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P C F l t P l a n 1.1 Computer Flight Planning for DOS Copyright 1990-1992 Geir A. Granviken D O C U M E N T A T I O N ------------------------------------------------------------------------ C O N T E N T S Part I - General Information 1. GENERAL 1.1 Disclaimer 1.2 Registration 1.3 Distribution 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1 About the program 2.2 Documentation 2.3 Hardware requirements Part II - Quick Start 3. QUICK START GUIDE 3.1 Installing 3.2 Starting the program 3.3 Configuring and Preparing the program 3.4 Making a flight plan 3.5 Ending and Restarting PC Flt Plan 3.6 Nav Computer Part III - Detailed Guide 4. INSTALLING 5. STARTING PC FLT PLAN 6. PREPARING THE PROGRAM FOR USE 6.1 Configuring 6.2 Aircraft Data 6.3 Nav-Database 7. HOW TO MAKE A FLIGHT PLAN 7.1 Data 7.2 Create/Edit a Route 8. ROUTE EDITOR 8.1 Legs 8.2 To / From Fields 8.3 Automatic or Manual Calculation of course/dist: 8.4 Flight Data 8.5 Map View 9. PRINT/VIEW A FLIGHT PLAN 9.1 Flight Plan Data 9.2 Print or Show the flight plan 10. ABOUT THE FLIGHT PLAN 10.1 Leg Times 10.2 Fuel 10.3 Corrections 10.4 How to use the ETO/RTO/ATO fields 11. NAV COMPUTER 12. TERMS & ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE PROGRAM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Part I - General Information 1. GENERAL 1.1 Disclaimer THIS PROGRAM MAY ONLY BE USED IF THE USER AGREES TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS: There is no warranty of any kind. In no event shall the author be liable for any damages, including any lost profits or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use this program, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages. The author shall not be liable for any possible wrong calculations made by the program. 1.2 Registration IMPORTANT: The demo program package (NOT the registered disk version) may freely be distributed in it's unmodified form and tested, like shareware. BUT in it's unregistered state, saving a route to disk is disabled. If you find the program useful, it may be registered for USD 25,-. You will receive a registration number as soon as possible to be inserted under the configuration option. A valid reg. number will enable saving routes to disk. Registration will also be valid for the next version. This program must NOT be used by COMMERCIAL-, MILITARY- or GOVERNMENTAL operators without a special licence agreement with the author. Also for general use in a flying club or similar, a special agree- ment is required. For registration, comments or questions, contact: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Geir A. Granviken Tel: (Intl+47) 3-285565 Godheimvn. 85 After 3 Jun 93: (Intl+47) 31 28 55 65 N-3440 Roeyken Norway ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.3 Distribution The demo program package (NOT the registered disk version) can be freely distributed, but all files must be included and they must not be altered in any way. The configuration file FPL.CFG (created by the program) or the file FPL.REG (if you have that), shall NOT be included. No fees must be charged, except for diskette costs. The demo/sw package consists of the following files: - README - General info - MAILER - Registration form - FPL11.DOC - Documentation (This file) - FPL.EXE - Main program file - FPLSETUP.EXE - Program file (normally called from main program) - FPL.DTA - Data file (will be made by program if not present) - FPL2.DTA - Data file ( " " " " " " " " ) - FPLFLY.DTA - Data file, aircraft data - FPLFAC.DTA - Data file, nav database - FPLFAC.IDX - Data file, nav database - FPLFAC.TXT - Nav database in ASCII text format - FPLFIL.DIR - Route file remarks (used by the program) - ********.RT* - Examples, saved routes. 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1 About the program The program is used to make operational flight plans for VFR or IFR flights, - fixed wings or helicopters. (VFR = Visual Flight Rules, IFR = Instrument Flight Rules.) A flight can be defined to the destination and to one or two alternates. In addition, a list of other diversion fields may be created. The program has a nav-database with lat/long coordinates, magnetic variation and frequencies for airfields, navigational aids, inter- sections or other frequently used waypoints. The facilities included are examples (they are correct though), but the user can enter his own waypoints into the database as he creates or edits a route, and in that way build up a database. The program also provides a small register where some key data for the different aircraft used may be stored. The routes created may be saved on disk. There are 4 different flight plan printouts to be selected from. One of these is a knee-board size flight plan. 2.2 Documentation This file makes up the documentation. If you find that some topics are covered to lightly (or it's just pure lousy all together...), the program should hopefully be fairly easy to use, and if you take a close look at the sample routes, it should be possible to make some sense of it. And there are no hidden features not shown in the menus or input options. Chapter 3 gives a quick introduction to get started, while the following chapters goes more in detail. 