I agree fully with the last post. I cannot see the virtue of VNAV in VFR flying and even for IFR, my understanding is they use specific ariways etc so route planning as we know it in VFR is not what they do.

Re winds aloft, I agree its useful info ON THE DAY but useless (even misleading) at other times  .. so I usually get it from Metoffice or even from PFMS  .. so having it available in SD is useful as a guide. I do not want it to SLOW the planning process. I am sure we are not alone in separating planing from flying by at least 12 hrs and often far more  .. esp if you have many routes saved. Also when flying and if asked by ATC time to next waypoint you look at the screen not the plog.

PFMS has winds aloft (and gives the option to use them or not and whether to apply to each leg separately or not)  .. even when I was using it a fair bit, I never used the feature when planning except to see expected values at 2000, 5000 feet etc.

May I suggest that the greatest priority for SD right now is to increase the map detail/accuracy substantially. Bagby is still shown as a microlight site but has an ICAO code and a proper plate. I was looking at planning a trip to SE Ireland where it looks like there are virtually no GA/Sporting airfields. But looking at Navbox there are lots of them  .. with PPR TelNos and whether they sell fuel. For the majority of SD users (VFR) I suspect these are far more useful than extra bells and whistles only useful to a few top end users.

D

Hi Tim,



There's two reasons really:



1) For me, The whole point of SkyDemon/GPS navigation is to remove the requirement for the wind drift calculations based on forecasts. The GPS allows mostly error free navigation even when not flying at the planned altitudes. Of course winds aloft are required before setting off to estimate arrival times and ensure sufficient fuel, and also chart marking just in case a reversion to traditional is required. I'll plan a week or so in advance, load up the GPS then on the morning of the flight double check the met forecast and make a worst case check of my fuel plan. I.e. With my 80kt cruise, 20kts upper wind will (worst case) reduce my ground speed to 60kts, If the whole flight was at 60kts, would I have enough fuel?



2) I spend miserable winter nights whilst the aircraft is away for it's annual to plan what to do and where to go when the weather improves. Knowing I can make it in double quick time due to current the 40kts at 4000ft, but won't make it back without a fuel stop is not really useful information. All I'm looking for is a still air time of 2h 30m or less.



Simply being able to toggle the plan between still air and calculated would be great.



It's the same really with the Vnav stuff. The previous versions of SkyDemon had an excellent, unrivalled simplicity for the type of VFR planning I do. With the beta/preview I get the feeling I'm having to work against the software somewhat. I understand others may find these new features useful, but all I need from a (VFR) planner is the line on the chart for the GPS to follow, and an indication how high and how low I can fly, that's why when SkyDemon was launched I thought it was ideal.



I'm very conservative when it comes to cross country weather, but even so I've never managed to complete a whole flight without deviating from the planned levels due to clouds, hence I'm slightly sceptical about the requirement for vertical profile guidance in a VFR product.



Now, if I had an instument tourer with oxygen the Top of Descent point may be useful, but really from "PPL VFR" altitudes I just ballpark it.



Regards

--Graeme

G-AHAU, Andreas, Isle of Man

Loaded the new Beta, and it looks good - especially with Rivers etc. However on loading a route, I get the warning that Wind Data is not available for the complete journey.



Where can I amend/set the wind fro the whole trip? I know I can on a per leg basis, but that is hard work, and not easy to update.



As others have said, the Print Centre looks good. Just need to play with margins etc to get one that fits my kneeboard.



On a related note, the ability to import or export an aircraft file seems to have gone - with the greater complexity, this would seem useful when people start posting new definitions



--

Chris

Can you explain your reasoning, please? There has never been a way to "turn off" wind calculations, though you could leave the wind set at 000/00. Note that the PLOG output does have a setting whereby any wind calculations can be omitted.

We'll certainly provide an option to make it easier to set the wind for all legs to some value (for example zero) if it becomes clear people want this, but we do need to understand it.

Is there a quick way to disable winds aloft in the plan? I know on the leg options I can specify it manually, but I'd like to be able to turn off auto wind calculation globally.



--Graeme

G-AHAU, Andreas, Isle of Man