27. Flight Planning¶

The flight planning Dock Window contains the four tabs: Flight Plan, Flight Plan Remarks, Fuel Report ( Aircraft Performance) and Current Performance (Aircraft Performance Collection).

27.1. Upper Part¶

The top shows a label that contains departure, departure position (parking, runway or helipad), destination, flight plan distance, traveling time, used procedures (SID, STAR, approach and transitions) as well as flight plan type.

The label also displays error messages if, for example, the runway of a STAR differs from the runway of the following approach procedure.

Traveling time is only shown if a valid aircraft performance profile is loaded that has at least climb, cruise and descent speeds set.

The ARINC name of the approach procedure which is needed by some FMCs is shown in parentheses.

Header of a flight plan. VORDME LITSY has D34 as ARINC name.

Besides the label there are two input fields on top of this dock window:

27.1.1. Cruise altitude¶

This value is saved with the flight plan and is also used to calculate an airway flight plan.

Changing the cruise altitude of a flight plan using airways might result in errors (Error Display). This can happen if the cruise altitude violates airway altitude restrictions. Calculate the flight plan again to remove the errors.

See Flight Plan Route Calculation.

Note

Note that Little Navmap does not support step climb or different altitudes for each waypoint.

27.1.2. Flight Plan Type¶

Either IFR or VFR.

This is saved with the flight plan and is only relevant for FSX, Prepar3D or MSFS.

27.2. Flight Plan Table¶

The table view allows the same operations as the search table view except sorting. See Header for more information.

All selected elements in the flight plan table view will be highlighted on the map using a black/green circle. See Highlights and User Features for more information. Use Shift+Click or Ctrl+Click to select two or more elements (multi-selection).

The active flight plan leg is highlighted in magenta when Little Navmap is connected to a simulator, the user aircraft is airborne and user aircraft is closer than 40 NM to the flight plan.

Procedure legs have dark blue color and legs of a missed approach have a dark red color.

Alternate airports are shown at the end of the list using gray text. Note that more than one alternate can be added to the flight plan. Legs to the alternate airports originate all from the destination.

27.2.1. Table Columns¶

Ident: ICAO ident of the navaid or airport. The ident can be suffixed as shown below:
- + or - and a distance value: Shows waypoints in procedures that are relative to a fix.
- (IAF): Initial fix of a procedure or transition.
- (FAF): Final approach fix. Depending on procedure either the FAF or FACF are shown with a Maltese cross on the map and in the elevation profile.
- (FACF): Final approach course fix.
- (MAP): Missed approach point.
Region: Two letter region code of a navaid.
Name: Name of airport or radio navaid.
Procedure: Either SID, SID Transition, STAR, STAR Transition, Transition, Approach or Missed plus the name of the procedure. Contains the text Alternate for alternate airports at the end of the list or Departure or Destination.
Airway or Procedure: Contains the airway name for en-route legs or procedure instructions. This field also shows track names if NAT, PACOTS or AUSOTS tracks are used. Airways are suffixed with the airway type like N601 / V:
- V Victor or low altitude airway
- J Jet or high altitude airway
- B Both
Restriction:
- For airways:
  - Example 10,000: Minimum altitude for airway segment.
  - Example 0-20,000: Maximum airway altitude. Minimum does not apply.
  - Example 10,000-20,000: Minimum and maximum airway altitude.
- For procedures: Altitude restriction or speed limit. A / separates altitude and speed restriction. The following altitude restrictions exist for procedures:
  - Number only: Fly at altitude or speed. Example: 5,400 or 210.
  - Prefix A: Fly at or above altitude or speed. Example: A 1,800.
  - Prefix B: Fly at or below altitude or speed. Example: B 10,000 or B 220.
  - Range: Fly at or above altitude one and at or below altitude two. Example: A 8,000, B 10,000.
  - Altitude and speed limit: Values separated by /. Example: A 8,000, B 10,000/B220.
  - Speed limit only: A prefixed / indicates no altitude but a speed restriction. Example: /B250.
Type: Type of a radio navaid. Shows ILS or LOC for ILS or localizer approaches on the last runway leg.
Freq.: Frequency or channel of a radio navaid. Also shows ILS or localizer frequency for corresponding approaches on the last runway leg.
Range: Range of a radio navaid if available.
Course °M: This is the start course of the great circle route connecting the two waypoints of the leg. Use this course at departure if you travel long distances without navaids. Be aware that you have to change you course constantly when traveling along a great circle line.
Course °T: The same as the two fields above but using true course. Use this in areas with high magnetic variation.
Distance: Distance of the flight plan leg.
Remaining: Remaining distance to destination airport or procedure end point (usually the runway).
Leg Time: Flying time for this leg. Calculated based on the selected aircraft performance profile (see Aircraft Performance). This is a static value and not updated while flying. Empty if performance calculation failed.
ETA: Estimated time of arrival. This is a static value and not updated while flying. Calculated based on the selected aircraft performance profile. Empty if performance calculation failed.
Fuel Rem.: Fuel remaining at waypoint, once for volume and once for weight. This is a static value and not updated while flying. Calculated based on the selected aircraft performance profile. Empty if aircraft performance profile has no fuel consumption numbers set.
Wind: Magnetic wind direction and speed at the waypoint.
Head- or Tailwind: Wind at waypoint. Headwind is indicated by arrow down ▼ and tailwind by an up arrow ▲.
Altitude: Calculated altitude at waypoint. Uses aircraft performance to determine altitude.
Remarks: Turn instructions, flyover or related navaid for procedure legs. Also shows user remarks that can be edited with Edit Flight Plan Position or Edit Flight Plan Position Remarks. See Map Flight Plan Editing for more information.