2.3 Hardware requirements - IBM PC/XT/AT/PS2 or compatible. - Minimum 512 KB RAM. - Any display type, but to use the map view function, a VGA display is required. - Hard-disk not required, but the program will work much faster. On a floppy disk system, the drive should be at least 720 KB. - A disk cache program is recommended but not required. SMARTDRV.SYS (or .EXE) which is included with DOS 5.0 and Windows is such a cache program, and works very well. - To be able to print out all four flight plan variants, the printer should be able to print IBM's graphic characters (line drawing characters). Part II - Quick Start 3. QUICK START GUIDE This part is for those who want to get started right away, and prefer to just go ahead and try a program instead of reading a pile of documentation. If you want details on a topic, it may be looked up in part III. 3.1 Installing Note: The disk version is supplied with an install program. If this is used, the instructions below may be disregarded. Make a directory on your hard-disk, name it what you like (sugges- tion: FPL), and put all necessary files in it. To be able to look at the sample routes, all files except README, MAILER and FPL11.DOC are required. 3.2 Starting the program Go to the directory you have made, type FPL <Return>. The first time, before you have configured the program, you may enter a switch for display type: M for mono display, B for black & white display connected to a colour adapter, and C for colour display. 3.3 Configuring and Preparing the program The first time you use the program, you should select SET-UP from the Main menu, and then CONFIGURE. Enter the data asked for, or just press <Enter> to leave the item unchanged. After you have gone through this, a file called FPL.CFG is created. The next thing you should do, is to select AIRCRAFT from the Set-up menu, and define your aircraft. If the nav database is not prepared in your copy of the program (you will see this by the files FPLFAC.DTA and FPLFAC.IDX missing, and that the program warns you about it), a file called FPLFAC.TXT will be included. In that case you will need to build the nav- database from FPLFAC.TXT, - unless you want to make your own database. This is done by selecting IMPORT in the Nav-Database editor. IMPORTANT: The program will find an existing record in the nav- database dramatically faster when the database is sorted in alphabetical order. If you append new records, or change any of the idents, you should select SORT/COMPRESS DATABASE in the Nav-Data- base menu afterwards. 3.4 Making a flight plan From the Main menu, select FLIGHT PLAN. At the Flight Plan menu, you may see an example route already there. A route in the work area is retained until you delete it or load another one. CREATING LEGS IN THE ROUTE EDITOR: When you want to make a new route from scratch, select NEW ROUTE, answer YES to erase the present route, and enter the ROUTE EDITOR. Select ADD LEG, and start entering data. Airfields and other nav- points are entered by it's identifier. If it is not found in the nav-database, you may enter the data manually, and, if desired, save it in the database. Leg #0 contains the departure field and nothing else. For the other legs, you will also be asked for true airspeed, wind etc. AUTOMATIC/MANUAL COURSE/DISTANCE: Usually you will enter "A", and let the program calculate the course & distance. But if you are planning a VFR flight for example, and pick out landmarks on the map, you may want to measure course & distance with a ruler instead of finding the coordinates. If so, select "M", and enter these data manually. (In that case, the Lat/Long and magnetic variation fields may be left open.) SID'S, APPROACHES (Mostly IFR-related): Since a normal leg is calculated as a straight line between the two waypoints, it will be incorrect if a SID or approach involves extra turns and manoeuvring (which they usually do). There is a feature which allows you to reserve a certain distance or time for such cases. If you want to start out on a Standard Instrument Departure (SID), you put the departure field in leg #0 as usual. In leg #1 you enter *SID in the FROM field, and in the TO field you enter where the SID ends. After typing in TAS etc., you will be asked for GS, DIST and TIME for the SID. You need only enter two of these items. What you enter here will not be affected by the TAS and Wind given for the leg. But the program uses these data, if given, to tell you time and GS if the leg was flown direct. You can then adjust the GS and/or time figures as appropriate. Similarly, for an instrument approach, you enter *APP in the FROM field (or *ILS or what you like, just make sure it starts with the "*") and in the TO field enter where the approach terminates (usually the airfield...). The leg before this one, should