Hi guys, my first post in a very long time of being away. Anyway, I was wandering how people go about planning their flights in the JS41 for example how you decide what altitude to cruise at and also how do you figure how long the flight is going to be? Can anyone suggest any good flights for the JS41 as I'm loving it and being back on FS and having just invested in a yoke and pedals, FS2Crew J41 voice edition and TrackIR.Thanks

Hi Gavin, long time no see. I personally use either Runwayfinder.com or skyvector.com to plan my flights. Once finished I have been making them available on VROUTE. When I create a route I just look at how long it's going to be in miles. I like to practice procedures and get boards easily so keep my flights relitively short, 200-300 miles. Enough to get up get a look outside and get down. I am a little behind but have been working on a spreadsheet that will also come with FS flight plans and PMDG FP's from state to state in the US. I recently decided I wanted to change the layout (look) so that is what put me behind. Most routes are LOW IFR, so under FL180 but a couple 400+ nm routes I have done both LOW and HIGH courses and files etc.The spreadsheet will also have the waypoints listed in several formats to include airways which is my prefered method of doing the routes in any aircraft.As for Altitude, I keep the basic rules in mind but also make sure it is a wise decision on fuel consumption. So I plan for a good amount of cruise alt and not just try to reach some stupidly high alt just so I can start decent right away,,, not to fuel efficient but see some people just wanting to hit say FL410 in the MD-11 on a 150 mile route, haha.If all goes to plan and I can stay focused on the spreadsheet I hope to be finished in about 3 weeks to a month.

Hi Gavin,Here You'll find excellent resource for calculating fuel for J41 made by Nick Landolfi. I plan FL according to distance and the amount of fuel I want to carry and of course, number of passengers aboard and their luggage weight. Most of my flights are +500NM with 25 passenger, flight attendant and over 1000LBS of luggage so to keep my fuel flow and TAS at reasonable level, most the times I cruise at FL250-FL260.

To the OP:The posts above are great references for planning. For flight plans, specifically, I go to flightaware.com and enter the city pairing to see what others are filing/flying and use that.To Dan:Let me know if you need help with that spreadsheet. I may have some data that may help you with your work.Kyle

To Dan:Let me know if you need help with that spreadsheet. I may have some data that may help you with your work.

Will do. The main set back is changing the format around which has taken much of my limited spare time, but maybe you can test the format of what I have already?

Send it:penz_13 @ hotmail.comWhat's the formatting issue?Kyle

It's not really an issue, it was just since I knew allot of different individuals would probably use it, I wanted to make it easier on the eyes so made each page much easier to look at and read. I'm not home at the moment but will send you a couple routes to look at later.

Here's one of my old files, which has one of my older color schemes. The only difference is that I now use a couple different colors other than blue to highlight specific values:http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=113647I would say that you need to be careful if you're just adding the full routes into the file, because routes are dynamic (weather/traffic dependent), but in general, the shorter routes are pretty set (easier to keep standard, should also meet pref- and TEC-routing). If you haven't already, you should take a look at the pref- and TEC-routes.I'll be looking for the email.Kyle

gman,vroute premium is excellent for finding routes and altitudes and has an excellent flight plan card that you can print out, just don't try to plan a route with SIDS/STARS in it, yet.fscommander is a great tool for planning/ examining flight routes.Nothing beats Google Earth with IFR overlays or PlanG for planning either, both aregreat visual tools.I use vroute to find a route, export the route and print out a flight plan.It can also, like fscommander, export a route to .rte format especially for the JS41.If I need to edit or fine tune, I use fscommander.In flight, I use foreflight pro for weather, charts, frequencies etc.Very professional tool if you have the budget and an ipad.FSMap is also a great flight monitoring tool as well as a very useful taxi guide!Good luck,Toby

Cheers guys, just completed a flight from la guardia to buffalo and loved it. Sorry when I said flight planning I meant sort of the process you go through to decide where you want to fly and how much payload you want to take and cruise altitude etc. I use FSBuild for my flight plans btw. This aircraft is so good to fly, it's a little gem!

