Dhruv

Very nice! Planning on sharing the lights.txt file?

Jan, this may be the case in Europe, but the overwhelming Nextgen push in the US has been towards Optimized Profile Descent arrivals which essentially require accurate VNAV in order to fly. These procedures are VNAV-dependent to the extent that CRJ/ERJ operators often file ASAP reports due to not being able to comply with the procedures as published due to the Advisory VNAV being insufficient. The overwhelming doctrine even at Southwest during the waning days of -300 operations was towards using VNAV on these arrivals more and more, despite Southwest being one of the more automation-resistant operators in the past due to a desire to maintain commonality with at one point a 3-family fleet.

Private Pilot training for less than $10k in a G1000 C172 is a steal. Enjoy!

I suspect the trends have shifted slightly since 1997, especially in the US as more and more "Optimized Profile Descent" (OPD) STARs are becoming the norm. These newer procedures have specific block altitude and speed restrictions on multiple successive fixes and can't be flown without at least some sort of advisory VNAV at minimum generating a descent path that complies with the restrictions.

Had someone already claimed the jump seat?!

Arizona One is on my list. I should have it ready sometime early September once I'm back from vacation.

"German efficiency™"

I'll get to it!

Southwest Airlines 'Lone Star One' 737-3H4 N352SW View File This is N352SW, c/n 24888, a 737-3H4 which first flew Oct 17, 1990 and was delivered to SWA Nov 6, 1990. Southwest introduced its second special livery, Lone Star One, in celebration of the airline’s 20th anniversary. This 737-3H4 was painted with the Texas state flag as a tribute to the airline’s home state and the ten Texas cities it serves. Ship 352 wore the carrier's original "Desert Gold" tail until July 2003, when it was repainted with a tail representative of the "Canyon Blue" colors. Lone Star One was retrofitted with winglets in mid-2010, and was retired from service on May 17, 2016. The livery is slated to be repainted onto a 737-700 later this year. To install, unzip into the "Liveries" folder. Submitter Dhruv Submitted 05/18/2016 Category IXEG 737 Classic Livery For Click Here For Aircraft X-Plane Version(s)

In the US the AIM now recommends transponders set to ON/ALT while on all movement areas, ASDE-X or not.

Southwest Airlines 'Canyon Blue' 737-3H4 N622SW View File Welcome to the first in a series of Southwest 737-300 repaints for the excellent IXEG 737 Classic! This is N622SW, c/n 27932, a 737-3H4 which first flew Mar 12, 1996 and was delivered to SWA Mar 20, 1996. Ship 622 was originally painted in the carrier's original "Desert Gold" livery and repainted into "Canyon Blue" colors in early 2006. She received retrofit winglets in early 2008, which are reflected on this repaint. As yet this aircraft has not received Southwest's new "Heart" livery. To install, unzip into the "Liveries" folder. Submitter Dhruv Submitted 05/03/2016 Category IXEG 737 Classic Livery For Click Here For Aircraft X-Plane Version(s)

I may be very interested in this if the dates line up!

Indeed! We see this all too often on VATSIM where pilots will blindly "plug and chug" into their FMCs without correlating the FMS data to the charts. One of the biggest things we do in a crew environment is cross-check the FMS entered flight plan with the planned or cleared route, and then also re-verify any SID/STAR restrictions or approach restrictions with the plate. Here's the EDBC ILS in question, as others have posted, you can see that the altitude at the OM fix is actually 1930'.

Yeah the NG FMS/Avionics stick a 'DECEL' on the route line where it anticipates the VNAV will need to slow for a lower speed planned at a subsequent fix.

That being said, as an 8-year VATSIM ATC veteran, I don't think I've EVER given an unpublished (i.e. Not retrievable via database) hold on VATSIM, event or not, that a pilot didn't specifically request for training purposes. The dirty secret is that for as much as pilots dislike random holding, controllers (both real and virtual), equally hate issuing it since it creates issues with protecting random chunks of sky from penetration by other air traffic.

I think he's asking will the FMS be capable of loading and flying WAAS-aided approaches, namely RNAV LPV with vertical guidance.

I'm of mixed emotions on this one. We (Alex and I at XPJ) put out two packs for FJS' 727 when it was first released. My motivations for doing so were that both of us have quite the soft spot for the airplane, and it was worth it to us to get our hands on the paint kit and do many of its most prolific operators some justice. What we found was that by the end of the process, we'd ended up stripping out most of the original paint kit details and effectively remastering the textures for the whole plane. End result was that our work (or so I'd like to think anyway) was a step up from the default liveries and the 'mega packs' that were shipped alongside the aircraft. Was it a particularly lucrative project? Not in the least. If I had to do it all over again, I would have just released the liveries for free had the plane's licensing allowed for it at the time. Having looked at the livery pack offerings for the FlightFactor airplanes, there are several negatives to their structure, most notably that they charge for both fictional operators (i.e. airlines that have never flown the aircraft), and their paints are of questionable accuracy and quality as evidenced above. It's an ok idea in theory to charge for paint in order to compensate texture artists, but the effort has to be worth the price. I'm in agreement with Cameron that the current offerings on the X-Plane market are certainly not so.

Exactly. Outfitting a fleet of 500+ NGs isn't cheap!

Southwest's NG fleet is still incapable of doing RF legs for RNP 0.1 such as the RNAV X 22L at KMDW, for example. I believe their Classic fleet is the same. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Looks like addition by subtraction, too - no eyebrow windows!

Someone really needs to lean on Apple/nVidia. This has been a problem for years. Valve and Blizzard have tried to push them a bit to make their AAA titles run, but it unfortunately causes an artificial increase in Mac system requirements for most games. My 2012 MBP is ticking along great, except for X-Plane. Always seems to be the case. I think this year's the year I take the plunge and build a gaming rig, while saving the MBP for "real" work.

I guess they're realizing that the livery pack model isn't really a money maker. Perhaps Alex and I can give the bird the same treatment we did the 727. New white base textures and 10-15 liveries.