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Tuesday September 7th, 2010 07:04:30 UTC
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Enflight Help System
Welcome to the complete Enflight Help page!
This is all of our help documentation consolidated in one place. Normally, when one is using the system, the help menu button takes you to the section related to what you are currently doing.
Table of Contents
Flight Planner Quick Start
The Enflight.com flight planning system is very easy to use:
The remainder of this page is the complete reference manual that fully describes the operation of the flight planner. You can print it out for your reference. If you have questions, please re-visit this page, as its content is improved and updated periodically.
Flight Planner Table of Contents
The Enflight.com flight planning system is a powerful, optimizing route planning system which is designed to be very easy and quick for a pilot to use. It is not a graphical planner in which the pilot must manually work out a desirable routing and then either type the routing in by hand or mouse and click to enter the route - it's designed so that a pilot simply states "take me from X to Y," and the system produces a good flight plan which can be printed and flown.
The flight planner supports several automatic routing options, as well as choices of output formats. Detailed information on flight planner inputs, including using the various routing options, is given in the flight planner input documentation section below. The flight planner's output, including detailed information on each of the four available output formats and individual fields within each format is given in the flight planner output formats section.
In order to use the flight planner, you must store one or more aircraft profiles. These profiles define the performance characteristics of your aircraft. Naturally, the time and fuel calculations performed by the flight planner are based on this data, so the output of the flight planner is only as accurate as your input!
There are four types of profile information stored by the flight planner:
Flight planner profile information may be accessed from the Profile menu entry on the main page or when within the flight planning section of Enflight. (If you're in another section of the Enflight system, the Profile menu entry will take you to any profile information that is associated with that section of the system.)
The Enflight system can store any number of personal routes of flight that you create and want to save for future use. Each route is associated with a fixed departure point and destination - personal routes for a given departure/destination pair are shown under "My routes" on the Route Selection page. If you have not yet defined any personal routes between a given departure/destination pair, the Route Selection page will show None in the space reserved for personal routes.
To create a personal route, click on "Plan Route" in the "Flight Planning" section. Enter your departure and destination points, and a cruise altitude. For "Routing method" use "Display available routes", "User-specified route wizard", or "User-specified route (text entry)". Then click "Plan Flight".
If you chose "Display available routes", you'll see a list of flight routes that the system automatically determines and any existing personal routes that have been stored by you. Click on "Enter a user-defined route" to enter a new personal route.
When you're on the "Enter Route of Flight" page, you can enter a route of flight as described in User-Selected Route Specification below. When you're done entering the route, click "Add this route to My Routes". The route will be validated, and the system will return you to the "Enter Route of Flight" page where you will see your new route listed. Or, if you'd like assistance in creating your route, click on "Use the Route Wizard".
The Route Wizard is a simplified interface that allows you to enter your own routing from one location to another. When you're done entering the route using the Wizard, click "Add this route to My Routes". The route will be validated, and the system will return you to the "Enter Route of Flight" page where you will see your new route listed.
Personal routes may either be complete routings between the departure and destination, including specific navigation aids, waypoints, and airway designations, or "prototype" routes that the flight planning system can expand into a complete routing when the personal route is accessed. Since airways and navigation aids change over time, we recommend that if at all possible you use "prototype" routes.
An example of a fully-specified route of flight from RHV to OGD would be:
SUNOL SAC090009 MCC090008 AUDIO BLU TRUCK V200 FMG V6 OGD
The same route of flight could be specified as a "route prototype" as follows:
*G SUNOL *G AUDIO *G BLU *G TRUCK *A
The "*G" element requests a GPS-direct routing between the points just before and after the "*G". The "*A" requests low-altitude airway routing between TRUCK intersection and the destination airport, OGD. Notice that if a change were to be made to V6 or V200, the fully-specified route might become invalid; the "route prototype" would automatically adjust itself to new airway designations.
Route prototypes can be input directly using the notation shown above and described in User-Selected Route Specification below, or it can be entered using the Routing Wizard.
You can only enter route prototypes using the Route Wizard. If you want to enter a fully-specified route, you must use the "Enter Route of Flight" page.
All routes that you create are stored in "My Routes". You can view the full list of routes that you've created by clicking on "Profile" while you are in the "Flight Planning" section of the web site. Each route is listed along with its departure and destination point. You can delete individual personal routes by clicking on the Delete button when you're on the Flight Planning Profile page.
The Enflight system stores two sets of profile information about aircraft: information pertaining to individual aircraft and information pertaining to an aircraft type. An individual aircraft is always associated with a particular aircraft type; an aircraft type may be associated with many individual aircraft. For example, if you have access to three Cessna 172R aircraft, you'd need one aircraft type profile for the C172R, and three individual aircraft profiles for N172AB, N172CD, and N172EF. If you fly only one aircraft, you'd have one aircraft type profile and one individual aircraft that refers to that aircraft type.
The individual aircraft profile contains information including the aircraft type, the color of the particular aircraft, the registration (tail) number of the aircraft, the aircraft's home base, weight and balance information specific to the aircraft, etc.
The aircraft type profile contains information that is common to all aircraft of a given type, including speed, fuel consumption, climb and descent performance information, etc. When you're utilizing aircraft profiles, please remember that similar aircraft may not have identical performance data, and you may need to input more than one aircraft type profile to accommodate these differences. For example, the performance of aircraft that appear to be similar, such as the 1962-63 Beechcraft Bonanza P35 and the 1964-65 Beechcraft Bonanza S35, can be quite different due to changes in engine configuration, etc.
You may define a number of aircraft types for use by the Enflight system. Each aircraft type stores performance characteristics and other information about a particular individual aircraft or about a group of similar aircraft (Cessna 172s with different registration numbers, for example). Because aircraft types are different from individual aircraft, you need enter this data only once for each similar group of aircraft.
Each aircraft type profile must specify a Profile Name which is different from any other type profiles which are saved by an individual pilot. Units must be selected for airspeed and fuel consumption. [Note: the current "preview" of Enflight only works in knots.]
Optionally, the pilot may include additional information that is used by different parts of the Enflight web site to enhance ease of use and to supply improved information for the pilot. The additional information includes:
Some of these fields will help you uniquely identify a performance profile - for example, a 1962 C172 does have different performance parameters from a 2002 C172. Other fields such as aircraft class, type of power, and flight classification are used by other parts of the Enflight system to supply you with better information.
Finally, the aircraft's flight performance characteristics are entered: climb, cruise, and descent information - airspeed, rate of climb or descent, and fuel consumption.
The FAA Aircraft Type is the four-character code which is used by Air Traffic Control facilities to identify the type of your aircraft. The Enflight system will utilize this aircraft type when filing a flight plan.
