Navagation Data Questions

[Nick - A2A]

Hi Mike,

The other thing to bear in mind is that Navigraph data packages tend to be used by aircraft which include their own custom GPS, typically in the form of a glass cockpit or FMS of some sort. For example, I suspect the Carenado product which you purchased includes a G1000 flight deck or similar.

High end add-on aircraft which use traditional round or 'steam' gauges such as the Accu-Sim 172 tend to support third-party (RealityXP or Flight1) Garmin GPS systems instead. These products use Garmin's own trainer software, so they're a very accurate and full featured representation of the real thing. For this reason they're popular with serious GA flight simmers, but they don't use the host simulator's nav data or Navigraph data (and there's nothing we can do about this).

In other words, we do our best to support both those customers who have purchased these realistic add-on GPS packages and those who are happy with a basic (and cost free) solution in the form of the default GPS.

Thanks,
Nick

[[email protected]]

Hey Lewis,

I've been around the houses alright! I am going to give those other GPS's a second look like I said earlier. When I first looked at them they were not clear about what data they are using so I was reluctant to add more confusion to the mix. Thanks for the input.

Mike

[[email protected]]

Hey Lewis!

I've been around the houses alright! I went back to check out Reality XP and Flight1 again. I was in the forums reading all the same complaints about old data and hacks to work around the problem. The issue really isn't about the age of the data, it's about the consistency, finding the same navaids, and procedures programmed in your avionics as you see on the charts. Why they don't make their avionics database upgradable from Navigraph is a mystery.
If you want to fly IFR in the real world, you have to buy Jeppesen data to go in your avionics. Not only that, you are legally required to have an up to date database and charts in your plane. The way I see it, if you want to fly IFR in a sim in a real world scenario, you also have to have to buy the database but from Navigraph. If you only want to fly as a gamer, it really doesn't matter. If you want to use your sim and fly IFR at a study level to become a real world pilot or practice your IFR skills, it matters. Navigraph has 303926 subscribers on the About Us page on their website. I think A2A should seriously consider Navigraph Ext Packs for the Navigraph IFR market. You already have the best study level GA aircraft.

Sincerely,
Mike

[Lewis - A2A]

Hey Mike,

its not an A2A issue as you mention, its a sim issue. We can offer certain upgrades which are coming but these are only on the default relaxed realism GPS so not ideal for real world training if the GPS isnt doing what a real one does.

So for IFR Training using of the Flight1 or RXP GPS simulations is your best bet for training, as it uses literally the actual Garmin software. And whilst outdated, as I already mentioned, most if not all training sims the world over use old data as the most realistic simulation of the GPS is using the Garmin software itself to create a true GPS simulation of its real world counter-part.

So you can easily grab some charts relevant to the data and then go from there and train to your hearts content with the date of the data being irrelevant.

thanks,
Lewis

[[email protected]]

Point noted Lewis. Now that I've traveled down this path, I at least know what I'm dealing with and know the limitations and what to expect.

Thanks for the lessons. I might become a sim programmer yet!

Sincerely,
Mike

[[email protected]]

Another solution that I just rediscovered is Mindstar. They have a GNS430/530 and a G1000 that works off yet another data provider, RealNav. Didn't A2A support their products in P3Dv3? I see that they are not 64 bit yet. Will you be supporting their avionics installation with your configuration program after the get themselves on the 64 bit platform?

Sincerely,
Mike

[Lewis - A2A]

Hello Mike,

no Mindstar, didn't update so they got a little left behind and tended to be used by not too many compared to the RXP and Flight1 which had a vast majority of the users. We supported some Mindstar GPS products in our FSX software.

thanks,
Lewis - A2A

[[email protected]]

Thanks Lewis,

I've managed to get my nav data to match Navigraph in Prepar3d with fsAerodata at this point so if A2A can update their legacy GPS code we should be good to go! The SID and STAR procedures are in the Sim data which I can see with Little Nav Maps.

It's too bad about Mindstar because they have the G1000.

Sincerely Mike

[Oracle427]

The legacy GPS is not A2A's. The legacy GPS is part of the stock sim engine.

[[email protected]]

Hmmm. That's not good. Prepar3d better get on the ball because X-Plane is gonna eat into their customer base in a serious way. Maybe the developer community should express some discontent.

[[email protected]]

I see that the Navigation/Avionics issues I was having so much frustration with have been addressed in the recent update. I just wanted to say thank you. It's nice to know you guys are listening.
Mike

[Nick - A2A]

Hi Mike,

Yes, the latest update for the 172 integrates the native P3D GPS into the aircraft for those who prefer to use the default GPS. We'll follow with similar updates for the rest of the Accu-Sim fleet at some point.

Thanks again for bringing the matter to our attention.
Nick