Hi All,
As I’m still learning with this sim on my Xbox I wanted to learn to make my own Flight plan using Littlenavmaps which is a great bit of software. I created a plan to use & program into the ATR from EGPH to EGAA.
I entered all the waypoints, Took off & landed perfectly. Now I did this by not using the MSFS ATC as I’ve found when planning the route in the world map, ATC has me at times descending at the last minute which usually ends not very well or me trying to descend at a rate of knots to meet the runway.
In Littlenavmaps I put my desired cruising altitude in but as I’m on Xbox this obviously does not get imported into the sim.
As I was not flying using ATC I was having to roughly guess when I can climb after the SID & when I can descend to meet the Star/GS.
As you can see from my screenshot in the aircraft, there’ just dashed lines where altitudes are given. Gosam has FL060 but after that I was climbing but not sure what I should be at when I get to Fenik.
What I would like to know is there a way of adding altitudes into the aircraft computer so the aircraft climbs or descends automatically or is there a setting on Littlenavmaps to show where at a certain point you should be in the climb or descent phase?
Thanks
Personal Comments and Observations
The flight’s vertical path profile is shown at the bottom of LNM by default if you didn’t close it. If you hover over named waypoints on the way to Top of Climb (ToC) as noted in the map, you can derive closest altitude to input into your MCDU for each waypoint. The information appears in the pop up box as you hover.
Note that it’s important to have a proper Performance File for the aircraft loaded into LNM at the time the flight plan is generated, so it can calculate if your plane is capable of the ascent rates and speeds required to meet Top of Climb as well as other plan phases.
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You don’t need to wait for ATC to descend. When you are getting closer to Top of Descend request lower altitude from ATC.
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Thanks for reply, I’m note sure how I change it in the software as its currently listed as C172 aircraft & could not see one for the ATR 72-600?
You can download performance files - Alex (LNM author) keeps a repository of them online - I believe the link is inside the LNM online manual or you can check his website where you pulled down LNM from. There may be an ATR one , I don’t fly it so I never looked. Others might publish them on the usual sites like Flightsim.to or AVSIM.
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Hi,
You can export a LNM plan as an MSFS2020 flight plan (.pln) file. If you have MSFS on the PC where you are using LNM you can load the flight plan into MSFS then without touching it save it to the cloud again as a .PLN file. From Xbox you can then load the plan and fly it there if you wish.
This is my normal method when I’m not flying Simbrief generated routes.
Neil.
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t you just climb to your cruising alt after GOSAM? Does it really matter how quickly or slowly you climb? And once you get the correct performance profile for the ATR into LNM you’ll be able to see where your TOD should be (or figure it out yourself based on ground speed and time to waypoint).
Did a quick look in Alex’s performance file folder, no ATR. Alternative is to use LNM and create a performance file. I’ve done a couple like that, kinda tedious, multiple altitudes, ascension and descension speeds to get an average climb rate, speeds and fuel consumption but you can start off with POH figures and modify as necessary for the MSFS version.
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