end where the approach starts (well, where else?). Note: If a SID or approach is just a straight leg (for example a straight in approach from a beacon), you may enter the data as for any other normal leg, without using the procedure described above. ALTERNATES: When you have reached your destination, you may add legs to an alternate (or two), if needed. First you create a leg that only contains *ALT (or *ALT1 or *ALTN etc., just make sure it starts with "*ALT") in the FROM field. In the following legs, the route to the alternate is described. If you need two alternates, you enter *ALT2 in the FROM field after you have reached the first alternate, and then go on to the second. DIVERSION FIELDS (IFR and VFR): In the real world, you sometimes have to change alternate right before departure, and you do not have the time to make a new flight plan. But this may be prepared for by having a list giving the time and fuel burn from the destination to various diversion fields on your flight plan. Even if you are flying VFR, such a list may become handy. It is created by entering *DIV in the FROM field in the leg after the last one of the main (and alternate) route. Each of the following legs contains only your DESTINATION in the FROM field, and a DIVERSION AIRFIELD in the TO field. You enter fuel flow etc. as normal, but note that these values should be an average for the entire flight from destination to the diversion field. But there is an additional item asked for, which is extra time in minutes for approach etc. This item may also be used for adding some extra minutes if the flight cannot be expected to be a straight line. When this feature is used, the list will appear in the flight plan, with time and fuel burn from the destination field to each of the optional diversion fields. Also, it will show the total fuel required if the airfield is used as the alternate instead of the planned alternate(s). MAP VIEW: A VGA display is required for this feature. It may be selected from the Flight Plan menu or from the Route Editor. It is not very sophisticated, but it will show you the route, and optionally all other points from the nav-database in the area covered. If you want a printout, you will need to use GRAPHICS.COM and the <Prt Scrn> key. But at least you may select black & white colours (will remove the menu also) to avoid a totally cluttered printout. PRINT/SHOW FLIGHT PLAN: Exit the Route Editor, and select Print/Show flight plan from the Flight Plan Menu. You will first be taken to a screen where you enter type of aircraft, what reserves you want and some weight and fuel data. When completed, a screen with a bunch of data about the flight will be shown. From here, you may view the flight plan on screen, print it out or write it to a text file. 3.5 Ending and Restarting PC Flt Plan The program may be exited from the Main Menu, or directly from the info screen where you select printing. In both cases, the route and the other flight plan data will be retained. 3.6 Nav Computer Selected from the Main menu. This does nothing to your flight plan, but is used if you want to look up quickly how far it is between two points, and optionally how long it will take with various airspeeds and winds. It also gives some more details than the route editor, like rhumb line distance versus great circle distance, and initial and final courses for great circles. Part III - Detailed Guide 4. INSTALLING Note: The disk version is supplied with an install program. If this is used, the instructions below may be disregarded. If you have a hard-disk, make a directory and copy the required files into this. The program may also be installed on a floppy disk. Even if you have a hard-disk, it might be convenient to also have the program on a floppy which you can bring with you. The files required to run the program are: - FPL.EXE - FPLFAC.DTA - FPLSETUP.EXE - FPLFAC.IDX - FPLFLY.DTA The following files should also be copied into the directory if you want to see an example of data making up a flight plan: - FPL.DTA - FPL2.DTA If these files are not present, they will be made by PC Flt Plan during program run. They contain the route and flight plan data from the last run. If you want to be able to load the sample route files, you should also copy the following files: - Files ending with .RTx, where x is a number - FPLFIL.DIR The two EXE-files work fine if compressed with PKLite(tm), a shareware program that makes EXE- and COM files significantly smaller. 