ERNIE ALSTON - FSBUILD 2

Flight Planning for Flight Simulation.
Fsbuild is a comprehensive IFR flight planner that allows you to create realistic flight plans that can directly be used in flight simulation.

Features Overview

• Map view to graphically display created flight plan routings and available Navaids airways, SIDs and STARs.
• Enhanced coded route interpreter, interpret various coded route/Flight Plan formats
• Flexible automatic route generation, can auto generate complete flight plans from scratch between DEP/DEST, as well was generate a route between two or more defined points.
• Grapical SID/STAR display to assist in determining best SID/STAR route for direction of flight.
• Airway, and Navaid Search in user specified areas for efficient route planning.
• 'Plan mode' feature allows use of the Map view for manually creating flight plans from scratch using Navaids, Airways SIDS and STAR's.
• Optional Step climb calculations for long range Flights.
• Aircraft performance calculations climb cruise, descent, and fuel.
• 10,000+ ready to use flight plans included.
• Easy access to flight plans stored on the websites for easy copy/paste directly into Fsbuild.
• Import routes created with external Flight Planners/Flight Planning web sites
• Entire FAA Preferred IFR routes and Severe weather routes database included (can be easily updated by a download from FAA's web site).
• Canada Preferred IFR routes database included.
• Support for insertion of daily, and static North Atlantic and Pacific Track routings into Flight Plans.
• Exporting of flight plans to several FlightSim, and FlightSim add-on formats.
• Detailed Navigation log with aircraft climb, cruise,descent, and fuel performance information included.
• Performance calculations adjusted for Winds aloft forecast at each waypoint (Available for SimWx, FSMeteo 5.2, and ActiveSkeywxRe)
• Can be used with X-Plane,FS2002,PS1,FLY!2 FlightSims.

FEATURED DETAILS:

FLIGHT PLANS:

STORED:

• Database of 10,000+ ready to use stored flight plans included.
• Save/Delete user created Flight Plans.
• Log kept of recently Created/Built Flight Plans for easy retrieval and reuse.

CATEGORY:

• Support user definition of stored flight plan categories linked to user defined flight plan files.
• Search/Filter flight plan list display by departure, destination airport city name or ICAO code

BUILD:

• Enhanced coded route interpreter, interprets various coded Route/Flight Plan formats.
• Route Plotted over World Map after each Flight plan build.
• Flight Plan waypoints displayed in Active route table/grid after each build.
• Manual Flight plan creation using Navaids, Airways SID's and STAR Identifiers.
• Map view automatically re-zooms to show only area between deprture and destination after each build.
• Optionally Include or Exclude SID or STAR from route during build.
• Step climb profile can be calculated for long distance routes.
• Optionally insert TOC/TOD waypoints into flight plan.
• Performance calculations adjusted for Winds aloft forecast at each waypoint (via fsmeteo,ActiveSkywxRe or SimWx).
• Fuel 'Bias' adjustment support for use with different variants of the same aircraft type.
• Expanded cruise fuel performance support (fuel flow calculations adjusted as aircraft's gross weight changes in cruise)
• Automatically selects cruise alt based on aircraft capability, and direction of flight odd-even altitudes.
• Automatic SID/STAR version number correction during Build.
• Build Flight directly from route/table grid option to support user defined waypoints, and to specify certain Navaids.
• Coded Flight Plan automatically placed in windows clipboard after build (optional) for squawkbox 2 users to paste flight plan int SB's flight plan dialog.
• Route heading/bearing calculations adjusted for magnetic variation.
• User defined fixes/waypoints supported using various lat/lon formats.
• Automatic Export of flight plans to several FlightSim, and FlightSim add-on formats after build completion.

