Real-life flight planning

My briefing strategy changed when AOPA launched their recent planner. Best
free planner out there.

For long multi-leg cross-country VFR or IFR from home: Plan less than 4 hour
legs out of a 5 hour tank. Use AOPA's planner and ADDS for planning the day
(or days) before. DUATS briefing (using AOPA's planner) to get a weather
update, NOTAMS, and to make it official the day of the flight.

With the planner, I start with the origin and destination and the rubber
band the route to nearby nav aids or airports along the way. The Nav Log
that it puts out is fine for me. I print it out forward and backward so I'm
ready for the trip home.

Long multi-leg cross-country VFR away from home: Plan less than 4 hour legs
out of a 5 hour tank. ADDS and DUATS briefing using a web site interface to
get a weather update, NOTAMS, and to make it official for planning and the
day of the flight. Might be replaced by using a weather station at an FBO.
My last choice is to do this over the phone.

I will plan out a route even if I am planning to fly direct using my
handheld GPS. It provides enroute time checks and a back up. It also gives
me a chance to validate the route against TFRs or other hazards. I don't
want to be flight planning in the air. It also provides some enroute points
to talk about with a briefer, if I end up doing it over the phone.

I agree with abbreviated planning for a familar route that is less than a
few hours. If it's a clear day and I'm going for a breakfast or lunch at a
nearby airport, I'll call for a briefing on the way to the airport. That is
the minimum I will do.

Anything more than an hour from home and I want to have a good idea about
weather and enroute checkpoints. Since winds aloft are so variable, I need
something to measure my progress. Maybe I'm trying to get there and back on
one tank of fuel. What starts out as a short little flight with no worries
could turn into a fuel crisis on the way home.

I subscribed to Aeroplanner for one month. Nice service but too expensive
for weekend flyers and too slow. The Cirrus interface for DUATS is also a
waste of time now that AOPA's planner is out. I haven't tried any other
fee-based planning services.
-------------------------------
Travis


"Paul Folbrecht" wrote in message
ink.net...
Being newly licenced (yesterday), I've started thinking about the type
of VFR flight-planning I'll do in the real, post-student world, and what
tools I'll use.

As a student, of course, I did everything by hand, and meticulously, and
eschewed GPS navigation as well. Some of my observations from my brief
XC experience thus far:

1) Winds aloft forecasts are never right- usually not close.

2) There's no need to produce a nav log, etc. with checkpoints when the
route is familiar.

So, for a route that is now familiar to me- say, Timmmerman (MWC) to
Appleton (ATW) (about 75nm), of course I get a briefing, and check the
winds aloft, but I'm not going to produce a nav log. I'm going to fly
by pilotage with my GPS to back me up and with a VOR receiver to back
that up. And, of course, if I encounter particularly unexpected
weather, I'm going to turn back.

For new routes, I am going to produce a nav log, knowing full well that
my heading will not likely match the precomputed values due to differing
winds aloft. No matter. But, of course, for such flights, I'm not
going to be doing things the old-fashioned way anymore. I want some
good software to make it easy.

So, I think I have two questions: 1) Does this make sense? and 2) What's
the best flight-planning software out there? I've used AOPA's tool and
I like it, but I don't really know what's out there (and yeah I can do a
google search but then you don't know if you're hearing about the latest
& greatest). I do have a Palm 5 device so PC software that has a Palm
component too would be a plus.

~Paul

P.S. Hope this isn't too much of a "newbie" post for this forum.
Thought it was more appropriate here than over at .student.

Oops. I already replied, realized that I forgot a congratulations, then saw
that Jay beat me to it. Anyway, congrats.

downloaded charts. In my mind - fuhgedaboudit. I'm not wasting all that
color ink for charts that are not quite as good as the real thing and only
show you a small section with no connection to the adjacent plats. But then
I love maps. I have no problem folding them around in the cockpit.

familar route: Coming back from Michigan to Chicago after Thanksgiving
weekend. A route that I have flown 20 times in the last couple of years. I
hit headwinds that were 40 to 60 knots. You bet I was watching time and
landmarks.

--
-------------------------------
Travis


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:l9XQb.19922$U%5.156877@attbi_s03...
Being newly licenced (yesterday), I've started thinking about the type
of VFR flight-planning I'll do in the real, post-student world, and what
tools I'll use.

First of all, it seems that everyone here has forgotten their manners --
CONGRATULATIONS, Paul! Welcome to the .0005% of the world that gets to
fly!

As far as flight-planning goes, I'd recommend checking these out:

1. www.Aeroplanner.com has some really great on-line flight planning
stuff -- including the ability to print out sectionals with your course
line
and 10-mile-ticks superimposed. They are fabulous on long trips, cuz
they're on notebook-sized paper and you just "flip" from one map to the
next. No "octopus arms" in the cockpit, fighting to fold a sectional!