5. STARTING PC FLT PLAN Make the disk and directory where the program was installed the current directory (i.e. CD C:\FPL), then type FPL <Return>. The first time, before you have gone through the configure option, you may enter a switch for display type. (If you don't, you will be asked for it anyway.) The switches are: - M = Mono display connected to a mono adapter (MDA, Hercules) - B = Black & White display connected to a colour adapter - C = Colour display and colour adapter. To use a switch, type FPL, a space, the switch and then <Return>. Example, which starts PC Flt Plan with mono colour settings: fpl m<Return> FPLSETUP.EXE may be run directly, but is normally called from the PC Flt Plan Main menu. If you go through the CONFIGURE option in the Set-up menu, a configuration file, FPL.CFG, will be created. Do not delete this. After you have configured the program, you no longer need to use any of the switches, nor will you be asked what display type you have on start-up. 6. PREPARING THE PROGRAM FOR USE 6.1 Configuring The first time the program is run, you should go through the CONFIGURE option in the Set-up menu. When you press <Return>, you store the data in the input field and proceed to the next item. If you press <Esc>, configuring is terminated and all items are restored to their original settings. The various items are explained as you work your way through, but if you find any of them hard to understand, just leave the item unchanged and press <Enter>. None of the items are required, except the colour settings, and maybe the printer codes, if you have problems getting the flight plan printed out. 6.2 Aircraft Data The next thing you should do, is to enter data for the aircraft you will use. This is done with the option AIRCRAFT DATA in the Set-up menu. You may also specify aircraft data when making a flight plan, but it is much more convenient to have it in this little database. The aircraft data that can be stored are: - AIRCRAFT: You may do this two ways: You can store the AIRCRAFT TYPE, i.e. Cessna 172. Or, if you will operate several different aircraft of the same type, but with slightly different Dry Operating Weights for example, you may have one entry for each aircraft and instead enter the AIRCRAFT REGISTRATION here. - REMARKS: The data here are not used in the flight plans so far, but the entry will be shown when you select an aircraft when making a flight plan. If you have stored the aircraft by registration, you may put the type and configuration here. - ICAO FLIGHT PLAN NAME: Not used by the program so far, but the entry is reserved for the aircraft code used in ICAO flight plans. Example: Cessna 172 is "C172". - WEIGHT UNIT: K=Kg/L=Lbs. All weight data for an aircraft must be in the unit you enter here. - DRY OPERATING WT: Aircraft weight, with full oil tanks, equipment, catering and crew. Includes everything except Payload and Fuel. - MAX ZERO FUEL WT: If applicable. If not, enter 0. - MAX TAKE-OFF WT: Yes, just that. - MAX LANDING WT: If applicable. If not, enter 0. - START/TAXI FUEL: Fuel normally used for start-up and taxi before take-off. - RESERVE FUEL FLOW: Fuel consumption rate normally used when calculating the reserve required by the flight rules you operate under. - HOLDING FUEL FLOW: Fuel consumption rate normally used when calculating extra holding, extra reserves, company fuel etc. - MAX FUEL CAPACITY: Max tank capacity. Not mandatory. - UNUSABLE FUEL: On some aircraft, a certain amount of the fuel in the tanks are considered not usable, and can therefore not be counted as available fuel when planning a flight. - ACTUAL FUEL LOAD: Typical Fuel Load in the same unit as the fuel-data above . If Fuel Load varies, you may enter 0, and enter the number when making the flight plan. - ACTUAL FUEL WT: The WEIGHT of ACTUAL FUEL LOAD above. Must be in the same unit as the other weight data. If ACTUAL FUEL LOAD and ACTUAL FUEL WT are in the same unit, i.e. lbs, you may enter 0. If FUEL FLOW-data and WEIGHT-data are in different units, i.e. gallons and pounds, PC Flt Plan must know the relationship between these to be able to calculate landing weights etc. This relation is found when the program is given ACTUAL FUEL LOAD and ACTUAL FUEL WEIGHT in their respective units. 6.3 Nav-Database GENERAL: The Nav-Database is accessed from the Set-up menu. This is where airfields, navigational aids, intersections and other facilities or waypoints are stored. Any frequently used point may be stored here, like special check-points, landmarks, oil-rigs - you name it... When preparing the program for use, it is a good idea to enter the facilities in your local area. You can later add points as you create routes, since the route editor allows you to enter data for a facility not found in the nav-database, and save it. When in the route editor, searches are made on the facility's identifier. The program will find an existing facility in the nav- database dramatically faster when the database is sorted in alphabetical order. The reason is that the program first executes a fast alphabetical search, and, if the facility is not found, a sequential search from top to bottom is initiated. The database is not maintained in a sorted order automatically however. It is therefore recommended to use the SORT/COMPRESS function (explained below) after having added new facilities, or changed any of the identifiers. This function also removes empty records, which will appear when facilities are deleted. DATABASE STRUCTURE: The database consists of the files FPLFAC.DTA and FPLFAC.IDX. It is strongly recommended to maintain backup copies of these files on a separate disk! Each facility makes up a record. Each record consists of the following fields: - Ident (For example airport code) - Name (Name of the facility) - Latitude (North/South geographical coordinates) - Longitude (East/West geographical coordinates) - Magnetic Variation - Frequency IMPORTANT: Commas should not be used in any of the fields, as these are used for separating the fields when exporting to- or importing from an ASCII file! Note that in most countries, the three letter and four letter airfield codes are totally different. The 3 letter codes are those used by airlines and their international SITA network, while in most countries the 4 letter ICAO codes are used in ATC flight plans, notams, weather forecasts etc. USA is a bit special though, if you take a 3 letter US airfield code and put a "K" in front of it, you have the 4 letter ICAO code. In PC Flt Plan, it is recommended to use the four letter codes for airfields, to distinguish them from the airport VOR's (In the US, the idents are often the same). Also, the Map View function will then be able to distinguish between airfields and other facilities (nav-aids and fixes never have a 4 letter code). Examples: 3 letter code ICAO code London/Heathrow LHR EGLL New York/Kennedy JFK KJFK For those who want some more technical info: The file (fplfac.dta) is a random access file. Searches are done in a separate, parallel file (fplfac.idx), which contains only idents, to speed up the sequential search somewhat. As mentioned, the alphabetical search is very fast, even on large databases, but the sequential search is not that bad either; - on a 386sx/25 with a cache program installed, PC Flt Plan uses a little over 2 seconds to search through a database with 3000 records. CREATING/EDITING FACILITIES: From the Main menu, select SET-UP, then select NAV-DATABASE. Here, facilities may be viewed, edited, added, listed or written to a text file in ASCII format. Note that if you delete a facility, a blank record will appear, as the record itself is not removed. When you add a new facility, the data will be stored in the first empty record found, or appended to the end. The SORT/COMPRESS function will remove any blank records and sort the database in alphabetical order. An alternate way to edit the database, is to use the EXPORT function (in the Nav-Database menu) to export it to an ASCII file. The file is comma delimited, which means that it may be imported into most database- or spreadsheet systems, or you may edit it in your favourite text editor. After external editing, use the IMPORT function to rebuild the database from the ASCII file. If you have specified a text editor in the configuration, you may call this from the function EXPORT/IMPORT/EDITOR. Otherwise, you have to leave PC FLT Plan, run your editor, then restart PC Flt Plan. The format of the ASCII file, necessary to import records correctly, is explained in detail in the program. FUNCTIONS IN THE NAV-DATABASE EDITOR: - NEW RECORD: To add a new facility. The program first asks for the identifier, and checks for no others records with the same ident. If the database covers several countries, you may run into duplicate identifiers. A way to handle that is to add the two letter ICAO country code. An example: Midhurst VOR in England has the identifier "MID". The country code for Great Britain is "EG", so the ident may be entered as "MID EG". This will never be necessary for airfields however, as long as their 4 letter ICAO codes are used. - FIND RECORD: Searches for a facility with a given identifier. - SEARCH ON NAME: Searches for all records containing the name, or part of a name, you specify. For example "okman" will find "Brookmans Park". Note that the search is made on the NAME fields only, not the idents. - EDIT RECORD: Change any item in a record. If you change the ident, a search for duplicates will be performed. - DELETE RECORD: Deletes the facility presently shown, and replaces it with a blank record. - LIST RECORDS: Lists out facilities on screen. If anything is entered in the input field which appears, only records with identifiers starting with the letters you type will be listed. - SORT & COMPRESS: Sorts the database in alphabetical order, and removes any blank/empty records. It first writes the records to a temporary text file. This file is sorted using the DOS sort, or any other sort program specified in CONFIGURE. If the ASCII file becomes larger than 64 Kilobytes, the DOS sort will not handle it however, requiring an external sort program. Many good and small shareware programs that sort text files are available for this purpose. After this process, the database is rebuilt from the resulting sorted file. - EXPORT/IMP./EDITOR: From here, you may export the database to a comma delimited ASCII file, or import from the same. When importing, the records may be appended to the existing database, or replace the existing database. If an external editor is specified in CONFIGURE, this is also accessed from here - HELP: A brief help screen. - QUIT: Returns to the Set-up menu. 7. HOW TO MAKE A FLIGHT PLAN 7.1 Data The flight plan is made from two sets of information: - ROUTE DESCRIPTION: The route to be flown from point of depar- ture, through several waypoints to the destination, and if required, to one or two alternates and/or a list of diversion fields. Altitude/flight level, winds, true airspeed and fuel flow are entered for each leg. For IFR flights, special legs like SID's, approaches etc. may be entered. This is the information that is stored when you save a route. When you load a route; winds, TAS etc. may be changed quickly for the entire flight without having to edit each leg. - FLIGHT PLAN DATA: Aircraft (and it's data), reserves, fuel load and payload. These data are not saved together with the route, but are contained between program sessions. Normally, you will first create the route to be flown, or load a previously saved route and make the necessary changes, - and then enter the flight plan data. The program takes you through an input screen for these data when you select PRINT/VIEW FLIGHT PLAN from the Flight Plan menu. 7.2 Create/Edit a Route Select FLIGHT PLAN from the Main menu. To clear the route in the work area, if any, and start from scratch; select NEW ROUTE and answer Yes to erase. If you want to use a route saved on disk, select LOAD ROUTE, and select from the routes shown. Any route present in the work area will be deleted when loading a new one. You may edit the loaded route in the Route Editor, or you may change FL/Alt, TAS, Wind or Fuel Flow globally for all or several legs by selecting GLOBAL CHANGE from the Flight Plan menu. 8. ROUTE EDITOR 8.1 Legs Enter the Route Editor by selecting FLIGHT PLAN from the Main menu, then ROUTE EDITOR from the Flight Plan Menu. Select ADD LEG to create new legs. When some legs have been created, the <Left> and <Right> keys can be used to move between the legs. <PgDn> or <PgUp> will advance/go back 10 legs respectively. Select EDIT LEG if you want to make changes. The <Up> and <Down> keys are used for moving between menu items. If you delete or insert a leg, be aware that the TO and FROM fields will not match between the legs before and after, you must there- fore edit these as necessary after such an operation! Leg #0 holds the point of departure only. No further data are entered for this leg. 8.2 To / From Fields In the TO and FROM fields, you enter the facility's identifier. The program then searches the nav-database. If the facility is not found, you may enter lat/long coordinates, name, magnetic variation and frequency manually. You will then also be asked if you want to save the waypoint in the nav-database. You do not have to enter lat/long coordinates if you want to enter course and distance manually instead of letting the program calculate these (See 8.3). This may be useful if you plan a trip where you just pick landmarks on the map as waypoints and measure course/ distance with a ruler. A star (*) as the first character in the FROM-field denotes a special leg, which is used for SID's, STAR's, approaches etc. They are also used together with codes to separate the route to destination, to the alternate(s), and the diversion list: *xxxx - A "*" and up to 4 characters is used when you want to enter a SID, STAR, or approach instead of a straight leg. "xxxx" can be anything (i.e. "SID", "ILS", "APPR" etc.) except for the codes below. In the TO field enter the point where the leg ends. For these legs you will be asked for estimated average ground speed, time or distance. You only have to enter 2 of the values. For example if you want to reserve 10 minutes of fuel for an approach at the destination, you can enter 10 minutes and the average GS for the approach. The program will then calculate the distance this represents and add it to the total trip distance. *ALTx - Means that the route after this leg describes flight to the ALTERNATE(s). No further data are entered in a leg with this mark, it is used as a separation line. "x" may be anything, for example "1" or "2". This code may be used twice in a route description. If used, the route will be divided into the following sections: - Before any *ALTx : From DEP.FIELD to DESTINATION - After first *ALTx : From DESTINATION to ALTERNATE 1 - After second *ALTx: From ALTERNATE 1 to ALTERNATE 2 (The reason you can have two alternates is that under some regulations, you can file a flight plan to an airfield which is below weather minimums, - provided that you have two alternates. The first alternate must then have landing minimums, the second must be above alternate minimums.) *DIV - Means that the following legs make up a DIVERSION list. These legs are shown on the flight plan as a list of optional alternates. They show time and fuel used for direct flight from DESTINATION to the various DIVERSION fields, plus extra time for approach or extra route distance, which may be entered for these legs. 8.3 Automatic or Manual Calculation of course/dist: For straight legs you enter "A" or "M" for Auto or Manual course & distance. If you select "A", course & dist will be calculated from the lat/long coordinates and magnetic variation for the waypoints. If for example you find that the course differs a degree or so from what is found on your IFR-chart, and you want it to be the same, - you may select "M" and enter the magnetic course manually. When using the "M" option, no lat/long coordinates or magnetic variation are required. 