OnCourse Software

As I learn more about PF3, reading the manual, this forum,and watching the few existing videos on you Tube, I am trying to wrap my head around what is probably the simplest way to get going with PF3 and,slowly, engage with the various program's options as one becomes more experienced.
So far, my approach is the following:

1. create or download a complete flight plan, including SIDs and Stars.
3. Make sure that PF3 does not have the sid and star buttons checked.
4. check and change FAF arrival altitude and distance
5. Go Fly

This approach should provide vectoring as needed and navigation at pilot's discretion.

I'd like to know if I need to add anything else to my planning. Again, I want to emphasize that the above steps are the very first steps for any new comer to PF3.

tony

In its simplest form I would say forget about SID's and STAR's (or at least read the section in the user guide about using them with PF3). Then set your VCP mode to 3. Load a flight plan. Connect and fly

In addition to the above I would say the most important thing is avoiding waypoints that are too close to the airport. Your first waypoint should ideally be at least 10 miles from the departure airport, and your last waypoint should be 25-40 miles from the destination airport.

The above guidelines mean that as far as SIDs and STARs go, when flying in Europe it's usually best to leave them out of the flight plan because they are usually short. In the U.S. and Canada the SIDs and STARs are much longer so you will include them in the flight plan but you need to remove any waypoints that are too close to the airport. See the User Guide for more info on the waypoint removal feature.

Also the FAF altitude and distance really should not need to be adjusted often. PF3 by default uses an altitude of 3000 ft AGL and this works well in the vast majority of cases. The default setting is 3000 ft in the Advanced Options, and 0 on the individual airport settings so the default will be used.