Cargo Weight?

[signmanbob]

Hello Steve,
I've been using IF with the PMDG 737NGX and it is working real good.
IF adds a lot to FSX. It's very much fun.
I just had some questions.
Does IF add cargo weight to the aircraft? It seem that I see "Fuel Required" and "Passengers and Luggage", but no "Cargo" that would go in the front and back cargo holds.
IF will show a "Weight, Total" of 142416 with fuel and "Passengers and Luggage".
IF says 132 Passengers and when I show that in "Topcat", it takes up the full "Weight, Total" that IF is showing.
I have to lower the amount of passengers in Topcat, to be able to add cargo so I can get all the numbers that I need to set the load in the NGX.

Also is IF showing real world weather or does it fabricate weather situations for its weather engine. How do I know if IF is using real weather or not? I would like to be able to follow along with the flight plan in FS Commander using real weather.

IF is a great program. I'm really enjoying it.

Thank you,
Bob

[Steve Waite]

Hi Bob,

In the flight generator page you can set percentage load (100% chooses a random load). Then the ETA and Fuel are calculated for this load (shown in the briefing). Some addon aircraft may need the load manually added or adjusted before the flight as they can have special loading requirements that are specifically for the aircraft. With IF, you just need to see that you carry the same weight as the briefing suggests, then the fuel & ETA will be accurate.

IF shows weather from a global simulation, it is not connected the internet and knows nothing about the real weather. You can turn off IF weather and use real weather, REX, or ASE, but there are no weather reports in IF for real weather yet.

Regards;
Steve

[signmanbob]

Thank you Steve.
It's not any problem using the IF weather engine and letting it build custom weather situations, but is there a way to get wind aloft numbers?

Also, IF built a flight plan from KNFW (Ft Worth) to KTLH (Tallahassee), but put a waypoint in the flightplan that was way, way up north, probably because I use Navigraph updates on the NGX and Flightsim Commander. Is there any penalty for bypassing a waypoint like that?

[Steve Waite]

Accuraccy en-route is not assessed. Check out the Mission Page in the Flight Gen page to turn on/off systems and checks to include in the assessment.

The waypoints that the IF plans use are direct from the scenery files. So if you update waypoints data with scenery addons, then these new waypoints and airways would be used. I couldn't get any strange plans or find off waypoints between KNFW and KTLH with the default scenery.

If you load (or drop onto IF) plans with a waypoint that does not exist in the scenery data, then the waypoint is included in the plan as a user waypoint. Some FMCs may not like User or TOC/TOD waypoints.

Regards;
Steve