Flight planning tool

Just stumbled on this website this morning, for folks who want to get really, really granular when planning flights.

I use Skyvector all the time. It doesn't have all the airports or navaids, but still a lot of good info. It even has the approach plates for US airports.

+1 on the Skyvector site!

 

Rick :cool:

I like Little NavMap.

I use Little Navmap, Skyvector, and the one built in :)

I use Little Navmap, Skyvector, and the one built in :)

 

Me too!

Im just wondering, Skyvector says you can only use it for real flights.

What does that mean for usage in a sim??

Im just wondering, Skyvector says you can only use it for real flights.

What does that mean for usage in a sim??

 

For US airports small and large, all of the radio references, NAV references, and the "plates" containing waypoint information for ILS approaches work perfectly for MSFS. It is still helpful for non-US airports but the site has less data on them.

For US airports small and large, all of the radio references, NAV references, and the "plates" containing waypoint information for ILS approaches work perfectly for MSFS. It is still helpful for non-US airports but the site has less data on them.

 

SkyVector is also great for low and slow VFR. I’ve done flights through New Zealand at low level after planning them on SkyVector. You can plan legs there that aren’t based on Navaids (from valley to valley), and then follow them in FS2020 because the FS VFR map matches SkyVector (but not as detailed).

Agree, Little Navmap, Skyvector and the MSFS planner are what I use all the time. Little Navmap gives you tons of info, including fuel report and loading, bearings, distance and ETE to waypoints, ability to send to Skyvector, etc. Skyvector gives you accurate terrain and altitudes and, if you can decipher the codes displayed when you hover over one, you can right click and get airport diagrams and ILS/VOR info. ( I have a pretty good list as to what the Weather Station codes are (although actual Barometer pressure rarely agrees with MSFS ATC info, varying as much as 0.16mm). I always check a flight plan (imported from Little Navmap) with the one the aircraft shows as a flight plan. I find that I have to modify the imported flight plan from time to time. I've flown VFR from waypoint to waypoint, using Skyvector landmarks and heading.

One of my favorite features of Little Navmap is the elevation profile.

 

If you pick out a route, it will visually depict the profile on a graph, so you can plan your altitude(s) for the flight. During the flight you can even flip back to see where you are on the profile geographically, as it syncs with MSFS.

 

For anyone new to the app, you'll need to do a little bit of tinkering to get the elevation feature to work. The app's author provides good instructions on how to do that. I am not especially computer literate and got it working on the first try.