Archive > Flight Simulation
Mental calculations for VFR flight planning
EHM-0654 Murray:
Hehehe... I know what you mean Des. I should point out that thanks to a simple little spreadsheet I run on my Psion that does a fair chunk of the math for me, using his techniques adds all of three minutes to my pre-flight planning now, but the first three or four attempts took me far longer.
With reference to the article, the only things I don't have the spreadsheet doing for itself are theta (the horizontally lined zero is theta for those that don't know) and the adjusted values for true heading and wind-adjusted ETE (which has to be adjusted for block time and climb any way); everything else the spreadsheet spits back for me (including all the "1/3 W" and so forths, to make the mental math even easier).
EHM-1651 Christian:
Maybe sound silly bit i'v been trying to fined metar that i can use enroute to get windspeed and direction etc where can i find that.
Just hit me hard for this :-)
EHM-1358 Tim:
Christian, I normally use aerodromes that are new my flight plan.
Murray, any chance you could give is the spread sheet?
EHM-0654 Murray:
--- Quote ---Originally posted by baszw
Maybe sound silly bit i'v been trying to find metar that i can use enroute to get windspeed and direction etc where can i find that.
Just hit me hard for this :-)
--- End quote ---
I use ASVE (ActiveSky 5 Enhanced) and it will give a cruise wind speed and direction. This is payware unfortunately...
I'm sure there must be online METAR tools for flight planning...
EHM-0654 Murray:
--- Quote ---Originally posted by Tim
Murray, any chance you could give us the spread sheet?
--- End quote ---
[strike]If I get a chance tonight, I'll Excelify it and post it.[/strike]
EDIT: Excelified when I was flying VFR :D
Took the chance to tidy up my Psion-based spreadsheet a lot (I got a load of calulated fields that I have no idea what they're doing on it... :)) and to output a lot more data for use in the mental calculations. This is not, and nor is it ever going to be, a one-stop solution to the procedures Barry H. Silverman outlines in his article "Mental Calulations for Cross-country Flight Planning", it just makes the majority of the procedures a lot easier...
There will be questions, I'm sure...
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