If you don't know the FAA 4-character type designator for your aircraft, click on "Search for FAA aircraft type". If you can't find the correct designation using the search function, please call your local flight service station and ask them for the proper code.
The FAA does make changes to these designations, so the designation for your aircraft may not be what you think it is. (For example, the Piper Cherokee family, formerly PA28, has now been split into a number of different codes, depending on performance - P28A, P28R, etc.)
Flight plans filed with incorrect or obsolete codes may not be accepted by the FAA. If you are unable to file a flight plan, you should re-check to see if the type designation for your aircraft has changed.
The Year, Manufacturer, Model Name, and Designation of aircraft are used to help you identify the specific kind of aircraft to which this profile applies. For example, your aircraft might be a 1978 Piper Arrow III (PA28-R201). The Year could be 1977-78 (since these are the same aircraft), the Manufacturer would be Piper, the Model Name would be Arrow III, and the Designation would be PA28-R201. Note that this Designation is different from the FAA Aircraft Type, which for this example is P28R. You may omit any one or all of these fields.
The Aircraft Class identifies the kind of aircraft:
The Aircraft Category reflects the certification type as defined by the FAA. It is one of Transport, Normal, Utility, Acrobatic, Experimental, Limited, Restricted, and Provisional. Most general aviation aircraft are Normal category; those that are certified for limited aerobatic maneuvers including spins are in the Utility category.
The Power Type lists the type of powerplant(s) with which the aircraft is equipped.
The Flight Classification refers to the size of the aircraft, and will be to determine preferred routing for certain IFR operations.
The Climb, Cruise, and Descent performance information is used by the flight planner to compute the vertical path, speed, time, and fuel consumption for your flight. It is designed to be relatively simple to enter, yet to give the pilot considerable flexibility in accurately modeling the performance of an aircraft.
For climb and descent performance, at a given altitude, you must enter the altitude, airspeed, the climb or descent rate, and the fuel consumption. For cruise performance, since the aircraft is in level flight, only the altitude, airspeed, and fuel consumption are required. At a given altitude and given phase of flight, you must enter all three or four fields or leave all of the fields blank.
If you fly your aircraft using different profiles - for example, long range, low power (55% power), standard cruise (65%), and high speed cruise (75%) - you should consider entering the type more than once. You should choose appropriate names for the variations, for example "Arrow III - 55%", "Arrow III - 65%", and "Arrow III - 75%".
The information for each phase of flight includes sea level performance of the aircraft plus one or more additional altitudes.
The simplest performance profile would be to specify a single average performance value for climb, cruise, and descent. These average values are most often for intermediate altitudes - for example, if you typically fly somewhere between sea level and 10,000 feet, you'd enter values for 5,000 feet.
When specifying average performance values to the Enflight flight planner, enter performance information for climb, cruise, and descent at sea level and leave all other altitudes blank. These average values will then be used at any altitude. Average performance values produce flight plans which are not as accurate as plans that are computed using altitude-specific performance data, but entering these 8 numbers (3 climb, 2 cruise, 3 descent) is very quick and simple.
Please remember, when you're entering performance data, accuracy in your data will produce accurate flight plans. If you enter optimistic data ("my Cessna 172 climbs at 1500 feet per minute and cruises at 150 knots"), you'll get inaccurate flight plans.
You'll get significantly greater accuracy if you specify performance data at three or more altitudes.
For non-turbocharged piston aircraft, entering data for only three altitudes generally achieves very accurate results. You should enter data for the following altitudes:
If you are flying a turbocharged aircraft, you can further improve accuracy by entering performance data at one additional altitude:
You may, of course, enter performance data at as many altitudes as you wish.
The flight planner performs linear interpolation of all performance values between the altitudes you specify. The flight planner does not extrapolate above the highest altitude for which you enter performance information. This means that if you enter data at more than one altitude, the flight planner will not plan flights above the highest altitude at which you enter performance information. For example, if you specify cruise and descent performance to 25,000 feet and climb performance to 12,000 feet, you will only be able to plan flights up to 12,000 feet.
You can enter performance information in any altitude order, and the system will sort it out correctly. If you decide to modify an aircraft profile and wish to enter information for an intermediate altitude, that data can be entered at the end. The system will sort it and display it in order next time you re-visit the profile.
Sample AircraftTo help understand what data you should assemble and input, here is sample data for a typical non-turbocharged single-engine aircraft, a 1978 Piper Arrow III.
| Climb Performance | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Altitude (100s of feet) |
Airspeed (knots) |
Fuel (gallons/hr) |
Rate (ft/min) |
| 0 | 90 | 15 | 800 |
| 180 | 78 | 8 | 1 |
Note that just two data points are specified - sea level and the airplane's absolute ceiling. The aircraft has zero climb at its absolute ceiling, but since you can't enter zero, 1 ft/min is close enough. The values for all intervening altitudes are computed using linear interpolation. Note also that although climb is specified to 18,000 feet, you won't be able to plan above 16,000 feet because the Cruise and Descent tables only go up to that altitude.
| Cruise Performance | ||
|---|---|---|
| Altitude (100s of feet) |
Speed (knots) |
Fuel (gallons/hr) |
| 0 | 124 | 10 |
| 95 | 137 | 10 |
| 130 | 131 | 9 |
| 160 | 123 | 8 |
The data shown is for a 65% power setting. The engine is able to deliver 65% power up to about 9,500 feet, at which point it is at full throttle. Above this altitude, performance diminishes.
| Descent Performance | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Altitude (100s of feet) |
Airspeed (knots) |
Fuel (gallons/hr) |
Rate (ft/min) |
| 0 | 134 | 10 | 500 |
| 95 | 147 | 10 | 500 |
| 130 | 141 | 9 | 500 |
| 160 | 133 | 8 | 500 |
In this case, descent performance is derived simply from cruise performance. The pilot elects to keep the airplane's throttle in, flying with cruise power settings, and to just "point the nose down." This results in an airspeed increase of about 10 knots with a 500 ft/min descent rate, and everything else remains the same.
Each individual aircraft profile includes the following information:
Three preference items may be selected using the Flight Planning Profile page, accessible from the main menu:
Caution: selecting "Yes" for "Include additional intersections" will increase the size of your flight log by a factor of two to four - you may find that it is too long for your taste.
The flight planner requires the following information in order to plan a flight:
Route data entered to the flight planner is case-insensitive: you can enter upper case, lower case, or mixed case characters with no effect on processing - for example, "RHV", "rhv", "Rhv", and "rHv" are equivalent; "*A" and "*a" are treated identically by the system.
A point in space may be specified as:
The flight planner supports the following routing options:
A user-selected route is specified as a series of fixes (VORs, airports, and/or waypoints). Each pair of fixes along the route may be connected by one of the following routing options:
Airport and navaid names are specified as three to five letters and digits. A waypoint may be specified as:
Latitude and longitude information is specified in the form "lat/lon" where either lat or lon may be:
For example, 37:19:59 121:49:07 could be specified with varying degrees of precision as as 37/122, 3720/12149, or 3719590/12149070.
