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Custom waypoints


lazza

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Hi just wondering, is it possible to enter a custom waypoint.

Example being

Waypoint = MAY

STAR says I need to follow course 255 from MAY for 8NM

With my PMDG or LVL D 767 I would enter MAY255/08 and the FMC will plot the waypoint.

I tried entering in above format but this does not work.

I am entering in the wrong format or will this bird not accept custom waypoints?

Thanks in advance

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Hi. I'm taking it that MAY is a real waypoint and as such will be in the standard Navigraph database?

If so Airbus X will accept it, however you can only enter it as MAY. I take it that 255/08 is the heading/flight level?

Unfortunately you can't put constraints in, but if MAY is real then you can enter the waypoint.

Hope that helps.

Chris

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255/08 is a radial and distance in miles of a fix created from MAY.

And no this cannot be done in the Airbus X, you would have to make it with an external flight planner like FSC8, and then import it into FSX.

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Thanks for the correction Andy.

It should be possible to create the waypoint in the default FSX flight planner too. It won't be as accurate but would do the job.

Alternatively, the procedure could be done using VOR DME.

Chris

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It's not if MAY is a fix and not a VOR, there is no way to measure distances in the FSX flight planner anyway as far as I can remember. In FSC8 its easy to do, you click on MAY in your flight plan to highlight it then move your mouse cursor around the screen, if you look closely at the flight plan window you will see as you move your cursor it tells you the distance and bearing of the cursor in relation to the highlighted waypoint in the plan, you can then hold down the shift key down and right click with the mouse to place a user waypoint.

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Thats a shame as I do not wish to enter them before I fly, I wish to enter them as I am flying when ATC tells me to land at a particular runway which then means I need to fly a particular STAR that usually contains these custom waypoints that i have mentioned.

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Hello lazza,

I take it you dont mean the FSX ATC then as they vector you in to my knowledge.

Well yes I use the deafult FSX ATC to just get clearance to depart and arrive (NOT IFR)

I tend to do my routes by calculating the route using http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/

Then I use something like VAT SIM or Navigraph to get the correct SIDS and STARS for the Airports and then fly the route my self.

I like to fly via the FMS rather than ATC giving me vectors. I have learnt this from various forums and from using the PMDG 747 and Level D 767 and I believe this is a much more challenging / realistic way of flying rather than letting default ATC just tell you where to go.

So the answer is yes during my flight, when I get in range of the Airport I will ask (default) ATC for clearance to land, default ATC will tell me which RWAY to land at and I will view the correspndiong STAR and enter the waypoints in the FMS of my PMDG or LEvel D planes.When following STARs often you get FIXES / waypoints like the one I mention at the top of this post.

But it appears as though you can not enter these sorts of FIXES / waypoint in to the Airbus X FMS as you can on the more complex PMDGs Levelds etc. Which is fine but I just wanted to know for sure.

I am sure my way of flying is not totally "real world life correct etc but I prefer it to just following headings from ATC as it is more challenging than that.

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Iazza,

If you can tell me which star are you refering to in your original post? I will look up the chart, and explain how you should be able to enter that waypoint during your flight.

OK thanks for the offer Craig...

I follw this STAR

http://www.ead.euroc..._2010-07-29.pdf

Then it was on these initial approach procedures that I wished to enter the custom waypoints.

http://www.ead.euroc..._2010-07-29.pdf

http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadbasic/pamslight-117F9516CED12D29905B606953A3CC55/7FE5QZZF3FXUS/EN/Charts/AD/AIRAC/EG_AD_2_EGKK_7-6_en_2010-07-29.pdf

Admitedlly, the 2 above could easily be hand flied but there are some STARs that involve several custom waypoints such as at Standsted below that it would be useful for

http://www.ead.euroc..._2010-07-01.pdf

Laz

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Laz,

To enter the Rwy04 Transition from ABBOT at EGSS, you would enter the following waypoints into the MCDU.