The Flight Planning dock window. The flight plan uses a SID for departure and a STAR, a transition and an approach for arrival.

27.2.2. Column Selection¶

Choose Select visible Columns from the flight plan table context menu to customize the table. You can still move and resize columns in the table. All changes are saved.

The changes can be undone by selecting Reset View in the context menu.

The flight plan column selection dialog with tooltip.

27.2.3. Error Display¶

If a waypoint of a flight plan cannot be found in the database it will be displayed in red. This can happen if the used AIRAC cycles do no match. The same applies to airways. The position on the map is still correct.

Airways are also displayed in red if the minimum altitude, maximum altitude or one-way restrictions are violated.

Hover the mouse over a field in the table to see a tooltip giving more information about the error.

Warning

Note that flight plans are still usable in Little Navmap although saving and exporting to other formats is limited and can lead to unexpected results.

The Flight Planning with three different tooltips showing errors.

Tooltip on error message showing violations of altitude restrictions.

27.3. Magnetic Declination¶

Little Navmap uses the magnetic declination that is stored either with VOR stations or the actual environment declination. The latter one is calculated by the program using the world magnetic model. (WMM) or loaded from the simulator scenery database.

Note that the magnetic declination of a VOR (also: calibration for VOR, VORDME and VORTAC) may differ from the actual declination in a simulator region as it does in reality. The calibration of a VOR might be very old while the real declination in the environment changed in the meantime due to the wandering of the magnetic poles. Therefore, magnetic course values might differ. This can result in strange course readings in flight plans.

Little Navmap uses the declination of a VOR to calculate the inbound and outbound magnetic course of a flight plan leg to and from this VOR. This allows the pilot to use the VOR radials for navigation. For all other legs the actual environment declination is used.

You can disable the use of VOR declination in the options dialog on page Flight Plan by checking Ignore declination of VOR and other radio navaids. This will use the environment declination for all calculations. You might want to use this if you fly entirely based on GPS and ignore VOR stations.

27.3.1. Examples¶

A flight plan crossing the VORTAC Battle Ground (BTG) last calibrated 1975 (source) with a declination of 21° East while the environment has an actual declination of 15.2° East. You can see the actual declination below the mouse cursor in the status bar of Little Navmap.

Below a flight plan with three legs all having a true course of 90°.

Example with Ignore declination of VOR and other radio navaids not checked:

Note the course difference when flying to and from BTG compared to the magnetic course when flying to YIPYU. Magnetic course in- and outbound to/from BTG is calculated based on the station declination 21° East while course to YIPYU is based on 15.2° East.

Example with Ignore declination of VOR and other radio navaids checked:

All magnetic course values are equal since the environment declination of 15.2° East is used to calculate the magnetic course for all legs.

See also Magnetic Declination for more information about declination values and scenery databases.

27.4. Mouse Clicks¶

A double-click on an entry in the table view shows either an airport diagram or zooms to the navaid. Additionally, details are shown in the Information dock window. A single click selects an object and highlights it on the map using a black/green circle.

27.5. Top Buttons¶

27.5.1. Clear Selection¶

Deselect all entries in the table and remove any highlight circles from the map.

27.5.2. Select visible Columns¶

See chapter Column Selection below.

27.6. Context Menu Flight Plan¶

27.6.1. Show Information¶

Same as Context Menu Map.

27.6.2. Show Procedures¶

Same as Show Procedures. Only enabled for airports having procedures.

27.6.3. Create Approach to Airport¶

Same as Create Approach.

See User Defined Approach for more information.

27.6.4. Show on Map¶

Show either the airport diagram or zooms to the navaid on the map. The zoom distance can be changed in the dialog Options on the tab Map.

