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Flight Planning
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Basic flight plans:
After selecting your departure and
arrival airports you can choose to select your waypoints manually or
to have them created automatically. In this case there are three
types of basic flight plans:
- navaid-to-navaid plan
- low-altitude airway plan
- high altitude airway plan
Airports and waypoints can be selected either from a list with a
mouse click on the map.
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Advanced flight plans:
Different route types can be
combined: so you can start your flight e.g. with a navaid-to-navaid
section, then proceed to a jet airway route, and finally finish with
a victor airway route. You can also select some waypoints
manually and have the rest completed automatically.
Furthermore you can insert into your flight plan:
- SIDs/STARs and transitions
- Natracks (North Atlantic Tracks) and PACOTs
- user-defined route segments
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Flight plans are created on the (undockable) flight
plan panel as shown in the screenshot below. Most of what you see is
largely self-explanatory. Note that the course is given both as true
track and magnetic heading. As you enter an airway, flight level
restrictions follow the name of the airway (airway UZ717; flight
levels 250 through 660). The flight plan is given both as a list of
waypoints as well as a route string which can also be copied and
pasted |
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Flight plan panel before takeoff
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After takeoff the flight plan panel
slightly changes its appearance. First, the real takeoff time
(Flight Simulator time, not system time) appears above the table. In
the example below we took off at 10:03 and are estimated to arrive
at 10:36. Estimated arrival time is re-calculated at each waypoint.
On the right hand side data are displayed (in red) which are
recorded at each waypoint. For example, at intersection PADBA we
were estimated to arrive at 10:07, but in fact arrived there at
10:10; so we were roughly 3 minutes late. At that time we were
flying at FL 150 with a ground speed of 432 knots. Furthermore we
had used up 07% (= 31364kg) of our fuel. (Fuel quantity can be
displayed in kg, lbs, or US gallons). |
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Flight plan panel after takeoff
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Flight plans can, of
course, be edited in various ways. Waypoints can be added or
deleted. Moreover, you can delete all waypoints between your current
position and a highlighted row. Suppose ATC instructs you to skip
certain waypoints of your filed flight plan and to go directly to
some waypoint XYZ. In this case, you can change your flight plan
with a single click. |
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