Online flight routing

[NavyLonghorn]

Maybe im just overly anal, but even if I have a computer do something for me, im prolly gonna check every leg by hand anyways. Airborne seems like a bad time to realise the program was using the wrong fuel consumption, or just plain had a glitch (its gotta happen). So it may save /some/ time, but, id never just print it out and go.

 

[zab1001]

No one said "print it out and go". It's one tool in your bag. Like your whiz wheel, like reviewing the route, like the GPS, like having the 2P verify the GPS waypoints, like the Nav having your back.

re-track: like I said gator, any VP dude will be able to get you into the system (if you need a password) and can show you how to use it/read it in about 10 minutes. It will print out kneeboard cards in a variety of styles, some of which are supposedly more useful to some platforms than others.

Another feature I always liked was the last page will list all your waypoints and their lat/longs, which makes plugging the GPS much less time consuming.

 

[Fly Navy]

Sorry, but how hard is it to just bust out a high chart and wag it? I've done about a million coast to coasts in my Prowler, and depending on how many legs you need to do and where you need to stop for gas, it doesn't seem all that complicated. Maybe I'm missing something.

Brett

High chart? Helicopters? Aren't those mutually exclusive?

 

[nittany03]

And we haven't event accounted for ATC's well-documented proclivity for throwing a wrench in the works. Not even winged yet, and there's already many a time Clearance Delivery has taken a big fat #2 on my carefully planned route (and hand-calculated waypoints) and said "Umm . . . no. You're going THIS way. And liking it!" five minutes before takeoff. Goodbye jet log . . .

 

[Fly Navy]

And we haven't event accounted for ATC's well-documented proclivity for throwing a wrench in the works. Not even winged yet, and there's already many a time Clearance Delivery has taken a big fat #2 on my carefully planned route (and hand-calculated waypoints) and said "Umm . . . no. You're going THIS way. And liking it!" five minutes before takeoff. Goodbye jet log . . .

"Fly runway heading, radar vectors to WTFBBQ fix"

"What... where the **** is that?"

 

[Gatordev]

"Fly runway heading, radar vectors to WTFBBQ fix"

"What... where the **** is that?"

Coming out of Mayport trying to go to Key West...we had 4 winged aviators, 2 squared a way HACs, 2 (well, 1 1/2) H2Ps in two aircraft. For 5 minutes we looked and looked for some navaid that approach changed to. I had the comm aircraft, so finally over the second radio I hear from Lead, "I can't find the damn thing. Just cancel and we'll go VFR." and scene.


It's amazing how much energy is being dedicated to say why or why not you should trust a computer for your planning when you fly. And yet, no where have I said I was using it to fly with. Kind amusing, in a pencil being jabbed in the eye sort of way.

@Zab,

I'll hit up some VP dudes or see if that VQ bud will cough up his password. Thanks.

 

[nittany03]

"Fly runway heading, radar vectors to WTFBBQ fix"

"What... where the **** is that?"

The words "full route clearance" really just mean "Bend over."

My personal favorite thereafter . . . "Radar Vectors to FOO, Victor 52 BAR, Victor 128 WTF . . . then direct. Climb and maintain Flight Level 210 . . ." Umm . . . ok . . .

 

[Fly Navy]

Coming out of Mayport trying to go to Key West...we had 4 winged aviators, 2 squared a way HACs, 2 (well, 1 1/2) H2Ps in two aircraft. For 5 minutes we looked and looked for some navaid that approach changed to. I had the comm aircraft, so finally over the second radio I hear from Lead, "I can't find the damn thing. Just cancel and we'll go VFR." and scene.


It's amazing how much energy is being dedicated to say why or why not you should trust a computer for your planning when you fly. And yet, no where have I said I was using it to fly with. Kind amusing, in a pencil being jabbed in the eye sort of way.

@Zab,

I'll hit up some VP dudes or see if that VQ bud will cough up his password. Thanks.

My favorite phrase in that situation? "Request steer."

 

[Brett327]

I guess the bottom line for me is that I know roughly how far my jet can go with a given fuel load, so I use that as a starting point. It's pretty much SOP in my community to just throw your routing into PFPS and let the machine crunch the numbers for you, plus it spits out a nifty looking nav card. Nine times out of 10, you're gonna get direct anyway, so the whole exercise is just academic. Our jet also has most of the canned FAIROPS flight plans loaded into the system, so inputing your flight plan is a matter of a couple keystrokes. You're always doing periodic inflight updates and fuel checks, so the notion of manually double checking the machine's work is kind of silly. I think that the more comfortable you guys get in your fleet jets, the more you'll be able to schwag.

Brett

 

[A4sForever]

I guess the bottom line for me is that I know roughly how far my jet can go with a given fuel load.....

Rule of thumb ... back-in-the-day ..... Whidbey to Miramar .... launch ... climb out .... go max EGT ... wait for low fuel light ... look down .... see Miramar ... land.

I love thumbs. It's what sets us apart from the rest of the beasts. Believe it ....

 

[Gatordev]

I guess the bottom line for me is that I know roughly how far my jet can go with a given fuel load, so I use that as a starting point. It's pretty much SOP in my community to just throw your routing into PFPS and let the machine crunch the numbers for you, plus it spits out a nifty looking nav card. Nine times out of 10, you're gonna get direct anyway, so the whole exercise is just academic. Our jet also has most of the canned FAIROPS flight plans loaded into the system, so inputing your flight plan is a matter of a couple keystrokes. You're always doing periodic inflight updates and fuel checks, so the notion of manually double checking the machine's work is kind of silly. I think that the more comfortable you guys get in your fleet jets, the more you'll be able to schwag.

Brett

Yup, I'm with you. And in the aircraft, I'm still with you. But in the planning stage, or more accurately, the "prove that this isn't a complete boondoggle and you'll actually get training done" stage, it's nice to see specifics. If KABC has good food, but turns out to be 50 more miles than KDEF due to routing, even though they're in the same terminal area, that's 2 approaches worth of gas. It's just nice to have a way to quickly see specifics when the paperwork is due in two hours.

 

[kray1395]

I thought somebody would have mentioned it by now, but have you looked at www.fltplan.com?? You have to register, but it's free. You can create your flight plan with it, and it will save all of your flight plans. It will also tell you what routes other people filed for your departure and destination.