AUTOROUTE GENERATOR:

• Auto generate complete flight plans from scratch between DEP/DEST.
• Automatically selects stored flight plan route when dep/dest matches stored route (option can be disabled).
• Wildcard option to allow single or multiple legs (or gaps) of a partial route to be autogenerated.
• Recognizes single direction airways during auto-generation, and avoids wrong direction airways.
• Automatically selects appropriate SID's STAR's and airways for route.
• SID/STAR selection only includes SID/STARs available for the selected runway.
• Optionally can Include/Exclude SID/STAR from flight plan autogeneration.
• Takes into account preferred departure and arrival routings at specified airports (preffered DEP/ARR routes can be user defined).
• Automatically selects or low high alt airway routes based on cruise altitude.
• In plan mode auto generated routes can be modified for error correction or fine tuning by the user.

PLANNING/CREATING (PLAN MODE):

• Plan Mode for manual creation of Flight plans using Map view display.
• Each route modification or change is automatically replotted on the map display, so you can immediately see how your modification affects the routing.
• Coded or ATS representation of route automatically updated with each route modication or change.
• Route waypoint table automatically updated with each route modication or change.
• Automatic new waypoint positioning. No need to drag and drop or specifically place selected navaids at a certain spot as Fsbuild knows exactly the appropriate place to position a selected Navaid in the Flight Plan.
• Current stored or coded route built automatically when entering plan mode for easy modification existing or stored flight plans.
• Great circle route optionally generated as a guide for long distance route planning.
• Can manually type in airway by Identifier and have it highlight on map for better airway route identification/selection.
• Current North Atlantic Tracks graphically displayed in map view
• Can insert todays Daily North Atlantic Tracks routes into Flight Plan.
• Available North Altantic Track Altitudes selectable from pulldown menu.
• Can optionally select static North Atlantic Tracks used by online ATC organizations into flight plan.
• Search specified Map area for Navaids, and Airways, search results can be inserted into the flight plan.
• Airways can be inserted into flight plan by specified airway route segment (From,Via,To)
• Automatic display of appropriate SID/STARs when new airport or runway is selected.
• Can define display of airways that pass over a specified Navaid, for easier route planning via the Map.
• Airway routes displayed highlighted on map upon selection for better indentification.
• Automatic Insertion of selected SID/STAR route into flight plan.
• SID/STAR airways highlighted when selected for better identification.
• SID/STAR transitions highlighted on map separately upon selection.
• SID/STAR and Airway waypoints highlight individually on map upon selection
• Airway Map lines can be ID'd by mouse selection on map for better clarification of which map line represents which airway.
• Airway waypoints highlight individually on map upon selection
• Airways SID's, STAR's and Navaids can be identified on map no matter what the zoom level is. Allowing for better use of these items over longer distances.
• Single Direction Airways displayed on Map with directional arrows indication route direction.
• Insertion of lat/lon Map cursor position into flight plan as waypoint.

DISPLAY:

• Grapical SID/STAR display to assist in determining best SID/STAR route for direction of flight.
• Map view to graphically display created flight plan routings and available Navaids airways, SIDs and STARs.
• Route Waypoint highlighting, so you can see exactly where each waypoint in your flight plan is located geograhically.
• FL notation displayed when route waypoint is at or above defined transition altitude for the departure/arrival area
• Online ATC situation display view (Only Vatsim supported at this time)
• Insert relevent user configurable web sites into Fsbuild interface.

EXPORT

Exporting of Flight Plans to various FlightSim FMS/GPS add-ons.

Exporting formats available:

• FS2000 Planner (.pln)
• FSNavigator 3/4
• PSS 747/777
• PSS A320
• PSS DASH8
• FLY!II Planner
• PMDG 777/767 for FLY!II
• Aerowinx PS1 (.rou and .via option)
• ACS-GPS
• Radar Contact ...
• Squawkbox3 pilot client
• FSInn pilot client
• FPI ATOC pilot client
• FlightSim Commander
• FSAcars
• IVAP Pilot client;
• Flight1 ATR72-500
• Lago MD80
• LDS 767
• FSAcars
• IVAP Pilot client;
• Flight1 ATR72-500
• Lago MD80
• LDS 767
• FSX
• Aerosoft L1011
• iFLY 747
• vasFMC
• PSS 777/757
• iFLY 737
• Google Maps

IMPORT

Importing of Flight Plans from various formats.

