MEA Route Planning

NealRomeoGolf

NealRomeoGolf

Final Approach
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Apr 12, 2016
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Illinois
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Are there any flight planners where you can put in a maximum MEA and have it figure out a route that keeps you there? Or is there one that puts the MEA in the Nav Log so you can easily see what the MEAs are along your plan? I tried one in SkyVector and don't see anything. I don't see anything like that in FlyQ either. I don't have ForeFlight.
 
You mean like "where all can I fly at 8000 msl"? Just turn on Low Enroutes and scroll around looking at the little gray numbers. Out there in the wide open, flat Northern Midwest, pick most any number above 4000 and you shouldn't have a problem. Depending on where in Germany you are, that story can be very different . . . . .
 
Hank S said:
You mean like "where all can I fly at 8000 msl"? Just turn on Low Enroutes and scroll around looking at the little gray numbers. Out there in the wide open, flat Northern Midwest, pick most any number above 4000 and you shouldn't have a problem. Depending on where in Germany you are, that story can be very different . . . . .
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I was mapping at an IFR trip from Illinois to Idaho. My plane tops out at 14,000 but the flight planner put me on a route with an MEA on one leg of 16,000. But like you said, I had to scroll around to check the numbers. Would be nice if they put the MEAs in the flight log view so you can see them easily. I fixed the route to have a max MEA of 12,200. Would be nicer if you could tell the planner a max MEA and it would route accordingly.
 
The old (-old-old) AOPA planner used to do it. I liked that feature
 
NealRomeoGolf said:
I was mapping at an IFR trip from Illinois to Idaho. My plane tops out at 14,000 but the flight planner put me on a route with an MEA on one leg of 16,000. But like you said, I had to scroll around to check the numbers. Would be nice if they put the MEAs in the flight log view so you can see them easily. I fixed the route to have a max MEA of 12,200. Would be nicer if you could tell the planner a max MEA and it would route accordingly.
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If you are using GPS for navigation would you be more interested in MOCA for obstruction clearance vs. MEA which also includes adequate navigation radio reception in addition to obstruction clearance?
 
Hank S said:
You mean like "where all can I fly at 8000 msl"? Just turn on Low Enroutes and scroll around looking at the little gray numbers. Out there in the wide open, flat Northern Midwest, pick most any number above 4000 and you shouldn't have a problem. Depending on where in Germany you are, that story can be very different . . . . .
Click to expand...
I think he meant more like "If I want to fly from Point A to Point B, suggest a route that will keep me under a specific altitude".
 
farmrjohn said:
If you are using GPS for navigation would you be more interested in MOCA for obstruction clearance vs. MEA which also includes adequate navigation radio reception in addition to obstruction clearance?
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I don’t have GPS....yet.
 
I suggested this to ForeFlight before the data driven maps were announced. They replied to me back then. I had hoped that the data driven maps would allow route preferences based on MEA since the app now stores a complete database of MEA data for all airways. I would like to have a per-aircraft ceiling and possibly a preferred maximum altitude, which it would use in generating routes. Because the route generator doesn’t care about altitudes, I find that it’s easiest to plan entirely manually when mountains are involved. The generated route is often so far away from tolerable MEA/OROCA that it interferes with my finding a flyable route.
 
The MEA will not necessarily correspond with the MVA for an area, so that could be helpful.
 
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