Hailey's FlightPlanner

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How to Use FlightPlanner

Getting Started

1. On the Auto tab, enter departure and arrival ICAO codes (e.g. YSSY, KDFW, EGLL, RJTT). IATA codes (SYD, LHR) are converted when you leave the field.
2. Set EOBT (UTC) — the departure time, today in UTC (defaults to 15 minutes from now). It decides which winds, runways and time-limited route rules apply.
3. Click Calculate Route. The route appears on the 3D globe with the full route string, details and (with an aircraft) the operational flight plan.

A link with ?dep=EGLL&arr=KJFK opens the site and calculates that route straight away.

The status bar under the title shows Systems (map and data loaded) and the AIRAC navdata cycle: green while it is current, amber in its last 3 days, red once a newer cycle is in force. Hover over it for the validity dates and data sources.

How Routes Are Planned

Every route is calculated on the FlightPlanner route server. It plans the least-fuel route for the aircraft in the forecast winds, combining published airways with direct legs wherever the airspace allows them, and checks each leg against the regional rules below.

• Navdata — AIRAC cycle shown in the status bar (Navigraph X-Plane 12 data): 256,000+ waypoints, 82,000+ airway segments, SIDs and STARs for 3,100+ airports.
• Winds — NOAA GFS 0.5° forecast, wind and temperature at 13 levels (about FL235–FL530), taken at the time the aircraft reaches each point. A new forecast is loaded about 3½ hours after each 00/06/12/18Z run; the wind panel shows the cycle in use (e.g. GFS 10/00Z).
• Wind track — the engine first finds the fastest track through the winds, then builds the legal route along it. Long routes are also tried the other way round the globe and along the great circle; the cheapest result wins.
• Queue — while the server is busy the button shows your place in the queue and an estimate. A route asked for recently is answered instantly from the server's cache. If the server restarts mid-route (it does after weather updates) the request is sent again automatically; if it still can't answer you'll see “The route server did not answer” — just try again.

Regional Rules

• Oceans & remote areas — wind-optimal user-preferred routes (UPRs) with latitude/longitude waypoints: every 10° of longitude on east–west legs (20° beyond 70° latitude), every 5° of latitude on north–south legs, no more than 80 minutes apart. These are the points the engine actually flew.
• Landfall — from the last oceanic point the route goes direct to a fix or VOR at the coast (and, if needed, one short direct leg to join an airway), then airways to the arrival. The crossing point is chosen for the winds.
• North Atlantic — the day's NAT organised tracks (loaded hourly from the FAA) are offered for transatlantic flights and flown whole at their levels when they suit the wind.
• Pacific — no fixed PACOTS tracks; wind-optimal UPRs within the NOPAC corridor, Central East Pacific (Hawaii–California), Japanese Oceanic Transition Route and Oakland Oceanic boundary rules.
• Europe — Free Route Airspace above each region's floor, Eurocontrol RAD (level caps, point and airway restrictions, published directs, SID/STAR rules) and the UK/Ireland Standard Route Document for UK and Irish flights.
• USA & Canada — direct legs between named fixes and navaids (up to 400 NM, with a fix in each centre crossed), FAA preferred routes for listed city pairs and Canadian mandatory IFR routes.
• Australia & New Zealand — Australian UPRs under the OARP (gate routes at the major airports, terminal exclusion zones) — routes touching Australia are planned both with UPRs and on airways only, and the cheaper is kept; New Zealand UPRs in Auckland Oceanic, joining the domestic airways at published boundary fixes.
• Airways-only regions — China, Russian and Japanese domestic airspace and most continental FIRs use published airways only.

Runways & Procedures

Runways are picked automatically from the surface wind at the time: the departure at the EOBT, the arrival at the estimated arrival time — from the current METAR, or from the TAF further ahead. Only runways within a 5 kt tailwind and 20 kt crosswind (gusts included) are used, the main runways first, then the most headwind. In calm wind the main runway best aligned with the route is used.

The engine chooses the SID and STAR (with their transitions) that give the best route for that runway. Published SIDs are preferred over radar-vector departures; jets at US and Canadian airports get RNAV SIDs.

Route Options

Long route plans the long way round the globe.

Max latitude keeps the route below a given latitude (north or south).

Route via forces the route over the North or South Pole.

