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Back to Basic Flight Planner
Tutorial revision date: 1 Jun 06
Welcome to the Trip Planning tutorial. In this tutorial we will take you through an entire trip planning process spending time along the way to explore various capabilities of the AeroPlanner web-based flight planning system. While written for new members, we think that even experienced members may find new information and better ways to maximize the benefit received while minimizing the time investment. This tutorial is not a fast trip through the site. If you follow each step and example, you may invest well over an hour of time. But like many aviation skills, spending time on the basics here can make long-term application quite easy -like mastering climbing turns before practicing chandelles. After crawling through this detail one time you should be able to plan a similar flight in just a few minutes. The tutorial approaches the planning process with the assumption that you have a general idea of where you want to go but may not be totally familiar with all of the route particulars. This will be in detail, so we suggest that (a) you print this tutorial for ease in reference (use your browser's print function), and (b) get a cup of your favorite beverage while the printer is running and then hunker down for some quiet time (hopefully) having fun while learning how to use the most powerful flight planning system available today. One last thought before we head off on this "trip" - when you take a break during trip planning where you are working on the Enter Route Points page (the planning page), the system may give you a message along the lines that it has "forgotten" your route. Not true. If you will just click on Update, all of your previously created route information will be refreshed and presented. Step 1. Go to the Flight Planning Section. Go to the home page and click on Flight Planning, then the Basic Flight Planner button. It should come up with a column of text boxes on the left and a planning chart with current FAA aeronautical data (airports, navaids, airways, and airspace boundaries) on the right. The pre-populated aircraft performance data is stored on the system for my particular "default" airplane. We will change these numbers in Step 2 to reflect the data for our rental airplane on this trip. 
Step 2. Enter Altitude, Speed, and Fuel consumption. All of these are actually optional. We ask for altitude only so we can calculate the winds aloft at the altitude you enter. If you enter speed and fuel we can include that information in the navigation log that will follow below the chart. The navigation log won't appear until you have entered at least one leg, or one departure and destination point. Calculating winds is optional too. Check the box if you want your headings to reflect current winds aloft. The winds are forecast by the weather service in 6hr, 12hr, and 24hr chunks. If you are flying in the next 6 hours, this calculation is for you. If not, save your route, and load it 6 hours again before your flight for the current calculations. In a later step, we will talk about transferring it to the weather plot. For this tutorial, assume an altitude of 7000 ft. Enter "70" in the altitude box (the system adds 00s after it automatically), a speed of 120 kts, and a fuel burn of 7 per hour. Is that pounds or gallons? It doesn't matter. The "Tab" key will advance you quickly through the various input boxes. Step 3. Enter Departure Point. Key in TOA or KTOA (entries are not case-sensitive) and press the update button or Enter key. If you aren't sure of the identifier, and you kind of remember the name, like... I think it's called "Zamper something or another". Then try zam. The pulldown box will come back with a list of choices and will say "pick one" like this:
Step 4. Enter Destination Point
Click on the 3V5 link and it takes you to the airport information page (Airport Directory) that includes information on runways, air traffic control frequencies, Fixed Base Operators, etc. There is even the phone number of the airport manager in case we have any special questions. After exploring the Airport Directory information about Fort Collins Downtown airport, we still need to deal with some fine points regarding our arrival in the Fort Collins area: the TFR. Use your browsers "back arrow" function as needed to return to the planning chart screen. Depending on how fast you progress through this tutorial (and how many coffee breaks you squeeze in) you may hit a "Page not available" message. AeroPlanner does have some built-in time out rules to keep things moving along. If you get this message, click on your browser's Refresh button or the Update button on the planning page. Hopefully, you are now back with the Planning Chart shown along with your flight line drawn. If you do not see a TFR (green circle) near 3V5 (be sure the "Labels" check box below the chart has a check mark so you can see the "3V5" label), be sure the check boxes at the bottom of the chart window have been checked, and also click on REDRAW (lower left corner of chart window) to refresh the FAA data. If the TFR still does not show, then as mentioned previously, it may no longer exist. Dealing with the TFR. Scroll down the page below the chart to see the link for the Colorado State University Stadium TFR. Clicking on this link will give the details about the TFR and then you can decide if it is a factor or not, and plan your route accordingly. Let's assume it's not a factor for the day of our flight and press on. Close this information box by clicking on the X (upper right hand corner). Now enter 3V5 (again, not case-sensitive) into the box that says Fort Collins. We are editing this box and replacing the city with an airport. DON'T forget to change the pulldown option back to airport. Then press the update button. Now you are plotting your course to the airport. Your defined points list should look like this: 
Step 5. The Leg Table. Since we have now defined a beginning and an end to our trip, the system has calculated a "Leg Table" that is displayed just below the Planning Chart. Although the Leg Table can be printed and used in-flight, its main purpose here is to provide easy-to-see information about the trip to guide us in fleshing out the actual navigation flight log. 
