PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - flight planning software
View Single Post
Old 16th Apr 2007, 14:06
  #14 (permalink)  
IO540
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: EuroGA.org
Posts: 13,787
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Flitestar does not replace Flitemap as such; the two used to co-exist until Jepp (inexplicably) dropped Flitemap.

Flitemap is exactly identical to Flitestar but has a GPS input so you can get a moving map over the planned route etc. Flitemap may still be available from a few places; it uses the Flitestar updates.

Jeppview is not really a companion product to Flitestar, although Jepp would sure like you to buy both. Perhaps the best description is that Jeppview (currently in v3) is primarily an approach plate display/printing program, with most of Flitestar's flight planning features included. So you don't need Flitestar for route planning; you can do it all in Jeppview.

What Flitestar does and Jeppview doesn't is automatic airways route generation (which doesn't work properly anyway) and FS has some extra features. FS has some additional chart types; JV has only Low Airways, High Airways and FMS charts. However, JV3.5, with its new VFR charts option (in effect, electronic Bottlang guides) has a "VFR" chart option added.

FS can also display/print the VFR raster charts.

The Jepp product range is a mess because it has a long history. Originally Flitestar/Flitemap was an Apple Mac product which Jepp bought in. Then there was Jeppview which was purely an approach plate display/print tool, and there was a separate program called Flitedeck which gave you a moving map over the approach plate. In Jeppview 3, the user interface is very similar to Flitestar and Flitedeck is bundled with it. I hope I got this right, more or less. Very confusing!

Personally I have an old copy of Flitemap which I run on a PC and use for plotting out routes generated via an airways route generation facility. I occassionally use it for route planning from scratch, but most of those routes fail the CFMU check anyway. I have also used Flitemap as a GPS moving map running on a tablet PC, but have found it a bit buggy.

For desk use, Flitestar is really the only relevant product.

For airborne use, the picture gets very clouded because there is a conflict between using the panel mounted IFR avionics, and using something running on a tablet computer under Windoze, with all the legendary reliability of a Bill Gates product. Seeing the image of your plane over the approach plate is great (and wonderful for a co-pilot to monitor) but is a bit of a distraction. Currently, I am in two minds about the value of this tool. However, Jeppview running on a good (1024x768 or better) tablet gives you perfectly usable approach plates. Just make sure you have the dest+alt ones printed out in case the thing dies or crashes.

I fly VFR around the UK and use Navbox pro for that, and have more or less stopped flying VFR abroad.
IO540 is offline