EasyFMC

Introduction

Flight Plan

FMC Pages

Notes

The Future

EasyFMC - Flight Plan Management

Flight Plan Creation

If a flight plan exists in memory (created or loaded in the FS2004/FSX flight planner), it is immediately handled by EasyFMC and you can view/edit it with EasyFMC. If the aircraft is not located at the departure airport defined in the flight plan, you get a “CHECK POSITION” warning message. It is just a warning and does not prevent you from using the flight plan.
If no flight plan exists, you can create it using EasyFMC, as you can read below.

The process of creating a flight plan is always the same: you have to define the departure and arrival airports (also called origin and destination airports), define the waypoints of the route and optionally define the departure and arrival runways.

If you have a GPS display in the aircraft panel, any action on the flight plan done by EasyFMC is immediately visible on the GPS screen. This is why it is suggested to have a GPS display visible when editing the flight plan, this allows you to see the effect of any modification in real time.

1) Definition of the origin and destination airports and runways

Airbus

Boeing

On the INIT page, you can define the departure and arrival airports (named FROM and TO airports) by entering the ICAO codes of both airports separated by a '/' and pressing LSK 1R for FROM/TO. For example, if you want to fly from Paris Charles de Gaulle to London Heathrow, you have to enter LFPG/EGLL, then press LSK 1R.

The origin and destination airports are defined on the first ROUTE page. You can access this page through the index page or by pressing the RTE button. The fist displayed page lets you enter the origin airport on LSK 1L and the destination airport on LSK 1R. For example, if you want to fly from Paris Charles de Gaulle to London Heathrow, you have to enter LFPG, press LSK 1L for the origin, then enter EGLL and press LSK 1R for the destination. Please note the origin must always be entered BEFORE the destination. On this page, you can also define the departure runway manually by entering its designation and press LSK 3L.

If your aircraft is not located at the departure airport, you get a warning message: CHECK POSITION. This is supposed to prevent a possible error in the ICAO code of the departure airport.

When the origin/destination airports are defined, you can select the departure/arrival runway. This operation is slightly different on Airbus and Boeing look-and-feel:

Airbus	Boeing
On the flight plan page (F-PLN), just press the left line select key for the departure/arrival airport. On this example, you must press LSK 1L for departure (LFPG) and LSK 2L for arrival (EGLL): This leads to the runway selection page; letting you select the appropriate runway by clicking the corresponding left line select key.	The runway selection is done on the DEP ARR page that you can display pressing the DEP ARR button: Press LSK 1L or 2R to select departure or arrival runway. This leads to the runway selection page where you can select the desired runway using LSK 1R to 6R, as shown here: You can also enter the runway designation manually on the first ROUTE page by pressing LSK 3L.

When the arrival runway is selected, you can activate the AUTOTUNE. If the arrival runway is equiped with an ILS, the autotune function automatically sets the ILS course and frequency when the aircraft flies within 30 NM of the destination airport.

Autotune Activation:

The autotune can be activated only if the ILS course and frequency are defined. This information is automatically set when the arrival runway is defined, if it is equiped with an ILS (see above). It can also can be entered manually.
If this information is not defined, a message appears: "ENTER ILS FREQ"

Airbus	Boeing
Switch to the RADIO NAV page by pressing the RAD NAV button: Press LSK 6R to turn autotune On/Off.	Switch to the DATA page by pressing the MENU button, then pressing the LSK 1R: Press LSK 6R to turn autotune On/Off.

2) Entering the waypoints

Airbus

Boeing

To enter the flight plan waypoints, you must go to the flight plan page, by pressing the F-PLN key. You just have to enter the waypoint identifier and insert it in the existing flight plan. Inserting a waypoint is done by pressing the left line select key that corresponds to the waypoint where you want to insert the new waypoint. If you are in the process of creating a new flight plan, only the departure and arrival airports exist in the flight plan. In that case, the departure airport is displayed on the first line (LSK 1L) and the arrival airport is on the second line (LSK 2L). You just have to enter the waypoint identifier in the scratchpad and press the LSK 2L to insert the new waypoint BEFORE the arrival airport. The waypoint is added and the new flight plan is immediately displayed with the new waypoint inserted at the right place. Keep doing the same for all the waypoints. For example, if you program a flight from LFPG to EGLL, only these 2 airports are defined in the flight plan and appear on the F-PLN page. Imagine you want to add the Rambouillet VOR (RBT) as a new waypoint, you just have to enter RBT and press LSK 2L (where EGLL is displayed) and it is added between LFPG and EGLL. You can press the AIRPORT key to navigate directly to the departure or arrival airport. This is convenient when the flight plan contains many waypoints displayed on several pages.