ABBOT D045R D045I CI04

Now, you will have a problem entering CI04 manually because there are many waypoints with the same name. With this bus if doesn’t appear on the first page of multiple waypoints you can’t enter it manually..... But you can enter it via a flight planner.

Navigate to (wherver your FSX is located) E:\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Navigraph\NavData\Proc

Scroll down and open up EGSS.txt in notepad. This is the Navigraph Approach/Departures procedures file for EGSS. If you scroll down you will see the following

APPTR,I04,04,ABBOT

The heading is the name of the procedure. In this case Approach Transition to ILS04 via ABBOT. In the code below the heading you will see the fixes on each line after the first comma. These are the names you must enter into the MCDU to input the approach transition.

eg. FD,ABBOT,52.016111,0.599445....................

Saying all that, its a bit of pain, unless you get know the name of the waypoints. It is much easier to a use Flight planner like Aivlasofts EFB to input them on the fly, as it will load the modified flight plan directly into the Garmin GPS - which also loads it direct to the MCDU as the bus uses the default flight plans, while in flight.

Hope this helps some...

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Laz,

To enter the Rwy04 Transition from ABBOT at EGSS, you would enter the following waypoints into the MCDU.

ABBOT D045R D045I CI04

Now, you will have a problem entering CI04 manually because there are many waypoints with the same name. With this bus if doesn't appear on the first page of multiple waypoints you can't enter it manually..... But you can enter it via a flight planner.

Navigate to (wherver your FSX is located) E:\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Navigraph\NavData\Proc

Scroll down and open up EGSS.txt in notepad. This is the Navigraph Approach/Departures procedures file for EGSS. If you scroll down you will see the following

APPTR,I04,04,ABBOT

The heading is the name of the procedure. In this case Approach Transition to ILS04 via ABBOT. In the code below the heading you will see the fixes on each line after the first comma. These are the names you must enter into the MCDU to input the approach transition.

eg. FD,ABBOT,52.016111,0.599445....................

Saying all that, its a bit of pain, unless you get know the name of the waypoints. It is much easier to a use Flight planner like Aivlasofts EFB to input them on the fly, as it will load the modified flight plan directly into the Garmin GPS - which also loads it direct to the MCDU as the bus uses the default flight plans, while in flight.

Hope this helps some...

This is a very helpful post, Craig. As it happens, from my work I have a very good knowledge of how departure procedures (DPs or as they are still more widely known, SIDS) arrivals and so forth work. What is called TERPS (TERminal instrument ProcedureS) here in the US is the criteria for designing them and therefore understanding them. Given that, it still took me a while to figure out in the Navigraph files how to find what I needed and what you described so well in your example.

Your post is an example of what this forum should be about, instead of the snipping seen too often.

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Laz,

To enter the Rwy04 Transition from ABBOT at EGSS, you would enter the following waypoints into the MCDU.

ABBOT D045R D045I CI04

Now, you will have a problem entering CI04 manually because there are many waypoints with the same name. With this bus if doesn't appear on the first page of multiple waypoints you can't enter it manually..... But you can enter it via a flight planner.

Navigate to (wherver your FSX is located) E:\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Navigraph\NavData\Proc

Scroll down and open up EGSS.txt in notepad. This is the Navigraph Approach/Departures procedures file for EGSS. If you scroll down you will see the following

APPTR,I04,04,ABBOT

The heading is the name of the procedure. In this case Approach Transition to ILS04 via ABBOT. In the code below the heading you will see the fixes on each line after the first comma. These are the names you must enter into the MCDU to input the approach transition.

eg. FD,ABBOT,52.016111,0.599445....................

Saying all that, its a bit of pain, unless you get know the name of the waypoints. It is much easier to a use Flight planner like Aivlasofts EFB to input them on the fly, as it will load the modified flight plan directly into the Garmin GPS - which also loads it direct to the MCDU as the bus uses the default flight plans, while in flight.

Hope this helps some...

