Introduction
I have been updating an old project of mine to create a complete flight planning tool (navlog, weight & balance and fuel planning) into one airline style format. The original tool I made, and on which this is based has been used extensively in real life during advanced VFR and all IFR flight planning for integrated ATPL(A) training. However I haven't tested the updates I made properly yet so:
NOT SUITABLE FOR REAL WORLD NAVIGATION, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
The tool is fully customizable and should work for "simple" GA aircraft to airliners and everything in between. Up to 20 different aircraft types and / or configurations can be created by copying the required weight & balance data from the aircraft POH. The whole sheet then adjusts to the selected aircraft including CG envelope and units of measurement selected.
Contents
File consists of the following pages:
- Aircraft - Here you can enter general aircraft information and create a weight & balance model using POH data.
- Performance - Next you'll need to create a performance model by copying some performance data from the POH. The aircraft added under "Aircraft" can then be couple to the performance model.
- Routes - Up to 10 routes can be prepared by entering airport information, elevation, runway lengths etc. and waypoints, track and distances for the trip and diversion.
- Flight Planning - On this page you can select the aircraft and route to be used, flight number, etc. and add meteorological data such as temperature, wind and pressure. Ramp fuel and taxi fuel, cruise altitude etc. Based on this an "Operational Flightplan" is created.
- Flightplan Page 1 - This is the first page of the OFP which includes fuel calculation, weight & balance, take-off and landing performance, take-off and landing speeds, areas to write down the ATIS and ATC clearances and the navigational log.
- Flightplan page 2 - Continuation of the navigational log if insufficient space on page one.
- VPATH - Shows a vertical crossection of the trip and alternate routes and the MSA along the planned route.
- Take-off - Take-off data card, shows the take-off speeds and power / thrust, trim, engine failure climb-out procedure etc. It also includes a temperature corrected (< 0C OAT) acceleration altitude.
- Reland - Shows landing distance and speeds for immediate return after take-off.
- Landing - Shows landing performance and speeds at the destination including the temperature corrected (< 0C OAT) DA/MDA.
- Loadsheet - Loadsheet for the flight, with areas to add the amount of crewmembers and passengers, including the seating location, baggage / cargo etc.
- Manual Loadsheet - An empty version of the loadsheet to be printed and completed manually.
- Preflight Checklist - Little checklist to plan the flight or flights including useful real world tables for duty limitiations, weather minima etc.
Its not as advanced as SimBrief obviously but ideal for someone who knows already how to manually prepare a flight (use of flight computer, wind correction, manual calculations etc.) to have some of the time consuming tasks automated, or to crosscheck ones own flight preparation.
Most of the sheets are password protected merely to prevent inadvertently overwriting formulas in certain cells. It isn't necessary to unprotect sheets during normal use as all relevant cells are editable. If anyone wants to modify my file however, go ahead, password is "fs2020".
Macros need to be enabled for the loadsheet to automatically rescale the CG envelope!
Further Info
Find a complete description using the link below: (I will update it to reflect the latest version soon)
I have found your VFR program and so happy about this comprehensive tool. Thanks a lot for this excellent work. Happy to see your coming manual
2 years ago
Lego2021
I can't wait to use this tool for flight planning with my FSX and FS2020 aircraft mainly the C152 for FS2020 and the A2A Simulations Bonanza for FSX
3 years ago
If you find any mistakes or have ideas, let me know. I haven't added the C152 myself, would be nice if you could let me know if you were able to successfully add the C152 as weight & balance and performance model. Bonanza is there already but I didn't add a performance model yet.
3 years ago
CaptainRude91
awash2002
Hi! I'm really liking your Flight Planning Tool, thank you very much for it! I was wondering if there might be a video tutorial for it as, even though I did read the forum, I'm still a little lost given that I'm not a real pilot myself. But I'm still very interested in the specifics of flying and would like to learn 😊
3 years ago
I have to work on a proper description indeed. I'm currently updating the loadsheet so it can be used for a larger variety of aircraft (also bigger aircraft) and then I'll work on that.
I did add a "test flight" in the meanwhile as an example, I hope it helps a little bit in figuring out how it works.
3 years ago
CaptainRude91
werepug