I just tried to "code" my first IFR high altitude flight by hand in FS2k2, and it sucked! :( What's out there that better for flight planing?[div align=center][link:members.cox.net/fstimes/wetimage.html]Click Here For Weather Image of the Day!

FSBuilder is a free tool and works very well.Michael J.

I happen to like NAV. Also free, has nice maps and SB and FS export options. Somewhere, there is a FS2K2 version. It pulls its data from FS, so if you can plot the route in NAV, FS can take you there!I find it easier to use than anything else, FSBuilder or FSNav. --BeachComer Stephen "Beach" Comer Real World Pile-it Commercial ASMEL, Instrument Airplane 4500 TT, 2500 BE20 & BE10

y does it suck? What do u mean by code?Tim Quayle Northwest Virtual Airlines et al - MSP

>y does it suck? What do u mean by code? >>Tim Quayle >Northwest Virtual Airlines et al - MSP What I meant was that I would take my IFR Enroute FAA High Altitude charts, plot a course from airport X to airport Y via nav aids and reporting points. Then I would try to duplicate this in FS2k2 flight planner.

>What I meant was that I would take my IFR Enroute FAA High Altitude >charts, plot a course from airport X to airport Y via nav aids and >reporting points. Then I would try to duplicate this in FS2k2 flight >planner.Fsbuild is probably the best tool for your method since it can interpret the coded routes you selected from your high altitude charts and put them into a form the FS2002 Planner/GPS can load.Regards.Ernie.

FSBuild is an awesome planner ... no doubt .. no arguments there and THANKS to ERNIE A for this!!!But I am not sure why you think the MSFS flight planner "Su^*%ks". I have been around the world three times, 600-1200 miles per flight, up and down and across the continents, using NOAA HI/LO charts for the US and DOD HI/LO charts for the rest of the world ... and I find the MSFS flight planner to be "spot on" for most common city pair hi altitide routes .. at least when comparing to the charts. There are some exceptions .. where you have to do a GPS IFR route and then find your own waypoints, but that it what the charts are for ... you will find the waypoints almost always even though the HI/LO route may not be there .. remember that MSFS flight data is static as of the publish date and is not updated, so the newer your hi/lo maps, the more outdated the MSFS data becomes.Not to be a silly chauvanistic american, which of course I am, who would imagine that you could find a HI Alt IFR route from BIAK to MANADO ... WABB - WAMM .. without doing it by hand ... Biak is on the North Coast of Irian Jaya ( I used to know this as New Guinea) and Manado is on the north part of Sulawesi all in the Indonesian Archipelago. The same route was found in the DOD Pacific, Australasia HI/LO charts ... .Last night I did a PSSA319 from Miami to New Orleans, the route was plotted 100% accurately by MSFS .. according the to the NOAA HI/LO charts ... BUT the MCDU data did not have parts of the route ... so I had to go back to the FS planner and find some waypoints to add.FS Build is great to get a sense of the route and distances and obviously to use the plan if you want .. but the MSFS planner is not quite as bad as you see it to be ... imhoO well, happy flying,

Agreed The FS2000 planner is pretty good in several respects.It seems to have problems with over water routes, but I've found it to be quite good for generating good flight plans within the Continental U.S.Regards.Ernie.

Ernie,For an "older" guy like me (53) who remembers the "cold war" and such, some of the flight plans MSFS generates are comical ... try to plan a route from Hong Kong to Shanghai ... or from Miami to Cancun ... it is funny to be sent in a wild goose chase over international waters, rather than flying simple straight lines over "the other guy's" airspace...simply amazing ..Maybe I am missing something here and a US aircraft cannot overfly Cuban airspace ... seems senseless in 2002 ... o well.But I still think the FS2k2 planner is a good thing ... and a great companion to FSBuild.Thanks for all your hard work and efforts on FSBUILD ... it's obviously a labor of love on your part but a very neat tool for those of us who really are into flight planning.

My observations as well about the FS2002 flight planner. No problem adding (deleting) additional points and editing the FS2002 generated flight plan.BobThe CURRENT WEATHER at my home. (12.9 Miles ESE of KPIA)http://www.crh.noaa.gov/radar/images/DS.p3...klot/latest.gif

>Thanks for all your hard work and efforts on FSBUILD ... it's >obviously a labor of love on your part but a very neat tool for >those of us who really are into flight planning.Thanks Paul, I appreciate your comments very much.Regards.Ernie.