What is the BEST flight planning software?

[ssair1 92]

34 minutes ago, Tokitaumelie said:

Login to you aerosoft account, and the profiles for PFPX are available under the downloads section for PFPX.

Hope this helps

 

Kind regards

 

 

Thank you; much appreciated! 

[qqwertz 770]

1 hour ago, MarkW said:

Why do you need PFPX to produce a flightplan for you in Canada?  Every commercial flightplan is on Flightaware.com for the day of the flight....

Hi Mark,

I often fly non-standard routes for which no plans are available on Flightaware or similar web pages (I tried :) ). So I typically have to build flight plans myself. They seem to be OK, judging from the fact that they never get rejected on Vatsim ;)

Peter

[Guest]

Concerning Flightaware: where exactly can you see the exact routes that are being flown...? I can't find any routes I could use in PFPX (or ProATC).

EDIT
Hm, it seems Flightaware isn't aware of Wideroe flights...? I only see SAS and Norwegian Air Shuttle...? That would make the site rather useless for me.

[srcooke 52]

25 minutes ago, J van E said:

Concerning Flightaware: where exactly can you see the exact routes that are being flown...? I can't find any routes I could use in PFPX (or ProATC).

EDIT
Hm, it seems Flightaware isn't aware of Wideroe flights...? I only see SAS and Norwegian Air Shuttle...? That would make the site rather useless for me.

Flightaware will not display flight data for Europe, it is not publically available from EuroControl.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, srcooke said:

Flightaware will not display flight data for Europe, it is not publically available from EuroControl.

Ah, ok. Pity.

[Dean_EGTC 57]

2 minutes ago, srcooke said:

Flightaware will not display flight data for Europe, it is not publically available from EuroControl.

What don't they want us to see in Europe, that the US are quite happy to share with us?

[Nighthwk 566]

2 hours ago, Iceman2 said:

Real world Dispatchers are trained for many days before being able to release flight plans. 

200 classroom hours and 2 (maybe 3?) exams to get a license, to be exact. In the U.S., at least.

[Nighthwk 566]

PFPX is a personal favorite of mine, it integrates with Topcat which is nice but Topcat seems to have been abandoned by the developers unfortunately.

[Greggy_D 935]

5 hours ago, qqwertzde said:

2) This is something I really dislike about PFPX: it almost never produces a reasonable flight plan for me in Canada. The routes it produces are often 50% to 200% longer than direct.

Agreed.  For example, when I plan a flight from DTW to MDW, PFPX has me first flying way east into Canada for 10 minutes and then turning around to go back west.  The real-life flights from Flightaware head west immediately upon leaving DTW.

Thus I just copy and paste all of my routes from Flightaware into PFPX instead of having PFPX calculate the route.

 

[Ted Striker 338]

Does PFPX read all the winds at all the flight levels along your input route of flight and then select the most efficient or quickest flight level? 

[Nighthwk 566]

27 minutes ago, Ted Striker said:

Does PFPX read all the winds at all the flight levels along your input route of flight and then select the most efficient or quickest flight level? 

I’m pretty sure it does, as you can optimize for fuel, cost, or flight time, all of which take wind into account.

[Ted Striker 338]

9 minutes ago, Milton Waddams said:

I’m pretty sure it does, as you can optimize for fuel, cost, or flight time, all of which take wind into account.

Thanks for confirming that John. I don't really see the value of PFPX if it did not do this.

Ted

[Nighthwk 566]

1 minute ago, Ted Striker said:

Thanks for confirming that John. I don't really see the value of PFPX if it did not do this.

Ted

I wouldn’t either.

[nicboyGS 34]

Can Default ATC using the PFPX, otherwise, the route plan is not instructed by ATC and what's the point to use PFPX plan when following the ATC.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, nicboyGS said:

Can Default ATC using the PFPX, otherwise, the route plan is not instructed by ATC and what's the point to use PFPX plan when following the ATC.

Well, the problem is that default ATC is no good for any serious flying. It doesn't know SIDs and STARs and simply vectors you all over the place. If you get something 'serious' like PFPX you shouldn't stick with default ATC but also get something serious like ProATC/X. (In fact, I use ProATC for my planning and use PFPX only to calculate the fuel I need...)

Default ATC is only nice for GA VFR.