Boeing247, umm, have to say I have seen all that stuff originally in a variety of textbooks and manuals I have digested over the years as a real world pilot, then as an instructor (QFI) and as a testing captain or check captain not to mention the untold and useful wisdom of some old crusty buggers who I had as captains and teachers. So after a while you pick up a lot of stuff that sticks and sure is useful when your flying for a living and in my case mostly doing flights to places you have never been or been rarely, so as you can gather I was not an airline pilot but a military pilot and spent most of my flying life in remote areas and out over the ocean doing martime patrol work. If you want a good understanding of navigation techniques of the 707 727 period then US Air Force Manual of Navigation is as good as any place to start.

The simroute stuff is pretty good and I use it ocasionally but I have to say that a good navigation chart (radio and visual) is chock full of very useful information and the most useful is the legend that explains all the symbols and little shorthand ways that information is put onto charts. The real key though is preparation and having a good hard look at the route you intend to fly, terrain, radio aids, weather patterns, airfields etc. I am trying out SFP 405 (Super Flight Planner) it also seems more realistic but has a lot of bugs.

However I have to confess that I have probably forgotten as much as I ever learnt and the one thing I did learn about aviation was that you never stopped learning. Now I admit though I know nothing about heavy metal of the Boeing variety like LOU, as all the aeroplanes I ever flew all had propellors even the turbine powered ones and we never carried self loading baggage only ration munchers.

Í have always had flight sim programs, they were good to practice procedural stuff on and were well just fun and I am still at it, but I have to confess I do a lot of simming in the venerable DC-3 and the Lockheed Electra or P3 Orion which is about my speed in aviating, low and slow in the weeds :).