flight planning?

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Dave43H

Moderator
Staff member
Hey all !, im on the mend , well for now and im determined to get some flight time in..
Heres my issue, i know about TFRs, but when flight planning a big long distance flight, how do you know where you can and cant fly? In particular,id like to start at the factory in a YMF-5 , and im delivering it to a customer in,,, lets say the san diego area,,, to ramona. so again, how do i know where restricted airspace is,id be flying low level of course.is that information on those charts? like the jeppesen charts, and if so,how do you read it? honestly ive never done a big flight. in all the years ive had the various flight sims, ive never done a long flight, auburn california to catalina island was my longest, and id just gone from auburn,over sacramento and pretty much followed the sacramento river, or what i thought it was,went over san francisco bay ,over the golden gate, and turned south and flew along the coast, and searched for it..lol.. found it and then "panthered" the landing.this was in an AT-6 , or SNJ,, i dont even recall what sim it was..lol.
a little guidance if someone could.. in this sim.thanks Dave
 
Dave,
I do a lot of mid-to-long flights at all altitudes, including low & slow but 3-4 hour stretches. Since the days of FSX I've used Little NavMap and been very happy with it. There's a bit of a learning curve because there are so many options it can display but once you get into it it's very comprehensive. It will show not only airports but airspaces, restricted, danger etc. areas, detailed airport info. Multiple ways to build a flight plan which can then be exported to 2020, and then acts as a 'moving map' as you travel. if you select to show the trail, it will hold it so you can find where you left off.
It works with the FS nav data base (and with Navigraph) so the info correlates to what the sim has.
It's free!
I suggest installing it and then spending time with the manual ( yeah, dang...) and trying some of the options on shorter flights. The only thing you won't readily get is short-term TFRs and airspaces. but there's enough to keep you busy (Each airspace is clickable to show you the pertinent info.
It does work best with a second monitor to get the biggest view but you can pop it up just like grabbing a paper chart.
We've used it to plot routes for the RTWR and some of us have copied the old multiplayer hoplists into LNM format
 
If you are not aware of it already I would also definitely recommend the freeware Little Nav Map (LNM) for flight planning.

Alex Projects - Little Navmap

Alex' flight simulator projects
albar965.github.io albar965.github.io

I have never read the whole manual (which is online) but self-taught myself on a "need to know" basis with great assistance from the excellent tutorials on Utube by Jonathan Beckett.




You can created the flightplan in LNM then simply load it into the sim and it will show in your aircraft (most of the time) > Sometimes if the flight plan is too elaborate the sim may "simplify" it for you!

SkyVector: Flight Planning / Aeronautical Charts

Make your Flight Plan at SkyVector.com. SkyVector is a free online flight planner. Flight planning is easy on our large collection of Aeronautical Charts, including Sectional Charts, Approach Plates, IFR Enroute Charts, and Helicopter route charts. Weather data is always current, as are Jet Fuel...
skyvector.com

There is another freeware programme called Sky Vector and has more detailed maps than LNM and it does show live TFRS and again there are Utube tutorials which show you how to create flight plans for MSFS.




Hope this is helpful.
 
Both of your posts are just what i wanted, i completely forgot ive got skyvector bookmarked already, and im going to download that, but ive got to crank over the sim pc, you know how those cantankerous radial pc's can be... ok was funny to me... 🤣😎😏:ukraine:
and i have a small monitor im going to connect,
so thank you both very much
 
Don't forget to check the NOTAMs for your route of flight if you are concerned about TFRs. I use a little app on my phone called Avia Weather to check NOTAMs at the airports along my route. If you are traveling through a Class B airport space, the information provided can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. That's why for simulated flight I just pretend that I checked!
 
Quick example of a live TFR on Sky Vector - this relates to current Space Operations out of Vandenburg AFB, CA

Screenshot (213).png
 
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