Avoid countries routes around the selected countries' airspace with a 50 NM margin. Ukraine, Iran, Israel, Russia, Iraq and Yemen are avoided automatically (listed as Auto-avoided) — except for flights to or from that country, Russia for departures from China and Iraq for Gulf airports. Countries far from the route don't affect it.

Avoid FIRs avoids individual Flight Information Regions.

Route through makes the route pass through the selected countries.

Antarctica sightseeing plans a scenic round trip over Antarctica from YSSY, YMML, YBBN, YPPH, YPAD or YPDN (calculated in your browser).

Aircraft & Performance

Choose an aircraft to see the full Operational Flight Plan. Five detailed profiles are built in:

ATR 72-600	Turboprop, FL250, 275 kt
A320neo	Narrowbody, FL370, M0.78
737-800	Narrowbody, FL370, M0.785
777-300ER	Widebody, FL350, M0.84
A350-900	Widebody, FL370, M0.85

The A320neo and A350-900 have the most detailed fuel models (cruise, climb, maximum level from weight and temperature). With no aircraft selected the route is planned for an A320neo up to 2,800 NM and an A350-900 beyond. Types marked (OpenAP) show their own figures in the flight plan, but the route itself is planned with that default aircraft.

Cost Index (kg/min) trades fuel for time: 0 = least fuel, higher = faster. Blank (AUTO) plans for least fuel.

Cruise FL — Auto (default) lets the engine pick the initial level from aircraft weight, temperature and winds; or choose a fixed level. Step climbs are planned automatically and appear in the flight plan and route string.

RVSM certified (on by default) allows FL290–FL410; turning it off restricts levels to FL280 and below or FL420 and above.

ETOPS — a rating is suggested automatically for the city pair (from the distance to suitable diversion airports along the way) and the engine plans with it unless you change the setting. The route then stays within diversion range of an airport at all times; the ETOPS Analysis panel shows the coverage. Very remote routes (e.g. over Antarctica) may go a longer way round to keep that coverage — set ETOPS to None to plan without it.

The fuel plan includes trip fuel, 5% contingency, alternate and 30-minute final reserve fuel, checked against tank capacity and weight limits. Routes far towards the poles are re-planned if the fuel would get too cold.

Results

The info panel shows the route string (click to copy; with an aircraft it includes speed/level groups for step climbs), distance against the great circle, SID and STAR with their runways, timezone crossings, and either the waypoint list with winds or, with an aircraft, the Operational Flight Plan: weights, fuel plan, re-dispatch analysis on long routes and a full navigation log.

Weather — METARs and TAFs for departure and arrival, and up to three scored alternate airports with their weather, distance and longest runway.

Custom Route Mode

On the Custom tab, paste a route string and click Plot Route:

KJFK DCT MERIT A590 YOSHI DCT RJTT

Airports (ICAO or IATA), airways, named fixes, DCT, SID/STAR names and coordinates (55N020W, 5530N02000W) are understood. Custom routes are plotted as entered, without winds; speed/level groups are not supported.

Globe Controls

Left drag / one finger	Rotate the globe
Right drag	Tilt the view
Scroll wheel / pinch	Zoom in and out
Click waypoint	Highlight it and show its name
Right-click	Add a via-point (when a route is shown)
Drag via-point	Move it; the route updates on release
Click via-point, Delete	Remove it

Via-points reshape the route in your browser as direct legs through the points (with coordinate waypoints); airways, SID and STAR are not kept. Calculate again to return to a planned route.

Map Layers

Flight Planning Mode (on by default) shows a clean map: country names, capitals, states, oceans, airports and borders. Turn it off to choose layers yourself:

• Labels — countries, cities, states/provinces, oceans and seas, mountains and landmarks
• Features — airports, country and state borders, rivers, geographic overlays, day/night
• Aviation — FIR boundaries, airways, SIGMETs and NAT tracks (SIGMETs and NAT tracks also work in Flight Planning Mode). SIGMETs are shown for information; routes are not planned around them.

Export

Download the flight plan in 8 formats:

.PLN	Microsoft Flight Simulator
.FMS	X-Plane 11/12
.JSON	Structured route data
.KML	Google Earth
.FLTPLAN	Navigraph
.GPX	GPS / mapping apps
.PDF	Printable OFP (aircraft required)
.TXT	ICAO flight plan, Doc 4444 (aircraft required)

For flight simulation use only. Not for real-world navigation.

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