I use FSbuild, FlightSim Commander 9, SimBrief and charts (low-high altitude).

If you do't need STARs and SIDs, Plan G is free and cannot be beat. If you want SIDs and STARs, Flightsim Commander  has a free full-featured demo except that you cannot save plans in the free version. It costs nothing to try them.

 

Henri

 

 

I've heard of this one too and will have a look. I was a tad confused at first glance, but I'll poke around on the site.

 

It's very simple.  In the upper left corner you can type in an airport, fix or navaid.  Right next to that it says "Flight Plan".  Click that and you can enter your flight plan.  I usually enter my starting and ending airports and then grab the rubber band and drag it to the fixes/navaids I want included.  You can also right click on stuff to add it to the end of the flight plan.  If you right click on the airport you can open a page dedicated to that airport and read everything you'd ever want to know including seeing all of the approaches, SIDs, STARs, airport layout, etc., etc. etc.  You can hover your mouse over the airport to read the weather.  And you can click "Layers" in the upper right to add weather, winds, etc.

 

You'll also see buttons across the top for VFR charts, Low Altitude charts, High Altitude charts.  The charts change as you move the map around.  I usually use the World charts and then use the others for things like VFR routes or to see a legend of symbols. You'll learn A LOT on that site.

 

BTW, this is something that popped up in another thread today.  I've started trying it out. Used in conjunction with SkyVector it looks pretty amazing.  It's free too.

 

http://froom.de/efass/

 

Gregg

 

 

Dickens, on 07 Jun 2014 - 3:00 PM, said:
I don't know if routefinder uses past routes, I don't think so. However, this page at Flighaware displays recently filed routes with the FAA 
 
I think this might be more relevant for heavies.  Just did a few smaller-medium sized regional airports in my area and couldn't find any route.  And the ones I did find in the larger airports near me were for planes cruising at FL300+ (which is definitely a tad high for my little single props. Thanks though!

 

Right, sorry, when I think IFR I think heavies, it's what I fly most of the time

Plan G is perfect for GA. You can view Orbx .kmz files on it, and so tour your FTX regions.

 

http://www.tasoftware.co.uk/

If you do't need STARs and SIDs, Plan G is free and cannot be beat. If you want SIDs and STARs, Flightsim Commander  has a free full-featured demo except that you cannot save plans in the free version. It costs nothing to try them.

 

At the moment, no, I probably don't really need SIDs & STARs -- but probably eventually.  Seems like FS Commander is pretty darn popular -- though by that time I might be ready for PFPX, which seems to basically do it all.

 

It's very simple.  In the upper left corner you can type in an airport, fix or navaid.  Right next to that it says "Flight Plan".  Click that and you can enter your flight plan.  I usually enter my starting and ending airports and then grab the rubber band and drag it to the fixes/navaids I want included.  You can also right click on stuff to add it to the end of the flight plan.  If you right click on the airport you can open a page dedicated to that airport and read everything you'd ever want to know including seeing all of the approaches, SIDs, STARs, airport layout, etc., etc. etc.  You can hover your mouse over the airport to read the weather.  And you can click "Layers" in the upper right to add weather, winds, etc.

 

You'll also see buttons across the top for VFR charts, Low Altitude charts, High Altitude charts.  The charts change as you move the map around.  I usually use the World charts and then use the others for things like VFR routes or to see a legend of symbols. You'll learn A LOT on that site.

 

BTW, this is something that popped up in another thread today.  I've started trying it out. Used in conjunction with SkyVector it looks pretty amazing.  It's free too.

 

http://froom.de/efass/

 

Thanks so much for that explanation!  It makes a little more sense now -- even though I'm still kinda confused in general about planning flights and reading charts.  That'll just take time.  And thanks for the EFASS rec.  I'll check it out.  Cheers.

 

 

It makes a little more sense now -- even though I'm still kinda confused in general about planning flights and reading charts. That'll just take time.

 

Here's another suggestion which may make it easier to get a feel for real world flights.  Go here...

 

http://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/C182

 

You can enter an aircraft type and see where folks are flying them.  I chose C182 because it's a widely used GA but you can use any type (C172, C510, PA46, BE58, etc.)  If you click on one of the airplanes you'll see the details including the route in the box on the right.  You could also type an airport into the box on the lower left and you'll see all the current or recent flights.  You can use that info in SkyVector.  Or you can use www.simroutes.com to create a flight plan and export it for the sim. 

 

In terms of reading charts, there's a vast wealth of information.  Probably the best source I know about learning it all is here...

 

http://www.pilotedge.net/workshops

 

These are amazingly well done tutorials on reading charts, flight planning, procedures....everything.  Start at the bottom.  (If you fly in SoCal you can sign up for their ATC service which is excellent.)

 

Gregg 

Here's another suggestion which may make it easier to get a feel for real world flights.  Go here...

 

http://flightaware.com/live/aircrafttype/C182

 

You can enter an aircraft type and see where folks are flying them.  I chose C182 because it's a widely used GA but you can use any type (C172, C510, PA46, BE58, etc.)  If you click on one of the airplanes you'll see the details including the route in the box on the right.  You could also type an airport into the box on the lower left and you'll see all the current or recent flights.  You can use that info in SkyVector.  Or you can use www.simroutes.com to create a flight plan and export it for the sim. 

 

 

Oh man, that live tracking is very cool!  I'm slowly starting to figure out how SkyVector works.  It's all pretty brand new to me (especially the navigational stuff), but I guess nothing that interesting is super easy to get the hang of.

 

In terms of reading charts, there's a vast wealth of information.  Probably the best source I know about learning it all is here...

 

http://www.pilotedge.net/workshops

 

These are amazingly well done tutorials on reading charts, flight planning, procedures....everything.  Start at the bottom.  (If you fly in SoCal you can sign up for their ATC service which is excellent.) 

 

 

I'm in!  Looks like they stream live every Tuesday at 7pm (10pm my time).  Definitely going to have a listen ... even if I won't have questions for the Q&A portion.  You going to "attend" tomorrow?  Thanks so much for this info, Gregg!.  

The live workshops at PilotEdge haven't been scheduled for a while. The recordings of the previous workshops have been posted, though.

I've read through this thread and have discovered a lot of cool tools for flight sims, especially SimBrief.com and FlightAware's airplane/routes search. Thanks to all who have contributed these ideas!

If you're looking for an excellent flight planner (plus so much more) take a look at Ideal Flight 10 (http://www.codelegend.com/idealflight/default.htm). You can select your destination or just put in a flight time and it will give you destinations based on this. It gets the weather for the route and puts AI in for extra realism. At the end of your flight it can give you an assessment and lots of analytical data. Take a look at the reviews at http://asn.aerosoft.com/?page_id=14263 and http://www.simstop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/IdealFlight_review_PCPilotsIreland.pdf. Payware but worth every penny.