Pre flight planning

[aerofoil1]

Morning all
I've recently passed the skills test for my ppl
I have an iPhone 4 with air nav pro downloaded with a current half mill VFR Map
Another app I've found find pretty good which I've used to cross check against the whizz wheel is pre flight
Plus ive got aeroweather
what's your thoughts on this as an alternative to the more expensive gps systems like the garmin etc.
Does anyone still use the old whizz wheel ?
I've heard a lot of people using sky demon
What's your views cheers

[BackPacker]

Supposedly Tim is working on a version of SkyDemon for the iPad...

[IO540]

I have been using Navbox Pro for VFR flight planning.

It is a good tool for the stuff one can do on a "computer" which is basically knocking up the plog. A right-click pops up airport details including (mostly accurate) contact details so you can contact them re Customs, PPR, PNR, opening hours, etc.

All "vertical" stuff i.e. altitudes to fly at, etc, has to be done by reference to the actual printed VFR charts anyway, no matter which software tool you use.

I chose Navbox back in 2002 for its good European coverage, and this remains its main asset today despite the program having hardly changed. Skydemon has a much slicker appearance but especially for those who fly beyond the UK it needs more development.

From Navbox, I print off the plog (outbound and return flight) and I print off the whole route on one page. Very quick.

For notams (a narrow route briefing) I use the NATS site. For airport-only notams (which is what one generally does on high altitude IFR flights) there are various sites e.g. avbrief.com.

I also use Avbrief for weather although nowadays there are many weather sources. Most of them get the stuff from the same source (the U.S. run GFS weather model). A lot of handy weather links are here (http://www.peter2000.co.uk/aviation/).

Nobody I know who flies for real uses the old circular slide rule - it's just silly.

[piperarcher]

I too use NavBox Pro, but for most other flight planning I just use the NATS and MetOffice GA sites. There are a ton of iPhone / iPad apps that can help you. Whatever you use, always put lines on maps, and use it to make sure anything computer generated is sensible either vertically or laterally.

If you feel drawn to using a whizz-wheel to do time / distance and basic flight planning calculations, then I would recommend replacing it with a ASA CX-2 electronic computer. Its so much easier and accurate than those old whizz-wheels. I got mine about 6 years ago and I am sure it was about £100 at the time. TransAir currently have them for £64.95, which I think is very good value.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I long ago decided that if a GPS doesn't say Garmin on it, I'll regret owning it sooner or later. So, I fly with a Garmin Aera 500 at present, and am delighted with it. I had a PDA/GPS/FMS combination which was vastly inferior to any dedicated aviation GPS that I ever used.

Other tools I do use however:

Navbox Proplan

Aviation Tools Free for Android

Great Circle Mapper (http://www.gcmap.com)

And a 1:500,000 retracting tape measure bought online from Aircraft Spruce.


To be honest however, I do still do a lot of my flight planning the old fashioned way with a Plog and whizz-wheel. I find it enjoyable, and going over the chart carefully makes the flight subsequently less likely to hold surprises.

Plus, flying only about 100 hours per year, I don't begrudge a bit of time spent flight planning.

G

[aerofoil1]

The whizzwheel is now surplus to requirements skydemon looks a good option thanks guys

[GeeWhizz]

The whizzwheel is now surplus to requirements

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!:E

[aerofoil1]

Ok
So I'll keep it in the bottom of my flight bag!

[FlyingKiwi_73]

i was doing fuel calculations the other day with the WHizz Wheel, spent 30 mins before i gave up and used MS Excel.

Love the laptop.....

FAIL