Hi guys, i normally use simbrief for flight planning. However, there is no specific airframe
compatible with the piper arrow. Is there a work around?
Thanks!
I’ve been using the C17R in simbrief for the Arrow. Specs are not the same, but somewhat similar in terms of range and performance. I wish there was a way to have the Arrow III in simbrief. It’s a fantastic addon to fly!
2 Likes
While you can use simbrief for any plane, its really tailored for jets.
The Arrow isn’t really the target market for that software.
If the Arrow is the plane you really love (I love it too), just take the time to learn how to do basic VFR flight planning and go fly it.
If you’re digging into IFR training thats cool too, but Simbrief really isn’t somthing I’d think to use for a piston private plane. It seems like it’d just be number spew.
You don’t need a flight plan at that level to go fly an Arrow. You just need to know which direction you’re flying.
I fly nothing but GA aircraft, for years, now flying the JF Arrow. Simbrief works perfectly with the Arrow. Do your FP in Simbrief, and then use the Simbrief downloader to load it into MSFS 2020. Then it will show up on the Arrow GPS when you launch the flight selecting the FP you made. .
Not true, Simbrief works great with GA aircraft and the Arrow and MSFS 2020.
1 Like
I think you misunderstood me. I didn’t say that it won’t work. I just think its a little over powered for planning a general aviation flight.
1 Like
What’s overpowered about it. It’s simple to use, quick, and you can import the finished flight plan right into MS 2020 and the GPS. I use it on every GA flight I do, for years.
It is not my intent to get into an argument about it.
I think learning traditional flight planning is valuable to people who have a serious interest in aviation whether real or simulated.
I also do not think it is good practice for people new to aviation to get bogged down in these routings and numbers. There is a lot more too it, and believing it’s just a sky full of numbers can chase people away. But that position may or may not apply to everyone. I don’t know who here is new, and who is not.
I’m not telling you or anyone else how to run your sim. It’s your dollar, do with it as you please.
There is so much more to effective flight planning then popping an origin and destination into a website and getting a bunch of numbers tossed back at you. In my personal opinion it sucks the joy out of light aircraft flight to plan everything in this way. But again, that is just my opinion. Simbrief is a great tool, I’m not trying to say otherwise.
But I’m the kind of geek who gets real joy out of sitting down with a map, and working out a routing that takes me where interesting things are, rather than just along the airways. The airway system isn’t designed to do that, its is designed to efficiently and safely move people around. When I’m simulating that type of mission, simbrief is my go-to.
But if I’m looking for a joyus burger run in something like a PA28, no thanks.
6 Likes
So many edits, my keyboard was misbehaving! sorry 
Well said… the PA28 is designed for creating a VFR Nav Log, finding your true course with checkpoints on the map, then calculating the Magnetic Variation and Deviation then the Wind Correction Angle at your altitude and finally your Real Magnetic Heading… with the real world scenery and weather I find this most enjoyable and the closest thing to real life flying, in fact you can pre-fly all your GA cross countries in MSFS following the heading and looking out the windows for landmarks… Amazing stuff!!.. the Simbrief plans are for pushing Tin at 41,000 feet… boring compared to VFR in a Piper or Cessna getting bounced around by wind sheer!
3 Likes
Lay the route on in Skyvector using the VFR Map, then copy and paste to Simbrief and load it into MS 2020. Total time, maybe 5 minutes.
You and I are not speaking the same language my friend, when did I say it had anything to do with the amount of time it takes?
Anyhow, I’ve made my point, I’ve not nothing further to say on this. Take care.
I’d recommend Little Navmap, which also lets you export to SkyVector.
It’s great for planning, calculating routes via VOR/DME and NDB, ascent and descent profile, accounting for terrain and weather.
Here are the performance details I derived from a few sources and POHs (Just Flight’s manual included) and then tweaked for actual sim performance (like slightly lower fuel burn than listed in Just Flight’s ODM). For 90 kts best climb rate (basically 100+ TAS), the 831 fpm you see on a lot of websites seemed about right but only above a few thousand feet, but this will vary with altitude (maybe not as much as it should in higher altitudes) and wind, as will TAS. Depending on cruising altitude, one should in theory get closer to 135 kts TAS under 75% power. But I found 131 to be more my ballpark, others lower, see below. The Just Flight tutorial also uses a more economical cruise setting.
See this discussion
On Aircraft tab, the min runway length to clear 50 foot obstacle is 1600 ft (optimistic perhaps if not light).
Note that if Little Navmap is open it will link to sim for location, fuel burn and movement but also cause frame rate drop.
2 Likes
Here’s also a profile for LNM ready for download:
Unfortunately for me LNM showed that it contains a wrong name for the aircraft but that can be fixed manually and saved so that the warning disappears.
1 Like
How can I add the Arrow to the available SimBrief planes. Are there custom config files that can be added? Anybody know?
Well as it was stated above in this thread, using simbrief doesn’t make much sense for VFR flying.
I think there’s a C172 profile, maybe try that one and see what you get. But I certainly wouldn’t bother and use LNM and SkyVector instead.
2 Likes
I’m mostly flying IFR on VATSIM, and I’ve been using the C172 profile on SimBrief. But it would be nice to have an accurate profile for the Turbo-Arrow IV for whatever parameters SimBrief needs to know…
2 Likes
Or go old school and plan your flight by hand. Fuel calculation should take you about 5 minutes tops.
Yeah, that is a great way to do it, however, it’s pretty weird that Simbrief doesn’t have a PA28. I am a RW pilot and fly IFR in Cherokees. I have basically my exact plane and panel set up for MSFS complete with GTN750 and dual Garmin G5’s, yet I can’t select a PA28 from Simbrief. Sure, it can create long-haul flight plans, but it’s fine at GA IFR flight planning as well, saves you from having to input everything in the world map page and then having to input everything into the GPS once you launch the sim. I just use the C172 in Simbrief for planning but it’s nuts they don’t have a PA28.
I agree, and it is not just the PA28 (really needs multiple PA28 profiles too). The key functionality I miss at Simbrief is the ability to create your own aircraft profile and an easier way of sharing aircraft profiles.
That is one of the main reasons I still use PFPX for all my IFR flight planning, I can just create whichever profiles I need. It is more powerful than Simbrief in other ways as well, but that is the functionality I would miss the most. I used Simbrief for a while but went back to PFPX rather quickly.
The key reason to use a flight planner for IFR flights (even in a C172) for me is the alternate flight planning, especially having multiple alternates pre-planned or quickly change alternate just before flight if weather has changed. Second reason is if using airways and there are a dozen waypoints even for a short flight. Those things are rather tedious to plan with paper navlogs and my E6B. Still do it manually for VFR flight planning though.