the moment. Still, I like the challenge and despite my noobness, I am enjoying it.

Had another go at the first PMDG tutorial again yesterday which didn't end well

Failed to capture the localizer, so couldn't autoland, which ended up with me crashing. Up until that point it was going well though, so will just keep practising till I get it right.

Thanks again chaps.

Vuvuzela · 28 Jan 2013 at 16:23

Martytoon said:
Have you got FSX weather set to "User Defined"? I had similar problem with REX weather engine and then realised I had to change above setting. Perhaps the other thing is that we do seem to get very localised weather in the UK - the METAR for EGLL just shows scattered clouds and no precipitation - although even with that I would expect to see some clouds in FSX.

Hello, yes I have it set to "user defined" in fsx. I think I have all the correct settings in Opus too? Doing another flight into London now.

The weather is horrible, very over cast and raining, so lets see what happens.

Thanks for that.

Jason2 · 28 Jan 2013 at 17:03

Does anyone know any good programs which give you routes to input into the cmd? The "via" and "to" bit.

Vuvuzela · 28 Jan 2013 at 17:22

10min to land and FSX crashes. I hate it sometimes!!!! :mad:

Martytoon · 28 Jan 2013 at 17:29

Vuvuzela said:
10min to land and FSX crashes. I hate it sometimes!!!!

Nightmare, it was main reason I gave up on it a few years ago. Do you have the registered version of FSUIPC - as that has an autosave feature. I've got mine to autosave every 60 secs so if there is a crash (computer or pilot) all is not lost.

ringo747 · 28 Jan 2013 at 17:34

Jason2 said:
Does anyone know any good programs which give you routes to input into the cmd? The "via" and "to" bit.

Is this to plug into the FMC? SimSRD is a good tool for getting the UK standard routings. You don't need to enter all the waypoints on an airway. For example you can enter L10 for the airway and then you only need to specify the airway exit point e.g. WAL. Doing so will automatically enter the L10 waypoints before WAL such as IOM, KELLY, PENIL etc (assuming you are in the NG!)

Jason2 · 28 Jan 2013 at 17:55

ringo747 said:
Is this to plug into the FMC? SimSRD is a good tool for getting the UK standard routings. You don't need to enter all the waypoints on an airway. For example you can enter L10 for the airway and then you only need to specify the airway exit point e.g. WAL. Doing so will automatically enter the L10 waypoints before WAL such as IOM, KELLY, PENIL etc (assuming you are in the NG!)

Yes. For example, if I was flying from Gatwick to Schiphol, what would I put in the via and to in the FMC?

I'm just trying flightsim commander, maybe that will help.

Vuvuzela · 28 Jan 2013 at 17:57

Martytoon said:
Nightmare, it was main reason I gave up on it a few years ago. Do you have the registered version of FSUIPC - as that has an autosave feature. I've got mine to autosave every 60 secs so if there is a crash (computer or pilot) all is not lost.

It is a nightmare. I don't have a full version of FSUIPC. Always thought of getting that.

I think I'm just going to drop FSX completely and use my Prepar3D. It never crashes when I use it.

Jason2 said:
Does anyone know any good programs which give you routes to input into the cmd? The "via" and "to" bit.

Vroute is another good one for routes outside of the UK

Reedy · 28 Jan 2013 at 18:04

ghutchison14078 said:
Yeah Prepar3D v2 should be interesting, hopefully our masses of FSX addons can be fully ported over to v2.

By all account v2 isn't expected to be released until 2014/2015 is it??

Vuvuzela said:
I've ported most of mine plus all the latest add-ons now have a option for Prepar3D.

Nobody really knows but rumour is it will be out in the summer.

Are Lockheed Martin actually putting a lot of work into it? Are they supposed to be releasing a more end user version? I bought the $50 "Academic" license, not spent much time on it though.

Would be nice if there was a real alternative to FS X (64bit, graphics card processing offloading etc) and it's 6 years of growing long in the teeth. X-Plane is pretty decent, but it's nowhere near as end user friendly.

Jason2 · 28 Jan 2013 at 18:32

Just looking at some online flight plan it has the following for egkk to eham: CLN L620 REDFA/0034

Where would they go in the FMC? I'm just little confused here.

========

Using this: http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/autoroute_rtx.php

I get:

EGKK (0.0nm) -SID-> CLN (65.3nm) -UL620-> ARTOV (76.2nm) -UL620->
REDFA (117.4nm) -STAR-> EHAM (202.0nm)

What goes in "to" and what in "via"?