AOPA has an dumbed-down internet version of FlightStar that you can download
for free at:
http://www.aopa.org/flight_planner/intro.html

The Jepp North American IFR version of Flightstar V9.0 costs $239. I'm
running 8.0 and have never purchased the map or chart revision service. My
flight planning skills have atrophied as a result of using this thing. It
calculates flight times very accurately. But I like it best for long
x-country flights. You can draw a great circle between take-off and landing
and then drag your flight path up or down for fuel stops or VOR fly-overs or
to parallel victor airways if the weather sucks.


"O. Sami Saydjari" wrote in message
...
I went to Jeppeson's website and looked up flitestar. Looks like a nice
software package. What I could not find is pricing information for the
software or the subscription service to keep the charts updated and
such. Can you give your view on the software and let us know what it
retails for (including any subscriptions). Thanks.

-Sami

McGregor wrote:
Lazy people (like me) ask their computer. FlightStar from Jepp has an
"optimize altitude" function that is pretty handy. Once it has
downloaded
DUATs weather it will display groundspeed and fuel burn for all
altitudes
and highlight the optimal flight level.

"O. Sami Saydjari" wrote in message
...

When planning a flight against the wind, how to you pick the best
altitude when trying to minimize flight time?

If I read my performance charts correctly, my aircraft (Piper Turbo
Arrow III -- service ceiling 20,000 ft) seems to gain about 2 nts of
*true* airspeed for every 1000 feet you go up. Firstly, does that sound
about right to folks? I assume that this effect is from the decrease in
air friction at high altitudes (even though the prop also has less air
to "push on").

So, unless there is some other factor, I think this means that if the
winds increase at anything higher than 2 nts per 1000 feet, I am best
off staying at the Minimum Enroute Altitude. Is that right?

My experience thus far suggests that most of the time, the winds aloft
speed increase far faster then 2 nts per 1000 feet, so, in general, it
is unlikely that I will do much better than staying at the absolute
minimum altitude. Is that consistent with other folks' experience?

-Sami