To enter a new waypoint in the route, access the ROUTE page through the index page or by pressing the RTE button. The first route page is displayed, showing the origin and destination airports. Press the NEXT PAGE button to have access to the second page, which is the first route definition page: it displays all the route waypoints. If you are in the process of creating a new flight plan, no waypoint is shown here because only the origin and destination airports are defined. This is why you just have a dash line displayed on the first line. You just have to enter the waypoint identifier in the scratchpad and press the LSK 1R to insert the new waypoint in the route. The waypoint is added and the new flight plan is immediately displayed with the new waypoint inserted at the right place. Keep doing the same for all the waypoints. At any time, you can insert a waypoint between 2 existing waypoints by clicking the LSK that corresponds to the waypoint before which you want to insert the new waypoint. For example, if you program a flight from LFPG to EGLL, only these 2 airports are defined in the flight plan and appear on the ROUTE page 1. Imagine you want to add the Rambouillet VOR (RBT) as a new waypoint, you just have to press NEXT PAGE and enter RBT, then press LSK 1R to add it in the route.

A waypoint can be any kind of navaid: VOR, NDB or intersection. When you enter a waypoint identifier, it may correspond to several navaids in the navigation database. In this case, all the waypoints that correspond to this identifier are displayed with its specific information (frequency, if any, and distance to the aircraft) and you have to choose one of them by pressing the corresponding left line select key.
Example for the RBT VOR :

Airbus	Boeing

The process described above explains how a waypoint can be added by entering its identifier. There are other ways of entering waypoints:

• You can enter the latitude/longitude coordinates. This is useful if you want to add a waypoint that does not exist in the database. The waypoints coordinates can usually be found on the airport charts:
  Format: For the RBT waypoint shown here, located at 48°39.20' North and 1° 59.70' East, you must enter:
  N48 39.2/E1 59.7
  A new waypoint is created with name WPT-XX (where XX is the index number)
  
• You can create a waypoint relatively to another existing waypoint, defining its bearing and distance to the original waypoint. From the image above, imagine that BOBSA exists in the database but BENAR does not. You can read BENAR is located at 15NM from BOBSA along the 167° bearing. To add this waypoint in the flight plan, you would just have to enter: BOBSA/167/15.

3) Deleting waypoints

Deleting a waypoint is easy: make sure the scratchpad is empty and press the CLR key (Airbus) or DEL key (Boeing). The delete message appears (CLR for Airbus, DELETE for Boeing) and you just have to press the left line select key that corresponds to the waypoint you wish to delete.
 
Warning: If you are used to more advanced Flight Management Computers, such as the ones in the PMDG, Level-D or Wilco aircrafts, you will see a major difference here: there is no temporary flight plan and no confirmation when the flight plan is updated. Any change in the flight plan is immediately effective, with no possible roll back. If you are not sure about a flight plan modification, you can save it before updating it so that you will be able to restore it in case of a wrong modification.
 
4) Saving the flight plan

When the flight plan is created, you may want to save it. This is important if you want to use it later.

 
If the scratchpad is empty, the flight plan is named with the EZFMC prefix and the origin and destination airports. For example, a flight from LFPG to EGLL is named "EZFMC-LFPG to EGLL.pln".
The flight plan is saved as a GPS flight plan, in the same location as the other GPS flight plans. It can be used like any other flight plan created with the FS2004/FSX flight planner. You can use it later with the standard GPS or with EasyFMC.
If the departure/arrival runway is defined, it is saved in the flight plan so that it can be used later if the flight plan is reloaded by EasyFMC.
 
IMPORTANT:
EasyFMC uses a specific technology for the flight plan creation and edition. For this reason, any flight plan modification is just ignored by the virtual ATC, but there is an easy workaround: if you want to fly a flight plan with the virtual ATC, you just have to save it and re-load it in the FS2004/FSX flight planner. Doing this allows it to be "seen" by the virtual ATC and everything works fine.

Flying the Programmed Flight Plan

The autopilot can automatically fly the route programmed in EasyFMC. You just have to engage the GPS mode, called "GPS drives NAV1" in P3D/FSX/FS2004. Some aircraft, including the FSX default 737-800, have a panel switch to select the NAV1 mode between NAV and GPS. Select the GPS mode, engage the autopilot in NAV mode and EasyFMC will automatically fly the programmed route, exactly like if you wanted to fly a route entered in the GPS through the FSX flight planner.

If the panel does not have this switch, you can easily map a key for this function (CTRL-SHIFT-G in the example below), it is very convenient to have it working in any aircraft of your collection.

As the aircraft flies along the route, the flight plan is displayed on the EasyFMC screen:

At any time during the flight, you can affect the flight plan by adding/deleting waypoints or by flying directly the a waypoint bypassing the intermediate waypoints, which is called a DIRECT operation (usually proposed by the ATC to make your flight shorter). The DIRECT can be done to fly directly to an existing waypoint of the flight plan, or to a new waypoint not defined in the flight plan.
If you fly direct to an existing waypoint, a new waypoint is created at the current aircraft position(named T-P for 'turning point') and all the waypoints between the T-P and the waypoint selected for DIRECT are automatically deleted for you. The consequence is that your aircraft flies directly from its current position to the selected waypoint.
If you fly to a new waypoint, a new T-P waypoint is also created at the aircraft position and the waypoint selected for the DIRECT is added as the next waypoint (also called 'active' waypoint). The aircraft consequently flies from its current position to the new waypoint you have created for the DIRECT, but no waypoint is deleted, you have to delete the necessary waypoints manually.

Proceeding to a DIRECT operation depends on the EasyFMC look-and-feel you are using: