Do pilots input all the waypoints manually or they copy and paste all the waypoints on the fmc?🤔 Why? being they are 100s upon 100s of waypoints on some routes to feed manually on the fmc…i feel like its quite hectic and stressful to do it manually…IRL
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If I fly a short haul I will make my flight plan manually. But if I do a long haul I mostly use Simbrief and flightplandatabase to make the perfect realistic flight plan.
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do you mean IRL or her on IF? On IF would imagine that most make their flight plan using a third party app or website (simbrief, FPLTOIF, Flightaware etc) and then copy and paste into IF. Prior to pushback then amend for local conditions etc.
IRL, these days not to dissimilar as flightplans made in the ops dept and briefed prior boarding can be uploaded straight into the FMC, of course pilots will still then manual check these against their flight plan and amend as necessary. However, a few years ago they did not have the option to upload from the company system and so had to sit there and do it by hand!
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In IF I usually copy paste it from FPLtoIF.com or do it manually it it’s a very short flight.
In real life, pilots do it manually, but there is a network of airways which simplify it a lot because pilots don’t have to input every single waypoint manually.
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I just fill in my flight information in simbrief for example and they make the flight plan. Then i copy it and paste it. It is always not good for your approach, so i change it a bit and then i have the perfect flight plan with arrival and approach.
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Im sorry friend meant irl
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Yes they do, unless if the engineers (the maintenance guys around the aircraft at this time) have the clearance to prepare the aircraft for the next crew, so they prepare the FMC for them.
But generally, they have to enter the entire 100s waypoints of their flight plan if included
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I always use SimBrief and FPLtoIF and just copy/paste my FPL.
Thats hectic imagine…manually
In an IRL example, we need to step away from inputting every waypoint manually but rather think with airways. Here’s an example flight plan from EGKK to EVRA that would be inputted into an FMC from Simbrief:
FRAN1M FRANE M604 PAAVO Q295 SOMVA DCT MAVAS DCT GITER DCT NINTA M864 ADAXA DCT ORVIX ORVI2A
Notice that indicidual waypoints are not necessarily being used, as theres a lot of shortcuts along the way.
Let’s go over the formatting:
FRAN1M FRANE
Simple departure SID towards FRANE, this will be familiar considering how Infinite Flight already does something similar for you.
M604 PAAVO
This is where your airways come into play. This basically means: “Follow the airway M604 until waypoint PAAVO.”. This also means the flight plan crosses these waypoints also between FRANE and PAAVO: SPEAR, TOVGU, DAGGA, GABSA. This is very much quicker, especially if the same airway is followed for a long period.
DCT MAVAS
“DCT” here in the flight plan is simply: “Fly directly to the waypoint named”. In this case, MAVAS. This follows no particular airway. And so individual waypoints would need to be inputted if you want to input several.
You’ll get the idea on what the rest of the flight plan means.
In short, for most cases, you would not be inputting any individual waypoints (unless you follow no airways over the course of your entire long haul somehow), because simply telling the FMC to follow an airway until a certain point is much less tedious.
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