Has FlightAware made it possible to download the nav log into Garmins or, in my case, VistaNavs like I can do from Golden Eagle?
In my tinkering with FA FP, I haven’t seen this option or any options for download except for approach plates, but I do have a question for you. Does the Nav log download into a Garmin 396 from Golden Eagle free version?
Only reason I don’t use Golden Eagle was it took soooo much computer horsepower to run (in older versions) so I never have tried the newer versions.
I can’t say if Golden Eagle free version will download into a Garmin but it does into VistNav without a problem. The newer Golden Eagle is pretty slick and doesn’t seem to take too much processor to run. It does take a little while to update every cycle but that isn’t too bad either.
Just may have to give it a whirl. I have been living and breathing Voyager free version, but this last upgrade from 3.0 to 4.0 has painstakingly slowed down the entire program and I do have adequate ponies to run it.
Seems that the all the flight planners I have used do take a bit of time to update during cycles, but considering the vast amount of information it holds, I am really quite happy waiting a few minutes for the updates to complete.
Thus my hoping Flight Aware really comes through with the intented upgrades to the online flight planner. I am all for web based products.
For my frequently used flights, or one leg flights or GPS direct flights, I just plain ole “DUATS” but for my IFR routings and such, I use the off line flight planners. With FA selecting previously used routes for me to consider, that will take a huge planning workload off my back.
I haven’t tried Voyager yet. I’ll have to look into it. I tend to take longer flights most of the time (500 - 700 nm) and use fltplan.com for the initial planning and then use Golden Eagle to download into VistaNav. It is a pain to use two programs but it has worked best so far. FA’s version works in a different way and seems like it will be very useful. On my test runs it has always chosen an altitude I find far lower than expected and I need to think about it awhile to see if I agree. FA also creates way more waypoints than I usually use and I don’t know why yet.
You specify the altitude range that you’re comfortable with based on temperature for comfort, oxygen, etc. FlightAware will plan for all those and suggest the fastest or least expensive one.
Also, on the navlog, we break out the airways and DPs/STARs to show every intersection that you’ll be flying. We also display the traditional route.
Interesting. Since my service ceiling is only 12500, I won’t find “that much difference” in my altitude selection. Most of my trips are 200NM or less and I fly usually between 6 and 9K.
I haven’t run FA through it’s paces on my longer XC’s to Ohio and Maryland, but since I generally go GPS direct or in the case of Maryland join the airways at MRB I probably won’t run into the problems you are encountering.
Fltplan.com is a great comparison point to Flight Aware, definitely something I will use when tinkering around here.
Right. I got that but I normally fly these routes in my Mooney Rocket in the upper teens if my dog is with me and the low 20s if he isn’t. FA has suggested FL080. Pretty big difference. I need to sit down and try to figure out why.
Make sure you’ve entered at least half a dozen altitudes in your performance data (you might need to delete and re-enter if not); if you neglected to enter the low altitudes, the flight planner will assume you get better performance than you might see at 080.
I didn’t know the number of data points made a difference so I only entered 3 - 12000, 18000, and 24000. I will have to redo it all and try again. I was hoping for a donor performance chart (an M20K or M20R) but didn’t know how to find it.
Enter a cruise performance at 2000 ft or so for more accurate results. We’re planning to alert users when the results may be misleading due to a lack of performance data.
If we have data for your aircraft it will appear at the bottom of the performance profiles page under “Shared Performance Profiles for type M20K.”
If you want us to enter the performance for your aircraft for you, just fax or email in the tables from the POH.