I need a good flight planner, so I'm getting PFPX. I also need a good way to calculate the assumed temperature for takeoff. Does PFPX do this alone or do I need TOPCAT? If PFPX doesn't do it alone, what should I do? Are there any good and cheap alternatives to TOPCAT about $5-10 USD? Or should I get TOPCAT and use a good and cheap alternative to PFPX, around $25 USD? Thanks

PFPX will not calculate assumed temps/de-rates but is certainly well worth the money for it's flight planning functions.  What aircraft are you flying?  I would invest in TopCat if you are flying the well-known addons (737,747,777, A320). It links up to PFPX so you don't even have to go into Topcat separately.  All can be done within PFPX once you link the aircraft.  I do not know of any alternatives to TopCat as that performance data is pretty hard to come by.  There might be one for the A320 somewhere but I do not recall where.

PFPX doesn't do any derate calcs...topcat is separate from PFPX. the main advantage to it is that it integrates with pfpx, so you can just click a few times and all the data is transferred for the calculation instantly.

there are some alternatives..  have a look at TOPER over on simmarket, they are only 10 euros, but generally only cover a single type, so depending on what you want maybe you could save some $$ there. the main disadvantage with these is they support assumed temp calculation but (at least the -600 one) does not support derates ..still works pretty good tho, i use it because topcat doesn't have data for the -600..  

there's also some spreadsheets and calculators in the avsim library that are free, i think i posted those yesterday in your other thread, heh.

for your other question, there is a great and cheap alternative to PFPX called simbrief. it's probably the 2nd best planning option out there for IFR flights and it's free! so maybe that is something to consider... its at simbrief.com  ..

cheers,-andy crosby

Thanks to both! I'll go ahead and buy the bundle with PFPX and TOPCAT to go ahead and save the trouble... thanks again

P.S. I'm flying the 737 NGX

A further aside, also look for a bundle of Topcat+PFPX that Aerosoft were offering/may offer.

35 minutes ago, vc10man said:

A further aside, also look for a bundle of Topcat+PFPX that Aerosoft were offering/may offer.

Ok

The Toper program at simmarket covers all variants of the 737 NG, Topcat does not. Keep that in mind.

There is a very good free alternative in case you have MS Excel (post 2007 version) 

https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxutil&DLID=188491