Post by Tim Capps on Sep 11th, 2009 at 11:53pm
I'll keep plugging along, bit by bit. This afternoon I want to start on the FMC. Captain Sim has made a thing of beauty here, and it is capable of amazing things. But you have to start somewhere.
You can use it directly in the vc, but I far prefer to hit Shift+7 and drag the borders of the 2D pop-up to monumental size for my tired old eyes.
I start with the FMC shortly after the "Begin" (green) steps are finished on the overhead as I have shown above. Unless you just want to do touch and goes or fly aimlessly, do not think about going anywhere without spending some quality time with the FMC.
The first screen will tell you some nice-to-know / realistic information that is not essential for basic FMC programming for now, so just skip to the POSIT INIT page.
The first thing you'll need to do is tell the airplane's brain where it is. It remembers, but wants a human being to confirm. By pushing the topmost line select key (LSK) on the right (LSK-1R from now on) you will copy the coordinates into the "scratchpad" at the bottom of the screen. (This works for pretty much any data, by the way, and is something you'll do a lot of.)
You will see some empty boxes on the line next to the fifth button on the right. Any time you see this, the FMC is requiring some information. As you have already "copied" using the top button, you can "paste" whatever is in the scratchpad into a line by pushing the appropriate button. (LSK-5R, or fifth button down on the right side).
SEE BELOW
You'll notice the ROUTE> at the bottom. If you push LSK-6R, you will be taken to the page where you can begin entering your route. The FMC is pretty smart about leading you to the next step. Go ahead and push it.
Let's do things the easy way, which is also the realistic way, since airlines have their company routes pre-programmed. Push LSK-3L to see available routes. Don't worry about anything else at this point.
The next screen will let you choose a company route or get right into your FSX flightplans. This is a very nice feature that Captain Sim has made very intuitive. What's the difference between the two?
Your company routes are ones you have saved as such after they are already all programmed into your FMC. Until you have done this, you will not have any company routes. Here, you can see I have one: what looks something like "Cat-Louie-Joe" is really my code for an Atlanta to Moscow route: KATL to UUEE, which are the ICAO designators for Atlanta Hartsfield airport and Moscow's Sheremetyevo. "J01" is just a further tag in case I ever want save other KATL-UUEE routes.
FLTSIM FPLS are your normal flight plans. If you push LSK-6R you will get page after page of them. Simply select one by pushing the button next to it and it will load all the fixes into the FMC where you can examine them. (HINT: get into the habit of saving your flightplans in shorthand, rather than the default long names.)
Believe it or not, programming your route can be that simple (almost). Next time we'll look at the LEGS page and go to the disco. (Or at least learn about discontinuities and what to do with them.) You'll also want to learn about how to set up your departure and arrivals (a little more complicated) and a different way of entering your route if you don't want to load a pre-saved one. (Why would you want to do that? I'll tell you that, too.)
You can use it directly in the vc, but I far prefer to hit Shift+7 and drag the borders of the 2D pop-up to monumental size for my tired old eyes.
I start with the FMC shortly after the "Begin" (green) steps are finished on the overhead as I have shown above. Unless you just want to do touch and goes or fly aimlessly, do not think about going anywhere without spending some quality time with the FMC.
The first screen will tell you some nice-to-know / realistic information that is not essential for basic FMC programming for now, so just skip to the POSIT INIT page.
The first thing you'll need to do is tell the airplane's brain where it is. It remembers, but wants a human being to confirm. By pushing the topmost line select key (LSK) on the right (LSK-1R from now on) you will copy the coordinates into the "scratchpad" at the bottom of the screen. (This works for pretty much any data, by the way, and is something you'll do a lot of.)
You will see some empty boxes on the line next to the fifth button on the right. Any time you see this, the FMC is requiring some information. As you have already "copied" using the top button, you can "paste" whatever is in the scratchpad into a line by pushing the appropriate button. (LSK-5R, or fifth button down on the right side).
SEE BELOW
You'll notice the ROUTE> at the bottom. If you push LSK-6R, you will be taken to the page where you can begin entering your route. The FMC is pretty smart about leading you to the next step. Go ahead and push it.
Let's do things the easy way, which is also the realistic way, since airlines have their company routes pre-programmed. Push LSK-3L to see available routes. Don't worry about anything else at this point.
The next screen will let you choose a company route or get right into your FSX flightplans. This is a very nice feature that Captain Sim has made very intuitive. What's the difference between the two?
Your company routes are ones you have saved as such after they are already all programmed into your FMC. Until you have done this, you will not have any company routes. Here, you can see I have one: what looks something like "Cat-Louie-Joe" is really my code for an Atlanta to Moscow route: KATL to UUEE, which are the ICAO designators for Atlanta Hartsfield airport and Moscow's Sheremetyevo. "J01" is just a further tag in case I ever want save other KATL-UUEE routes.
FLTSIM FPLS are your normal flight plans. If you push LSK-6R you will get page after page of them. Simply select one by pushing the button next to it and it will load all the fixes into the FMC where you can examine them. (HINT: get into the habit of saving your flightplans in shorthand, rather than the default long names.)
Believe it or not, programming your route can be that simple (almost). Next time we'll look at the LEGS page and go to the disco. (Or at least learn about discontinuities and what to do with them.) You'll also want to learn about how to set up your departure and arrivals (a little more complicated) and a different way of entering your route if you don't want to load a pre-saved one. (Why would you want to do that? I'll tell you that, too.)