What is Your Flight Planning Process?

Discussion Hub Tools & Utilities
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I’m new to flight sim but have been active with nearly 200 hours. I am trying to find a setup that works best for me and I can’t seem to figure it out. The things that are most important to me are:

  • ETA (airport and next waypoint, preferably in UTC)
  • Elevation and obstacles
  • Top of Descent (I need to know when to start my descent and at what vertical speed)
  • ILS approach map
  • I fly mainly in South America
  • I fly mainly the TBM9, C172, and B748

Here are the utilities I have tried:

  • Little Navmap: This seemed a bit much. It has everything that I listed above, but it’s just overly complex. I like to keep things very simple. Complex is fine, but organized. It’s just information overload. I imagine I can customize the interface to meet my needs. I would need to explore more.
  • ForeFlight: Very nice, but too expensive.
  • Garmin Pilot: Nice, but too expensive.
  • SimToolKitPro: I did not like this program. Just feels too buggy.
  • SimBrief: This, I assume, will always remain on my list. It’s quick and simple. When I’m ready to fly, it’s my first stop.
  • Navigraph: I purchased for a month. I really like have access to charts for South America. This almost seems like it will be mandatory for me. It gives me my ILS approach which is essential. Just don’t like committing to a subscription service.
  • SkyVector: Good if I want to stay in the United States. This could easily be the solution if they covered South America approaches.
  • VATSIM: This doesn’t need any explanation. I’ve tried the top three ATC networks. This is my favorite.
  • Gees: Landing rate. It’s perfect.
  • ToD Calculator: This might be a perfect solution, but haven’t quite perfected it yet.
  • notebook: This is potentially the ultimate solution. If I could somehow jot down the essentials listed above (ETA, ToD, ILS, Elevation) before each flight then I could just glance at my notes and have it all figure out. But utilities are real-time updating all data.
  • Flight Events: This has only been useful in group flights with others who use the same. Sort of irrelevant here, but added it anyway.

Purpose of this post:

Your experience. I watch many streamers to learn how to fly but they do not show their entire flight planning process. They will just begin descending because they have it already figured out, they will enter approach because they know the exact waypoint to begin. But how they obtained this information is not clear. Perhaps the FMS does this for them. Perhaps they use SimBrief, ForeFlight, and so forth.

This is what I am needing from this community. I need help developing my flight planning process. Something simple, not overly complex, something that gives me data for the important things that matter to me (listed above).

It’s possible this simply comes with time and experience. Something I will need to learn on my own. Then, one day, it will seem to fall into place. My guess, is that this is probably the most accurate answer. But, even if it is, your response to how you plan each flight and the utilities and tools you use to accomplish this will probably help me find my perfect flight planning setup.

Thanks!

Afterthought: Some pilots fly “Slant Whiskey” which I think essentially means they are flying the plane without modern digital electronics such as the G3000. I mean, I’m not even close to this, but I think my aim is to reach this level of flight planning.

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I start in Navigraph Charts.

New flight with origin and destination airports. I let it auto-route and see what it comes up with. About half the time I keep the auto route and the other I plan it manually attempting to stick to airways as much as is reasonably possible.

I take a look at what SID, STARS, and/or approaches are available to determine where my first and last way points guessing what ATC will give me. But I do not put them in my plan. I use the Type Route tool to add in airways.

From here I use the route text from the Navigraph Type Route tool and copy it into Simbrief. The two bits of info I use most are altitude and fuel out of the dispatch report but its nice to have the rest.

That is basically the end of my planning phase.

I use Pilot2ATC instead of the built in ATC. So I take the text route out of Navigraph again (I could get it out of Simbrief as well) and import it into Pilot2ATC along with altitude climb, decent, and estimated cruise speed. I like that Pilot2ATC will calculate TOD when I create the plan and update it live during the flight.

All three of these programs can export a MSFS flight plan file. But I use Pilot2ATC because its the last step and I can pre-define the export path (Simbrief Downloader does this as well).

Then I either load the flight plan at the world map or direct into the FMS of the aircraft, or from Simbrief if the FMS supports it.

Pilot2ATC will assign me Runway, SID, STAR, and Approaches during the flight.

Pilot2ATC and Simbrief are updatable to the latest Navigraph AIRAC. So all of these tools and MSFS are using the same NavData.

I also use Self Loading Cargo and it will import my plan from Simbrief.

This. You after some trial and error you will work out what you like best and fits with your particular type of flying, plane, and other software.

I’ve done this both VFR using landmarks and PDF VRF Sectionals as well as IFR using only VOR/DME and en-route charts in the 152. I got DME info for the 152 from my Logitech Radio Pannel. But the latest mod for the 152 has a DME hack that alternates the NAV frequency with the DME distance.

At some point I believe the sim will add towers and power lines so it will be easier to navigate my landmarks.

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I use the built-in flight planning tool through the world map.

