Do you flight plan?

Dave,

you could always use FlightPlanner.com. It is web based and you should be
able to use it from mozilla or any of the linux browsers

Someday I will learn more about linux and get my home network up and
running.

Fred


"Dave Butler" wrote in message
...
TTA Cherokee Driver wrote:
Dave Butler wrote:

TTA Cherokee Driver wrote:

Thanks to the AOPA's new flight planner, I now flight plan a lot more
than I used to. Give it a try, it's easy and very well done.



I've given it several tries. It still crashes. It still tells me about
waypoints named "Uuuuuuu". I've documented the problems to AOPA, no
response.

Too bad, it seems like a reasonably well designed user interface and a
lot of function.

Dave up the road at RDU.
Remove SHIRT to reply directly.



Bummer, Hmm I've never experienced that. I wonder if there is some
specific waypoint or area of the map that causes that? I haven't heard
a lot of other complaints about it either. Have you tried it on a
different computer?

Well, I've mentioned my problems here a couple of times and nobody has
said "me
too", so I guess it's something unique to me. Can't imagine what.

I only have the one Windoze computer, my other ones all run either Linux
or
Solaris. The windows machine has fairly recently been re-installed with
Win 98
and all the updates from microsoft.com. Maybe I'll try uninstalling and
installing the flight planner again... good ole Windoze. Maybe I have to
give
micro$oft some $$ and upgrade to XP. Naw, it's not worth that.

I'll struggle along with DUAT flight planning (which, incidentally, lets
me
specify the route without any goofy rubber-banding GUI interface).

Thanks for your interest.

Dave
Remove SHIRT to reply directly.

TTA Cherokee Driver writes:
Nasir wrote:

How much do you all plan before each x-country? Am I the only slacker?


Thanks to the AOPA's new flight planner, I now flight plan a lot more
than I used to. Give it a try, it's easy and very well done.


Where is this on the website? Hmmm.

I have seen the website where you pay $100 per year to flightplan but I
wouldnt use it enough to pay that much.

In article , Nasir wrote:
Having received my PPL recently and been on several cross countries, I was
wondering how extensive of a flight plan do people prepare before the trip?

Do you guys do all the checkpoints on a map, calculate time/distance/fuel to
each leg? Do you just draw the line on the map and mark checkpoints that you
expect to see but not calculate other things? Do you always calculate winds
aloft and fly the appropriate heading?

I always want a line on the chart.
I'll find the approximate time en-route, and data to tell me if I'm
behind or ahead of schedule. I certainly don't go to the nit-picky
detail that student pilots have to go to for VFR flight.

As for winds aloft, I'll look at the forecast, but I don't read anything
special into them, and don't do calculations. In the kind of planes I
fly, usually within the first few minutes of cruise flight, it's
possible to make a very good estimate of what heading must be flown to
maintain the course. Checkpoints and ground features allow fine tuning.
I've flown from cost to coast in the US using this method - without a
GPS - and never got lost.

The other thing I do is en-route, keep a note of time. I note the time
passing anything significant on the chart. Therefore when I do get
unsure of my position, it's easy to work out - "well, I was here 8
minutes ago, I must roughly be here now", and within seconds, I've
matched a landmark to something on the chart. One thing that I think is
not given anywhere near enough emphasis in VFR navigation is keeping
track of time. Time is as important as your course line.

I read an ILAFFT column, which summed up "Dead reckoning is the basis of
all aviation navigation. Everything else is just a refinement or aid".
Live by that motto and you'll never get truly lost.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Dylan Smith wrote:
As for winds aloft, I'll look at the forecast, but I don't read anything
special into them, and don't do calculations.

Winds aloft can be a bitch. The difference between a 40 kt headwind and
a 40 kt tailwind can mean a factor of two in the range of a typical
piston single. For a good example of what can go wrong if you don't
take winds aloft into account properly, see the following link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3306443.stm

For a good example of what can go wrong if you don't
take winds aloft into account properly, see the following link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3306443.stm

That really sux. I can't believe they wouldn't SELL the pilot fuel . . . what
assholes.


www.Rosspilot.com

ospam (Rosspilot) writes:

For a good example of what can go wrong if you don't
take winds aloft into account properly, see the following link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3306443.stm

That really sux. I can't believe they wouldn't SELL the pilot fuel . . . what
assholes.

Yeah, what kind of people are these who refuse to encourage pilots
to do dumb things? They're probably the same party-poopers who
won't let their friends drive home drunk.

--kyler

For a good example of what can go wrong if you don't
take winds aloft into account properly, see the following link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3306443.stm

That really sux. I can't believe they wouldn't SELL the pilot fuel . . .
what
assholes.

Yeah, what kind of people are these who refuse to encourage pilots
to do dumb things? They're probably the same party-poopers who
won't let their friends drive home drunk.


Kyler . . . every pilot has done dumb things. This guy had flown that plane
around the world 3 times. How does that equate to trying to drive home drunk?

www.Rosspilot.com

Rosspilot wrote:

For a good example of what can go wrong if you don't
take winds aloft into account properly, see the following link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3306443.stm

That really sux. I can't believe they wouldn't SELL the pilot fuel . . . what
assholes.

They don't have any to spare. See
http://www.eaa.org/communications/ea..._johanson.html

George Patterson
Some people think they hear a call to the priesthood when what they really
hear is a tiny voice whispering "It's indoor work with no heavy lifting".

In article , Roy Smith wrote:
Dylan Smith wrote:
As for winds aloft, I'll look at the forecast, but I don't read anything
special into them, and don't do calculations.

Winds aloft can be a bitch. The difference between a 40 kt headwind and
a 40 kt tailwind can mean a factor of two in the range of a typical
piston single. For a good example of what can go wrong if you don't
take winds aloft into account properly, see the following link.

It's not a question of not taking the winds into *account*. I can look
at the winds aloft forecast and make a very good estimate without
needing to actually formally calculate anything. The winds aloft
forecast are really not reliable enough to be worth anything more than
estimation.

That's why I don't read anything special into them. When I get airborne,
I've often found the winds aloft (which ARE worth calculating from real
data which you're seeing now, and indeed reporting to the FSS in a
PIREP) to be many degrees different to the forecast, and usually quite
different in speed. The forecasts aren't any more good than an estimate
- what you actually find is what's good for a calculation. I've often
found that the forecast 5 knot headwind has in reality been a 20 knot
headwind or vice versa (which is a significant difference in an 85 knot
plane).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:42:48 -0500, Roy Smith wrote:

Dylan Smith wrote:
As for winds aloft, I'll look at the forecast, but I don't read anything
special into them, and don't do calculations.

Winds aloft can be a bitch. The difference between a 40 kt headwind and
a 40 kt tailwind can mean a factor of two in the range of a typical
piston single. For a good example of what can go wrong if you don't
take winds aloft into account properly, see the following link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3306443.stm


In the Philadelphia area I am usually dealing with winds aloft data
from Atlantic City and Wilkes Barre. Because of differences in
topography, proximity to the ocean and a host of issues that I am
probably unaware of, the data from these two locations varies
considerably. I'm usually flying somewhere in between so I attempt to
interpolate but the direction and speed is often so disparate that my
interpolation is all but useless. I still solicit this data but I use
it more to establish a set of expectations.

Rich Russell