8.4 Flight Data When FROM and TO for a leg are defined, you enter the following data: - FL/ALT: Flight Level or Altitude. These data are not used by any calculations, but are shown as information about planned- or minimum altitudes on the flight plan. It is recommended to enter the values as in ATC flight plans; for example "F090" for Flight Level 90, "A050" for 5000 feet. Or you may use "CLMB", "DESC", "VFR" or whatever you like. - TAS: True AirSpeed in knots. - WIND: Wind Direction (what direction the wind comes FROM), and Wind Speed in knots. - F.FLOW: Fuel consumption per hour. 8.5 Map View (Selected from the Flight Plan menu or in the Route editor) This function only works with a VGA display or better. When you select MAP VIEW, you will see a graphical representation of the route and waypoints. From the Route Editor, the map will be centred around the current waypoint, while from the Flight Plan menu, the map will fit the entire route. The program does not have graphical printing capability, but if you load the DOS program GRAPHICS.COM (which is a resident program) before starting PC Flt Plan, you can print out the display by pressing <Prt Scrn> (if your printer supports graphics that is!). Before you press <Prt Scrn>, press P to change all the colours to black & white. This also removes the menu from the display. To get the colours and menu back, press P again, or simply press <ESC> to quit the map display. This is somewhat crude of course, but it does work. 9. PRINT/VIEW A FLIGHT PLAN 9.1 Flight Plan Data When the route has been defined, you select PRINT/SHOW FLIGHT PLAN from the Flight Plan menu. You will then be taken to an input screen, where the Flight Plan Data are entered. The following data may be entered or changed here: - DATE: Date of flight. - FLTNO/CS: Flight Number or Call-sign. - AIRCRAFT: The aircraft picked from the aircraft database, or one that you specify here. - SKED DEP: Scheduled time of departure (block). - SKED ARR: Scheduled time of arrival. - FINAL RESERVE: Reserve required by the flight regulations you operate under. Enter minutes and fuel flow. - ROUTE RESERVE: Additional reserve in PERCENT. If used, the amount will be calculated as the specified percent of fuel required to destination and to the alternate(s), if any. - EXTRA HOLDING: May be used for expected holding, company fuel or similar. Enter minutes and fuel flow. - START/TAXI: Fuel used for start-up and taxi, before take-off. The minutes are estimated time from off block to airborne. Will be counted when ETA is calculated. - UNUSABLE FUEL: On some aircraft, the last rest of fuel in the tanks is considered not usable, and can therefore not be counted as available fuel. - ACTUAL RAMP FUEL: Planned fuel load. AMOUNT must be in the same unit as the fuel flow figures above. WEIGHT must be in the same unit as the other weight data. If Fuel LOAD and WEIGHT are in the same unit, just enter 0 in the weight field. - DRY OPERATING WT: Aircraft weight, with full oil tanks, equipment, catering and crew. Includes everything except payload and fuel. - ACTUAL PAYLOAD: Planned payload. 9.2 Print or Show the flight plan When you have entered the Flight Plan Data, a screen with a summary of the flight will be shown. From here you may print out the flight plan or view it on the screen. Explanation of some of the items showed: - TIME: Airborne time (hr:mins) to destination. - BURN: Start/Taxi-fuel + trip-fuel to destination. - DIST: Distance (NM) to destination. Includes approaches. - AVG.WC: Average wind component to destination (plus=tail-wind, minus=head-wind). - DEP: Scheduled Time of Departure. - ETA: Estimated Time of Arrival at destination. Taxi time at the departure field is counted in. - NO WIND: Burn/Time to destination if there had been no winds. - REQUIRED FUEL: Total fuel required, considering flight to destination, alternates(s) (if any), winds, reserves and start/taxi. - EXTRA FUEL: The difference between Required fuel and Actual fuel load. The time shown is the approximate flight time this represe- nts, calculated from the average consumption to destination and alternate(s). If you have trouble printing out the flight plan, try to find the proper printer codes and enter them under the configuration option in the Set-up menu. If this doesn't work, you may try another solution: Select PRINT FLIGHT PLAN TO FILE. The file written is in plain ASCII, and may be imported into a word processor and printed from here. For the "knee-board size", select a font with a pitch of around 17 characters/inch and normal line height. The two A4-variants send only plain ASCII-text to the printer, and should therefore be usable on most printers. 