What should I buy, if anything.

[vietnamsutch 0]

Hi Guys,

 

I hope this is the right forum otherwise, please move it for me.

 

At this moment I'm getting my feet wet in flight planning. if seen a lot of options for this. I decided on the free onlineflightplanner for a simple flight plan and I took a subscription Navigraph Charts for 9 Euros a month. I must say that its pretty hard like this. The hardest part are the transitions. For example, the STARS for EDDM doesn't really add up from the route I took from Eham. You might not understand what I mean with so little info, but the point is that i have been struggling with it.

 

Now i saw a website that had software called Professional Flight Planner X. As I read about it, it seems to to able to plan from take off to landing. Of course, I don't want to make it to easy, There should be some planning involved, and I'm not sure I would like to program my FMC from external software. But it seems that it has charts (save 9 euros per month) and takes real real weather into comncideration. This will work perfect with my active sky add-on that i just bought for my fsx SE. 

 

Anyway, I was just looking for some opinions.

 

tnx

Jan

 

[fnav77 56]

Professional Flight Planner X (PFPX) is good and I can recommend it. It won't provide you with charts as such, though, so you will need to keep your subscription or find another way to source charts. It can use weather data from Active Sky Next, so you are good there.

Simbrief is good too (and free) but is not as powerful as PFPX, I think.

If you are starting, maybe Simbrief is a better option and will allow you to get more to grips with flight planning. Then, after a while you can move on to PFPX.....

[Calypte 3]

If you need charts - just look around on the internet - you do not need to buy charts for most countries - they are legally available on official websites - in national AIP.

 

For Europe - you can look here:

http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/publicuser/public/pu/login.do

 

Registration is free and you get access to Eurocontrol's charts for all European countries. If you are looking for AIPs of other countries - look at Eurocontrol's list: http://www.eurocontrol.int/articles/ais-online

 

Skyvector.com is all you need in terms of enroute charts although it's a little simplified.

 

 

 

In terms of using your maps - no software will replace the ability to read maps - you need to learn how to use SID, STAR and approach charts no matter if you use (or do not use) PFPX or similar software.

[bTripleSeven 3]

You will have to have real flight experience or get coached by someone flying or get used to read flying charts. Usually transition choice is influenced by rwy in use and intended route (FL, speed...).

 

Look at 10-3N, 3P (..) on that link. Those are the "transitions"  (aka routing) I could expect when leaving GVA.

http://www.fly-sea.com/charts/LSGG.pdf

 

So when punching into the box have those charts handy (airport SID STAR) and also your low level.

Good luck.

[vietnamsutch 0]

I'm slowly looking into all of these options. It's hard to structure the whole learning process with youtube tutorials and forums, but not impossible. The free charts are a great deal :-)  I only have a navigraph subscription for a month and will be canceling. However, it is very well laid out and structured. Doing it any other way will include some more research to find good free sources.

 

simbrief is great. I had a problem with the outdated AIRAC but found a video on youtube on how to solve that. I used my navigraph code to to get the latest version. Cancelling my subscription with Navigrap will probably mean that i cannot update this cycle anymore in the future.

 

I read a very old thread about navigraph. Someone asked for information..Should he buy or not. He too got some great advise but probably already had his mind made up and was only looking for confirmation. My point is that I took some useful information from that thread too. This seems good: http://www.aircharts.org/

 

 

Thanks for the help.

[qqwertz 781]

Hi Jan,

 

learning how to plan a flight properly is a lot of work but very rewarding and part of the fun. Simbrief is excellent and a great freeware alternative to PFPX, but the latter is certainly the best flight planning program for flight simulation. If you want to plan VFR flights, then Plan-G is also very good.

 

I would make a difference between flight planning and requiring charts. Sure you need charts to do the planning, but you will also need them during flight. For charts you have several options. In addition to Navigraph charts and freeware charts as mentioned by other poster, you can also buy Aivlasoft's Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). It produces charts that are close to the real thing using Navigraph data and saves you the hassle of hunting for charts on the web.

 

Flight planning includes the need for charts, as well as time and fuel estimates and other details (e.g., ETOPS or NAT tracks). You can do that with outdated information on waypoints, SIDs, STARs and so on (FSX stock data are from 2006), or with up-to-date information (AIRAC cycles). The latter require a subscription for Navigraph data or Aerosoft NavData. I my experience, AIRAC data change little over the course of a few months, but can change completely over several years.

 

Under the following circumstances, a subscription for AIRAC cycles is recommendable:

- If you fly on online networks like Vatsim or IVAO. ATC uses up-to-date information, but they will give you vectors if you let them know that you have outdated information. So you can fly there, but you cannot do SIDs and STARs.

- Many people use real world flight plans, which you can get from Flightaware, for instance. They are of course based on the current AIRAC cycle.

 

So my recommendation would be: if you want to save money, go with Simbrief and online charts. If you can afford it, I would suggest a subscription to Navigraph FMS data or Aerosoft NavData as well as PFPX and EFB.

 

Peter

[Calypte 3]

A little addition to my previous post - I wrote Briefing – where to find charts and procedures? on my blog - hope you will find it helpful.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Calypte,

 

In regards to your blog and reference to SkyVector... "Created by and mostly for American's"?  On an intellectual and other levels, I'm taking immense offense to that statement.  You can certainly write what you want on your own blog, but why not change that to read "charts for U.S. Airspace"?

 

You also forgot (or didn't know about) AirNav, likely the single most used website for charts in the U.S for at least the past 10 years..

 

/

Dave

A worldwide traveler of many years.

[Calypte 3]

I am sorry that I offended you. Unfortunately - that is what I feel as the user of Skyvector - U.S. Airspace is the only one that is kept up to date at every lever. Outside the U.S. you can find navaids that were decommissioned years ago. Also - outside the U.S. the airport information is limited. So if you want to deny that Skyvector is most useful for people who fly in U.S. - be my guest...

 

As to the AirNav - I shared the tools and websites that I use. I had no intention of making a comprehensive guide to all sources available. Such a guide would take ten thousand words (or 20, or 30...) - that would kill the idea of providing a short and useful guide for flight sim enthusiasts. 

[ashun 8]

Simbrief is a good free option. All you need is to register it. Once you do that, you can select your departure and arrival airport and it generates OFP automatically. You can manually add, ZFW, cost index etc. Most of the times you will get 2-3 flight plans. they are more or less close to real world flight plans. It takes into account the latest NAVDATA cycle and you can generate OFP format of various airlines.

Give it a try.

Regarding flight plans based in European airlines, it start at the point of end of SID and ends at the beginning of STAR. 

For American flight plans SID and STAR is included in plan

 

I hope it helps

[ARCO 245]

Jan,

 

As I particularly like planning my flights - as I was used to in real life - I have been using a combination of three flight planner tools:

• Flight aware whenever this is a flight that is monitored by the system giving the real flight plan (US mostly if not only) copy and paste will do the trick
• Sky Vectors, especially the new version that makes planning a breeze and transferring the plan so much easier
• SimBrief from time to time
• Aivlasoft EFB on which I transfer my plans copied on either ones of the above so as to follow my flight

Only one (Aivlasoft EFB) is pay ware, the others are yours for free. 

 

Enjoy your flights.