Here's one of my old files, which has one of my older color schemes. The only difference is that I now use a couple different colors other than blue to highlight specific values:http://library.avsim.net/download.php?DLID=113647I would say that you need to be careful if you're just adding the full routes into the file, because routes are dynamic (weather/traffic dependent), but in general, the shorter routes are pretty set (easier to keep standard, should also meet pref- and TEC-routing). If you haven't already, you should take a look at the pref- and TEC-routes.I'll be looking for the email.Kyle

Hi Kyle, Thanks for the advice but I think I should explain a bit on what this is and who it's for.It originally was for the guys in the FSPassengers forum for those starting a fresh carreer without any cheats (in other words, not starting with 500 mil).But after starting it I quickly decided to primarily focus on the IFR pilot or wanna be. The routes are meant to help people learn how to use websites like runwayfinder.com and skyvector as well as give several exercises they can follow. It is NOT meant for the average PMDG flyer or someone that just wants to enter routes in the FMC and go... But of course in doing this and as I mentioned I decided to add a line for those that will do just that. I even decided to make them routes all ready for the PMDG FMC/CDU. This of course is an extra, but again the sole purpose is for the lighter aircraft and as a training aid mainly.Thanks also for making your spreadsheet available, however I have already chosen my layout and based on what I just said I don't plan on making any changes unless there is flat out something wrong haha. This of course is just as a courtesy from myself and already know it won't be perfect for everyone, but if I tried to satisfy every situation then it would be less an effective training aid and would ruin my original intention.Rather than email it to you, here is a screenshot showing the average page layout.*Click the image for actual size:The first tab will have basic instructions and explanations what data is what, per block.There will also be a master sheet where all the flights are listed for better and faster navigation with the tabs below.I listed waypoints in several formats, but have left out the arrival and departure airports in one of the routes per page to better help the more savvy flyer to be able to enter a SID/STAR without much need for deleting excess baggage. There is also a line people can enter exactly as is in Runwayfinder.com and see the route with no effort on their part. I chose runwayfinder because you can see the whole route and in some cases skyvector you would need to change sectionals. However, you can still use skyvector by entering the waypoints from another block. As you can see already, there has been lots I have kept in mind, but having already invested 100+ hours in this free project, cannot accomidate everyones requests, especially not if I must sacrifice the original intent of the project.The blue airport names in the "Airport Charts" section are hyperlinks so will take the pilot to the flightaware charts page for those airports where they can plan their exact and specific changes as needed. All in all I think I have managed to cater to everyone as a whole with this format and keeping it as clutter free as possible. I of course know that weather changes, but with a lot of these routes the wind may still favor a particular rwy (thus the reason they chose it in that direction). So as another added bonus I went into more detail in another section "My Approach" explaining exactly how I chose to do mine. Once again, this is meant as a training aid, and not for ATC practice, although I do at times bring someone to a certain point and end the main course notes with something like "Contact Tower". There are several aspects that I have thought about that I'll mention in the master page that I'm probably forgetting now, but I also plan to make them available on individual text files for those printing them out and not use to Excel or don't have it. The color scheme I decided to go with will be pretty familliar with VROUTE users, since it is very close to their night viewing option, which I love by the way.I hope more people will find it as I intended and will have some great training and for FSPassenger newbies help break the boredom.EDIT: You'll see the section "For reference" Well that is exactly what that's for and again, was meant for the FSP user to hopefully be able to get a better shot at a precise arrival time and more points of course :(.

Cheers guys, just completed a flight from la guardia to buffalo and loved it. Sorry when I said flight planning I meant sort of the process you go through to decide where you want to fly and how much payload you want to take and cruise altitude etc. I use FSBuild for my flight plans btw. This aircraft is so good to fly, it's a little gem!

I'm trying t use real routes, You can find some with vroute, great application and You don't need to buy premium to get almost everything from it, VATroute is great resource too. But sometimes I simply make trips to all airports within some range from my home airport, etc.

I use FlightAware for obtaining a route.This is then copied into FSBuild, make a few alterations and then built.Job done :((I much prefer flying in the US even though I live in UK)As for a good short route to handfly - KSEA PAE.GRIZZ3 CYVR @ 14000ft. Its about an hour and great at evening with a gentle breeze and some light clouds.