Special things to see right now:
Step 6. The Planning Chart Window (a familiarization side-trip from our planning). Before continuing on our actual flight planning let's take a break and explore the function of the Planning Chart window in greater detail. Once we understand what all can be accomplished here it will make our actual flight planning go rather quickly. First, be sure your chart window and associated data looks like this: 
The course line color is a standard one and has no bearing on the color that is used on the printed charts. The chart is constructed electronically using FAA data that is updated every 28 days. Notice the REDRAW button at the lower left corner of the Planning Chart. Depending on which options you may want to change, you might need to click on REDRAW for the system to refresh the presentation. Click (de-select) the Nuclear TFR box on the far right. Nothing changed? Click on REDRAW. Now we know what all those yellow symbols mean. Click (de-select) Stadiums TFR (and REDRAW, of course) and notice that some, or all of the tiny green circles will disappear. Click (de-select) TFRs (and REDRAW, of course) and if any Temporary Flight Restriction airspace has been established within our portion of the Planning Chart, those areas (depicted in red) will also disappear. The toned-down red names (Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Francisco, etc.) you will recognize as names of the NACO Sectional charts along with the respective chart boundaries (also shown in red). The large black + (plus sign) is the center point of the Planning Chart and will typically not fall on a course line. Note the slight difference here between the location of the plus sign and our course line connecting TOA with 3V5. To show this more clearly, add a 3rd airport point SEA (Seattle). It's rather obvious now that the plus sign is not associated with the route and merely shows the center of the chart viewed. This is an important distinction to remember when we zoom in on something. If we selected one of the zoom levels (right side of the Planning Chart) now, we would be zooming in on airspace not associated with the flight. Try it. Now we're looking at airspace somewhere out in the boonies and our trip seems to be "gone." The course line might be out of sight both to the north and to the south. Let's delete the Seattle point (highlight the airport name and then Backspace followed by Update) so we return the planning view to show just TOA and 3V5. Click on REDRAW if needed. (Note: using the "Delete" key instead of backspace may require you actually use "Shift+Delete" to get the same effect as using just the Backspace key.) The underlined city names and associated symbols are provided by MapInfo according to a rule set that is beyond our interest and is provided to give a rough sense of "where you are" on the big chart. These are not weather stations or radar sites. Now let's take another look at the zoom level buttons on the right side of the Planning Chart. Since we have selected the "Show Entire Route" option, the scale (zoom level) of the chart is set to cover a long distance, thus, not a lot of detail is given. To see how this changes with different length routes, replace (highlight and type over) the Zamberini (TOA) Airport in the points list with the word "Gunnison." Update. From the pull-down list, select the Gunnison Crested Butte Regional airport. We now have a trip defined as from Gunnison to Fort Collins. Note that with the very short route now defined, that the zoom level (scale) has been increased and aeronautical detail is being provided, such as controlled airspace boundaries (blue), and Military Operation Areas (MOAs) in brown. Notice also that one of the zoom level buttons is lighter in color, thus showing you where on the scale the level is right now. Click a zoom level button that's farther down (towards the magnifying glass icon) and notice how the amount of detail increases. So far, all of this discussion has covered the "Vector" portrayal (see the radio buttons at the bottom of the Planning Chart). Click now on the radio button for "Terrain." Notice how the presentation changes to show elevations by different colors along with a scale/legend to give meaning. Notice also that the list of features you can select has increased greatly now. You can turn those TFRs back on now that we had turned off earlier. Experiment with turning some of the items off and on, changing zoom levels, etc. The options that are actually available will vary with the zoom level selected. Use REDRAW as needed to refresh the presentation when you change options. Now click on the radio button for "Sectional" portrayal. Did the presentation go back to the Planning Chart? If so, then it's because the option to "Show Entire Route" still has a checkmark. Since the system can't show the entire route within the space permitted on a Sectional, the system reverts to the Planning Chart where it can show the entire route. De-select "Show Entire Route." Now select "Sectional." Experiment with different zoom levels. The Sectional is a scanned version of the current NACO chart with only a minimum of system-provided information overlaid on the chart image. Now select the "WAC" option. The presentation is similar to the Sectional. Try the option for "TAC." Notice how the display reverts to the Planning Chart format. Why? Because Fort Collins is far enough away from the Denver TAC (Terminal Area Chart) that there is no TAC coverage of Fort Collins, i.e., we are "off the chart." You can see the Denver TAC by scrolling towards the south (just point at the lower part of the chart window and click several times. You'll eventually "scroll" on to the Denver TAC. Also, try the GNC (Global Navigation Chart) option. Now, let's go back to a common point, before we branched off doing some explorations. Select the Vector map, and "Show Entire Route." Our screen should now look like this: 