10. ABOUT THE FLIGHT PLAN 10.1 Leg Times In the flight plan produced, the time for each leg is rounded up or down to the nearest whole minute. But the small difference between the accurate leg time and the whole minute is added or subtracted to the next leg time. This is the same method used in professional flight planning systems used by airlines. The reason for this is that on a trip with many legs, the total time may become several minutes wrong if for example most of the legs happen to be rounded down. 10.2 Fuel The fuel amount shown in the last column of the flight plan is the remaining fuel you would have over the checkpoint if you departed with the TOTAL FUEL REQUIRED. This way you can see if you have all your specified reserves intact along the flight. If you have less fuel, you have started to consume your reserve, route reserve or extra holding fuel. 10.3 Corrections The correction factors shown on the flight plan are fuel and time to destination, and total fuel required if the conditions were: - NO WIND: No winds at all. - +20KT: 20 knots more TAIL-WIND than the average wind component you get from the winds you have planned for. - -20KT: 20 knots more HEAD-WIND than the average wind component you get from the winds you have planned for. Example: If you get an average wind component of +7 knots (tail- wind), the "+20" will be the figures for 27 knots tail-wind, while the "-20" will be the figures for 13 knots head-wind. The "no wind" will be for no winds, no matter what the planned winds are. 10.4 How to use the ETO/RTO/ATO fields After take-off, you start filling out all the Estimated Time Over- head (ETO) fields all the way down to destination, using the leg times given. Usually, you will only put down the minutes, except when starting on a new hour. When you pass a waypoint, you write down the time in the Actual Time Overhead (ATO) column, then calculate the new estimated time for the next waypoint, and put this in the Revised Time Overhead (RTO) column for that point. This way, you will have a fresh estimate for the next reporting point for ATC (and yourself). As you now pass the waypoints, it will be very easy to see if you are ahead or behind the flight plan by comparing ATO and the original ETO (the latter was calculated in relation to the take-off time). 11. NAV COMPUTER This function is entered from the Main menu. It does nothing to your flight plan, but is used if you want to look up quickly how far it is between two points, and optionally how long it will take with various airspeeds and winds. It also gives some more details than the route editor. The following data are calculated: GREAT CIRCLE: - Initial course, in true & magnetic - Final course, " " " " - Average course, " " " " - Distance. RHUMB LINE: - Course, in true & magnetic - Distance. (Great circles and rhumb lines are explained in chapter 12.) 12. TERMS & ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE PROGRAM Acc - Accumulated time AMT - Average Magnetic Track ATC - Air Traffic Control ATO - Actual Time Overhead (when passing a waypoint) ATT - Average True Track Alt - Altitude Arr - Arrival Burn - Fuel Burn CS - Call Sign Dist - Distance in nautical miles DOW - Dry Operating Weight. Weight of everything except payload (cargo/passengers) and fuel Dep - Departure Dest - Destination ETA - Estimated Time of Arrival ETD - Estimated Time of Departure ETO - Estimated Time Overhead FF - Fuel Flow (Fuel consumption per hour) FL - Flight Level Flt No - Flight Number GS - Ground Speed. Speed in relation to the ground after wind effect is taken into account Kts - Knots ( = speed in nautical miles per hour) LWT - Landing Weight MH - Magnetic Heading MLWT - Max Landing Weight MT - Magnetic Track MTOW - Max Take-Off Weight MZFW - Max Zero Fuel Weight NM - Nautical Miles (1 NM = 1.852 meters) RTO - Revised estimated Time Overhead. (You may also encounter RTO used as an abbreviation for Rejected Take-Off.) Rte Res- Route Reserve. In percent of fuel used to destination and alternate(s) TAS - True AirSpeed TOW - Take-Off Weight WC - Wind Component (Headwind or tailwind) ZFW - Zero (wing) Fuel Weight. Weight of everything except fuel. Larger aircraft usually have a max limit on this, because if the aircraft body is loaded up while the wings remain light (little fuel in the wing tanks), the bending loads on the wings will be excessive. Great Circle - The shortest line between two points on the earth. Over a large distance, or at high latitudes, the course may change considerably trough the flight. Rhumb Line - (Also called loxodrome track) A line between two points on the earth which crosses all meridians at the same angle. This means that the course will remain the same all along the route. Over a large distance, or at high latitudes, a rhumb line will be significantly longer than the great circle. Note: In the route editor, all legs are calculated as great circles. The course is the average course.