HOW TO PLAN A FLIGHT WITH FSBUILD AND TOPCAT IN FSX 

Froogle my man, cheers for always putting out vids for your subs. When I get back from college the first thing I do is come on and watch the new videos you and lumberjack have uploaded on both channels, so thanks man

Love all your videos including this one. Can't wait for part 2. The style in all your videos is so effortless that you seem like a friend talking to me alone. It's just like a conversation. Great!

I believe the horn heard at 13.50 is actually an aural alert emitted by the electrical system as a reminder that the aircraft is still on battery power only. It's a proactive reminder designed to protect the battery from being drained - alerting the PIC to switch power from the battery to the APU or ground if available. Not sure if the alert is sounded after a certain period of time or if its based on the actual condition of the battery, but changing the power deactivates it.

Nice to know that someone like you is around to help novices to get on their feet. Thanks for your efforts and great videos, they blow all others away … :)

Anb excellent answer - thankyou. I actually also found out if I had clicked around more in TopCat that TopCat will even tell you how much cargo goes where which is very handy, and makes the numbers for CG and Stab Trim line up nearly precisely.

The 1% N1 discrepancy can be due to a couple of things. Firstly, as the engines are off, the bleeds are off so the N1 target is slightly higher (for the same reason than bleeds off gives you better performance), secondly, as the temperature isn't actually 55 degrees, the engines will produce slightly more thrust than if it were (air density largely). And thirdly, the tat sensed and shown on the upper eicas is not necessarily correct until the tat probe is aspirated (can't remember exactly when that is or if it is modelled in FSx).

Hey Frooglel I have to say you have some of the best made videos. Keep up the great job.

Thanks. I understand about it changing the runway. I wanted for this to set it to a specific one. Not realistic at Gatwick but at many airports airlines will have a preferred approach and runway, will plan for it and will request it from ATC, even if weather conditions don't favor it. As for the flaps, the SOP I was working from mandated flaps 5 where possible hence my reason for leaning on that. But, great tips I'm sure the viewers will appreciate. Thank you.

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to produce these excellent instructional videos. I've always wanted to get more involved in FSX and flying with FMC and real routes, Now thanks to you I can get cracking. So PMDG aircraft, FS2Crew, FSBuild, VATSIM etc all on my 'RADAR' now. Cheers Froogle

Really commercial quality video tutorial, Froogle. Well done.

Hey Froogle, liking all your vids, not just the flight sim. I got banned from BAV for flying too often lol! One minor thing. At the end of the video you enter the runway remain as 12100 - this is actually how much runway you want remaining at wheels lifting off, so you were asking it to take off before the numbers, a 12100ft runway, you want something like 2000/3000ft remaining. Not trying to pick holes, but the rest of it is A1 :)

i bought the pmdg 737ngx and was upset that the plane was beautiful but i could not figure out the fmc your vid has helped me a lot thank you

You might already know this, but just incase you don't you can click on payload distribution in the W&B page in TopCat. It shows you how much cargo to put in each bay. Nice video by the way.

Its Pretty Damn GOod.. your Awesome FroOgle..Im goona Sub to your Vids..Thanks For this..

Hi froogle!. Loved your video. It really helped me doing my flights more realistic. TOPCAT and Aivlasoft in particular are excellent choices por FSX. Greetings from Argentina!.

The reason you need to enter different cargo payload in AFT 1 and AFT 2 is to balance the CG limits, basically an aircraft is like a weighing tool up in the air hence based on the amount that you enter in these two the V/s is decided by the VNAV, therefore a proper distribution of the weight is required in these cargo bays and the pax's. Hope that answers the question that you needed to know from real world pilots :) thank you for spreading the knowledge though, RESPECT!

All froogle videos just passes over my sub box now. Damn it to hell, new RU-vid!

Another awesome video. I got the answers that I asked you under other videos of yours. :-) Thanks a lot. I learn a lot from you.

