Re: Flight planning software the accounts for winds ?

[Dico]

What are some of the best flight planning software available? I've
never used any but perhaps I should after briefly reading here what
they can all do for you!

-dr



Wendy wrote:
> Most of the flight planning software that I have used only offers two
> options for route planning, 1) direct or 2) airway.
>
> I have seen one option that does check winds and offers altitude options,
> but it's like an after thought, instead of an integrated function of
> planning the route.
>
> My actual question is, what software is out there for GA flight planning
> that will take winds into account, in both the lateral and vertical, to
> automatically plan a route for me?
>
> I'd like 4 options the software to allow me to select from:
>
> 1) Direct
> 2) Airways
> 3) Fastest
> 4) Least amount of fuel
>
> Heck, I'd like to hit one button and have all 4 plot on the map with the
> flight plan data and let me choose which one I want to file.
>
> tks.

[Mitty]

Try this:

http://www.flightprep.com/rootpage.php?page=Aviation%20Consumer%20HTML%20pag e

On 5/20/2006 6:56 PM, Dico wrote the following:
> What are some of the best flight planning software available? I've
> never used any but perhaps I should after briefly reading here what
> they can all do for you!
>
> -dr
>
>
>
> Wendy wrote:
>> Most of the flight planning software that I have used only offers two
>> options for route planning, 1) direct or 2) airway.
>>
>> I have seen one option that does check winds and offers altitude options,
>> but it's like an after thought, instead of an integrated function of
>> planning the route.
>>
>> My actual question is, what software is out there for GA flight planning
>> that will take winds into account, in both the lateral and vertical, to
>> automatically plan a route for me?
>>
>> I'd like 4 options the software to allow me to select from:
>>
>> 1) Direct
>> 2) Airways
>> 3) Fastest
>> 4) Least amount of fuel
>>
>> Heck, I'd like to hit one button and have all 4 plot on the map with the
>> flight plan data and let me choose which one I want to file.
>>
>> tks.
>

[John Doe]

I've tried that one....it only does have the things I want.


"Mitty" > wrote in message
...
> Try this:
>
> http://www.flightprep.com/rootpage.php?page=Aviation%20Consumer%20HTML%20pag e
>
> On 5/20/2006 6:56 PM, Dico wrote the following:
>> What are some of the best flight planning software available? I've
>> never used any but perhaps I should after briefly reading here what
>> they can all do for you!
>>
>> -dr
>>
>>
>>
>> Wendy wrote:
>>> Most of the flight planning software that I have used only offers two
>>> options for route planning, 1) direct or 2) airway.
>>>
>>> I have seen one option that does check winds and offers altitude
>>> options,
>>> but it's like an after thought, instead of an integrated function of
>>> planning the route.
>>>
>>> My actual question is, what software is out there for GA flight planning
>>> that will take winds into account, in both the lateral and vertical, to
>>> automatically plan a route for me?
>>>
>>> I'd like 4 options the software to allow me to select from:
>>>
>>> 1) Direct
>>> 2) Airways
>>> 3) Fastest
>>> 4) Least amount of fuel
>>>
>>> Heck, I'd like to hit one button and have all 4 plot on the map with the
>>> flight plan data and let me choose which one I want to file.
>>>
>>> tks.
>>

[Matt Whiting]

Dico wrote:
> What are some of the best flight planning software available? I've
> never used any but perhaps I should after briefly reading here what
> they can all do for you!

I've tried the Golden Eagle software that is free from CSC DUATS, and
the AOPA flight planner and maybe one other, but I typically keep coming
back to the simple flight planner in CSC DUATS. It doesn't show you
SUA, terrain, overlaid weather, etc., but it is fast and simple and I
like the print-out format the best of any of them.

Since I fly IFR mostly, I don't worry as much about SUA and I prefer to
use Intellicast and other sources for weather anyway. I don't mind the
text interface to DUATS as I grew up in the days of teletypes. :-)

I can plan a flight faster using DUATS than I can using any of the more
graphical packages, but I'm sure if I used them enough I could get
faster. I just haven't seen the advantages to outweigh the learning
curve and the slower performance of those bloated products (I believe
Golden Eagle is a 100MB download!). That's as big as Windows was just a
few years ago...