Warning: when entering latitude or longitude information, be sure to use one of the forms above - entering a different number of digits could lead to extreme off-course errors - example: 12345 would be interpreted as 123 degrees 45 minutes rather than 12 degrees 34.5 minutes.
Within a user-specified route, whenever a fix name could be either an airport or a VOR name, the VOR is assumed. If you wish to specify the airport rather than the VOR, precede the identifier with the letter "K" - i.e., SJC is the VOR, KSJC is the airport. Within a route, climb and descent calculations are not performed for intermediate airports - they are simply used as fixes over which the flight will be planned.
There is considerable latitude when using user-selected routings. For example, if one was planning a trip from RHV (Reid-Hillview Airport, San Jose CA) to OSH (Oshkosh WI) and wished to preview a northerly route rather than the direct route, one could enter
*G BOI *A GGW *A INL *Aas a user-selected route, which would route via great-circle RNAV from RHV to Boise ID, then via Victor airways to Glasgow MT, airways to International Falls MN, and airways to Oshkosh.
The flight planner is designed to allow you to experiment with several routes before actually printing a final flight plan. Whenever the planner computes a route, you are shown the route of flight in an abbreviated form, followed by distance information.
If the distance for the shown route is substantially longer than the great-circle distance and you entered a user-specified route, that route should be carefully examined for an incorrect intersection name. For example, a flight plan from RHV (Reid- Hillview Airport in San Jose CA) to TRK (Truckee CA) in which the user-specified routing "*A TRUST" was specified would produce this output:
Routing options selected: Automatic low altitude airway.
Flight plan route:
RHV SUNOL V195 ECA V244 LAA V10 DDC V74 LIT V54 HLI V159
VUZ V18 TRUST KTRK
Total distance for this route is 3410.4 nm.
Great circle distance is 143.1 nm - this route is 2284% longer.
Clearly, this routing is much too long - TRUST intersection was specified instead of TRUCK intersection.
<-- @@@ NEEDS TO BE UPDATED FOR ENFLIGHT @@@-->If you wish to include DPs (Departure Procedures) and/or STARs (Standard Terminal Arrival Routes) in your flight plan, you may do so by clicking on the appropriate button. The flight planner will automatically determine the names of DPs, STARs, and nearby VORs for the selected departure and destination airports; from SFO to ORD, for example:
Departure Point: SFO
Airport KSFO: San Francisco CA
Destination: ORD
Airport KORD: Chicago IL (Chicago O'Hare Intl)
...
Enter route: %
Departure Procedures (DPs) from SJC:
ALTAM6.ALTAM ALTAM6.LIN* ALTAM6.SAC*
DANV1.DYBLO* DANV1.LIN* DANV1.RBL* DANV1.SAC*
LOUPE8.DYBLO* LOUPE8.LIN* LOUPE8.RBL* LOUPE8.SAC*
MOONY1.AVE* MOONY1.MOONY MOONY1.PXN
SJC7.AVE* SJC7.MOONY SJC7.PXN
SUNOL3.ECA* SUNOL3.SAC* SUNOL3.SUNOL
VORs near SJC: SJC ECA* MOD SFO OSI OAK* PYE* SAC* LIN* SNS*
Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs) to ORD:
BAYLI.BDF1* BDF.BDF1* IRK.BDF1*
DBQ.JVL2* JVL.JVL2 MCW.JVL2*
BSV.OXI2 DJB.OXI2* FWA.OXI2* OKK.OXI2 OXI.OXI2 VWV.OXI2
FNT.PMM2* PMM.PMM2* SVM.PMM2* TVC.PMM2*
VORs near ORD: ORD CGT GSH* GIJ* JOT* DPA PMM* OBK* BVT*
BDF* BAE*
"*" indicates a transition that may be used to enter or
leave the Jet Route system. (Do not enter the "*" as part
of the procedure name)
You may include DPs (Departure Procedures) and/or STARs (Standard Terminal Arrival Routes) in a User Selected Routing, for example:
Enter route: LOUPE8.LIN *J DBL *J MCW.JVL4
that would depart San Jose using the Loupe Nine departure, Linden (LIN) transition, then automatically routed via jet airways to Red Table (DBL), by jet airways to Mason City (MCW), then via the Janesville Four arrival into O'Hare. The route produced by the planner would be:
KSJC LOUPE9 LIN J84 MVA J198 ILC J80 DBL J60 J10 OBH J84 DBQ KORD
The pilot can use the interactive nature of the flight planner to great advantage. Let us examine several possible routes that the planner could generate for a flight from RHV to TRK.
Selecting Low-Altitude Airway Auto-Routing or using the "*A" routing option for automatic low-altitude airways would produce the following routing:
KRHV SUNOL V195 ECA V113 LIN V338 SWR KTRK
Examining a sectional would show that the portion of this route that goes over the Sierra Nevada mountains takes a path over relatively hostile terrain. A better solution might be to fly to Sacramento and then to Truckee, which could be specified by the user-selected route "*A SAC *A". The result:
KRHV ALTAM V334 SAC V6 SWR KTRK
Unfortunately, this also travels over hostile terrain. Choosing a slightly different point along the route would cause the routing to go via airways that are very near to Interstate 80, which is a better choice in terms of safety. Specifying "*A SIGNA *A" would yield:
KRHV ALTAM V392 SIGNA KTRK
Comparing the distance of this route, 160.1 nautical miles (12% longer than a great circle, which is 143.1), to the first (*A) routing, which was 152.6 nautical miles (7% longer than great circle), would tell you that a more conservative route would add only 7.5 nautical miles to the trip.
Now let us examine a flight from RHV to STS (Santa Rosa, CA). Selecting Low-Altitude Airway Auto-Routing or utilizing the "*A" routing for automatic low-altitude airways would produce the following routing:
KRHV OAK V107 V87 SGD KSTS
The pilot might prefer to avoid the San Francisco Terminal Control Area, so a departure via the SUNOL intersection is requested using the user-specified route "SUNOL *A":
KRHV SUNOL V301 V87 SGD KSTS
Unfortunately, V301 goes from SUNOL to Oakland, so the pilot chooses to revise the routing request to "SUNOL *G SGD *A", which utilizes a great-circle (straight-line) routing from SUNOL to the Scaggs Island VOR (SGD):
KRHV SUNOL OAK030011 SGD KSTS
The pilot then realizes that the automatically-selected route from Scaggs Island VOR (SGD) to Santa Rosa airport is direct, and the pilot would prefer an airway to be shown for this portion of the route. "SUNOL *G SGD *A STS" produces:
KRHV SUNOL OAK030011 SGD V108 STS KSTS
The first example compares user-selected airway routings with automatically-selected airway routings:
Departure point: oak
Destination: dpa
User-Specified Route: oak v6 dpa
This specifies a flight from the Oakland Airport, which has an on-field VOR named OAK, to Chicago-DuPage Airport, which has an on-field VOR named DPA, via the airway V6. The flight plan route would be shown as:
KOAK OAK V6 DPA KDPA
Note that the user-specified route must include the VOR names at both ends of the flight, even though the airport and VOR names are identical. This is because the flight planner modifies the airport identifiers to begin with a "K" so it can distinguish airports from navigational aids.
