How to find suitable emergency landing airport?

[ohlsample]

Hi there!

I'm interested in the tools you are using to find a suitable airport to land on in emergency cases.

My example: I wanted to go from Cape Town Intl. FACT to Mombasa, when I suffered a fuel leak and a gear error. I had to search for a
long while on the map to finally find FXMM - Moshoeshoe I Intl - Lesotho airport. It was somehow difficulty to start from there with a fully
loaded 777 again (I'm always starting from airports I landed on to gain more realism).

So my question: How do you find your airport - most likely with search options like: distance < x nm, runway longer than 11000 feet, ILS
yes/no and so on.

Thanks for your answers in advance!
Richard

[DavidPowell]

Depending on the addon, if it has an FMC it may give you option for Diversion, otherwise I use the map, and click on airports until I find a
likely looking airport.

David

[Anastasios]

It depends on the emergency.
If I have plenty of time and there is no rush, I will just look on the map.

If there isn't much time I will look on the GPS for the nearest airports. On the GPS you can see information about the type of runway and length, etc.
If I have time I will do so. If there isn't much time, I set the autobrake to the max and just land the plane.

I fly a 737, so that's a difference ofcourse. But you can find lots of information in the FS9 GPS.

Anastasios.

[Ceemosp]

Inflight it's an easy task.

The fs9 built-in GPS has the button "nearest airport" - where all airfields are listed with their respective runway length and the type of
runway (grass/tarmac) which is depicted by different icons.

That would be the easiest way to find it when an emergency happens enroute.

Nevertheless it does NOT substitute a good preflight planning on your side. When selecting your route look at the alternates along your
planned route. This is especially important when doing long haul flight over non-populated territory. You will have to look at all options
beforehand to a) carry the appropriate approach plates (it's a nasty situation if you have to divert to another airfield and land IFR w/o charts
as you forgot to bring them along b) prepare certain keypoints of your flight where for example you will have to go on towards your
destination as fuel will not allow for returning (more fuel needed to return than to get to destination).

For that purpose you could use FS-Navigator or similar programs that will allow you to access the fs9 scenery/navaid database.

Greetz Carsten