How to plan a flight

[BasicJam]

So I am fairly familiar with the basics of flight and startup procedures and such but the problem is I have no idea how to plan flights and receive the information needed to enter into the FMC. I have heard of programs such as PFPX but have no idea how to use them. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Lastly when approaching a decent I haven't done so yet but wonder how you tell, is it to do with stars?

[Ohio737]

Its actually pretty easy.. First you need to configure the FMC for your dry weight, how many PAX and freight then plug in your fuel weight & planned Flight Level..

 

Ofter that you need to configure the FMC with your location (what airport are you at?) then you need to look up departure procedures for that airport. So then based on your weight etc. you will determine which runway you need to lift off from, then your flap settings, v1, v2 speed. Once you figured out those things then you configure them into the FMC. now you configure your route. Use a any of the online freeware flight planners to get a route. Then you configure that into FMC by choosing the waypoints from the route on the FMC screen. once that is completed you need to find the approach plate for your arrival airport. During the flight, you can configure the FMC based on your arrival weight (which is determined by your fuel in the tanks, burn rate, weather.) this will help you choose which runway to land on, air speed etc. Once you plot that out configure into FMC about 30 minutes before arrival then cross check when your 15 minutes out and thats about it.. the plane will just about land itself except you should take manual control at 15 miles out to crab for cross wind and actually learn to fly the plane. the departure process and approcah plates are available free online for any airport in the world..