Using the *A (airway) or *V (vor-direct) routing option for this example would produce a different and slightly shorter route than V6:
KOAK SALAD V244 HVE V8 JNC V134 DEN V8 IOW V6 DPA KDPA
The second example compares different kinds of direct routings:
Departure point: oak
Destination: dpa
User-Specified Route: direct
A direct (great-circle) flight from Oakland to DuPage is computed. The total time and distance for this flight are the same as the great-circle path, so a comparison at the end of the plan with a great circle route is not given. No intermediate fixes are shown for the flight plan, and the flight plan route would appear as:
KOAK KDPA
To get intermediate fixes, use either "Direct Routing for GPS/LORAN" (*G) or "Direct Routing for RNAV" (*R). The Direct GPS/LORAN option would produce the following flight plan route:
KOAK LIN150001 MVA330015 BAM150085 ELY330015 DTA330042
MTU330017 CHE330021 CYS150001 SNY330018 HCT330069 OBH360023
OMA360043 DSM360030 IOW360026 DBQ180027 KDPA
There are two routing choices that produce identical flight routes but display them with slightly different values. The Direct Routing option is available with waypoint computations for GPS/LORAN and for RNAV. The difference between the two is how the mileage from a nearby VOR to a waypoint is computed: for RNAV, the height of the aircraft above the navigation aid is taken into account in computing the distance from the VOR; for GPS/LORAN, the aircraft's altitude is not taken into account.
The distance shown for a GPS/LORAN Direct Routing is suitable for measuring on an aeronautical chart. The air distance shown for an RNAV Direct Routing is suitable for loading into an RNAV computer such as a King KNS-80, or for in-flight verification using DME.
Let us examine a Direct Routing from RHV (Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose) to SAN (Lindberg Field in San Diego), and compare a selected waypoint for the GPS/LORAN and RNAV routing options. This plan was computed at 10,500 feet; the waypoint chosen is relatively close to the Avenal VOR.
This waypoint using Direct Routing for GPS/LORAN would be:
3. Wpt. d117.1/210.0/2.3 |
AVE .- ...- . |
35:37:14 120:00:40 105 |
and using Direct Routing for RNAV, the waypoint would be:
3. RNAV d117.1/210.0/2.8 |
AVE .- ...- . |
35:37:14 120:00:40 105 |
Notice that the waypoint is in exactly the same place (35:37:14N, 120:00:40W), but the mileage shown from the Avenal VOR differs - it is 2.3 nautical miles for the GPS/LORAN waypoint, and 2.8 DME for the RNAV waypoint.
Performance Requirements and Charting Hints
With the exception of Charting, all of Enflight's services run very quickly on almost any combination of computer, browser, or network connection. Using 10 year old computer equipment is not out of the question. However, to view or print sectionals or Enroute charts over the network, and to zoom and pan them requires a fairly high level of performance. Some users may not be able to take advantage of charting or chart printing without making some improvements in their equipment. The factors that affect performance, more or less in order of importance, are typically:If you find that charting is too slow, simply select the Kneeboard radio button on the flight planning page.
Here is detailed information on the output of the flight planner, including information on the layout and fields present in each of the four different flight log output formats.
Each flight plan which is output by the flight planning module consists of three components:
The flight planner supports a number of different output formats; these are described in detail below. If you do not change your output format using stored profile options, your flight plans will be printed using the Three-Line Staggered Format.
The Three-Line Staggered Format utilizes three lines for each point in the plan and is "staggered" - the left and right portions of the flight plan refer to a given point in the plan and the center portion, which is shifted downwards by a few lines, refers to the leg of the flight which connects one point in the plan with the next.
Several different two-line-per-fix formats are also available. Due to space limitations, some of the information present in the three-line format must be omitted from the two-line formats.
In the example below, the flight plan "RHV *A RBL *G SEA" is used - from Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose CA via airways to Red Bluff CA then via great-circle GPS/LORAN to Seattle WA. Each flight plan output is preceded by a flight plan prologue.
From: KRHV -- San Jose CA (Reid-Hillview Of Santa Clara County)
To: KSEA -- Seattle WA (Seattle-Tacoma Intl)
Time: Wed Jun 17 17:00 (UTC)
Routing options selected: Automatic low altitude airway, Great circle.
Flight plan route:
KRHV MABRY V107 V334 ALTAM V392 SAC V23 JINGO V195 RBL LMT240024
OED060029 EUG060041 UBG060029 BTG060013 OLM060025 KSEA
Flight totals: fuel: 50 gallons, time: 4:50, distance 616.3 nm.
The flight plan route is automatically saved by the Enflight system and will be filled in on other forms including those used for flight plan filing and weather briefings. (The 9-character locations above are fix/radial/distance waypoints.)
A summary follows the flight plan:
NOTE: fuel calculations do not include required reserves.
Flight totals: fuel: 50 gallons, time: 4:50, distance 616.3 nm.
Average groundspeed 128 knots.
Great circle distance is 607.4 nm -- this route is 1% longer.