27.6.5. Activate Flight Plan Leg¶

Makes the selected leg the active (magenta) flight plan leg. The active leg might change if Little Navmap is connected to the simulator and the user aircraft is moving.

You have to activate the leg manually if you would like to fly to an alternate airport.

Legs of a missed approach procedure are activated automatically if the procedure is shown on the map.

27.6.6. Follow Selection¶

The map view will be centered - not zoomed in - on the selected airport or navaid when this function is enabled.

27.6.7. Move Selected Legs up or down¶

Move all selected flight plan legs up or down in the list. This works also if multiple legs are selected.

Airway names will be removed when waypoints in the flight plan are moved or deleted because the new flight plan legs will not follow any airway but rather use direct connections.

Procedures or procedure legs cannot be moved and waypoints cannot be moved into or across procedures.

27.6.8. Delete Selected Legs or Procedure¶

Delete all selected flight plan legs. Use Undo if you delete legs accidentally.

The whole procedure is deleted if the selected flight plan leg is a part of a procedure. Deleting a procedure deletes its transition too.

27.6.9. Edit Flight Plan Position or Edit Flight Plan Position Remarks¶

Allows to change the name or coordinates of an user-defined waypoint in the flight plan. See Edit Flight Plan Position.

Also allows to add a remark to any flight plan waypoint which is not an alternate and not a part of a procedure. See Edit Flight Plan Remarks.

27.6.10. Insert Flight Plan before¶

Inserts a flight plan before the selected leg into the current plan.

Using Insert Flight Plan before or Append Flight Plan allows to load or merge complete flight plans or flight plan snippets into a new plan.

Procedures are inserted from the loaded flight plan and dropped from the current one depending on insert position.

If you insert a flight plan after departure all procedures from the loaded plan are used and current procedures are kept.

Inserting before departure takes the departure procedures from the loaded flight plan and drops the current departure procedures.

The inserted legs are selected after loading the flight plan.

27.6.11. Append Flight Plan¶

Adds departure, destination and all waypoints of another flight plan to the end of the current plan.

All currently selected arrival procedures will be removed when appending a flight plan. Arrival and approach procedures from the appended flight plan are added to the current one, if any.

The appended legs are selected after loading the flight plan.

27.6.12. Save selected range as Flight Plan¶

Extracts a part of the current flight plan and saves a new flight plan file which contains all legs between the first and last selected including.

The currently loaded flight plan is not changed.

This menu item is disabled if the selected range contains legs which are alternates or part of a procedure.

27.6.13. Calculate Flight Plan for selected Range¶

Opens the flight plan calculation dock window which allows to automatically generate a flight plan by various criteria between the first and last selected flight plan leg.

This menu item is disabled if the selected range contains legs which are alternates or part of a procedure.

See chapter Flight Plan Route Calculation for more information.

27.6.14. Add Range Rings¶

Same as Context Menu Map.

Note that the menu item is disabled if range rings are hidden on the map (menu View -> User Features). The menu item is suffixed with the text hidden on map if this is the case.

27.6.15. Add Navaid Range Ring¶

Show the range rings for all selected radio navaids in the flight plan. Simply select all legs of the flight plan and use this function to display a range circle for each radio navaid in the flight plan.

Otherwise, the same as Context Menu Map.

Note that the menu item is disabled if range rings are hidden on the map (menu View -> User Features). The menu item is suffixed with the text hidden on map if this is the case.

27.6.16. Add Airport Traffic Pattern¶

Same as Add Traffic Pattern.

This menu item is enabled if clicked on an airport. Shows a dialog that allows to customize and display an airport traffic pattern on the map.

See Traffic Patterns.

Note that the menu item is disabled if traffic patterns are hidden on the map (menu View -> User Features). The menu item is suffixed with the text hidden on map if this is the case.

27.6.17. Add Holding¶

Same as Add Holding.

27.6.18. Copy¶

Copy the selected entries in CSV format to the clipboard. The CSV will include a header. This will reflect changes of the table view like column order.

27.6.19. Select All¶

Select all flight plan legs.

27.6.20. Clear Selection¶

Deselect all currently selected flight plan legs and remove any highlight circles from the map.

27.6.21. Reset View¶

Reset the column order, visibility and widths back to default.

27.6.22. Select visible Columns¶

See chapter Column Selection above.

27.6.23. Set Center for Distance Search¶

Same as Context Menu Map.

27.7. Flight Plan Remarks¶

Adds a free text remark for the flight plan.

Note that this field saved is saved only in the Little Navmap LNMPLN format (Little Navmap LNMPLN Format).