Charts and Plates

Greeting Simmers..

I have a quick question ..

I'm learning how to use my FMC for a 737. I would like to possible learn how to program the FMC the correct way with sid and stars and waypints etc.

I guess to get all this info one needs to proberly browse to websites and find sids and stars or waypoints etc .

Now rather than going to websites to find this info to program into your fmc is there any software that oe could purchase that could give you all that info rather than trying to find them on websites.

Also, are Plates and Charts the same thing or they do different things.

I hope I have explained my question clearly enough as I said I'm new to this stuff and just started to learn about programming the fmc.

I would like the aircraft to follow the meganta line through all the waypoint including all the procedures alone the path like altitude's, speeds etc .. So all that info would be nice if it is present in some kind of software rather than trying to find it on the net. ..

Any help in that direction woud be appreciated.
thanks.
A/C

Navigraph http://www.navigraph.com/www/default.asp has airway charts and airport plates available for most of the world.

A/C,

Use Route Finder (free) input departure and destination ICAOs and you'll get the routing for the FMC.
Go Here:
http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/

The Plates and Charts are different in purpose and naming. Think of charts like a road map for driving in a car. You've likely seen US state road maps before; well, charts are based like that, but on areas of coverage. There are High Level Charts, Low Level Charts, Charts by State, Charts by ARTCC (ATC) Coverage, and many more charts that work like this.

Plates are more like a direct way of getting into an airport/area. You'll have a starting point, like the inital approach fix (IAP), and then all the points/fixes/altitudes right down to landing. Plates include a lot of other information for that particular thing it's covering. For example, the approach plate for Chicago (KORD) Rwy 32L would have the fixes, altitudes for those fixes, ILS freq, tower freqs, and etc (a lot of information really to help a pilot). In other words, the purpose for Charts and Plates is to get you there from point A to point B, but with a twist of being in an airplane, as opposed to a car.

Sean mentioned navigraph and that is a software add-on you pay for to update your information in the FMC/CDU. Normally, you don't select the routing data from the CDU manually, but if you wanted to manually program every step, you can. However, the CDU data has to be there regardless though. You either use the free CDU data that is there came with your FSX program (or if your using project magenta)(likely old and out dated) or pay a subscription fee to use Navigraph's data to keep your CDU data current (current-meaning if an airport changes runways or something else, your data would need updating).

To assume here, you're looking for a way to do this: Pick a departure point and destination point, and then either by an add-on program or website, get all the needed information and it would be placed into the CDU for you so that way, you wouldnt have to type in everything manually. Manually, would take a while to enter the data and to do it without errors; especially, if the trip is a long one.

Thus, you can use RouteFinder as mentioned above, or you can get a program like AivlaSoft to do this for you. There are some of us who are using this program with an Ipad in the cockpit (you don't need an Ipad to make it work though). You'll find that this program interfaces with FSX quite well. The neat thing is once you make a route plan, you can save it and even save it as a company route, assuming you like flying the route more than once.

Go here:

http://www.aivlasoft.com/products/index.html

BSD

Actual Charts are available from whole Europe at the online AIP of Eurocontrol. You just need to register for your free account. Then you have to log in, enter applications and choose "PAMS light (AIP)". You find all the charts if you select your country, AIP type: Charts, Part: AD and click search.

Regards
Bastian

Thank you guys so much for your replies and suggestions.. Appreciate it very much... Been busy with work and didn't get time to spend on my sim.. Now I'm back and continuing my project.. Been reading up alot on sim charts and plates..

thanks BSD for your explaination.. That helped so much in understanding charts.. I did get some free charts and have quiet a bit understand now how to read them.

A/C