Matt

[A Lieberman]

On 20 May 2006 16:56:16 -0700, Dico wrote:

> What are some of the best flight planning software available? I've
> never used any but perhaps I should after briefly reading here what
> they can all do for you!

If you are IFR rated (also can benefit VFR rated pilots for flight planning
via DUATS and getting airport layouts and the like), check out

http://www.cmensys.com/

My "pirep" can be found at
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.aviation.ifr/browse_frm/thread/8e643414634fc998/4a5649b55b09fe4f?lnk=st&q=cmensys+lieberma&rnum=2&hl=en#4a5649b55b09fe4f

Program is not free, but well worth the money.

Allen
(not related to programmer, just an extremely satisfied user).

[Dave Butler]

Matt Whiting wrote:
> Dico wrote:
>
>> What are some of the best flight planning software available? I've
>> never used any but perhaps I should after briefly reading here what
>> they can all do for you!
>
>
> I've tried the Golden Eagle software that is free from CSC DUATS, and
> the AOPA flight planner and maybe one other, but I typically keep coming
> back to the simple flight planner in CSC DUATS. It doesn't show you
> SUA, terrain, overlaid weather, etc., but it is fast and simple and I
> like the print-out format the best of any of them.

Likewise. I found the quality of Golden Eagle to be laughable, or at least I was
able to quickly crash it a couple of time in the first 10 minutes of use, before
I uninstalled it. The AOPA flight planner annoys me with its click and drag
routing and absence of text-based routing. I always fall back to CSC DUATS. Fast
and painless.

[Mitty]

The link goes to an Aviation Consumer article that compares several
packages. They have licensed the article because they won, but ymmv.

On 5/20/2006 8:22 PM, John Doe wrote the following:
> I've tried that one....it only does have the things I want.
>
>
> "Mitty" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Try this:
>>
>> http://www.flightprep.com/rootpage.php?page=Aviation%20Consumer%20HTML%20pag e
>>
>> On 5/20/2006 6:56 PM, Dico wrote the following:
>>> What are some of the best flight planning software available? I've
>>> never used any but perhaps I should after briefly reading here what
>>> they can all do for you!
>>>
>>> -dr
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Wendy wrote:
>>>> Most of the flight planning software that I have used only offers two
>>>> options for route planning, 1) direct or 2) airway.
>>>>
>>>> I have seen one option that does check winds and offers altitude
>>>> options,
>>>> but it's like an after thought, instead of an integrated function of
>>>> planning the route.
>>>>
>>>> My actual question is, what software is out there for GA flight planning
>>>> that will take winds into account, in both the lateral and vertical, to
>>>> automatically plan a route for me?
>>>>
>>>> I'd like 4 options the software to allow me to select from:
>>>>
>>>> 1) Direct
>>>> 2) Airways
>>>> 3) Fastest
>>>> 4) Least amount of fuel
>>>>
>>>> Heck, I'd like to hit one button and have all 4 plot on the map with the
>>>> flight plan data and let me choose which one I want to file.
>>>>
>>>> tks.
>
>

[Ray Andraka]

Matt Whiting wrote:
> Dico wrote:
>
>> What are some of the best flight planning software available? I've
>> never used any but perhaps I should after briefly reading here what
>> they can all do for you!
>
>
> I've tried the Golden Eagle software that is free from CSC DUATS, and
> the AOPA flight planner and maybe one other, but I typically keep coming
> back to the simple flight planner in CSC DUATS. It doesn't show you
> SUA, terrain, overlaid weather, etc., but it is fast and simple and I
> like the print-out format the best of any of them.
>
> Since I fly IFR mostly, I don't worry as much about SUA and I prefer to
> use Intellicast and other sources for weather anyway. I don't mind the
> text interface to DUATS as I grew up in the days of teletypes. :-)
>
> I can plan a flight faster using DUATS than I can using any of the more
> graphical packages, but I'm sure if I used them enough I could get
> faster. I just haven't seen the advantages to outweigh the learning
> curve and the slower performance of those bloated products (I believe
> Golden Eagle is a 100MB download!). That's as big as Windows was just a
> few years ago...
>
>
> Matt
I also use the CSC DUATS flight planner for all the reasons you cited,
plus I can access it from any computer that has internet access...I
don't need anything installed on the computer to get to it. AOPA's
flight planner requires you to install an application on your computer,
and that is a big problem if you are using someone else's as a guest.