Freeware Flight Planning

[colwah 0]

Hello All

In your humble opinions what is the best freeware flight planning tool. I use route finder via my VA but i'm not always sure which SID and STAR to use. Any help is appreciated

Thanks

Colwah

[mutley 4,498]

Hi Colin,

Have you tried Plan-G ?

Cheers

Joe

[colwah 0]

Hi Mut

That looks great I will give it a go

Thanks very much!

[Tim_A 997]

It won't help you with SIDs and STARs though, since it's aimed primarily at the VFR pilot...

[mutley 4,498]

Of course, we have our own flight planner link into RouteFinder if that's any help?

Flight Planner

[colwah 0]

Thanks Mut

I use this already it is good but sometimes I get stuck with which STAR to use but i'm sure I will carry on winging (no pun intended) it and I always manage to get down safely!

Thanks again

Colin

[aeromax 10]

Free VFR Planning (german)

VFR Charts

UK (IAIP)07/11

:001_th_smiles89: Max. :icon_thumbup:

[allardjd 1,853]

Quote

...but i'm not always sure which SID and STAR to use.

 

Not sure how it differs in Europe, but for the US...

 

SIDs are generally runway specific. If you know what the wind is, you'll have a pretty good idea what runway you'll use and once that's known, the number of SIDs to choose from is usually reduced to one.

 

For STARS it's a little more complicated but usually the direction from which you're approaching your destination airport is the biggest discriminator, eliminating most of the non-applicable STARs for the same area. In some areas, the wind direction, and thus the runways in use at the primary airport in the area will also require the use of a certain sub-set of STARs. Given direction of approach and wind, you can usually pick out the best one pretty easily, even in busy areas with more than one major airport.

 

For STARs, the biggest uncertainty is a wind shift while you're enroute, changing the runway(s) in use at the primary airport(s) in the destination area and possibly the STAR, depending on the area. Check TAFs carefully when planning your flight and you can mostly avoid that. Use the forecast wind for your arrival time, not current wind, to decide what STAR will be in use when you arrive.

 

John

[hurricanemk1c 195]

As far as I know, SID's go from the runway to a direction and STAR's do the opposite

[allardjd 1,853]

STARS here are not runway-specific, though for some areas there will be several "sets", one each for the landing direction in use at the primary airport for the area.

 

John

[Wyatt 0]

I prefer aeronautical charts. You can buy some at http://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/chart/ or you can get some free ones on the computer at http://skyvector.com/. SkyVector is a good way to plan a route. SkyVector also has airport information, airport diagrams, etc. Good way to do real world fuel planning and stuff. You can also get weather charts from http://www.yahoo.com/ , if you want to use weather maps. :wootmesalia:

[allardjd 1,853]

There are some (almost 900) airport diagrams available in the MH Download Centre. They're made using FS, not RW data, so will be a closer match to what you'll actually find in FS. Sometimes when using RW charts, things are different.

 

If you don't find the ones you need, requests are welcome.

 

John