You dont have to add the individual passengers in TOPCAT, if you click the option on the bottom right you can choose just to enter the Zero Fuel Weight, which will be far more accurate. Also, it is recommended that you leave the Flaps config and TO config at ' optimum ' , because this will give you the best settings for your takeoff. When you click the update button for the metar, it will also change the departure runway box to the current active :D

great tutorial as always frooglesim! Regarding the 89.4% / 88.4% N1 difference, if you enter your assumed temp with the temp reported in the METAR on the N1 LIMIT page you will get the correct thrust rating. So enter 55/4 in the scratchpad and enter it at LSK1L. And you should get 88.4% in the FMC aswell =)

andrew, if you have a look down at the bottom of Frugal's CDU Scratchpad, you'll see "enter IRS Position".....the sounding alarm ( it's not even really an "alarm", as alarms go, in aircraft such as this, but rather just an aural reminder that, a 'step' in the alignment process of the Inertial Reference System' has been overlooked) and that step is, he had probably rotated the Align Knobs to "Align", and then had not finished the step, by placing a lat/long figure, into the Pos Init Pg.

Yes I am aware of the discrepency. Thanks for the research

The route here was built by me, and then loaded in. I have done a number of videos showing how to enter the route into the FMC - typically look at the Fully Loaded videos I make, usually part 1 and that should get you going.

for the PLAN/FUEL field PLAN is for the estimated or required fuel to be expected on board for the flight without having the fuel on board. FUEL is the current fuel reading. PLAN is simply if you want to plan your required fueling and weights before you refuel. Sort of "let's say we have such fuel on board and plan accordingly"

Thanks - I'm really glad you like the vids :)

I believe its the fire alarm. He mentions he's using some kind of automated first officer to help prepare the airplane. Part of the checklist for a cold & dark start up is testing the fire alarm. I believe that is what it is. I've never experience this alarm except for an engine fire but I also don't use an automated first officer during startup. Hence why i think that is. I could be wrong.

Finally more 737NGX vids!

I have been planning with these exact same tools for the last year, but I recon they'll be outdated once PFPX will come out... that will be the ultimate tool for flight planning!!

Every sunday i lay in my bed waiting for froogle to upload something lol

I hope the program makers are aware of the great publicity you have given them if not im gonna be pointing this out great stuff Pete.

Great videos man. I can't wait for my new graphics card now so I can start playing this stuff.

Reason why the cargo is biased: 1) to get the CG within limits 2) A CG that is closer to the aft limit will result in less fuel burn. It's all about the moneys. I'm an ATPL student, not exactly a professional (far from it in fact) but I have done the exams on this stuff

Cool - we all start somewhere. I only began with BA Virtual a month ago as I said in the vid.

Love it as usual. I wish I can fly. I have a very good laptop, but I don't know if it is good enough for XPlane 10. So, I watch a lot of youtube simmers. Keep up the good work.

This is a grown up channel. I have another one that gets a lot of hate and while that can be great for building views and hits on videos, it's not really something I want here. I want this channel to be a warm, friendly one full of great content that people are not afraid to comment on or get in a discussion about. So, haters typically get banned very rapidly.

Very informative and well done. Kudos!

That's an immensely complicated question to answer. I am thinking of doing a video on how to set it up, but have to manage the risk that I'll get swamped with a million comments asking me to help troubleshoot (it's not easy or painless to build)

Topca'ts site has a number of files covering a bunch of aircraft. Beyond that you'll need to hunt through forums like avsim or build them yourself from scratch.

I don't think so no. I just investigate software and add-ons that I hear great things about and if they are great, I dig a little deeper. That's really where this and the Fully Loaded series come from.

...and it would be lovely to see you step through the route to see any discontinuities...AND how do you add back in your SIDS and STARS?

charts are included with the efb for most main airports in the world.