Step 7. Editing your route. First we'll restore our navigation points as they were before we took the side-trip to learn about the Planning Chart: Replace the Gunnison airport information with TOA (click in the box and drag left to right, to highlight all of the Gunnison information; then just overtype with TOA). At this point, most pilots will stop and give thought to what type of navigation is wanted. Some possibilities:
From the Planning Chart, click on the button for Sectional. Nothing happened? If not, it's because we forgot to de-select the Show Entire Route button. Think about that for just a moment. If it could have changed to a Sectional chart presentation showing the entire route, would we be able to read any of the chart detail? Of course, the answer is "no" which is why the system does not change until you decide that seeing the entire route is no longer needed. De-select the Show Entire Route option. Then click on Sectional. The chart should now be showing the Sectional format. If the chart is not "zoomed in" and centered on the right location, you can quickly center it on any point by clicking on the green icon just above the name of the desired navigation point in the points list. Click the green icon just above the TOA navigation point now. 
Be sure the chart is centered on Zamperini Fld, our point of departure. Initially we plan to stay low, avoid the overlying controlled airspace, and do basically a "follow our nose" departure path, with a little electronic navigation backup to help deal with the possibility of reduced visibility. Let's change our chart type from Sectional to TAC (Terminal Area Chart, 1:250,000 scale) for improved detail. For point #2, replace Fort Collins with CPM, change the point type to Navaid, the hit either Enter or Update. We have now added the NDB at Compton Woodley Airport as a checkpoint. But, we've also just redefined our trip as only going as far as Compton. Go down to the last point type box and enter 3V5 to put Fort Collins back in our flight plan. Scroll the TAC chart view in the direction of flight: point to and click on the route line where it departs the chart viewing area at the northeast corner. Ok, we see what's to the northeast, let's go back and center the chart again on CPM. (Note: be sure labels are turned on) Due to that slice of very low Class B airspace (from 2,000 MSL up), we decide to continue staying low and do a little bend to the east to avoid that low controlled area and the DOWNE intersection. Point to and click east northeast of CPM where I-105 goes straight east and off the chart. We are now nearly centered between two Interstate highways pointed in our general direction (northeast). To anchor this as a navigation (and turning point), point to the 3rd item on the points list (just below CPM) and change the type of point to Use Map. Now point to and click on exactly where you want to make that turn (midway between the two Interstates is fine). After a short pause, the software will display the standard --PICK ONE-response. Click on that pull-down and select the type you want to see in your printed navigation log. If you have RNAV equipment, then SLI326009 (the Seal Beach 326 degree radial at 9 miles) is a good choice. If you do not have RNAV, the RNAV is still a good choice provided your standard VOR receiver and DME are working. Otherwise, select the latitude/longitude option. For the purpose of the tutorial, select the RNAV SLI option. Our Route Points are now: TOA CPM SLI326009 Blank Blank 3V5 At the far northeast corner of the TAC display window, click on the course line. From the controlled airspace information displayed, looks like we might want to continue to stay low. We see a compass rose partially in view at the northeast corner. Click where our course line departs the chart. From the chart detail we see the navaid is the Pomona VORTAC. To use that as a navigation point, go to the Route Points listing for the next blank point, change the type to Navaid and enter the POM ident. Looking to the northeast to see where our route will take us (remember, it goes direct to Fort Collins right now) we see the next major item being tall mountains. The Victor airway that departs POM on the 033 degree radial heads right over some tall peaks. Since we're still low, that's a lot of climbing in a short distance, so maybe we prefer to parallel the foothills flying east for a bit while climbing. If there are any big down-slope winds that will be fun, but at least we'll be over the "low country" if weather conditions are not good. Click on the far northeast corner of the chart again (on the course line at the base of the hills) to center the chart just above "San" in the San Antonio Heights label to create our next route point. Oops. We don't have any Route Point boxes not being used. No problem. Click on the More Pts