Which tool to plan an around-the-world tour?

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

I was thinking of using google earth to plan my 'round the world tour, or google maps perhaps. If you are planning something similar, which tool are you using for the planning?

[LHookins 3,102]

I use Google Earth to make the initial plans.  Then I use skyvector.com to make the detailed plans.  If you want to follow roads, Google Maps is useful.

Good luck on your around the world tour!

Hook

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

Thanks for your input, @LHookins 🙂  How do you find the airports while browsing google earth? Any trick? Currently, I need to really zoom really close in to see the airports, and it doesn't feel effective. 

[LHookins 3,102]

What I do is select my starting airport then draw a circle using the measure tool set to how long I want to fly, or to the max range of the aircraft.  I already have some idea which direction I want to go, so I look somewhere inside that circle in that direction for airports.  Yes it does require zooming in, but at that point you have a smaller area to search.

Occasionally I want to fly between two points that are farther than my max range, so I make a circle at max range at my departure, save it, then make another circle at my destination.  I find an intermediate airport in the area where these two circles intersect.

Hook

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

Alright. So it is very much a manual operation where you simply look and see what you find? 

[LHookins 3,102]

A more complicated flight plan was required when I wanted to do an Atlantic crossing in a Beaver with a 450 nautical mile range.  I knew this would require airports in Greenland.

I drew the 450 nm circle, then dragged it to various Greenland airports until I found one that looked promising.  Then I dragged the circle to airports within that circle to find a route that got me to the point where I could do the crossing. It took a few tries but I eventually found a route that had no airports greater than 450 nm apart.  

Normally I'd be flying through Narsarsuaq but that was too far to fly.  I found a couple of airports up the coast on each side that met my requirements.

Hook

[LHookins 3,102]

2 minutes ago, Andreas Stangenes said:

So it is very much a manual operation where you simply look and see what you find?

Exactly. 🙂 

Hook

[Dominique_K 10,133]

12 minutes ago, Andreas Stangenes said:

 How do you find the airports while browsing google earth? Any trick? Currently, I need to really zoom really close in to see the airports, and it doesn't feel effective. 

 Be sure that "Places of Interest" is checked in GE left vertical menu. Most of the airports then will show. Also remember that you can slant GE to get an idea of  the relief. Then use SkyVector as Larry said to see where the air routes and navaid are.

Alternatively, there are handy and cheap hardware to help draw a route.  Get yourself a paper map and a dart. 

 

[LHookins 3,102]

1 minute ago, Dominique_K said:

Be sure that "Places of Interest" is checked in GE left vertical menu. Most of the airports then will show.

Oops, forgot about this one.  If you turn airports on (I thought it might be on by default) then you should see little aircraft symbols where airports are.

I can't imagine having to zoom in far enough to see actual runways! 😄 

Hook

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

55 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

 Be sure that "Places of Interest" is checked in GE left vertical menu. Most of the airports then will show. Also remember that you can slant GE to get an idea of  the relief. Then use SkyVector as Larry said to see where the air routes and navaid are.

Alternatively, there are handy and cheap hardware to help draw a route.  Get yourself a paper map and a dart. 

 

Yeah, but the problem for me is that airport signs are not shown unless I have zoomed really close, in which case I could just as easily have seen it with my bare eyes. So it's not really that helpfull unless I can adjust how far out signs will show, but I haven't been able to find such a setting thus far. 

[Dominique_K 10,133]

1 hour ago, LHookins said:

 .  If you turn airports on (I thought it might be on by default) then you should see little aircraft symbols where airports are.

 

Unfortunately it is not as clear cut . 

You see more airports when you check "Places of interest" than when you check "More>Transports>Airports". Don't ask me why.

Random check in Central Sulawesi (why there ? 'cause this is the kind of weird places I fly) : More>Transports>Airports give me one blue icon, the wonderful city of Palu . Places of Interest gives me 6 more airports with a white icon at 550 km of altitude.

EDIT you should see airports up to about 7/800 km of altitude. I do in Google Earth Pro 7.3.3.7699 (64-bit)
 

Edited August 7, 2020 by Dominique_K

[RALF9636 1,904]

Take a look at Littlenavmap. It's free and it has been mentionned that it already works with MSFS.

 

https://albar965.github.io/littlenavmap.html

 

[Chock 17,769]

5 hours ago, Andreas Stangenes said:

which tool are you using for the planning?

Don't get a tool to plan something like that, you want someone competent. 🤣

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

So the thing I was doing wrong was using the web version of google earth. It is very limited in how high you can be before it stops showing you the airports. Downloading google earth pro fixed it right away 🙂 I just made a route from Norway down through central Europe (making sure to stop by Innsbruck and Bolzano), going through Italy, then Malta, Libya, Egypt, and following the Nile as far south as I can go. And then bushflying my way down to Cape Town. 

So Option 1 is now ready. I'm thinking of going Central Europe to Asia (making sure to go via Nepal and see the Himalayan mountain range) as Option 2 🙂 

Edited August 7, 2020 by Andreas Stangenes

[Nate1 163]

I'll second skyvector. Although it seems the built in navigation planner may supercede the need for elements of this. I did like importing a complex plan into XP

I'll miss Avitab or similar if not available at the start - I like to know the names of the cities, mountains, rivers etc that I'm flying over. Does anyone know if this or a similar tool will be supported on or near the release date? I don't see this info on the MSFS VFR map.