I'm gonna take a stab at your cargo question. The further aft the CG is the faster the aircraft can fly due to horizontal stabalizer not having to create as much down lift to keep the nose up. So by loading more cargo aft you can fly at the same speed at a slightly lower power setting therefor saving a couple gallons of fuel per trip. It's all about the dollar

I know, my sincerest apologies. Real life got in the way last week and I'm frantically scrabbling to catch up. On the positive side there are now plans for part 2, plus videos on the Aerosoft Airbus X Extended, and the MilViz F15-E as well as the final review of the DC-9 from Coolsky.

Thanks mang glad you liked it.,

Damn you froogle! Now i have to buy these programs! Also when you're done with every future videos can you make a general aircraft video?

no problem - glad it helped.

Well, the A-10s weapon and navigational computers are if anything more complex than the systems on a commercial airliner. You need to basically learn to navigate, manage the basic controls and systems, just like in a commercial aircraft but you have extra duties like weapons handling, targeting, and of course flying and not dying when things shoot at you is a lot harder than flying a STAR approach. I think the A-10 is much harder than the NGX.

I think its something to do with the electrical system. I think it might be going off because there's no main bus powering some things and it shuts off when the APU is put on gen. I don't know, I don't remember, but thats what comes to mind from a long time ago when I think that was happening to me.

I can but it will be some time away. You can make a full time living as a journalisst yes- you just need to write a lot and find a lot of places to publish. I subsidize the writing with RU-vid and of course my day job as a developer.

Hey Froogle, thanks for the video, it was really helpfull, Even copied your notes haha.

Love your videos Froogle :)

I believe it's the ground call alarm. I could be wrong, though.

Vidio on FSBuild and TopCat.was great.....is it a big deal for you to explain how to set FSBuild up in the first place......a few of us are having problems with exporting the flightplans into PMDG Folder.........We know your busy.....when you get a chance to....that would be great.........Brian.

that is so cool thank you for replying to my comment

Because of you i have to buy FS2Crew and Topcat........ and Ezdoc..... and a better pc..... ugh i love this hobby.

Great Video as are all the others-very informative. Just wondering can you let me know which keyboard and mouse you are using with FSX as I am about to change mine. Keep up your great work.

Cool! Been flying with them for long?

Just because flight planning should always take place before you enter the cockpit.

I have some planned yes.

Hi Froogle, great video as always... thanxs for the videos, quick question: i noted that you didn't talk a lot about the upper winds along the route nor used them in the planning with FSBuild and Topcat? do we only put them in the FMC? thanks

Hey, I love all your videos! Can I get a link to British airways virtual??!

froogle you got 3 hours to upload a video before the world ends!

Excellent vid. I notice the stab trim was 5 in Topcat and 4.59 inside the PMDG FMC , is this an effect of the distribution of the cargo? Roll on part 2 vid. :)

Frum a ol' fart hillbilly to a young fart Cockney...Great stuff! I'm getting serious now with realism

Nope. They have 400's. The BA custom livery for the NGX modifies the panel and equipment on board to make it "closer" to a 400.

Oh god, these videos make me wanna buy a new computer and start sim flying again, but I don't really have the room for the hardware. BTW, how does the NGX and fs2crew handle saves and reloads? If you want to practice that LOC/DME app at Innsbruck it would suck to have to do everything from the beginning if you were to crash into the mountain on the final. :)

Great video, thanks.

dear froogle, i love the magazine you guys make at pc pilot im srry i havent subscribed to your magazine yet(i have subscribed to your channel though).I know this sounds crazy but could you do a video review of the c 188 agtruck that you reviewed in issue 82 of pc pilot.I would like to see and hear this thing from an expert thanks.By the way i was also wondering how much you guys make in the magazine business and if you can do it as a full time job.thanks littleferrhis

Hey, I was just woondering what was you using for the co-pilot addon? I can't find it in the video where you said it again, and i really want to know, becasue it seems so good! Thanks, Carl :D

Froogle, my Topcat lists the Dry Operating Weight of 737 PMDG mixed class version as 42991 kgs, 1.6 tons more than your TopCat gives. Why is the difference do you think? (Mine is 2.72 Beta version) In fact, PMDG FMC numbers is 54.3 which is close to yours. My 1.6 ton of extra weight disturbs the calculations. Trim is given 5.4 in TopCat, however, PMDG FMC gives 5.96 trim.