button several times. Notice the system will add more points at the tail end of the route. Fort Collins Airport is now in the wrong place, but we can deal with that later. To create the route point at the base of the hills, change the route point type from Airport to Use Map. Again, click on the route line exactly where you want the point. Select the latitude/longitude option. Ok, we lost Fort Collins again. Go down to the last Route Point box and re-enter 3V5. Scroll the chart to the east (point to and click). See the prominent landmark where two highways come together in an upside down Y. That would be a good route point to fly to while climbing, before we head off on our trip at the higher cruise altitude. In the Route Points list, change the next point type to Use Map, then point to and click on the Y. Select the latitude/longitude option. From this point on, we can switch to the Sectional chart presentation since we're about off the TAC chart coverage anyhow. What has all this zig-zagging cost in terms of time and fuel? Scroll below the planning chart window and see the navigation leg table that has been created as we have added points. At the very bottom of the leg table in the grey text area is a great circle distance value. Compare that with the "DIST Total" value shown in the leg table. The difference between the two is quite small and is a small price to pay for having control over our route of flight. Right now, the leg table distances are correct, but the times are not. We have still not factored in the winds aloft. That will come later after we decide on a flight altitude. (Note: the Basic Planner does restrict us to only one flight altitude and winds aloft calculation. At the premium membership level, the planner allows different altitudes and system-generated winds for each leg, minimum enroute altitudes are calculated, terrain profiles are provided, etc.) Remember, we are learning how to add different type of Route Points, so with that in mind; one of our favorite uncles, a former military pilot, made us promise to buzz his house (at a safe and legal altitude, of course) the next time we were in the "high desert" area. We're not sure where his town is on the map, but we know he lives in Lucerne Valley. His ranch on the outskirts of town will be easy to spot because he has an old fire engine parked by the barn. To find his town, change the next Route Point type to City,ST. Then, enter: lucerne valley,ca and hit Enter. Notice the new point created right at his town. Click once more at the northeast corner of the chart to move it along our route. It looks like our route passes fairly close to the Hector navaid, so let's bend over a bit to use it for a solid route point. To do that, change the next route type to Navaid and enter hector. Re-center the chart on Hector (the green icon). Now, let's take another look at the entire route to see how we are doing with regard to restricted airspace that may be ahead of us. Click on the Show Entire Route option and then zoom in 2 levels. We see that our planned flight is clear of the brown restricted or MOA airspace. Pan along the route of flight until we see the destination (3V5) and it looks like we'll basically not be concerned with military operations. From flying in this area years ago we remember a nice airport by the name of Colorado City that might be a good half-way stop. Make that one your next route point. Also be sure that Fort Collins is still the last point. Now, verify the distance in the navigation leg table as being slightly less than half way to Fort Collins. Ok, the distance part looks ok, but how are the facilities? This next step will take us deep in to the Airport Directory. Airport Directory We will use the navigation points listing to access the Airport Directory. Look now at our listing of points. Note the colored icons. Some of the route points have a blue icon for "Information" (the icon farthest to the right with the white letter in the middle. Click on the one for Colorado City Muni and see that the planner now takes us to the Airport Directory view. From the Airport Directory we can open each of the tabs that are of interest, including the FBO tab. To return to the planner, use the browser's back arrow function. If you click on the Flight Planner link, you will lose your data and be presented with a fresh start. Let's "back arrow" to the planner. Back at the Flight Planner At this point, we could just delete Fort Collins as the destination and print what remains as a TripTick for the first part of the flight. Since we will be refueling, the advantage to doing this is that we re-set the fuel burn part of the leg table back to zero for the rest of the trip. Or, just leave it as is, and continue to insert points as needed (always pushing Fort Collins down the list). Use your discretion. There are other types of points that we could add, but the ones we have used are the most common. For the sake of this exercise, let's delete Fort Collins and consider our trip as ending at Colorado City. To delete Fort Collins, just highlight the name in the Route Points box and hit Backspace. Step 8. Saving your route. By this time, we've built a fairly long route and may want to save it for future use (or, if we simply forget the use the Back Arrow when needed and lose our route). To save the route, scroll down on the planning page to the Stored Routes box. 
