OnCourse Software

mllgrennman wrote:

Hangar24 wrote:

Do we need a waypoint where we want TOD to be?

PF3 needs the waypoint (s) to be within certain ranges if you are to get a proper TOD.

What is the range? Just trying to understand this better to make it work for me. Thanks!

Note to Dave to start this reply: PF3 1-Flightplan Nil. The algorithm for descent doesn't need changing in this case as it is a flightplan error. In fact not only is the flightplan hogwash it is up the creek and the tide is out! Note my generosity of praise.

To mllgrennman When you looked at the fpl route on the chart (which I hope you did) did you not say to yourself "This ain't right!" It is the equivalent of flying from London to New York via Ascension Island! Look at your route: PMDY 27N80 RESEE 21E70 PWAK. RESEE is so far South and out of your way it might as well be the South Pole. So why is this happening? You must understand that flightplan generators for the sims all use the same concept in that everything must be on an airway. This leads to a lot of problems which I will highlight further on. People spend good money on programmes like PFPX and their ilk and therefore assume that what is generated is pukka when it is more often than not not.

Your routing PMDY to PWAK is both off airway and over water. When faced with trying to generate a fpl, PFPX and its ilk do one of two things. First as in the case of Routefinder it throws up its hands in horror and says it can't generate a route (because it is off airway). Secondly they try desparately (as in this case) to find an airway even if it is as far away as the planet Mars. Also I noted that despite a plethora of waypoints surrounding both islands the fpl didn't pick them up either.

Cardinal Rule: When flying over a significant stretch of water fly direct to, or a great circle. For a number of good reasons. First, time, second fuel and third if you come down the rescuers will have less trouble finding wreckage and bodies. The oceans are "not" the Hudson river!

So when deciding where to go check first whether there are airways. If not you will have to construct your flightplan manually. Which is what I have done using FS9 data so it should also work in FSX.

PMDY-->EKUSY-->STUBB-->25E80-->21E70-->CANKU-->BRYSA-->PWAK

PF3 generates a good profile but I would suggest lowering BRYSA to 2000ft.

Flightplan generators quite often make mistakes even on "normal" flights. LIMF-->EGKK for example. Although the route generally look ok the start isn't because the fpl generators overlook completely that the Alps are in the way. Take off to the North West from LIMF invariably involves a long climbing right turn that overflies the airport in order to gain enough height. Conversly EGKK-->LIMF also is rarely correct because looking at the charts "all routes" lead to TOP not Rome in this case! ATC however, rarely let you fly to TOP because it is a bit out of the way and inconvenient for flights arriving from the North West. You will in effect fly a left hand circuit instead.

If as is often the case there is an ATC controllers strike in France, the same route LIMF-->EGKK has to be routed over Belgium and Germany flying over Zurich. You are most unlikely to get a fpl generator to give you that route even though it is also frequently flown anyway after dark.

I could go on but you get my drift. Always check what a fpl generator spits out.

Another note to Dave re the .json file for the ammended fpl which I have attached. It is split in two. it doesn't start at the origin and there are no regions overflown. I don't know if this could have any bearing on the problem. I'll try to fly this route over the weekend and see what transpires.

Interestingly enough. And here's another fpl problem both EKUSY and STUBB don't exist on current charts. Skyvector drops them completely! On skyvector it is possible to retrieve EKUSY if you zoom in but STUBB seems to have been replaced by OWODY. Note this only applies for updated current databases.

Quote:

Another note to Dave re the .json file for the ammended fpl which I have attached. It is split in two. it doesn't start at the origin and there are no regions overflown. I don't know if this could have any bearing on the problem. I'll try to fly this route over the weekend and see what transpires.

Dave it would appear that on the json map Midway Island doesn't exist at all. Also Dave both the origin and destination are under FAA rules.

And a couple of interesting point for mllgrenman. You can only fly at night at this time of year!

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APPROVED AIRCRAFT OPNS PERMITTED ONLY DURG HRS OF DARKNESS NOV-JUN DUE TO HEAVY BIRD ACTIVITY.

Also your fpl should be ammended to have a minimum of 5,000ft within 12nm of the airfield.

I have just finished flying this route with my flightplan (above) and experienced no problems at all at all. Except two small ones.
1. You need to make sure that PWAK has the FSS frequency of 122.00. So go into PF3s "Add new facility/frequency" option.

2. I was correctly getting instructions to descend to altitudes and frequency changes with point instead of decimal as both airfields are under Honolulu Center and therefore FAA. But they gave me the pressures in millibars. As nothing shows up on the json map I'm not sure how Dave can change that.