Easy Flight Planner?

I know that this has been beaten almost to death, but I still need some help. I fly VFR only and in GA aircraft. I don’t really care about IFR and all that goes with it. I need a really simple flight planner that will allow me to indicate a starting airport, choose several waypoints (VFR) by clicking on a map, and then have the capability of printing the plan out for reference when flying. I have tried out many of the free planners, but they are just way more than I need. Any advice will be appreciated. (In the middle of a blizzard here in Kansas KGCK)

Search for Little Nav Map … I don’t think you will find anything better.

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Unfortunately not, although it’s far from easy. Too many features and options.
For typical VFR planning you should be able to click some points on a VFR map with airspaces, restricted areas etc., enter your cruise speed, average wind and be done. The output should be a flight plan with magnetic tracks, times, and distances. LNM seriously overcomplicates simple things.

This one seems promissing: GitHub - rogalmic/flight-planner: Interactive VFR flight planning online.

If you have an andoid phone or tablet you can try this one: Enroute Flight Navigation
It should also work with the fs2ff sim to Android GPS tool.

For flying in the US you have SkyVector: Flight Planning / Aeronautical Charts

In the past there was a very nice windows app called " VfrFlight", but it has been unfortunately discontinued.
VfrFlight: Free VFR Flight Planner – simFlight

Well maybe too complicated for you…I do not think it is.
There are a few things you need to set up once…and after that it just works.
But hey this was just as suggestion for the OP. Nobody is forced to accept that as gospel by any means.

Thanks for the confidence :wink:
I’m not saying it’s a bad app, on the contrary, it’s phenomenal. But trying to suit all audiences it’s also an example of feature creep. Planning a classic VFR flight is very simple. Normally you would do it using a paper map, protractor and some basic calculations to calculate the leg times taking the wind into consideration. There are other parts of the preparation like reading NOTAMs, airport procedures etc., SIGMET, checking active airspaces etc. but that’s a different topic.

An example of the over complication is the need to create performance profiles for each plane. With climb rate, fuel consuption and speed at different stages of flight etc. It’s a total overkill if you fly a 1-2h flight 1000-3000ft above the terrain. You would just pick a speed (like 90kt), use the sector wind and multiply the flight time + required buffers times average fuel burn (for example 18l / hour for a typical Rotax LSA).
Planning a C152 1 hour flight is different from a transatlantic journey on a 747.

I recommend GTFP.

LNM is not that complicated. For example this video : https://youtu.be/PrCnI55Ef5A?si=XtZouwQWmcVSWP8k is only 15 minutes and will help you with the first steps.

True…
At first glance it looks overwhelming but you can deselect the options you don’t want or need.
For most simmers it is simply better to plan the flight from the world map.
Aircraft, dep, arr, gps, vor to vor, low/high altitude routes and kind of approach.
In person, I use it that way a lot and inflight I keep track of it using LNM and the inbuild VFR map ( V on the keyboard opens it)
Happy :small_airplane:

If you want something simple to print out a VFR flight plan, how about using the World Map for your planning (point and click waypoints) and then PrtScr (PC) to capture a screen image and then print out the screen image.

Otherwise, SkyVector is easy to use and has the ability to print out a good flight plan for tracking fuel and eta. Unfortunately, the flight plan has to be retyped into MSFS as there is no export fro SKYvector. I’ve also used SkyVector to print out VFR sectional charts helpful if navigating using landmarks.

I have about 2000h real world flying, for pleasure, business and charity in almost every Cessna and Piper single, quite a few twins and a few rare birds thrown in for good measure.
Trust me I know how to flight plan, both VFR and IFR and for different mission profiles.

Who said you have to create aircraft profiles? If you do not want to see fuel requirements and climb and descent calculations you can ignore that step.
But the OP can pick and choose what ever. I am done discussing this with you.

A basic simple one : Microsoft App PLN Flight Planner

I use Little Nav Map. I click my departure point, click on my destination, add any waypoints, export in the required MSFS2020 format. Load in MSFS and I’m gone. I have dozens saved. I’m not a ‘dedicated’ pilot, don’t have the time, so there are no fuel, speed or other data. Quick and dirty. LNM has a huge amount of tools but you don’t have to wade through them to use the program. Most are conveniences for those who might want to use them. I don’t know about printing plans out. There’s really no need if you have a separate monitor to display the active map. It’s a moving map so I don’t keep the entire map visible.

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To expand on FlyingGunny’s comment, I use Little Navmap for simple VFR ultralight flights. I want the planning tool to be as simple as possible. In LNM, I turn off everything that I don’t need. It takes a few minutes, but it’s once-and-done.

  • View > Airports > unselect unwanted types of airports (example: heliports)
  • View > Navaids > unselect everything
  • View > Airspaces > unselect Show Airspaces
  • View > User Features > select No User Features
  • View > User Points > unselect all undesired types of userpoints (example: DME)
  • View > unselect other undesired items (example: Show Missed Approaches)
  • Tools > Options > go into each item and unselect undesired settings

Each side panel also has settings that that can be accessed via the settings icon in each panel’s menu bar. The panels can be repositioned, resized or closed. Once you have things arranged the way you want, go to the top menu bar:
Window > Save Window Layout as > save the layout to a file.
Now you can reload your preferred layout if things get messed up.

The result of all this stuff is a great planner and moving map that is easy to use.

Maps: When you click on the globe icon to select the type of map, there is a long list. For ultralight VFR flight planning, there are only two maps that I use: OpenStreetMap and OpenTopoMap.

Saving flight plans: LNM saves plans to its proprietary format. To save a plan to MSFS format, export it: File > Export Flight Plan as MSFS 2020 PLN (shortcut key is Ctrl-Shift-F)

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LNM is my go to planner for sure. However, for quick and dirty, very simple flight plans I use FSWidgets QuickPlan on my iPad. I also use iGMapHD while flying. I like being able to fiddle with planning things without a computer or laptop. For more detailed plans I use LNM, of course. I can take the plan I rough out on the iPad and get fancy with it in LNM. Works for me. :slightly_smiling_face:

SkyVector is worldwide: Lookup Airport | SkyVector

KISS – It sounds like built in WORLD MAP will meet your minimal VFR Flight Plan planning needs .

LNM is Fantastic, but is quite a large learning curve, just to do even the more simple things

Try FStramp, it costs but it worth every penny

F S T r a m p _ v e r s i o n _ 9.03

From the official FSTRAMP website

" Surprise at the beginning of 2025:
FSTramp is free for an indefinite period of time, because you can copy and use the following license key without paying. At some point, however, we will invalidate this license key."