Enter TOA to AZC or a route name of your choice (spaces ok). If you want other site members to be able to access your route, leave the check mark in the "Publish Route" box, otherwise, de-select the check mark. Then click on the bottom Apply button to save the route. In the future, to recall the route, just click on the pull-down blue check in the LOAD window, select the route by name, and then click on the Apply button. Route deletions are handled in a similar manner. Changes to a route are handled quite easily. First, load the desired route. Make changes as needed in the Route Points area. Save the route using the same name and it will overwrite the old route with new data. Step 9. Checking the weather. Normally your flight planning would start with checking the weather overall for the trip by using the weather links provided as a separate pull-down menu. 
But, we can also check the weather while working with the individual points on the route list.
Step 10. Printing a TripTick for your route. When you are ready to "go to press" with the information for your trip, you have reached the point with AeroPlanner where your print capability will vary according to your level of membership. So far, this tutorial has assumed you are a registered "Basic" member (hence we have used the Basic Flight Planner, otherwise we would have used the Pro Flight Planner). The "print capability" differences are shown here: Basic Members can print (at no charge):
This tutorial has covered a lot of ground, yet we have only scratched the surface of what is available on the web site. Hopefully this will give the reader a good start in understanding AeroPlanner.com, while encouraging further exploration and discovery. The site is under continuous revision, so a few of the items described here may differ slightly by the time you, the new user, log on. Your input and feedback comments are always welcome, including comments on whether this tutorial was of value to you. Click here to share your thoughts with us. For additional and specific help, look for the "question mark" blue help icons throughout the site. See also the Premium User's Guide that is available for download on the Home Page. That guide is written to the higher membership level and is currently under revision to bring it up-to-speed. Happy flying, The AeroPlanner Team |
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| Never substitute AeroPlanner.com for an official flight briefing or filing a flight plan with your local Flight Service Station. |
Now you have a list of all of the airports (in the world) that have "ZAM" in their name. From here you realize that it's
Zamperini Fld and pick it. We assumed that you are taking off from an airport (I think most of us do), but there are other
options on the pulldown box, such as Airport, City/St, Fix/Wpt, Lat/Lon, Navaid, and Use Map, etc. So for our next several
points we will choose different types of points and give examples of each. If you've been flying the route for some
time, chances are you know the airport identifiers and fix or navaid names. In that case you can just key them all in to the
boxes in sequence and then press update button or Enter key one time - no need to keep doing it. But if you are unsure and
have to use city names, etc... it's best to do it one at a time. Also note that if you have more than 5 points, then press
the more points button a few times to add some more destination points.
use AeroPlanner for that. I do know that we want to fly to Ft. Collins, but I'm not even sure about the airports in the
area there. I'll have to do a little research. So, the first thing I'll do is key in fort collins, co in
the next box down. I hit update. Unfortunately it returns nasty red letters that says "No Matches"
I know that's not right. I'm pretty sure Fort Collins exists. Ah! It's not an airport, it's a city! So I
switch the "data type" box to "City/ST.", update, and now it finds it. Except I don't want to land downtown, I want to check out the airports
in the area and find a good one. So, what I do is click on the 
chart icon next to Fort Collins to bring up the Sectional chart for
the area.
The Sectional chart is a copy of the current FAA (NACO) Denver Sectional with additional aeronautical information overlaid by
AeroPlanner. The green line coming in the picture from the southwest is the system-generated course (flight) line from our
starting point in California to the City of Ft. Collins. The large green circle depicts a TFR (Temporary Flying Restriction)
area, again, system-generated, from current FAA data. (Note: in your "live" follow-through on this tutorial, the TFR may no longer
exist or there may be new ones. In this printed tutorial we see the airspace as it was in May, 2006.) We may have to deal with
the TFR in our flight planning, but for now, press on with learning some of the finer points about working with charts as viewed
in AeroPlanner.
From our Route Points listing, we can click on the blue "windsock" (Local Weather, 2nd one from the left) icon for each part
of our trip, to get the weather around that particular location.