This section describes in detail each of the four available navigation log formats:
Here is a sample of the three-line "staggered" output format:
Ident Type/Morse Code | | Fuel
Name or Fix/radial/dist | | Time
Latitude Longitude Alt. | Route Mag KTS Fuel | Dist
---+--------+---------+-----| Winds Crs TAS Time |------
1. KSJC Apt. | Temp Hdg GS Dist | 0.0
San Jose CA |--------+----+---+------| 0:00
37:21:42 121:55:39 1 | Direct 3.3 | 86
---+--------+---------+-----| N/A 311 102 0:15 |------
2. OAK --- .- -.- | +9 C 311 102 26 | 3.3
d116.8 Oakland |--------+----+---+------| 0:15
37:43:34 122:13:21 55 | V301 0.7 | 60
---+--------+---------+-----| N/A 288 130 0:05 |------
3. --- Int. | +4 C 288 130 9 | 4.0
|--------+----+---+------| 0:20
37:48:45 122:22:43 55 | V87 0.6 | 51
---+--------+---------+-----| N/A 342 130 0:03 |------
4. REBAS Int. | +4 C 342 130 8 | 4.6
SAUr035/8 SGDr165/14 |--------+----+---+------| 0:23
37:56:27 122:22:57 55 | V87 1.1 | 43
---+--------+---------+-----| N/A 345 130 0:07 |------
5. SGD ... --. -.. | +4 C 345 130 14 | 5.7
d112.1 Scaggs Island |--------+----+---+------| 0:30
38:10:46 122:22:19 55 | Direct 2.0 | 29
---+--------+---------+-----| N/A 297 139 0:12 |------
6. KSTS Apt. | +9 C 297 139 29 | 7.7
Santa Rosa CA (Sonoma C |--------+----+---+------| 0:42
38:30:33 122:48:42 1 | | 0
---+--------+---------+-----| |------
The information on the edge (fix portion) includes the following:
Ident Type/Morse Code | ... | Fuel |
Name or Fix/radial/dist| ... | Time |
Latitude Longitude Alt.| ... | Dist |
---+--------+---------+----| ... |------|
2. OAK --- .- -.-. | ... | 4.7 |
d116.8 Oakland | ... | 0:20 |
37:43:34 122:13:21 103| ... | 60 |
---+--------+---------+----| ... |------|
4. REBAS Int. | ... | 6.0 |
SAUr035/8 SGDr165/14 | ... | 0:28 |
37:56:27 122:22:57 100| ... | 43 |
---+--------+---------+----| ... |------|
Left Side (Information about the fix)
Line 1:
Line 2:
Line 3:
Right Side (Cumulative fuel/time/distance information)
Line 1:
Information for waypoints is slightly different than for other fixes:
---+--------+---------+----|
2. Wpt. d116.8/030.0/3.1 |
OAK --- .- -.-. |
37:45:39 122:10:31 104|
---+--------+---------+----|
Left Side (Information about the fix)
Line 1:
Line 2:
Line 3:
The information in the center (leg portion) includes the following:
| Route Mag KTS Fuel |
| Winds Crs TAS Time |
| Temp Hdg GS Dist |
|--------+----+---+------|
| V301 0.8 |
| 170/6 288 126 0:05 |
| -3 C 286 130 9 |
|--------+----+---+------|
Line 1:
Line 2:
Line 3:
Note: The flight planner computes the magnetic course for each leg of the flight, which may differ from the published definition of an airway segment by a few degrees. The airway segment is defined using VOR radials, which are based on the declination of the VOR; the VOR declination does not always correspond to the magnetic variation at the VOR's location. Always consult current VFR or IFR charts for the published radial for an airway.
Ident Freq Latitude Longitude Location Total Dist
Via Mag Mag Dist TAS GS Leg Time Rem.
Alt Crs Hdg NM KTS KTS Time
---+------+-----+--------+---------+----+----+---+----+---+---+----+-----+-----
1. KRHV Apt. 37:19:59 121:49:07 San Jose CA (Reid-Hillview Of S 0:00 616
Direct 1 355 355 6 90 90 0:04
---+------+-----+--------+---------+----+----+---+----+---+---+----+-----+-----
4. SUNOL Int. 37:36:20 121:48:33 OAKr093/21 ECAr229/33 0:13 597
V334 65 358 358 12 90 90 0:08
---+------+-----+--------+---------+----+----+---+----+---+---+----+-----+-----
6. SAC d115.2 38:26:37 121:33:02 Sacramento 0:40 546
V23 ... .- -.-. 115 329 329 55 130 130 0:25
---+------+-----+--------+---------+----+----+---+----+---+---+----+-----+-----
10. LMT d115.9 42:03:42 122:15:10 Klamath Falls 2:22 323
240.0/024.1 .-.. -- - 115 343 343 30 130 130 0:14
---+------+-----+--------+---------+----+----+---+----+---+---+----+-----+-----
Line 1: information about the current fix
Line 2: more information about the current fix, and information on how to get to the next fix in the plan
Ident Freq Alt Name and Morse Identifier Total Dist Total
Mag Mag Dist TAS GS Leg Leg Time Rem. Fuel
Via Crs Hdg NM KTS KTS Fuel Time
---+------+-----+---+----+---+----+---+---+------+----+-----+-----+------
1. KRHV Apt. 1 San Jose CA (Reid-Hillview Of San 0:00 616 0.0
Direct 355 355 6 90 90 0.9 0:04
---+------+-----+---+----+---+----+---+---+------+----+-----+-----+------
4. SUNOL Int. 65 OAKr093/21 ECAr229/33 SJCr009/15 0:13 597 3.0
V334 358 358 12 90 90 1.9 0:08
---+------+-----+---+----+---+----+---+---+------+----+-----+-----+------
6. SAC d115.2 115 Sacramento ... .- -.-. 0:40 546 8.1
V23 329 329 55 130 130 4.2 0:25
---+------+-----+---+----+---+----+---+---+------+----+-----+-----+------
10. LMT d115.9 115 Klamath Falls .-.. -- - 2:22 323 25.2
240.0/024.1 343 343 30 130 130 2.4 0:14
---+------+-----+---+----+---+----+---+---+------+----+-----+-----+------
Line 1: information about the current fix
Line 2: information on how to get to the next fix in the plan:
Ident Freq Latitude Longitude Fix Information Total Dist Total
Mag Mag Dist TAS GS Leg Leg Time Rem. Fuel
Via Alt Crs Hdg NM KTS KTS Fuel Time
---+------+-----+---+----+----+----+---+---+------+----+-----+-----+------
1. KRHV Apt. 37:19:59 121:49:07 San Jose CA (Reid-H 0:00 616 0.0
Direct 1 355 355 6 90 90 0.9 0:04
---+------+-----+---+----+----+----+---+---+------+----+-----+-----+------
4. SUNOL Int. 37:36:20 121:48:33 OAKr093/21 0:13 597 3.0
V334 65 358 358 12 90 90 1.9 0:08
---+------+-----+---+----+----+----+---+---+------+----+-----+-----+------
6. SAC d115.2 38:26:37 121:33:02 ... .- -.-. 0:40 546 8.1
V23 115 329 329 55 130 130 4.2 0:25
---+------+-----+---+----+----+----+---+---+------+----+-----+-----+------
10. LMT d115.9 42:03:42 122:15:10 .-.. -- - 2:22 323 25.2
240.0/024.1 115 343 343 30 130 130 2.4 0:14
---+------+-----+---+----+----+----+---+---+------+----+-----+-----+------
Line 1: information about the current fix
Line 2: information on how to get to the next fix in the plan:
You can see a virtual "fly-through" of your flight using Google Earth technology. You must have Google Earth loaded on your computer and your computer must be connected to a high-speed Internet connection (at least 128Kbps) in order to use this feature. (Click for installation help.)