  1. Set departing gate at the airport.
  2. Set arriving gate at the destination airport.
  3. Select IFR (High Airways).
  4. Select SID with the runway according to the wind direction.
  5. Select STAR and Approach to the runway according to the wind direction at the destination airport.
  6. Fly Now.
  7. Follow ATC to instructions for climbing and when to start descending at TOD.

Works well most of the time for me.

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There is a little to unpack here but perhaps one thing I’d ask is are you going for a more realism approach or just a general understanding? based on the tools you’ve listed, I suspect perhaps a bit more towards realism? I’ll try to cover a bit of both without going deep. General disclaimer. While I am a certificated private pilot (172 G1000 is what I fly), I’m not familiar with the airspace and general flying conditions in South America so I’ll try to stick to general info.

One caveat I’ll mention - and I see this quite a bit - is the idea of stringing together “how to fly” from YouTube videos. While absolutely helpful, they will not often take the level of time to really teach someone at the level required for consistent learning, as you’ve pointed out. YouTube is great to support what you are learning, but you’ve got to do the lonely work and dig in and learn. Grab some books or online course content. All of what your’re asking for is explained in literally thousands of sources. There is help, but no shortcuts if you really want to learn this.

  1. What’s the mission? You’ve listed several aircraft types you like to fly. What is your mission as each aircraft will have different overall planning requirements, especially given the range listed. I’ll base it on the TBM as it’s a good compromise between the two. I don’t fly the TBM but planning can really be consistent in several areas across all three aircraft.

  2. Basics - Start and End. Where are you going? Before you worry about routing, take a “big picture” look at the weather. You can do a basic “great circle” plan to get a general idea of the type of weather you’ll encounter along the way. It’s good to start here as you may need to plan a different actual route given weather, terrain, airspace, suitable airports, etc. These are things that will vary on the type of equipment you are flying. For weather, use any source that can provide aviation weather. For me personally, I use ForeFlight and in the states, another good, free source that sim and RW pilots use is the Aviation Weather Center: AWC - ADDS

  3. Start planning out the flight. For simplicity, and accuracy, you can use SimBrief. It’s a handy tool if you don’t want to invest in an actual flight planning tool like ForeFlight. Even with something like ForeFlight, there are myriad sources to get information to build a safe flight. Another reason I like ForeFlight and SimBrief is the tool can suggest a route plan for you. It’s too bad SkyVector doesn’t cover South America as it’s nice to use this tool for the actual VFR or IFR charts to visualize the airspace your route will traverse. You can also do this to a degree in Navigraph, yet that does require a subscription. I use this for airport charts outside the U.S. It’s my primary go-to source for that - in the sim, of course.

  • Consider departure and arrival weather - This will impact runway selection and in the TBM possibly SID and STAR.

  • What is the distance to cover? Pick an appropriate altitude to meet the need. Best performance, best economy. You’ll want to have looked at the en-route winds aloft to get a feel for where you want to be to avoid strong headwinds or to take advantage of favorable tail winds. Also, in the planning, consider weather elements - Storms, fronts, clouds, turbulence, icing, Pilot reports, etc. From this, decide are you going VFR or IFR.

  • How much fuel? Now that you have a route planned, you should have an idea on fuel required. This will again depend on the aircraft, the altitude you select, power settings, wind, and the route itself. You may need to get out the books for the aircraft but if you want to swag it, you can just load as much fuel as you need after you’ve loaded payload that keeps you under your maximum ramp, taxi, and takeoff weights. Some aircraft have a formula for fuel burn to approximate fuel required that will look like x,xxx lbs the first hour then x,xxx lbs every hour after that. You’ll need to know your equipment to get accurate fuel requirements.

  • Weight and balance is kind of limited in the sim right now so I’m not going to cover it. Just be within the weights and CG limit of the selected aircraft. If you’re not, adjust. This may mean pulling payload or fuel, which may impact range.

  • Departure airport intelligence. Do you know the departure airport? Get all the charts. familiarize yourself with the taxi layout and visualize the route that ATC will most likely direct you on the ground. What are the frequencies? jot them down in advance - Clearance, ground, tower, departure. Get the local weather and aerodrome weather information. Here we call it ATIS and ASOS.

  • Do the same above for your arrival. Get this done early and reference it again in the cruise, before top of descent.

  • While en-route, keep referencing and if necessary adjust your plan based on ACTUAL conditions. Winds may be stronger, weather may be worse, etc. Have an “out”. The general theme for all of this is be WAY ahead of the airplane. The faster the plane, the more ahead of it you need to be in terms of decision making.

  • Since we don’t have fancy flight computers that figure out Top of Descents for you, you mentioned a tool. Sure, use that. You can do a simple hack that has been shared in the forum: Flight Level to lose x .3. Let’s say you’re at FL350 and your first waypoint restriction is FL180. You need to lose 17,000’. So, 170x .3 = 510. Drop the zero and your TOD for that first waypoint would be approx 51 miles from it. You’ll need to work your rate of descent - I’ll typically factor 1,000 - 1,500 fpm but winds will affect that. It gets you in the ballpark plus or minus.

