Since I am both a private pilot and a computer consultant, it was
only
a matter of time before I started looking for software that would
assist
with the tedious problems of flight planning. During my flight
training,
all I used to plan my cross country trips was a paper, pencil,
preprinted
navigation logs and such, and my handy dandy cheap plastic E6B circular
"computer/plotter".
The calculations involved tend to be trivial; the real problem comes in
when you realize you have made a mistake somewhere that is going to
cause
you to either start over, or erase half of the stuff you just worked
out.
I didn't want to go and spend $100+ on software that did everything but
fly the plane to the destination. All I wanted was something to do the
generic
computations for wind correction, ground speed, fuel consumption, etc.
So, I slapped together this MS-Excel workbook. This document contains
several
separate worksheets, one for weight and balance, one for navigation and
one which resembles a FAA flight plan form. It also contains another
sheet
which I print out to use for my kneeboard. It has all of the
frequencies,
runways and other data I commonly use in this area.
Updated! I no longer have ready access to Excel, so I have switched to Open Office. This will be the primary format I will be saving in, and the Excel format will be available but unsupported.
The planner spread sheet has been updated with some minor cosmetic changes, as well as a major fix to the winds aloft, which apparently nobody has noticed for five or six years.
I have included a hypothetical example in a separate file to
illustrate. Right click on the link and save the target file on
your PC.
Warning: Use this spreadsheet at your own risk.
The values calculated are approximates based on the wind and direction
inputs and are meant for general guidance only.
Updated 11/15/2009: V2.1 - Fixed heading calculations to be normalized to 0-359.
fltlog2.ods, Open Office Spreadsheet - 41k: Flight Planner Spreadsheet, Version 2.1 NOV 2009
fltlog2.xls, MS-Excel '97 workbook - 110K: Flight Planner Spreadsheet, Version 2.1 NOV 2009
Ex_fltog2.ods, Open Office Spreadsheet - 41k: Example Flight Log
Ex_fltog2.xls, MS-Excel '97 workbook - 110K: Example Flight Log