The fly-through shows each of the waypoints in your flight plan and connects these waypoints with a purple line. The waypoints and the line are at the altitude at which the aircraft will be flying - if at any time the line disappears underground, you should consider revising the altitude at which you're flying or your route of flight. Enflight is not responsible for the visualization displayed by Google Earth. Google obtains data for its terrain database from many sources, which are believed to be accurate, but are not guaranteed in any manner.
When you close the Google Earth program, it will ask You have unsaved items in your "Temporary Places" folder. Would you like to save them in your "My Places" folder? You should click the No button in response to this dialog.
If you're done with the fly-through and you'd like to keep Google Earth running, you should delete the flight from Google Earth. Scroll up in the "Places" pane until you reach the line that reads "Flight from...to...". Click on this entry and then press the delete key. You can easily reload this flight plan (or any other) from Enflight whenever you wish. Each time Enflight generates a flight plan for you, it uses the most current navigation and wind data available, so saving old flight paths in Google Earth is not recommended.
Enflight also includes links to Google Earth on Airport Information pages.
Individuals in the Google Earth community have contributed a number of overlays that may be of interest to pilots. Please note that the information in the contributed static data sets is not kept up to date, and that weather data must be considered to be "unofficial".
Clicking any of the links above should automatically load the data set into Google Earth.
Google Earth is currently available for both Windows 2000/XP and Mac OS X (10.3.9+) systems. Visit the Google Earth download page to download and install the free software.
You must be running Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 2000 to use Google Earth. You cannot use Google Earth on earlier systems such as Windows 98 or Windows 95.
We have three suggestions that you should try (in this order). Please let us know which one works for you:
If none of the above worked, let us know. (So far, we have not found anyone for whom at least one of the three plans has failed to work, but it's always possible.)
If you need to contact us, please send us the version information on the Internet Explorer and Google Earth you're running. To get this, click on the About Internet Explorer or About Google Earth link on the Help menu of each program. The version information should look something like:
Version: 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp_2_gdr.050301-1519
Google Earth 3.0.0762
for the two programs.
You must be running Mac OS/X release 10.3.9 and above in order to use Google Earth.
If you have installed Google Earth and you use the Safari web browser, Safari may not automatically start Google Earth when you click on a Google Earth link. To fix this, download and run this script.
The instructions below will help you install Google Earth. You'll only need to do this once. When you're done installing Google Earth, be sure to follow the steps above to ensure that the Safari web browser will open Google Earth files using Google Earth.
After this, you'll only need to click on the Visualize this flight link at the top of your flight plan - Google Earth will launch automatically with your flight plan loaded.
To "fly" the flight plan, click on the "play" button in the "Places" pane.
When you're done, quit Google Earth.
Enflight.com's airport information section contains up-to-date data on US airports as provided by the Federal Administration Information. There are three main parts to the airport information section:
The airport information section contains data on Airports, Heliports, Seaplane Bases, Gliderports, Balloonports, STOLports, and Ultralight landing facilities that are registered with the FAA. In is documentation, we'll often use the term "airport" to refer to all of these types of facilities.
Facility Search
The facility search page allows you to find airports in a number of different ways. There are two basic kinds of searches you can perform:
To perform a match search, enter information in at least one of the primary search fields:
Then click one of the three buttons on the bottom of the page. If your search matches more than one airport or you click on the "Search - show airport list" button, you'll see a page that lists the facilities that match your request. The organization of the listing page is described below.
If your search matches exactly one airport (if you entered the airport's FAA identifier, for example) and you click the "Search - show airport info" button, you'll be taken immediately to the airport information page for that airport. If your search matches exactly one airport and you click the "Search - show instrument procedures" button, you'll bypass the listing page and be taken directly to the page that shows available instrument procedures for that airport. In either of these cases, if your search matches more than one airport, don't worry: you'll be directed to the listing page so you can choose the airport of interest to you.
The radius search feature lets you locate airports that are within a specified distance of a given point. You can specify this point using the same fields that are available for a match search; in addition, you can use a ZIPcode or the name of a city in which there are no airports - this will search for all airports within the requested radius of that city. For example, if you were to enter "Cupertino" into the city name field and do a search without specifying a radius, you'd see that there are no airports in Cupertino. However, if you ask for airports within a 50 mile radius of Cupertino, you'll get a list of 18, listed from the closest (San Jose International, 6.2 miles East of Cupertino) to the farthest (New Jerusalem airport in Tracy, CA, 47.0 miles East of Cupertino).
The radius search feature can be invaluable when you're going to a particular location but you don't know what airports are available to you. If you use a city name for a radius search, sometimes the system will find a city that isn't the one you're going to - you can usually correct this by including the name of the state. Also, a city-name search may not be as helpful as a ZIPcode search if you're going to a location in a large metropolitan area - for example, the result returned by a radius search on Los Angeles wouldn't be as specific in helping you find an airport nearest to a particular ZIPcode within the city of Los Angeles.
The results for a radius search indicate the distance and direction from the location you specify of the airports located by the system. They're sorted in order of distance from the location you specify, starting with the closest one.
There are a number of additional features that you can specify to either narrow or broaden the results of your search. You can narrow your search by requiring one or more of the following conditions to be met:
You can broaden the search results by including facilities other than airports, such as Heliports, Seaplane Bases, Gliderports, Balloonports, STOLports, or Ultralight landing facilities. (Try searching for all seaplane bases in California, for example. To do this, un-check the Airports box, check the Seaplane Bases box, select California as the state, and click "Search - show airport list".)
You can also broaden the search by including facilities that are not open to public use. Note that you will require permission of the owner to use any of these facilities. (Try selecting the "Include facilities that are not open to public use" box and performing the search for seaplane bases in California, for example.)
Facility Search Results page
If your search matches more than one facility or you click the "Search - show airport list" button, you'll see the Facility Search Results page which lists all matching facilities. Each entry in the facility list will have one or more hyperlinks to information about that facility:
Airport Information page
The Airport Information page gives you a wealth of information about each airport, formatted in a logical manner so you can find information that you need rapidly. The information presented here includes virtually all the information that's published for each facility in the FAA's Airport/Facility Directory, plus some information that is available from the FAA but isn't published in the A/FD. All of the information is translated to plain English to make it easy to understand. In addition to textual information, if an airport diagram is published for the facility, a reduced-size image of the diagram is included. If you click on the airport diagram, a full-size version of the diagram will open in a pop-up window.
The Airport Information page is designed to be printed from your web browser so you can take the page with you when you fly. When printed, the airport information will typically take up one to two pages. (Most airports fit on a single page.) Enflight's Airport Information page gives you more information packed into a smaller and more readable format than any other source of airport data.
There are four main sections on the Airport Information Page:
Rather than describing this information in detail here, we'll highlight a few important points.