Hi! Hint: Icing conditions are defined as bellow -10C or +10C if there is visible moisture(so if you are going through clouds and it's bellow +10 plan to use anti ice) Anyway, thanks this vid helped a bit, but I have a question. If you were to use a SID/STAR would you prefer printing it out or keeping it on your PC and switching tasks when you need it? If you don't use them can you tell me what is the preferred method of those who use it?

If you open up the task manager and go to the processes tab. find dwm.exe and end it. It should restart aero theme and restart dwm.exe

I have to say, I'm really getting interested in beginning to play more and more flight sims. THey're extremely interesting, and as nooby as this may sound (please excuse my naivety), I'm starting with DCS A-10. I'm really interested in military aircraft, and so far I've been having a blast. However, I always thought it would be interesting to try commercial aircraft simulators, and please don't take offense to this, but your videos have really intimidated me with the complexity of it all.

I went further and open FSX and made payload empty and it's ZFW is given as 41.4 tons which is your TopCAt number, although the aircraft.cfg file of PMDG gives it as 42991 kgs. It's interesting. Did you know this discrepancy and corrected it on your TopCat?

I really miss the cessna and piper videos :(

I'm going to break my bank with all these add-ons.....

Hey Froogle, I had a question (despite this video being months old) You said "realistically" and yet you did the automatic route thing :P, Can you do a tutorial (or if you already have and I haven't found that vid yet) of putting in the route manually? I understand the departure and arrival parts of it, but where I get confused is the waypoints. like the route you got on the flight plan site I had for KDFW (dallas-ft worth) to KLAX (los angeles) was different than a route my buddy was gave me

We're delayed this week. Real life got in the way. It will be uploaded when as soon as it's done.

hey froogle, where do you get fs build from?, in pounds. Great video thx, I found topcat, I'm on a bit of a budget.

Still waiting for part 2... It's been a week now...

Hi! thanks a lot for your Video! Good Job! How does it work with the views? You jump from the captain seat view straight to the overhead frontal view and to other systems. How does it work?

I know, it sucks. There's nothing I can do about it I'm afraid. I am going to setup a facebook page etc fairly soon to make sure there's always a notification to you guys when vids go upo

AWESOME!

So, the Aivlasoft EFB.... Did I miss the video or was it not done?

Hi Frooglesim I know this is an old video now but wondered if you could answer something for me as it's happening on my aircraft but don't know why. At about 13:50 an alarm starts to sound, what is this alarm? Do you know why is it happening? and how do you stop it in future? Look forward to a reply thanks very much. :) Andy

Hey Froogle, i was wondering how you got your EFB and AS2012 and other programs all calibrated with FSX on a different computer?

When you putting the next video up..

What would be you recommended reading list for those who wanted to join BA Virtual?

A few iOS apps for myself, including tapCheck that was featured on this channel, and client stuff.

Windows 7? FSBuild Route Navlog?

dont worry i can wait :)

...and, more importantly in the FMC?... BTW FSBUILD won't save into P3d plans folder(users/documents/prepar3d files)-its looking for fs, and I can't find the reference the .pln files in the FSBUILD.CFG file...any ideas?

how much I would love to have the Topcat :(

Probably Thursday

Oh, this fixes the corrupted screen

Did you save the plan in FsBuild and...see next

did you have to pay fore the charts from efb and does efb also has sid and star charts? and for witch airports?

No sir, but I do hear good things about it.

:( Sorry. It's about to get worse as well. Working on part 2 today showing of Aivlasoft EFB. Brace yourself.

Where is the next video?