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

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.

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