Not all information is included for all airports; if the FAA provides certain data for a particular airport, then Enflight includes it in the Airport Information page. If particular data is not available from the FAA for a specific airport, then it is omitted.
The first part of the Basic Information section is a line that indicates the effective dates for the information. These dates correspond to the FAA's 56-day release cycle for the airport information database and for the Airport/Facility Directory.
The five nearest public-use airports and five nearest VORs are shown, with the search radius restricted to approximately 100 NM. The directional information is the bearing from the selected airport to the other airport or VOR. Note that an airport and an on-airport VOR may not actually be in the same place: the airport's location is the "Airport Reference Point,", typically the geographic center of the airport property, and the VOR's location is where the navigation aid is physically located.
Today's values for sunrise, sunset, and civil twilight (morning and evening) are shown in the airport's local time zone. Some Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) refer to sunrise and sunset; others to "night." FAR 1.1 defines night to be the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight.
If the airport has instrument approaches, these are listed in a compact way on the last line of the Facilities and communications section of the page. If you click the Instrument approaches link, you'll be taken to the Instrument Procedures page for this airport.
The Runway and lighting information section may contain a great deal of information and detail about an airport's runways. This section is organized by runway, and within each runway the two directions for the runway are listed. If a left traffic pattern is observed for a given runway end, that will be indicated in bold-face type. If the runway surface or runway markings are considered to be in good condition, this information is omitted; if either of these is in less than good condition and that information is provided by the FAA, that will be noted.
Standard acronyms are used for runway declared distance information,
which is provided for certain air carrier runways. These are:
TORA - take-off run available
TODA - take-off distance available
ASDA - accelerate-stop distance available
LDA - landing distance available
Instrument Procedures page
The Instrument Procedures page lists the airport diagram, instrument approaches, IFR visual approach procedures, departure procedures (DPs), standard terminal arrival procedures (STARs), and if applicable alternate minimums and take-off minimums. The information is presented in this standard order for all airports.
At the top of the Instrument Procedures page, you'll notice that the airport identifier is a hyperlink - this link will return you to the Airport Information page for that airport. You can easily switch back and forth between the Airport Information page and the Instrument Procedures page by clicking on the "Instrument Approaches" link on the Airport Information page and on the airport's identifier on the Instrument Procedures page.
Instrument procedure diagrams are available in three different formats on Enflight:
The images are of very different sizes, and you'll notice a significant difference in load time if you're on a dial-up connection to the Internet. The PNG version is about 10 times the size of the thumbnail; the PDF version is typically 10 to 20 times the size of the PNG version. On a slow dial-up line, the thumbnail will take a second or two to load. The PNG will take 10-20 seconds. And the PDF will take several minutes to load. However, on most high-speed Internet connections, the thumbnails should load so fast that you won't notice them loading, even for airports with 50+ procedures, and individual PNGs will also load essentially instantaneously. Individual PDF files will take a few seconds to load; often, the delay you notice when loading a PDF file is dominated by the start-up time of the Adobe Acrobat Reader program.
In addition to selecting images of individual procedures to view, you can request that a group of procedures be assembled and sent as a single file. This is done by selecting the procedures you'd like to have using the checkboxes on the Instrument Procedures page. Once you've selected the charts you're interested in, click the "View selected charts: printable (PDF), opens in new window" button at the bottom of the page. The Enflight system will assemble a single Adobe PDF file containing just the charts you are have selected. These charts should simply open in another window (either a browser window or a helper application window), and you can then click "print" to print them out. There's no separate download step, no un-zipping - just select, click, wait, and print.
Pan
Panning the charts display can be accomplished by
either using the arrows in the upper left of the display, or
holding the left mouse button down while moving the mouse. This will drag the chart.
Zoom
There are several ways to zoom the chart:
Enflight now displays Graphical Airmets on the charts page.
Select the 'G-Airmet' layer from the layer chooser.
The G-Airmet 3rd level menu will appear:
The 'Layers' item indicates a drop-down menu of the types
of Graphical Airmets available.
Select any type and hour and that overlay with G-Airmets for that time will appear on the chart.
Enflight's Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring feature allows you to determine if there are RAIM outages predicted for your route of flight. AC 90-100A Section 10(5) states that
"If TSO-C129 equipment is used to solely satisfy the RNAV requirement, GPS RAIM avilability must be confirmed for the intended route of flight (route and time) using current satellite information."By using the level selector:
Select the RAIM layer, and a colored grid will show where there are predicted RAIM outages.
A red grid square indicates that sometime during the indicated time window there will be a RAIM outage lasting more that 6 minutes in that area.
4. Modifying a route on the sectional
Modifying a route
To modify the route:
Click on the route modify icon
,
in the upper right corner,
,
then click on the route.
The route will turn blue, with boxes at the trajectory change points.
Use the mouse to move the boxes to the desired locations.
,
Vors
.
are 'snap points'.
That is, if you move a box to a place near a vor, it will be placed at the vor.
The nearest vor, airport, or fix will be used as the new trajectory change point. If no vor, airport, or fix is at the new location, the lat/long will be used.
Click away from the route and the new route will be established.
.
Note: you must click on the
to be able to get Metar/Taf popups to show after route modifications.
Spatial query
Click on the query icont to enable spatial queries.
The icon should turn blue.
Position the mouse cursor on the sectional, and click and drag the
left mouse button.
That will draw an orange circle depicting the area of the spatial query,
and send a spatial query back to the enflight server.
.
The results of the query will be shown in a pop-up window.
.
Print Sectionals to PDF:
Clicking the "Print sectionals to PDF" link above the chart will open the controls for formatting your route into a print friendly version. The orange rectangles on the chart each represent one printable page and can be oriented to either landscape or portrait via the toggle on the left hand side. The amount of overlap can also be set via a similar toggle on the left. To position the orange page markers manually, click on the "Move Pages" button, then click and drag each page to the desired location. Once finished, click "Go back to normal panning" to lock the page positions. Clicking "Generate PDF pages as shown" will create the desired pages in a separate file that will download to your computer. This may take a few minutes so please be patient.
Show Entire Route:
Clicking the "Show Entire Route" link above the chart will center the map over your entire route.
Layer controls
There are several layers overlaid on the sectionals that can be turned on or off. Check each of the boxes to toggle that layer individually.
Change the "Base Layer" to toggle between Victor Airways and Sectional charts.
TFRs
TFRs are shown in transparent red. These
areas are clickable and contain a reference to the TFR text
on the FAA site.
Forecasts
METAR and TAF data is shown for reporting airports. The METAR information is colored according to your personal minimums set in the pilot preferences section. The TAF report is shown as a colored spiral outside of the METAR circle.
Midnight is at the top of the circle, and noon is at the bottom. A white line shows local time.
