FMC/CDU

[crocker]

I'm slowly (very) getting my head around programming the FMC and have read some really helpful tutorials. What I've found is that depending on what aircraft you are using the FMC programming steps do vary but not a great deal. I've also downloaded and installed the latest airac data into my Feelthere PIC 737. But I still get a message NAV DATA OUT OF DATE in the FMC or words similar. I just clear the message. My main question is that when I enter departure/arrival runways of my choice into the FMC I often get the message INVALID ENTRY. I know that the FS9 drop down menu gives me a choice of different runways at an airport but FMC does not seem to recognise them all. I'm thinking that the AFCAD file may have a part to play in this but I'm not sure. Does the wind direction also have a part to play. An example of the problem is say where there are runways 16L and 16R available in the drop down menu in FS9 and I want to depart on a SID on 16R, the FMC will recognise 16L but not 16R!  Very frustrating. I may be missing something basic here, which is very often the case in flight simming, but any help would be welcome. Thanks Crocker

[garymbuska]

[quote]I'm slowly (very) getting my head around programming the FMC and have read some really helpful tutorials. What I've found is that depending on what aircraft you are using the FMC programming steps do vary but not a great deal. I've also downloaded and installed the latest airac data into my Feelthere PIC 737. But I still get a message NAV DATA OUT OF DATE in the FMC or words similar. I just clear the message. My main question is that when I enter departure/arrival runways of my choice into the FMC I often get the message INVALID ENTRY. I know that the FS9 drop down menu gives me a choice of different runways at an airport but FMC does not seem to recognise them all. I'm thinking that the AFCAD file may have a part to play in this but I'm not sure. Does the wind direction also have a part to play. An example of the problem is say where there are runways 16L and 16R available in the drop down menu in FS9 and I want to depart on a SID on 16R, the FMC will recognise 16L but not 16R!

[crocker]

Thanks for reply. I have the latest AIRAC download and installed from the Navigraph site which as you say should reflect existing nav data. But does this data also reflect airport data and more specifically runways? Or are we saying that the runway options for the various airports installed in FS9 don't necessarily reflect real world (AIRAC) airport data? Gees I hope I'm making this clear. If this is the case how do we get the FMC to recognise all the runways which have been pre-installed into FS9 by Microsoft or altered by designers re-modelling airport AFCAD files? Maybe we can't. I also know for instance that you have to download separately and install all the various SIDS and STARS.  [smiley=undecided.

[eno]

You hit the nail on the head ....... FS9 does not reflect the real world it represents the world according to the programming at the time it was developed.

Unless scenery designers have altered the layouts etc of airports to reflect the current setups then that's what you are stuck with.

You may have the current navigraph files, however if the settings in the sim do not reflect the data in the navigraph files then you will encounter problems.

[garymbuska]

You hit the nail on the head ....... FS9 does not reflect the real world it represents the world according to the programming at the time it was developed.

Unless scenery designers have altered the layouts etc of airports to reflect the current setups then that's what you are stuck with.

You may have the current navigraph files, however if the settings in the sim do not reflect the data in the navigraph files then you will encounter problems.

This is what I was trying to say. What I have been doing is as I fly around and discover a airport that either missing runways or runways that should be ILS runways I then use AFCAD to bring that runway up to date. For US airports go to www.airnav.com this site has the latest information on all US airports
I must warn you though Like Eno said there are a bunch of out dated airports out there and trying to correct them all will take some time.
One other thing you might want to check is the hold shorts at the airports as well as there are a few that are wrong and they create AI havoc and create traffic snarls because of this.