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This tutorial will take you through the steps necessary to install NAV 3 (From Ted Wright) and load the FS2000/FS2002 scenery. Keep in mind while reading this tutorial, that this is just one way to complete these activities. Once you are more familiar with the product, you can begin experimenting with other ways to use the product and its more advanced features.
For FS2004/FSX users, you can download a data set from FS2002 that is not as complete as the data in later versions of FS, but it is far superior to the FS2000 data or the data that comes with NAV (FS98). Follow the installation instructions in the Zip file.
This tutorial assumes you know how to unzip ".zip" (Compressed) files. If you do not know how to do this, use Windows "Help and Support" and type in "unzip".
For information concerning "Radar Contact", please visit: http://www.jdtllc.com/
NAV is a very easy program to install. On the NAV web page there are several links to files, at the bottom of the page, containing the files needed. Go to the downloading section of the page and begin with the "Nav30.zip" file. Click on the file and download it.
Most people have a problem installing NAV because it is just too easy! No install program to run, no choices to make. Unzip Nav30.zip into "C:\NAV" (you can put NAV anywhere, but the rest of this tutorial assumes that is where you put it). Now do the exact same thing for the files "Nav31Beta.zip", "NavFMaps.zip" and "DPStar.zip". If warned about overwriting any files just click "OK".
You have now installed NAV 3. Click the Windows "Start" button and select "Run". In the "Open" text box enter "C:\NAV" and press "Enter". This will open the NAV directory. Hold down the right mouse button and click on the file "Nav.exe". Drag the file to the Windows desktop. Release the mouse button and select "Create Shortcut" from the menu. Now when you want to start NAV you can just click the icon on your desktop.
This seems to give many people problems; especially with FS2000/FS2002 since an extra step is required. Start NAV by clicking on the icon we created above. NAV should start up and look similar to this:
NAV comes with a route and waypoint database for FS98 that does not include very detailed information. FS2000/FS2002 does include this information and it is more complete than the routes and waypoints that come with NAV. So, first we need to let NAV rebuild its database from the data in FS2000/FS2002. This is easy to do and is a once only event.
Select the "Extract FS200x waypoints and routes" from the "File" menu. NAV takes it from here and rebuilds its files. This may take a while, so be patient.
Next, select "Search For BGL files" and then "New" from the NAV menu:
In the "Create new scenery list" dialog enter "FS200x" and click the "OK" button. In the "Search for BGL files" dialog enter "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\FS200x". (If you didn't install FS2000/FS2002 in the default directory, enter that directory instead):
Make sure you select the last check box "Search only AFD data files". NAV is only able to read a subset of the scenery files distributed with FS2000 and FS2002. You must select this option to tell NAV you are using FS2000/FS2002 and to only look at those files. After you click the "OK" button relax and get a beer, it may take awhile for NAV to process all the FS2000/FS2002 scenery files.
Once NAV is done, select the "Load Scenery List" menu option to load the list you just created. Next, select "Save compiled scenery list" from NAV's "File" menu. Also select the "Start with last scenery list" option. This will configure NAV to always start with your scenery loaded.
To test out the scenery import let's look up the Chicago O'Hare
airport. Click the search icon
on the NAV toolbar. Enter "KORD" in the search dialog and click the "OK"
button. The database window will be displayed:
Select the "Chicago-O'Hare" airport entry and click the "Details" button:
If you see this window then you have successfully installed NAV and loaded the FS2000/FS2002 scenery.
To begin creating the flight plan, select "Flight Plan" from the "Plan" menu:
The "Flight Plan" window will be displayed. I like small planes and small airports so lets make a flight plan between Oklahoma City and Dallas to fly with the Cessna Skylane RG. First, select "Aircraft" from the Flight Plan menu bar. If Cessna Skylane RG is not selected press the "Load" button and select the Cessna. In the "Altitude" text box enter 9000, this will create a flight plan with a cruise altitude of 9000 feet. Click the "OK" button when you're done:
Now, let's add our origin and destination airports. Click the "Add" button on the "Flight Plan" window and you will see the same search window you saw in the last section. Enter "KPWA" for the Wiley Post airport in Oklahoma City. The Database window will be displayed and the only entry should be the airport. Select the airport and click the "Send To Plan" button to add this airport to the flight plan. Click the "Close" button to get rid of the Database window. Repeat those steps to add Dallas Love Field to the flight plan (KDAL). Your flight plan window should now look like this:
With a 166 mile flight, it would be nice to have some nav-aids on the way. You could add them manually, but let's get NAV do it for us. Select the "Dallas Love" entry and Click the "Auto route" button. Magically, NAV creates several waypoints along our route:
If you didn't get these waypoints then make sure you have "Dallas Love" selected before clicking the "Auto Route" button. Now our plan contains a VOR in Ardmore and the CVE-VOR just outside Dallas Love Field.
NAV does have its own flight plan format, however I have been exporting my NAV flight plans to Flight Simulator. Doing this allows you to load the flight plan into the Flight Sim GPS. Since NAV can import FS200x flight plans as well, I do not find it necessary to use the NAV format. To export the plan to FS200x, select "File" then "Export" and now "Export To Flight Simulator 200x" option:
NAV should automatically select the "PILOTS" directory under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\FS200x. Or, for FS2004/FSX users, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files. The default name of the flight plan should be "KPWA-KDAL". That is all it takes to export to FS200x. If you want to import the plan later, just use the "Import" option on the "File" menu.
