I started with the Citation-X, which I think is a great jet plane to start with and now I'm flying the Embraer E175-E2 by X-Crafts.
- Plan the destination.
- Plan the weight
- Plan the departure
- Plan the arrival
- Plan the in-between
- Plan the alternatives (I'm not there yet ;-) )
- Cockpit handling of EFB and gauges.
For planning the route, I'm working with Simbrief, LittleNavMap and SkyVector.
- SkyVector - In my opinion, probably the best cloud solution to prepare your flight plan ahead of time. One of the reason is the fact that you "see" the route constructing as you enter the Nav/routes into your flight plan bracket.
- LittleNavMap - This is my go to client on my desktop to analyze parts of the route.
I mainly use it to see the SIDs and STARs to get a visual cue of their route relative to the rest of the flight plan.
I understand that not always "flight plans" looks like a smooth transitioning from one waypoint to the other, but in my flights I do try to prepare it as such.
Unfortunately, in contrast to "SkyVector" You need to fill in the exact Navaids to construct your flight plan, and airways are not integrated as good as SkyVector. - SimBrief - The final decision I do in SimBrief. Once I prepared the route, using the other tools, I check it against SimBriefs route suggestions, and modify it accordingly.
Sometimes I ditch my original flight plan and go with the "SimBrief" one and sometimes I replace it with mine.
Since SimBrief has integration with third party planes, it makes the setup somewhat simpler, in some cases, so it is a useful tool for such flights.
Other tools/screen I use are:
- X-Plane weather screen, for the temperature reading.
- X-Plane Map, for the:
- "Wind" information in different levels of flight.
- Airport QNH.
- Departure runway.
Overall, there are to many screens to navigate between which created lots of friction when preparing and executing the flight plan.
I don't have an immediate solution for VR only simmers, but I believe there should be a balance between the 2D and VR in order to limit the transition between them to achieve the final goal.
This is why it is important, for me, to have a plane that fully supports the VR mode, so I won't need to toggle between the 2D and VR to achieve a simple task in the cockpit. This is the reason why I added the "Flight Planning" screen to the once "Briefer Info" screen.
Meet the old new "Flight Leg Information screen" button:
The idea behind it was: "If I have the gist of the flight plan in one screen, I'll minimize the number of time I'll have to switch between 2D and VR mode", hence minimizing friction.
Introducing the new screen: Flight Planning
But I'm digressing, when I "designed" this screen, I asked myself "what information I need in order to prepare and maintain a flight". I admit that tis screen was designed to be used in 2D mode and only when you finish the preparation, to move to the VR mode and use it as a reference.
The logic behind this thinking was, it is uncomfortable to write in VR mode, therefore 95% of the information in this screen, we should prepare ahead of time and before we even started the engines.
The only information I'll need to enter in the VR mode is the "Taxi" field and maybe other information during flight, which is rear.
Few words about this screen:
- After entering information do not click outside the screen, the latest text won't be stored and will be wiped out as it was never entered. You have to click outside the "input" field but inside the screen.
The simplest thing to do is just click on the [SAVE] button. - Departure and arrival share same field information but you fill in only the information you need or have.
- The plugin only saves one flight plan, and it saves it in the "properties" file and not in the "plugin" folder. This way you can replace the whole plugin folder without losing your flight plan.
- The last saved flight plan will be loaded every time you start X-Plane.
- You have two [clear] buttons. One for the upper part of the screen and the other for the "second half" of the screen (The notes part).
This is for convenience reasons and you need to click "twice" before the data will be erased.
I admit that during a mission or flight, I use this screen almost exclusively. In GA flights, you are more involved and the plane is much slower so this screen is not as useful as in the bigger planes.
Suggestion on how to use the "Flight Planning" screen with Heavies type planes
My main focus is to minimize dependencies on information outside of X-Plane. This is why I start by gathering all the necessary information ahead of time and only then work with X-Plane.
- Prepare the route for your next flight.
- Fill in the information in Mission-X "flight planning" screen (see above for a screenshot)
- Use Mission-X "External FPLN" screen to find a similar flight plan between the two airports, the route is unimportant because we won't generate GPS waypoints for the flight. Only caveat is that it stores the time in hours and not minutes, so your time will be truncated once you start the mission.
Once you generated the mission file - DO NOT START IT YET.
The main reason not to start immediately the mission, is due to the fact that the plugin will store your starting fuel/payload at the moment you start the mission, but in 99% of the time, your plane fuel was not set by your EFB, yet, so the rule of thumb is:
Start Mission-X generated mission, immediately after loading the plane with passengers and fuel.
If you forgot to do it, it is not a big deal, it is just a guide line.
One of the main reason I initiate a mission between the two airports, is to have a "ramp" location once I arrive to the destination airport, and to see the stats (even if they are basic ones, it is always nice to watch them).
- [Conditional] Load the information from SimBrief to your plane.
The example was taken from X-Crafts E-175 plane.
- Gather the weather information.
- Altimeter readings.
- Airport Winds.
- Cruise level winds (estimated).
- Temperature.
- Runway Wetness.
Since this information is gathered from inside X-Plane, you can do it either in 2D or VR mode.
Using X-Plane ATC for IFR
Departure: Worked quite well for me, including the taxi and the first steps during and after takeoff.
Arrival: Total mess, and this is from my end, when I received vectors to final, I totally lost the direction that was programmed inside the FMS. I have no idea, yet, how to abide by the controller directions and at the same time make the ILS approach successful. If they just let me fly the last part using the intended navigation plan, I believe it would have just worked.
But that is on me, I need to better understand how to manage both of these tasks.
Troubleshoot - Bug ?
One thing I found strange, which might be a bug but I still need to figure this out, is when I file the flight plan to the ATC in VR mode, the "Auto Tune Recommended frequency" seem to be always active, even if it is not.
The only way to solve this, and it is not consistent, is to leave the VR mode, fill in the flight plan information in the 2D mode, contact clearance, and only then move back to the VR mode.
I hope that this short blog gave you some insight at the new "Flight Planning" screen and it's usages. It is still a work in progress, and I might change few of the widgets, but so far it good enough for VR flights, as a source of information.
Blue Skies
Saar