What Flight Planning Software Are You Using?

[twharrell 38]

Another vote for SimBrief. When you see what it can do, you won't believe it's free. It is also supported by Navigraph. At least try it before purchasing PFPX. It won't cost you a dime. It would be great if PFPX had a try before you buy option, but it sounds like you couldn't go wrong buying it as I haven't seen any negative reviews.

 

Todd

[luizcaeiro 0]

Simbrief is one of the best flight planners I have ever used. It is free as it has been already said here. Another good option is Aivlasoft EFB.

[Guest]

I have tried Flight Sim Commander, Vroute, Route Finder, Pro ATC X etc....

 

Everyone, with exactly each one the very same parameters and of course airac cycle, it outputs very different results within the very same DEP and ARR and cruise level.

 

Each of them uses different waypoints, different sids and stars despite the weather is the same.

 

Why ?  I would like just to know which one is right ( more accurate ) and which one is " wrong " so I assume I will be able to feed the FMC with better data considering the FMC often struggles with minor airports to draw decent magenta lines ( yes discontinuities are properly cleared ) 

 

Thanks !

[Steff 0]

FS Commander here.

But I never use the auto route function, but manually enter RL routes, and let FSC just do the administration and export to PMDG and P3d.

[Guest]

As far as I know the T7 FMC does not absolutely accept SID and STARS from the coroute, therefore the most crucial and delicate parts of a flight plan, transitions included.

 

FMC is perfect for planning SID, STARS and TRANS but unless PMDG 777 FMC doesn't accept such features FSC becomes IMO pretty much useless.

 

Of course I can enter the route manually into the FMC but this does not fix the issue with minor airports SID and STARS ( and/or TRANS ) where the FMC draws crazy magenta lines.

[ErichB 3,642]

Another vote for SimBrief. When you see what it can do, you won't believe it's free. It is also supported by Navigraph. At least try it before purchasing PFPX. It won't cost you a dime. It would be great if PFPX had a try before you buy option, but it sounds like you couldn't go wrong buying it as I haven't seen any negative reviews.

 

Todd

 

I'm sorry I only saw this now although I am very happy with PFPX

[skelsey 765]

My comment would be that actually PFPX and Simbrief do slightly different jobs and work brilliantly together.

 

Simbrief is not really a flight planner -- it is better thought of as a document generator. Simbrief cannot plan, validate or optimise a route; all it can do is take a route you give it and spit out an OFP at the other end. However, the planning that it does do in terms of winds and fuel burn is spot on, and the OFP layouts are far, far closer to the real things than anything PFPX can currently generate and on the whole contain much more information (e.g. MSA data etc).

 

PFPX, on the other hand, is by far and away the best route generator that is available to FS users. There is no other software out there that can generate a wind-optimised, CFMU-validated route which can then be compared quickly against other (e.g. stored) routes to determine the most efficient option. It will also output that route to a wide variety of different formats. However, the OFP layouts you get at the end of it are at best an approximation of the real world ones and don't contain as much information.

 

To that extent, my current routine is to use PFPX to do the route planning, VATSIM pre-filing, exporting to different formats etc before then taking the ATS route PFPX has generated and pasting it in to Simbrief to generate the briefing package that I then print out and use on the flight deck. That way you're getting the best of both tools: the power of PFPX's route planning alongside the accuracy of the Simbrief flight plan layout.

[kevinh 409]

 

 

Simbrief is not really a flight planner -- it is better thought of as a document generator. Simbrief cannot plan, validate or optimise a route

It's certainly not a route planner, but it can validate the route selected is compatible with the AIRAC you have. It will also suggest a few routes recently used by other members. Nine times out of ten it comes up with something usable. As well as generating documents it provides a means to export the flight plan in various addon formats, VATSIM pre-filing and also wind forecast data for the PMDG 777 FMC.

 

PFPX offers more of course, but you have to pay quite a lot for the privilege.

[por930 51]

 

 

PFPX offers more of course, but you have to pay quite a lot for the privilege

 

Do you plan to take out the next 12 months subscription which PFPX requires or plan to use ASN for weather predictions etc

[kevinh 409]

Do you plan to take out the next 12 months subscription which PFPX requires or plan to use ASN for weather predictions etc

I'll be using Simbrief and ASN as I don't have PFPX.

[por930 51]

I'll be using Simbrief and ASN as I don't have PFPX.

Sorry Kevin, meant this to go to Simon, as he seems to use PFPX. I currently also use ASN + Simbrief with route mapping support by FSC. Simbrief is an amazing program. 

[pete_auau 1,158]

Do you plan to take out the next 12 months subscription which PFPX requires or plan to use ASN for weather predictions etc

Didn't think you need to,  since you could always use  asn  or  rexe  weather  to get  the weather  from in pfpx

[por930 51]

Didn't think you need to,  since you could always use  asn  or  rexe  weather  to get  the weather  from in pfpx

My thoughts exactly.

[skelsey 765]

 

 

Do you plan to take out the next 12 months subscription which PFPX requires or plan to use ASN for weather predictions etc

 

Probably not given that my 'final' plan currently goes through SimBrief, so the winds, NOTAMs, final fuel figures etc all come from there (though I do crosscheck the fuel figures in particular against whatever PFPX came up with).

 

If PFPX became capable of producing more accurate OFP layouts (and thus I wasn't going through SimBrief at the end) I'd give it some consideration -- the main advantage of the subscription is you get forecast (rather than just current) winds and NOTAM information all tied up in one place. Also, I run ASN on a different machine, so there's potentially a small convenience factor of not having to boot up the second machine every time I plan a flight, but I'm prepared to live with that for the time being.

[pcubine 143]

I use PFPX weather for the flight plan and use ASN for weather for the flight. I believe the PFPX winds in the flight plan are forecasts. ASN winds are a snapshot at the time the flight plan is computed. If you fly long distance using normal time you need PFPX winds. If you use time acceleration, ASN might be better. I just finished a 14 and 1/2 flight  and the T7 arrived at the destination about 8 minutes later than PFPX had predicted. If you use time acceleration you don't need winds that are forecasted 8-14 hours out from the time of departure. Your flight would be over before you needed the forecasting ability of PFPX. At any given time both PFPX and ASN winds are close as evidenced by the flight I mentioned above. A difference of 8 minutes over 7000+ miles.