• Squawkbox
• FS2000
• 767PIC
• PSS 747/777
• PSS A320
• PS1.3

Via option available for PSSA320, PS1.3,767PIC, and FS2000 .PLN to import the route in ATS or coded formats.

AIRCRAFT DATA/PERFORMANCE:

• Detailed Aircraft, time, and fuel performance calculations (user customizable)
• Takeoff and Landing V-speed calculations based on gross weight, elevation, temperature, and flaps settings.
• Takeoff Gross weight automatically recalculated when fuel or payload weight values are modified.
• After Build, Takeoff and landing Gross Weights are adjusted to include the projected fuel use for the flight.
• If Max takeoff and landing Gross weights are exceeded user is notified by highlighted them in red.
• Aircraft Performance data included initially for, A320,B727-2,B737-4,MD80/83,DC10-10, ERJ145.
• Optional Step climb calculations for long range Flights.
• Cruise performance/fuel flow changes as aircraft's gross weight changes during cruise.
• Performance calculations adjusted for Winds aloft forecast at each waypoint (Available for SimWx, FSMeteo, and ActiveSkywxRe)
• Performance data can be customized for a specific Flight Sim aircraft model.

NAVDATA

• Database of SID's and STAR's, and Airways, Airports and Navaids included.
• Preferred arrival and departures routings included for many airports (user customizable).
• Complete High and Low alt Airways database.
• US Socal TEC routes
• US and Canada Preferred IFR routes.
• VOR's, NDB's, and Intersections, and Airways databases will be updated every Airac cycle via Navigraph's service.
• Program Database is simulator independent, can use the same database for different FlightSims.
• Entire FAA Preferred IFR and Severe weather routes database included (can be easily updated by a download from FAA's web site).

MISC

• Support of FL notation for user defined cruise altitude box.
• Pulldown menu available when entered Navaid ID contains multiple ID's in the database (waypoint table/grid).
• Can define Magnetic year used in magvar adjustments (range 2000-2005).
• Displays latitude longitude position of cursor on map, automatically adjusts display when mouse moves.
• Flight Plan Navlog printout with optional export to .pdf format.
• Navlog can be customized to include your own or your organizations logo .
• SID/STAR menu displays in synch with runways that support them as runway selection changes so does SID/STAR menu.
• Map Zoom factor displayed.
• Detailed Navigation log with aircraft climb, cruise,descent, and fuel performance information included.
• Navlog includes column to display ARTCC/FIR sector for each Flight Plan waypoint
• Optionally to display user defined aircraft callsign in Navlog
• Import directly from multine ICAO/telex route format
• Import directly from the numerous websites and applications that store or generate flight plans in coded format.
• Import routes created with 'RoutFinder' website.
• Automatic flight plan destination alternate selection (user confugurable).
• Activity Log (to keep track of recently created flights)
• Revision option for X-Plane. Since X-Plane does not support loading flight plans from previous versions, you can specifiy which X-Plane revision you currently have, so X-Plane will load Fsbuild generated plans in your release.
• Easy access to flight plans stored on various flight plan/planning the websites for easy copy/paste directly into Fsbuild.
• Miniplan version of Navlog dcan optionally be exported to FS2002's Kneeboard notes file with the abbreviated route and takeoff and landing data (v-speeds) information.
• Navlog automatically exported to X-Plane for display inside X-Plane 6.5
• Activesky2004 Winds Aloft support.
• Gatekeeper support.

System Requirements:

• Minimum Pentium 700, 384 MB RAM, 80MB/HD.
• Win98, WiNNT/2000, WinXP
• Will work with 256 RAM, but will run a bit slow at times, some options may need to be turned off.