2. Destination Direct ( www.destdirect.com/ ) is (IMHO) the best
stand-alone
PC flight planner. I've used it for years, and was able to flight plan
your
trip from Timmerman to Appleton in about five seconds, with fuel burn,
ETA,
waypoints, etc.

As time goes on and you garner more flight experience, you'll find that
you
really can't get lost, as long as you know just a very few basic landmarks
along your route. For example, to fly from Iowa City, IA to Janesville,
WI,
do I *really* need a flight log that ticks off every railroad track and
power line from here to there?

Nah. So long as I know where (a) I-80 is, (b) the Mississippi River is,
and
(c) the nuclear power plant in Rockford, IL is (it emits a tower of steam
visible for 50 miles), and have a rough idea of the necessary heading and
winds aloft, it's almost impossible NOT to find Janesville. Overlay this
knowledge with your VORs, a clock, and a moving map GPS, and, shoot, you'd
have to be pretty unlucky to really get "lost."

By the way, where did you train -- Timmerman? I trained in East Troy ten
years ago, and lived in Racine until '97.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:l9XQb.19922$U%5.156877@attbi_s03...

By the way, where did you train -- Timmerman? I trained in East Troy ten
years ago, and lived in Racine until '97.

Ah, memories! I was born and raised about six miles from Timmerman (Silver
Spring and Lydell).

Then, I "Escaped FROM Wisconsin". :~)

In a previous article, "Jay Honeck" said:
1. www.Aeroplanner.com has some really great on-line flight planning
stuff -- including the ability to print out sectionals with your course line
and 10-mile-ticks superimposed. They are fabulous on long trips, cuz
they're on notebook-sized paper and you just "flip" from one map to the
next. No "octopus arms" in the cockpit, fighting to fold a sectional!

I like AeroPlanner, but this year I bought a Howie Keefe Air Chart Systems
IFR Atlas, and it was GREAT for en-route. I mark my route using removable
highlighter tape that I got from Sportys. For this year, I'm ordering a
VFR Sectional Atlas as well.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Just another organic pain collector racing to oblivion

"Bill Denton" wrote in message
...
|
| The next point is: it's 2003 and

I wish people would not say this. While your own post was pretty good, there
is an incredible amount of silliness that is being justified just because
"it is 2003" (or 4, or whatever). Whenever someone starts out this way I am
99% certain that some wretched, silly statement is about to follow. Yours
was an exception, but a rare one.

I use the Contel Duats, enflight.com, and the AOPA flight planners.
Each one requires a little bit of getting used to but they all provide
just about everything you will need.

For the palm, I recommend Co-Pilot. It does everything I need,
including calculating the windss aloft so you can pass them on as a
pirep.

Thanks, but I have a Palm device, not PocketPC.

WingX from http://www.hiltonsoftware.com runs on a Pocket PC and let's you
quickly do route planning with wind calculations, it'll do W&B and a whole
lot more including having Parts 1, 61, 91, 119, and 141 of the FARs right on
your PDA. It's pretty cool if I say so myself (ahem...) Disclaimer:
Should be obvious.

Try it, you'll like it - it's free to download and try.

Hilton

Heh. Point taken. Do it on the PC at home and there's no real need for
the Palm.

My hiking did become way more enjoyable when I stopped lugging the damn
bathtub everywhere. I even leave the accordian behind most trips now.

My personal opinion is that having to fly without your handheld is like
having to hike without your bathtub.

Wow, thanks a ton to everyone for all the replies so fast.

A couple things:

1) I have used duats a lot for wx but not yet for planning.

2) I have a Garmin 295 GPS and I didn't even know it was possible to
download route data to it. Damn, that is cool. Gonna have to read that
manual.

First of all, it seems that everyone here has forgotten their manners --
CONGRATULATIONS, Paul! Welcome to the .0005% of the world that gets to fly!

Nah, not necessary. I got enough back-patting over at RAS. But thanks. :-)

As far as flight-planning goes, I'd recommend checking these out:

1. www.Aeroplanner.com has some really great on-line flight planning
stuff -- including the ability to print out sectionals with your course line
and 10-mile-ticks superimposed. They are fabulous on long trips, cuz
they're on notebook-sized paper and you just "flip" from one map to the
next. No "octopus arms" in the cockpit, fighting to fold a sectional!

Now that is cool- I had wondered if such software (that printed
sectionals with routes) was available and figured that it must be. This
I will have to check out.

2. Destination Direct ( www.destdirect.com/ ) is (IMHO) the best stand-alone
PC flight planner. I've used it for years, and was able to flight plan your
trip from Timmerman to Appleton in about five seconds, with fuel burn, ETA,
waypoints, etc.

snip

By the way, where did you train -- Timmerman? I trained in East Troy ten
years ago, and lived in Racine until '97.

Yep, Timmerman. I actually live just over the line into Racine county
right now, on 7 Mile Rd, which I'm sure you remember.

BTW, your establishment is definitely on my list of places to visit at
some point.