Craig, I really appreciate the effort you went to here, I will digest what you suggest and put it in to practice. Thanks very much.

One question that springs to mind is just how do you know that to enter the Rwy04 Transition from ABBOT at EGSS, It would require the waypoints ( D045R D045I CI04) to be added in the FMS? Where did you get D045R D0451 etc from?

Thanks again

Laz

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Q: how do you know that to enter the Rwy04 Transition from ABBOT at EGSS, It would require the waypoints ( D045R D045I CI04) to be added in the FMS? Where did you get D045R D0451 etc from?

Laz,

Open up the EGSS.txt that I pointed to in my last post. This what gives you all the waypoint names.

The way this file is set out, it lists all the Sids and Stars, then all the transitions in blocks of code. Each block has a title and a body of code. (see below) The title is the name of Sid/Star/Transition and the code body is where the Waypoints are. Lets use a different example..

SID,CPT2S,04,2 (Title) i.e. SID CPT2S departure form RWY04

CF,ISED2,51.921389,0.289445,0,BKY,0.0,0.0,45.0,3.8,2,848,0,1,0,0,0,1 (Initial fix ISED2)

DF,D102G,51.969322,0.247833,1, ,0.0,0.0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0 (next waypoint D102G) and so on...

TF,D102E,51.975178,0.194739,0, ,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,2,3000,0,1,0,0,0,0

TF,BKY,51.989722,0.061944,0, ,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,1,5000,0,1,0,0,0,0

TF,WCO,51.853056,-0.962500,0, ,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0

TF,CPT,51.491667,-1.219722,0, ,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0 Last waypoint on the SID, CPT VOR where you transition to Airways

Each line here makes up the whole departure you see on your charts... Open up this file and take a look at it, you will soon know what your looking for..

Does that answer your question...??

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Q: how do you know that to enter the Rwy04 Transition from ABBOT at EGSS, It would require the waypoints ( D045R D045I CI04) to be added in the FMS? Where did you get D045R D0451 etc from?

Laz,

Open up the EGSS.txt that I pointed to in my last post. This what gives you all the waypoint names.

The way this file is set out, it lists all the Sids and Stars, then all the transitions in blocks of code. Each block has a title and a body of code. (see below) The title is the name of Sid/Star/Transition and the code body is where the Waypoints are. Lets use a different example..

SID,CPT2S,04,2 (Title) i.e. SID CPT2S departure form RWY04

CF,ISED2,51.921389,0.289445,0,BKY,0.0,0.0,45.0,3.8,2,848,0,1,0,0,0,1 (Initial fix ISED2)

DF,D102G,51.969322,0.247833,1, ,0.0,0.0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0 (next waypoint D102G) and so on...

TF,D102E,51.975178,0.194739,0, ,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,2,3000,0,1,0,0,0,0

TF,BKY,51.989722,0.061944,0, ,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,1,5000,0,1,0,0,0,0

TF,WCO,51.853056,-0.962500,0, ,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0

TF,CPT,51.491667,-1.219722,0, ,0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0 Last waypoint on the SID, CPT VOR where you transition to Airways

Each line here makes up the whole departure you see on your charts... Open up this file and take a look at it, you will soon know what your looking for..

Does that answer your question...??

Does that answer your question...??

Yes and some (sorry as I now realise you had answered my question in your previous post but I was not understanding it correctly)

Wow thats genius, the waypoints were there all the time if you know where to look. Thanks for that.

I'll just keep a accesible copy of the Navigraph\NavData\proc folder handy and use it for SIDS / STARS etc.

Brilliant!!!

You learn something every day hey!!

Much appreciated

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I think you will still find it easier to use a Flight planner. however if you fly in and out of heathrow for example enough, you soon get to know what the waypoints are... You wil also find many of the waypoints are easy to guess such as DVR4G SID from EGLL, Cross DETLING 32DME at 3000. Well that waypoint is "DET32". Then 6000 at 5 DME is "DET5"...you get the picture. As i say, still easier to use a flight planner though.

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