This is a fantastic free program for displaying detailed maps and displaying/preparing PRELIMINARY flight plans - all over the world.It's called simply "Navigation" and it's in French at:http://francois.fouchet.free.fr/index.htmlThere is a minimal help page in English that should get non-francophones at least oriented.It will link to a GPS or to MSFS (via FSUIPC) to provide a moving map.It will load existing MSFS flight plans (*.pln) and export to them, too.What blew me away was the level of detail you can add. No need to download sectionals or NOS/GEO files from AeroPlanner - everything is available from the one site, and is automatically installed from there.I am just getting familiar with this program, but if anyone has any problem deciphering the French menus, let me know and I will translate for you!- Jeff Schallenberg- Saint Lambert, Qu

Thanks Jeff for pointing us to this program. It looks very useful - I'll give it a try.--Bryn

Jeff,Great find. I installed and had a look at yesterday and maps etc. look great. Just wondering, have you managed to find a quick way of entering a flight plan using airways/VORs. All I managed to do was add my Departure and Destination and the programme sets a direct straight line flight plan, and does not necessarily seem to take account of airways / VORs. It does not seem to show airways at all - is this your take on it too, or have I missed something. Shame the help file is in French too, even though one can set the language for the programme itself to English. Would be great if someone or the author could provide help file in English, perhaps I'll ask the author.Regards,Stuart Hyett

I have written to Fran

Thanks for the advice. I had found that you can drag the flight to various points, but I was wondering whether there was an 'automatic' way of having the flightplan gererate other than a straight line from A to B.I have also emailed Francois, (though not offering translation services!), but asking him the following:1 - Is it possible to quickly define a flight plan without having to navigate from departure airport to destination on the map - perhaps by entering the ICAO codes ? 2 - Can the programme automatically use airways / VORs and or SIDs / STARs, when defining the flightplan and if so how does one do this? 3 - The programme appears to export flightplan to Myflights directory in the FS9 directory, however this is not where flightsim (FS9) now stores its flightplans, is it possible to change this path? 4 - Finally, once defined, how does one use the programme as a moving map whilst flying?5 - Do you have a database / file of various aircraft types / information that can be added to the programme without creating each aircraft manually? 6 - Also, how does one define the cruise altitude, or is this in the aircraft definitions?{Edit] - Re. your mention of not all navaids etc. being in the database. Have you run update and downloaded the Navigation files, and / or ticked on the appropriate navaids on the toolbar?If you can yourself offer any thoughts on the above from your own explorations of the programme that too would be helpfull.Best regards,Stuart Hyett

Hi, Stuart H!Good questions for M. Fouquet!On #4 - you connect to FS9 on the GPS menu - GPS->PC - Real time position. But first you have to set the GPS type to "Flight Simulator" in the "Options" menu.My DataCanada and DataCanadaIFR are up to date. But some small airports like CSB3 (Beloeil) are missing. I am just learning how to add user-defined points. It's well-described in the French help file under "L'ajout des points dans Navigation". The documentation is one of the strong points of this program - IF you can read it! You will notice a number of UserData files from French-speaking countries (Belgium, Switzerland) on the Update list.I will also suggest to Fran

Jeff,Thanks for the heads-up on #4.I have only loaded data for Europe, my own area for flying around, and have not noticed omissions as yet.Francois kindly replied to my questions:Quote1) just use "File" > "New" or "View" > "Flight definition" in order to set departure and destination airport. But you could also just type ICAO code "directly on the map" (set the focus on Navigation's map and strike the keys), choose the point, click on "Ok" and then press the "Insert" key, or use right click "Add" > "A point" to quickly set points to the current flight. You could also just double-click on the map on each point.2) Navigation is designed to prepare VFR flights. It also include IFR points and routes, but is not very efficient in this area (the main reason is that I'm only a VFR pilot ;-)3) To setup the FS flight plan directory, use the options ("Display" > "Options"), tab "Directories", then change "Flight Simulator root path", clicking on the "..." button4) the moving map could be used with or without flight plan. You just have to connect a GPS to you PC, setup the options' "GPS" tab (GPS type and port), and then use "GPS" > "GPS -> PC" > "Realtime position"5) The cruise altitude could be defined using 2 ways : 1) open the "Altitude" window ("Display" > "Altitude"), and click and drag the altitude drawing up to the desired altitude. Release the mouse when altitude is correct. Right click and drag changes only the current path. 2) open the "View" > "Data" window, and set the "Alt" fieldsUnquoteGood idea re a English forum, but not sure how many folks are trying this programme....seems there is only you, me and Bryn that have responded in this forum topic.Appreciate if anyone else could share their experiences of this programme with us all.

Hmm, this seems interesting - unfortunately my french leaves a lot to be desired :)Still, I'll give it a try!BRGDSSven Sorensen, EKCH

Just an advice : default method for Navigation is to look if the current PC runs an English/American version of Windows. If it does, it automatically sets up messages in English. Else, it will use French messages.If you use a non French/non English version of Navigation, you'll get French messages. You have to choose "Affichage" (display) > "Options", stay on "Defauts" (defaults) tab, and change the "Langage" (language) to "Anglais" (English), then click on "Ok".After that, you'll have an English version of Navigation.If you have any questions regarding Navigation, please feel free to ask them to [email protected], as I only read this forum from time to time.

I have opened a new forum for English discussion of this gem of a program:http://groups.google.com/group/NAVIGATION-Users-GroupIf you are interested in running NAVIGATION but are stymied by the French-only documentation, do drop in!Or, if you are a seasoned NAVIGATION user, probably having had no problems with the VERY COMPLETE French help files, please drop in and help out us newbies!- Jeff