  • Arrival and approach. Remember the thought of being ahead of the aircraft? Since you checked the arrival airport weather on the ground before departure, AND you looked at the FORECAST for the planned arrival time, you should have an idea what airport conditions will be (VFR/IFR), what runway may be in use, the approach type and the arrival STAR, if applicable. Knowing this will help you visualize what to expect as you get closer to the airport and you can simply adjust if necessary. In most cases, barring a massive change in the actual conditions, you will get this right most of the time. If using the G1000/G3000, you can pre-load the approach but not activate it so it’s ready. If you need to change it, you can do that too, but caution advised in the sim. The Garmin units are very fickle and do not really simulate this capability well at this time.

I’ll pause here as this as I’ve written a lot and not sure if this is helpful or not! happy to provide more feedback.

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You and I always seem to reply on similar posts! :slight_smile:

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Awesome and thoughtful reply!

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Extremely helpful. ToD, Speed, time/distance remaining/arrival and rate of descent are really important to me so thank you for that formula. I will be using this frequently. I love that ForeFlight gives the “Descent to Dest.” I would use this all the time.

I think, ForeFlight would be my go to, but the price is such an investment. It’s like saying - “yep, this is my passion/hobby.” Plus adding South America, US, and Europe - probably best to use Navigraph and the formula you provided.

I’ve been flying from Bogota to Medellin in roundtrips using different setups. I’m hoping that one will just click. For example, last evening I flew roundtrip using simbrief, ToD calc, and ForeFlight. It was one of my best flights.

Tonight I will try the formula you provided, skyvector, the charts I found online for the two airports, and the weather information and see how this works out. I learned about kneeboards yesterday, so I might give this a try. I very much like the idea of a notebook or journal of some sort that I’m constantly referring too, writing in (elevation, fuel, time, distance). Seems so fun once you fully understand it.

This was a very helpful post along with the other posts. It has been very helpful and will help me find my flight planning strategy in time.

Thank you!!!

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Great to hear and glad you are gaining insight from these posts. This is really what these forums are about - sharing knowledge and helping others.

I must correct my earlier statement about SkyVector - I see it does indeed cover South America, at least for flight planning, minus the aviation charts that I see for U.S.

Regarding ForeFlight, I’m not sure what version you have but if you have the Pro version you are able to create aircraft performance profiles. This handy feature will allow you to use a template or enter in specific aircraft performance information to enable better fuel, time/distance calculations for your chosen aircraft. I literally have dozens of these setup for the aircraft I fly RW and all the ones I fly in the sim. Check out the video from ForeFlight on this feature: https://youtu.be/OnsmXXPVTMU

I agree ForeFlight pricing may seem steep but if you think about it, that $200/yr is $16/mo which is what I bet many of us pay for - pick you favorite streaming service. This is however an investment in a learning tool that will provide years of engagement and can actually enhance your flight planning and situational awareness. It is an invaluable tool in the sim and the real airplane that is constantly being updated and expanded.

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You have got me thinking pretty hard about ForeFlight. I’ll definitely be doing some more research and probably the 30 day trial.

When its time to re-up my annual Navigraph subscription maybe ill go data only and pick up ForeFlight.

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Nice! Agree, it’s worth at least a look with the trial as you mention.

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For those folks new to ForeFlight, here is a video covering the highlights of sim flight planning in ForeFlight using a sample IFR flight. I didn’t cover everything in-depth but this should give you an idea of the main flow. Check out the video here:

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My full flight preparation process. Lately, I’m mostly flying the Citation CJ4 with the Working Title mod.

  1. (LetsFly) If I don’t know where I want to fly to, I’ll put in my last location and choose a distance range, airport size, and hard surface runway. Then I’ll let LetsFly pick a random destination using those parameters. If I already know where I want to go, I’ll skip this step.

  2. (Google Maps) I’ll look up my destination airport using satellite view, mostly to see where it is. I’ll also frequently use this to pick my next destination.

  3. (Simbrief) I’ll get my flight plan using Simbrief.

  4. (ACARS) This step is irrelevant for most people. I fly with a virtual airline, so my next step is to schedule my flight.

  5. (Pilot2ATC) Next, I’ll import my flight plan into Pilot2ATC. I have VATSIM, but I prefer not to deal with real people. Once I validate and file my flight plane, I’ll compare Pilot2ATC with my original one from Simbrief. ATC usually always changes my SID, STAR, APPR, and runways.

  6. (Navigraph Charts) I’ll pull up the charts to view my procedures.

  7. All that’s left is to import my plan into the aircraft, and configure the takeoff information. I get all my weight and fuel info from Simbrief.

I have LittleNavMap, but I don’t use it. I also have Simtoolkit Pro, but I’ve determined it’s the main cause for my “Simconnect failed to call dispatch” CTD…so I’m not currently using it. I do like the logbook function of it though.