Although I've been into flight simming since the late 1990's, I've never planned and completed a RTW journey. I used to be a member of some VA's that had pre-planned routes, but want to chart my own course. Can anyone recommend a flight planning aid that can help - in particular I have trouble deciding on destinations based on my a/c range so it would be great to be able to draw a 1000nm circle around any departure point to figure out my legs.

 

I'm sure that someone must have asked about this before, so I'm sorry for the duplication

Thanks

I use this to visualize/measure my flights. MSFS2024 will have a fantastic flight planner built in.

skyvector.com

Little navmap is a great tool for this. Below a screenshot of a 500 and 1000nm range rings around KORD for example.

I have used LittleNavMap range rings as noted above.

As for your specific planning, I don't know if you plan to go east-to-west or west-to-east, or where, but I have done:
For crossing Atlantic -->  Iqualuit/FroBay --> Nuuk --> Kulusuk --> Keflavik --> Vagar
For crossing Pacific --> Magadan --> Anadyr/Ugolny --> Provideniya --> Gambel/St. Lawrence Island

With 1000nm legs though, you have more flexibility than I had (I was using a 600 nm range airplane).  You could conceivably skip Kulusuk (which often has bad weather) going straight to Keflavik and you could skip Provideniya, which is a small runway anyway.  You could go Ugolny to Nome or possibly further into Alaska.

Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions - much appreciated!

some more ideas for your round the world flight from some real world aviation pioneers:

http://www.ameliaroseearhart.com/flight-around-the-world

The Amelia Project by Pilatus Aircraft Ltd.

https://pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/first-flight-around-world

 

 

The Uiver

https://www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au/leisure/museum-and-libraries/collections/local-and-social-history/the-uiver

Albury achieved world attention during the running of the London to Melbourne MacRobertson International Centenary Air Race. The story of the Dutch DC-2 airliner 'Uiver' and the role Albury residents played in its rescue in 1934, is a fascinating and important event in the city's history. Built in 1933, the Uiver was the first of 18 DC-2 aircraft acquired by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for passenger transport. It was the first flying machine with automatic steering and one of the few aircraft with retractable landing gear.

 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Around-World-Days-Round-World/dp/156098967X

 

Around the World in 175 Days: The First Round-the-World Flight

 

 

https://www.aiaa.org/about/History-and-Heritage/History-of-Flight-Around-the-World

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_aerial_circumnavigation

 

 

" It's strange the degree to which that accomplishment - certainly on par with, or greater than, Charles Lindbergh's 1927 transatlantic solo flight - has been virtually erased from our collective national consciousness; I've never even seen a documentary about it - much less a Hollywood movie. (The U.S. Postal Service even declined to issue a stamp commemorating the flight's 50th anniversary in 1974!) Anyway, four pilot-mechanic teams started out from Seattle in early April, 1924 in four specially-built Douglas DT-2 torpedo-bomber open-cockpit biplanes, modified to strengthen their fuselages and wings and carry more fuel. Two of them (the "Chicago" and "New Orleans") made it all the way around - it took 175 days. Their story, of braving the freezing Aleutians, Bering Sea, Iceland, and Greenland (again, in open-cockpit, fabric-covered biplanes - without radios or lights!), as well as the steaming jungles of Southeast Asia and the burning deserts of the Middle East, is quite an engrossing read. One of the aircraft is now in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum "

Edited September 6, 20241 yr by turbomax

I did an around the world in the Diamond DA62 and pretty much followed the map shown above, except I went through Canada from Alaska.  I didn't make a plan.  Each day I would just pick out the next airport I wanted to go to.  Tried to avoid long flights over water, but Labrator to Greenland is a long haul, but almost necessary.  All in real time.  If I only had a short time, I took a short flight.   I wanted to do the Pacific in the Southern Hemisphere but too much water for me.

1 hour ago, Roy Warren said:

I wanted to do the Pacific in the Southern Hemisphere but too much water for me.

Same. I did approximately the same route (GA aircraft) as the image below. 

On 9/6/2024 at 10:57 PM, turbomax said:

 

 

Edited September 8, 20241 yr by Cpt_Piett

I used an Indian Air Force RTW as my flight plan, here's a graphic of the route I (they) took:

 

They did it in a Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) (Flight Design CTxxx airplane) but I used a hershey-bar PA-28 Cherokee.  Here's the full article in case anyone's interested:

First LSA Flown Around World; Claims New Record - ByDanJohnson.com

Believe it or not, I still use PFPX.  I keep it updated using Navigraph.  I'll build the route in PFPX and copy and paste it into Simbrief to export it into the formats used by add-ons.

They still have a subscription plan that will update the oceanic tracks.  I don't care to use it for anything but flight planning on it is so simple.  

Happy to hear that! I use PFPX too, all the time. I generally fly the 744, so I wouldn't have otherwise jumped into a round-the-world thread, but I couldn't help but share some love for PFPX. I will be very sad on the day that it finally breaks for good.