When planning a VFR flight in a small plane, what is the proper way to plot a course from airport A to airport B?  Is it OK to simply fly direct?  If the route crosses into Class B or C airspace, would you typically want to avoid that in a small plane flying VFR?  If there is a victor airway roughly in the same direction of travel, do you intercept that and follow that in?
I am not a RL pilot, but am having alot of fun learning aviation through FSX.  In the RL however, what are the considerations you have to take in order to plot your course?

Titan_Bow wrote on Feb 10^th, 2010 at 3:47pm:


It gets a little more complicated in real life (charts, weather reports and forecasts, NOYAMs, PIREPs, TFRs,etc), but not very much... and you can use the same tools and information to fly VFR in the sim. 

Here's how I do it, step by step:

- First, check the weather beforehand. This could save you a lot of trouble. 
-Draw a line on the chart between A and B. A "great circle" route, such as the GPS would draw, is shortest.

-Measure the distance, determine how many gallons of fuel that would take assuming no wind, add a few gallons for ground ops and climbs, then decide if you need to stop somewhere for fuel between A and B.

-Make any necessary changes to your course line.


-Now decide what altitude you will cruise at. Basically, you want to fly as high as you can to increase the distance you can glide should the engine quit, but you must also consider winds, clouds,terrain, and airspaces. Can you fly over everything that's on that line? Will the clouds be a problem in doing so? What about the wind? will flying as high as you can put a serious headwind on your nose, diminishing your fuel range?
As for airspaces, terminal areas are not the only thing to worry about- there's MOAs, Alert areas, Prohibited and Restricted areas. If there are any Temporary Flight Restrictions in effect, you'd better know about them and adjust your course accordingly.

You can plan to transition terminal areas- even class Bs- but make sure you can afford to divert if they say "no."
Decide beforehand what detour you will take should you be denied a transition!!

-Next, you need to seriously consider having tpo make an an emergency landing along your route of flight. You may decide it's worth it to spend some extra time flying so you can avoid flying over large bodies of water or rugged, wooded, remote terrain. You might also want to stay closer to some highway, or even an airport that's near your course. Airports are very handy when you need to land, whether due to emergency or a change in the weather.
On long flights, I will often make a note at a waypoint showing heading and distance to the nearest suitable airport, in case I need it as an alternate.  This takes more time than pushing the "NRST" button on the GPS, but if you did it the night before your flight and mark it on the chart, it will actually be faster and easier to use than the GPS. 




-Now that you've tweaked your course line, selected a cruise altitude, and added any necessary fuel stops, you can start thinking about how you will actually do the navigation.
You might use GPS, you might use VORs and NDBs.... but if you're smart, even if you have GPS, you will make a nav log.
This is a simple chart that shows the distance between waypoints, and headings to get you from one to the other based on winds aloft, and the estimated time enroute and fuel burned based on winds. The distance between tham can vary, but on the average 20-30 nm apart, if possible, is good for keeping errors to a minimum. It's also a good idea to establish waypoints at the top of your climb to cruise altitude after takeoff and the top of your descent for landing.

As you pass each waypoint, you will note not only your position, but the time, so that you can keep updating your time and fuel estimates. The reason? The sky is not static. Things are often not as forecast or reported.
With this method, you will be OK even if the navaids and GPS fail you, because to fly from A to B you only need three things: a compass, a clock and a chart. That's it.

The waypoints should make sense- for VFR flying, they should be easy to identify visually. Sometimes it pays to offset your course a few miles so that you will not find yourself flying right over a waypoint. It's easy to get where by the time some landmark is within visual range, it's already under the nose. If it's off to one side, you can precisely note the time you passed it. and know precisely where you are relative to it.

You can also use VORs and NDBs to establish waypoints, without flying straight to them: where radials from two VORs intersect, or where a radial or an NDB bearing crosses a highway, river, etc. But if you are smart, you'll make sure there is something to see down there. Navaids are not for blindly following, they are for plotting position; for enhancing situational awareness.

Having the navaids just helps you confirm that it is East Felchmor you are looking at, not West Felchmor. 

Towns, roads, and small lakes can start looking the same after a while, so it's best to use all the tools together- pilotage (comparing what you see to what's on the chart), dead reckoning (judging position and time/fuel remaining based on heading and time between waypoints), and GPS or other navaids.  Also, in real life at least, if you are using Flight Following, ATC will have you on their radar, and they will be happy to tell you where you are if you ask.

Obviously, GPS renders a lot of this moot, but they do fail sometimes, and besides- using your brain to navigate gives you something to do on those long hauls. 

Regarding Victor airways: these can be very handy, since they allow you to "follow the beam" from VOR to VOR more often than not, and they are often found between airports, along roads, etc. But they are also more likely to have other aircraft flying along them, especially near VORS.


So there you have it... 

If you're interested in trying it the "real" way in FSX, first of all, do not use the flight planner tool. And leave the GPS off.


You don't really need to get a bunch of paper charts, plotter, etc... there are great, free flight planning tools online that allow you to reference real charts and get real weather info.

I like to write up my own navlogs, so usually I just use Runwayfinder (for flights within the continental US).  You can't create waypoints totally at random, but there are enough GPS fixes that you can sort of fake it. And runwayfinder shows you weather info, airport info, and distances between waypoints.

http://www.runwayfinder.com/

For winds aloft, as well as other weather info, try this site:

http://aviationweather.gov/

Just a note:  Most courses between light GA airports won't include an airway.. but of course (no pun intended), VOR navigation isn't limited to airways. You can usually pick a radial or two that'll get you efficiently from one airport to another.. your own, personal airways 

Thanks for the help guys.  I am learning alot, and it makes it alot of fun to hop these small rural airports VFR, without using the GPS.

You want to really wake up your VFR flight? Get thee to the nearest FBO, buy an E-6B flight computer and learn how to use it. (Takes all of half an hour.) They're pretty inexpensive (I was surprised at how cheap they've become - I got my first one from my Grandfather; a big steel 50's era monster with a guillotine-sharp slide. My new one feels like tin-foil) and having it's rapid-fire calculating at your fingertips really helps the realism, in my opinion. I always have a whiz-wheel when I fly. Always - so I always have one when I fly sim too. That and correct use of an air chart can really open up your flight-sim experience.

Travis wrote on Mar 24^th, 2010 at 1:55pm:


It can cure boredom in real cockpits, too- trust me! When you're holding the same heading for 3 hours at 7500 feet at 110 kts, it's about as exciting as being parked on the ramp. 

And combined with a normal, functional human brain, the E6B can do anything a GPS can do, only a little bit slower.

Very, very useful for flight planning, as well... that's what I use mine for, mostly.