AOPA Flight Planner

glpilot

glpilot

Pre-takeoff checklist
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GLPilot
Wondering how many folks here use the AOPA Flight Planner? Might be interested if there are enough people, to open a discussion on some of its features and use.

Safe Flying!
 
I use it occasionally. I'm glad you posted this thread, as I have a question. I have been told that it is possible to overlay current weather onto the map with the flight plan. I haven't been able to figure out how. Has anyone done it? If so, how does it work?

Jim G
 
Jim,

Go ahead and enter a route, then download the weather. When you go back to the map screen there is a drop down menu up top. Click it and you should see the option to overlay.

I was impressed when my instructor showed it to me!
 
I use it occasionally, too. Primarily as a quick-check before doing a detailed plan or if I'm going locally. I use FliteStar/FliteMap for most normal flight planning.

To do a weather overlay, do the following:

Set up your route, and download from DUATS the text weather and the maps you want. At the minimum, specify the US Radar Summary and US Sat (both visible and IR). You can also get NexRad weather along the route of flight.

GO back to the Enroute Chart tab and display your route on the map. At the top, just above the map window, you will see a pull-down box that says "No CTC/DTC Weather Graphics Overlay". Click on the little down arrow at the right of that box, and you will see a list of the overlays that you can display. These will include the radar and satellite images, if you downloaded them.

Hope that helps.

Also, the ADDS weather site has a lot of good graphics.

bill
 
I use ADDS as my baseline. You are right, it is great, including the icing potential and everything else.

Think I have been failing to download the maps from DUATS when I get the briefing, and therefore have not had anything to put on the map. Next time I use it I will give this a try.

Thanks.

Jim G
 
I use it often along with other software. Perhaps a forum on Software Tools may be worthwhile. Desktop software, Online software, PDA software, etc.

glpilot said:
Wondering how many folks here use the AOPA Flight Planner? Might be interested if there are enough people, to open a discussion on some of its features and use.

Safe Flying!
Click to expand...
 
Well, my main question, and as a pilot with just under 70 total hours and only 12 or so hours of X-C time, I do not have all that experience to feed off, but I was wondering if this flight planner (and others) are actually as SMART as they seem.

Say I set up a flight plan to go from A to B. Then download the weather along the route. Is it actually smart enough to calculate winds aloft along the route/chosen altitude and get you a decent ground speed/ete to your location?

Noticing on the flight plan tab, it shows me the ETE and time adjusted to go to your destination (and reverse it as well) once you download the weather. It just shows your ETE with your set true airspeed when no weather is in the calculation.

I have always had somewhat of a challenge when I wanted to calculate ground speed using winds aloft data. Having to interpolate along the way of the route to get an idea. Especially if the route takes me through different regions where the winds aloft are different, or you are in the middle of say two regions giving you winds aloft data and the winds are somewhat different as well. :cool:
 
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It's been fairly accurate for me. Keep in mind that winds aloft CAN vary from the published readings, though, so it may not be the flight planner's fault. You'd have made the same errors doing it by hand. ;)
 
The other thing to remember is that the AOPA planner doesn't have the full power/airspeed tables in it.

Jepp's full version (FlightStar/FlightMap) does allow a full aircraft power/airspeed table - tedious to put in, but saves time along the line.

For the aircraft we fly, the difference generally isn't a lot, unless you're flying a turbocharged plane where the airspeed at 18,000 may be a lot different than 4,000.
 
:blueplane:

At the least, its fun to play with. I have several routes stored in it that I kick up from time to time, adjust, or just add new ones. I like how the data you put into it follows you around if you log in on another computer. My routes and airplanes are already there.

I'm planning a XC with a friend in a couple weeks and I have used it to try and find some good locations to build up the XC hours.
 
glpilot said:
Well, my main question, and as a pilot with just under 70 total hours and only 12 or so hours of X-C time, I do not have all that experience to feed off, but I was wondering if this flight planner (and others) are actually as SMART as they seem.

Say I set up a flight plan to go from A to B. Then download the weather along the route. Is it actually smart enough to calculate winds aloft along the route/chosen altitude and get you a decent ground speed/ete to your location?
Click to expand...

I've had very good luck with it's calculations on cross state flights in Washington. Hit the checkpoints within a minute or two on a 2 or more hour flight, so as long as you feed good performance data for the aircraft into the tool, it will do pretty well.

