It's been a mystery to me how European owners of FS9/X handle flight planning when not flying in the US. With sites like Flightaware.com only covering the US, is there some other site similar to Flightaware that handles European flight planning?I'd really like to do some European and Asian flights, but wanted to stick as close to real world planning as possible.

It's been a mystery to me how European owners of FS9/X handle flight planning when not flying in the US. With sites like Flightaware.com only covering the US, is there some other site similar to Flightaware that handles European flight planning?I'd really like to do some European and Asian flights, but wanted to stick as close to real world planning as possible.

I don't know how realistic this is http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/ but it does ok for me. Apart from that, the VATSIM Europe site, the Flight Plan forum here and Google give me all that I need.

With sites like Flightaware.com only covering the US, is there some other site similar to Flightaware that handles European flight planning?

Sorry but Flightaware covers way more than just the US.You just need to know how to do it.http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW953http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MON216http://flightaware.com/live/flight/EZY741

Sorry but Flightaware covers way more than just the US.You just need to know how to do it.

Feel free to tell us then. I'd love to know how. This isn't meant to sound unfriendly, I'd just like to know how. :(

Yes I would love to know too..

Sorry guys thought you would have seen it.In my links, I'm searching by Callsign not airport pairs.I usually use Flight Status http://www.flightstats.com/go/Home/home.doTo find the flight I want then grab the callsign and search Flight Aware. Viola!It doesn't work ALL the time but I do get a fair bit of routes doing it this way.And on the good days, You can get real world Trans Atlantics with the NATShttp://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL137/...1022Z/EGLL/KLAX

Searching by callsign is a little much. Surely there is a "Flightaware" that covers, at least, Europe?After a little Google searching, it would seem the answer is "NO". Flytecomm and Flightstats are useless.

I tend to just manually plan flights based on what I know of the routes that are taken, and with reference to the charts for the airways which I have for real world use. Typically there are 'entry points' for flights which cross Eurpoean borders to assist ATC handoffs, for example, flights to and from the UK into mainland Europe usually have UK inbound flights on the north eastern end of the English Channel and European mainland-bound flights from the UK routing over the north-west corner of France, with flights to Spain and North Africa often going out over the Bay of Biscay passing over Bilbao and skirting Portugal, so I usually follow these and other crossing points for various ATC centres. There are other similar route divisions for east-west flights, which follow similar conventions.Doing this also means you don't get so many silly ATC hand-offs when using the FS ATC as you cross borders, since real routes actually do tend to follow the sectors built into FS (since they are based on the real world ones), and if your info is limited, you can use those divisions as a good general guide to routings, since they are not a million miles away from most of the real divisions. Generally speaking I'll just use the FS flight planner for all that, manually plotting the points on either recognised intersections and VORs, or with custom waypoints, although FS is actually pretty good for navaids in Europe, so custom waypoints are rarely a necessity. I'll then either stick the route in the FMC of an airliner via loading the FS flight plan, or manually plot the route in the FMC if I fancy doing so.I have quite a lot of those routes saved, so it is generally not a chore I have to repeat. Some of those routes are favourites which I use when testing stuff for reviews, as they often throw up tricky weather, especially when flying from the UK, which is basically the convergence point for four different temperate weather zones, which accounts for the changeable and interesting weather in the UK, which of course also makes things interesting in Fs if you use real weather downloads. You can find information on the main airways for Europe quite easily online, and coupled with the quadrantal rules, it is relatively easy to create a fairly realistic European transit. Where things get tricky is when you cross into Eastern Europe, where ATC is occasionally in Metres rather than feet, particularly if you cross into Russia. I normally get around that by requesting an FL change.If you are not particularly clued up on European ATC procedures and routing, and want a fairly simple and short book on it, you could try this:http://www.amazon.co.uk/United-Kingdom-Air...l/dp/1840370173It is getting old now and so it does not include a lot of very modern ATC procedures, but since FS doesn't feature a lot of that either, it does still have a good deal of relevance and is a decent 'general' guide to things, such as non-standard transition altitudes and TMAs - it can be found fairly cheap on ebay and places like that too, so worth a copy if you can find it for little outlay. Of interest too, is that it does also feature a fair bit of useful info on trans-oceanic flights across the pond to and from Europe to the US.Al

Sorry but Flightaware covers way more than just the US.You just need to know how to do it.http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW953http://flightaware.com/live/flight/MON216http://flightaware.com/live/flight/EZY741

This is good for routing, but altitude and AC type are lacking. It's at least a start.

Searching by callsign is a little much. Surely there is a "Flightaware" that covers, at least, Europe?After a little Google searching, it would seem the answer is "NO". Flytecomm and Flightstats are useless.

That would be http://fboweb.com/tracking/But again I get more doing it my way that here.

That would be http://fboweb.com/tracking/But again I get more doing it my way that here.

Cool site. But so far it looks like it tracks the same information that Flightaware does. Doing a global for British Airways or Lufthansa only show flights to/from Europe and the US/Canada.Surely each of these carriers does intra-European flights as well.

This is good for routing, but altitude and AC type are lacking. It's at least a start.

Actually, No they're not lacking you missed the first part of my post. Searching Flight Status will give you Aircraft as well as (sometimes) actual gates numbers or at least Terminal assignments..Altitude is pretty easy. RVSM, Distance and Optimum Cruise.

Cool site. But so far it looks like it tracks the same information that Flightaware does. Doing a global for British Airways or Lufthansa only show flights to/from Europe and the US/Canada.Surely each of these carriers does intra-European flights as well.

:( Click the link from my first responseYou can find alot of BA routes. As well as other European carriers.Lufthansa routes for some reason are harder to find.http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW953http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DLH4756

Clarke your statement is just a little misleading. Flight aware is a great resource for typing in two airport identifiers and then I get matching flights with recent flight plans, flight level the whole shebang.....Your back door way is interesting but is also a crap shoot and no where near as good as what flight aware has to offer for flights originating or arriving in North America. Not even close....Not to mention I just punched in a dozen flight numbers for European flights and one came up with a flight plan.... :(Vroute would be a better option I would think.....

I don't know how realistic this is http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/ but it does ok for me. Apart from that, the VATSIM Europe site, the Flight Plan forum here and Google give me all that I need.

Same here, routefinder is good enough, you can choose the Airac cycle too so you don't get "Not in Database" on your FMC!

Flight aware is a great resource for typing in two airport identifiers and then I get matching flights with recent flight plans, flight level the whole shebang.....

Not for Europeon Airports it's not.Your Wayhttp://flightaware.com/analysis/route.rvt?...estination=egllMy Way http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW953

Your back door way is interesting but is also a crap shoot and no where near as good as what flight aware has to offer for flights originating or arriving in North America. Not even close....

Really? Not even close?Try searching for something arriving FROM the UK.Departing of the US Yes, Sometimes. Arriving, Definatley not. As it only picks up the flight once close enough.And doesn't even come close giving you the route out of the European airport.Again Your Way http://flightaware.com/analysis/route.rvt?...estination=KORDMy Wayhttp://flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW297

Vroute would be a better option I would think.....

Whichever you prefer.Remember this started with a post claiming Flightaware just covered the US.I was just proving it doesn't.Not ramming anything down anyones throat here.