For example, a TAF that was issued at 2pm for generally good
weather except for thunderstorms between 4pm and 8pm would
be shown as this in the Weather Briefing:
and would be shown as this TAF circle on the charts display at 6:30 pm (local time):
Both the METAR circle and TAF ring can be clicked on to produce the textual weather.
Fuel
Displays relative fuel pricing icon (a white circle with a number 1-5) as referenced by
100LL.com.
Once per quarter each FBO is called; their fuel price is compared to the national average price on that day and is rated from 1 to 5. A symbol with a 1 indicates that the fuel price is relatively low while a 5 indicates that the fuel price is high relative to the national average. Clicking on the fuel icon will give you more detailed information including FBO name, hours of operation, and whether there is a self-serve capability. Within the .Fuel Stops. box at the bottom of the kneeboard is a filter used to display only stops with a desired price rating.
Class B & C
Displays the Class B airspace in light
blue and Class C airspace in light yellow-green.
Radar
Displays the current Nexrad radar image received from the Iowa State University Mesonet system.
Enflight's weather briefing system gives pilots a pre-flight briefing that fully meets FAA requirements for a pre-flight briefing, and is considered to be legally equivalent to a telephone briefing from a Flight Service Station.
Enflight's briefing system includes two features, the Weather Expert WXpert and the Notam Expert NXpert which automatically review and customize the briefing to meet the individual pilot's needs and experience. WXpert and NXpert, along with Enflight's Plain Language Weather translator, make it very easy for a pilot to rapidly scan a complete and possibly quite long briefing, and to consistently evaluate and fully understand the briefing in just a few minutes.
The Enflight system also makes it very easy to request a weather briefing. If you use the flight planner first to compute an initial route of flight and estimated time enroute, you can get a full weather briefing in just two clicks: click on Weather Briefing on the top menu, then click on the Get briefing button. You don't have to decide whether a full or abbreviated briefing should be requested - the system does that automatically based on the proposed departure time for the flight.
You can request briefings for
Enflight automatically selects an Outlook Briefing when your proposed departure time is six or more hours from the time at which the briefing is requested. An Outlook Briefing does not include all the information present in a Standard Briefing. If you want a full weather briefing for a flight that will depart more than 6 hours from now, please change the departure time to be less than 6 hours from now so the system will issue you a Standard Briefing.
(The information below is excerpted from section 7-1-4 of the Airman's Information Manual.)
Three basic types of preflight briefings are available to serve your specific needs. These are: Standard Briefing, Abbreviated Briefing, and Outlook Briefing.
Outlook Briefing. You should request an Outlook Briefing whenever your proposed time of departure is six or more hours from the time of the briefing. The briefer will provide available forecast data applicable to the proposed flight. This type of briefing is provided for planning purposes only. You should obtain a Standard or Abbreviated Briefing prior to departure in order to obtain such items as adverse conditions, current conditions, updated forecasts, winds aloft and NOTAMs, etc.
Abbreviated Briefing. Request an Abbreviated Briefing when you need information to supplement mass disseminated data, update a previous briefing, or when you need only one or two specific items.
Standard Briefing. You should obtain a Standard Briefing any time you are planning a flight and you have not received a previous briefing or have not received preliminary information through mass dissemination media; e.g., TIBS, TWEB (Alaska only), etc. ... [A Standard Briefing will] provide the following information in the sequence listed, except as noted, when it is applicable to your proposed flight.
Plain-language output for the weather briefing is divided into sections that are separated by highly visible blue section bars. Each section bar contains a number of controls.
At the far right of the section bar, there are four navigation links:
The selective briefing feature allows you to considerably shorten the size of a weather briefing so you can print out only what you need to carry with you in the aircraft. Just to the left of the navigation links in each section bar are one or more radio buttons labeled "Show:" that control what portions of the briefing will be shown when the "Display selective briefing" feature is used:
Once you select the portions of the briefing you want to include in your selective (shortened) briefing, click the "Display selective briefing" button at the beginning or end of the briefing. The Enflight system will remember your All/Selective/None choices and will retain your last setting across multiple login sessions.
Note: you should review the entire full briefing first before using the "Display selective briefing" feature, as federal regulations (FAR 91.103) require the pilot to be familiar with all available information concerning that flight.
Most browsers will not print background colors in your printouts unless you change a print setting. Doing so will greatly enhance the readability of a WXpert color coded briefing. Here are instructions for finding the setting on a number of popular browsers:
The Current, Forecast, and Regional Radar tabs display organized sets of thumbnail images to give you an overview of the current national weather situation, forecast weather information, and updated regional radar images. Click on any thumbnail in these pages to bring up a full-size image of the thumbnail. In the Forecast and Regional Radar sections, navigation bars on the left, right, top, and/or bottom of each full-size image move to an appropriate full-size adjacent image - adjacent in time or altitude (before or after in time; higher or lower altitude) in the forecasts, and adjacent geographically (north, south, east, west) in the radar pages. A third menu bar also allows you to navigate rapidly within full-size current or forecast charts.
The Graphic NOTAMS tabs open web sites from the FAA and the NIFC (National Interagency Airspace Information Center). The information on these sites is not under Enflight's control, and is provided by these government agencies subject to any restrictions stated on the respective web sites. The FAA and NIFC sites open in new windows - to return to Enflight, simply close the FAA or NIFC window.
The Graphic NOTAMS: FAA site is a list of current temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) sorted by state. For each TFR, you may click on the NOTAM number (e.g., FDC 3/2123) for the text of the NOTAM, and on the TFR Graphic logo next to most TFRs for a graphical plot of the TFR on a Sectional chart-like map. Downloading these maps is relatively quick. When you are viewing an individual map, you can return to the list of TFRs by pressing the backspace key.
The Graphic NOTAMS: NIFC site is somewhat more complex. The first page includes the instructions for the site as well links to major sections of the site. The simplest way to use this site is to click on the small map on the opening page.
You will then see a map of the continental US that shows all active Temporary Flight Restrictions that have been mapped. Next, click on the map to re-center it at an area of interest to you. Then use the "In" and "Out" buttons or the individual "scale" buttons between "In" and "Out" to zoom the map so you can see more or less detail.
You can use the buttons at the bottom of the map to choose to show a GNC, WAC or Sectional chart "underlay". If you're not zoomed in far enough, selecting an "underlay" will automatically zoom the map in to the first zoom level at which the underlay can be displayed. Note that underlay maps take a substantial amount of time to download, even on a high-speed connection. The GNC underlay is the the fastest one to download and should be adequate for most uses.
If you click on an individual depicted item on a map such as a red shape that denotes a TFR, the map will re-center on that area and the NOTAM text of the restriction will be displayed below the map.
Note that if there is a link below the map that says There are unmapped TFRs, you should click on that link as your flight might cross these unmapped restricted areas.