Ghery
 
Does anyone know how to add multiple legs for a Xcountry? Say I want to go from A to B to C to D and back to A?

Gary:confused:
 
Gary,

I think I've done this by specifying a route from A - D initially, then dragging the line to B and C, and then moving the end point from D back to A, and finally stretching the line between C and A over to D. End result is route A-B-C-D-A.

I may have remembered incorrectly, however. Hope not tho. :) Good luck!
 
I believe you are correct. Click on the route path and hold down the mouse button to drag the path to different locations on the map. I have done this when trying to alter a route to fly over airports (just in case) along my route.

Try dragging it, see how it works for you. It should also put the new points into the tab with the nav log.
 
I use it all the time, either to kill some time or actually plan a flight.
 
I've used it. It's handy and quick; it provides your leg distances and times using the aircraft data you have stored yourself. You can print out your flight plan with the blanks filled in. I must admit though, until having read the postings, that I did not know how to overlay weather. My use of the service is fairly limited, though. I don't have many places to go.

Jim
 
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I use the flight planner for almost all trips, but just for the charts and way points. I use DUATS for airway routing; find the planner difficult to combine direct with airway routing. ADDS is a must for weather if you need icing. Now, throw in watching the weather channel, talking to FSS/Flight Watch and you have the basis for a good six hour cross country!!

Best,

Dave S
 
I have used it in the past. But at work we now use www.fltplan.com for filing, WX and virtually everything. Its free, and will store specific aircraft and performance.....you'll just have to check it out. Its incrediable. Hope it stays free.
 
Pardon me if you've seen this twice. I'm learning the system.


I've used the flight planner and find it very helpful. You can supply your own aircraft data and the planner will use it in computation of your legs and times. Mostly, my use of it is more for fun. I've used it once for a xc trip of just over an hour's time each way. I wouldn't know how to overlay weather, except from reading these postings. You can print out your flight plan and take it with you...it has all your headings. The "rubber band" route aid is very useful, especially if there are TFRs or MOAs or other airspace that you wish to avoid. Alternate routes can quickly be compared.


It's a good and handy tool - the flight planner is.

Jim
 
After getting used to the more full featured Jeppesen version, I only use it at work to give me a quick glance at the flight. Not bad though!
 
If I'm going more than fifty miles I usually file IFR. I always use AOPA's flight planner. I like to print the map, log and flight plan and keep them on my clip board. I find the log to be fairly accurate. Don't forget, you enter the information in the profile.You'll want that to be accurate. I still always mark my route on a low altitude and a sectional.
The price is right!
 
Under the "Preflight" tab, there's "Plan Route" and "Reverse Route." I'm wondering why I can't click on "Reverse Route" -- it's always faded, doesn't let me choose it.

I re-entered my whole flight plan, and I still can't choose that option. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.
 
It only seems to want to let you reverse the route if you haven't added any waypoints. Once I've done that, I've never been able to press reverse route.
 
Same here. I've had no luck with reversing the route. Luckily, my routes have thus far, been fairly simple.


Jim
 
:dance: I use the AOPA Flight Planner all the time, along with ADDS, and some internet radar and satellite screens that I find useful. The AOPA Flight Planner is great!!! Simple to use and graphically displays current TFRs on Jeppesen charts.
 
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Gary Sortor said:
:dance: I use the AOPA Flight Planner all the time, along with ADDS, and some internet radar and satellite screens that I find useful. The AOPA Flight Planner is great!!! Simple to use and graphically displays current TFRs on Jeppesen charts.
Click to expand...

I've been playing with it today and mapping out various routes and altitudes for my trip tomorrow, so I can see the difference in length, time, and fuel burn. It has some limitations, though. It doesn't have the landmarks I'm used to seeing, such as the Northport stacks. I have to keep comparing the chart with my sectional, and that's a pain. I also don't know what winds it's using to come up with ETE. And it won't let me save more than one route with the same name. And it won't reverse a route.

I like the weather overlay, though, and the rubberbanding.
 
Toby said:
I also don't know what winds it's using to come up with ETE. And it won't let me save more than one route with the same name. And it won't reverse a route.
Click to expand...

Winds and ETE: It is using the winds aloft forecasts for the route as depicted on the standard weather briefing.

Reversing: It does reverse the route, but you must save the initial routing first. Then, reverse it.

Saving Multiple Routes with Same Names: It will not do this.
 
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