EasyFMC

Introduction

Flight Plan

FMC Pages

Notes

The Future

EasyFMC - Notes

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This section summarizes all the most important things you should remember about EasyFMC.

Keyboard Mode

A keyboard mode is available with EasyFMC. It lets you use your PC keyboard to enter information and activate the line select keys. To activate/deactivate the keyboard mode, press the clickable area located around the top left screw of the FMC, as shown here.
You should remember that when the keyboard mode is active, EVERY key press is intercepted by EasyFMC, even the key presses that should be handled by Windows. It means that pressing Alt to show the pulldown menus is FS, or Alt-Tab to switch to another application will NOT work until the keyboard mode is deactivated.

Flight Plan Creation

Creating a new flight plan is done by entering the departure and arrival airports. You should remember that if a flight plan already exists in the memory of EasyFMC, it is immediately erased as soon as a new departure/arrival airport is entered, without any confirmation and without any possible rollback.
For more information, read here.

Entering Waypoints

When entering waypoints to create the flight plan, keep in mind that you can enter the waypoints in differents ways:

• by entering the waypoint identifier
• by entering the waypoint latitude/longitude coordinates
• by entering the location of a waypoint relatively to another existing waypoint

All this is explained with more details here.

Saving a Flight Plan

At any time you can save the EasyFMC flight plan. You can do this through the DATA page or through the ROUTE page (Boeing only). If you enter a name in the scratchpad before pressing the LSK for saving, this name will be used for the flight plan file. Otherwise, a name will be automatically generated by EasyFMC.
The flight plan is saved like a flight plan you would create in the FS2004/FSX flight planner. It has the same format and it is saved at the same place.
For more information, read here.

Clearing the Flight Plan

There is no option to clear the flight plan with EasyFMC. But as you certainly understood, the flight plan created or edited with EasyFMC is the FS standard GPS flight plan. Consequently, you can clear the flight plan by opening to the Flight Planner window in FS2004/FSX and press the 'Clear' button.

Flying DIRECT to a waypoint

Unlike the standard FS2004/FSX GPS, EasyFMC allows you to fly direct to a waypoint without destroying the existing flight plan. EasyFMC manages the DIRECT operation like a real FMC, allowing you to fly direct to an existing waypoint of your route or to any other waypoint.
For more information, read here.

Radio Navigation

The RAD NAV page is available with some look-and-feel of EasyFMC. This page lets you set the radio navigation (VOR, NDB) that you want to use. Remember that EasyFMC allows you to enter a VOR/NDB identifier instead of entering its frequency. This is very convenient, you should take advantage of it. As soon as the identifier is entered, EasyFMC will set its frequency for you.
For more information, read here.

Auto-Tuning

EasyFMC can automatically set the arrival ILS course and heading for you, if the arrival runway is equiped with an ILS of course. You just have to select the runway on the destination airport and activate the autotune. When the aircraft will fly close to the destination airport (within 30 NM), EasyFMC will set the arrival ILS for you. This is very convenient because the workload is often important during this phase of the flight.
For more information, read here.

Error Messages

List of all the possible EasyFMC error messages:

Message	Reason
CHECK POSITION	The airport you have defined as the departure is far from the current aircraft position. It means you probably entered a wrong ICAO code for the departure airport. This can also happen if a flight plan already exists in the FS2004/FSX flight planner when you load the aircraft in FS. You can erase the existing flight plan or create a new one to clear the error.
INVALID ENTRY	The value you have entered is out of range. It may also happen if you enter letters when a numerical value is expected.
FORMAT ERROR	The format of the information entered in the scratchpad is not compliant with the expected format. For example, the format of a lot/long coordinate does not respect the required format.
NOT FOUND	The identifier you have entered for a waypoint does not exist in the navigation database.
DEP NOT FOUND	The ICAO code for the departure airport does not exist in the navigation database.
ARR NOT FOUND	The ICAO code for the arrival airport does not exist in the navigation database.
ENTRY OUT OF RANGE	The value entered in the scratchpad is out of the required range. This is especially important for radio frequencies.
ENTER ILS FREQ	You have tried to activate the autotune but the ILS frequency and course are not defined. You must enter them manually or select the arrival runway. Remember autotune works only if the arrival runway is equiped with an ILS.
ENTER ICAO	You request information for an airport but you did not enter its ICAO code in the scratchpad.
NOT IN DATABASE	You tried to enter a runway designation that does not exist on this airport.
NO ROUTE	You are trying to save a flight plan that is currently empty.
FPLN EXPORTED	The flight plan has been successfully saved. You can press CLR to clear this message.
EXPORT FAILED	An error occured while saving the flight plan, the operation was aborted.

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