Saturday 21 April 2012

Flight nav planning by email


A central and unique feature of iNavCalc is the ability to create a route and generate a navigation plan (PLOG) with nothing more than an email account. You can then seamlessly import the route (via industry-standard GPX format) into any device and/or software which supports the format. For example, SkyDemon, AirNavPro, and MemoryMap on the iPad. Here's a simple example:
  • First make sure you have registered online with FlyLogical. This is FREE, but you need to provide an email address for communicating with iNavCalc (make sure that your spam filter allows incoming email from no_reply@flylogical.com, and make sure that you follow the simple registration process to completion, including responding to the account activation email which you will receive during registration). You only need to do this once.
  • Now let's say you want to plan a route from Isle of Man (EGNS) to Prestwick (EGPK), with some intermediate waypoints based on VOR/DME radials. Specifically, the desired route description is as follows: from the starting point EGNS, fly heading 350 degrees for 20 nm, then navigate to the waypoint located 51 nm on the 348 radial from the IOM VOR, then from there, direct to the destination EGPK.
  • To create this route, prepare an email (say, on your mobile phone), using the subject-line to specify the route, as follows:
  • To: plogs@flylogical.com
  • From: <your email address as registered at FlyLogical, see first bullet-point above>
  • Subject: Route=EGNS, >350/20, IOM348/51, EGPK
  • Hit the Send button (make sure you have a connection to the internet)
  • A few seconds later you will receive an email containing a suite of attachments pertaining to the flight briefing for the route, including a PDF of the PLOG (based on actual winds aloft, atmospheric temperatures, and pressures) and a PDF of the TAF/METARS along the route.  Moreover, an attached GPX file containing the route can be opened in any device/software which supports GPX import (e.g., AirNavPro and  MemoryMap on Android or iPad, SkyDemon on iPad). (See previous post for information on interoperability via GPX with popular moving map apps).
  • As well as the route/waypoint info, there are many other options which you can specify on the email subject-line, e.g., altitude profile, aircraft performance parameters, etc.  For eample, specifying save=true will save the route to the cloud for later re-use. See the iNavCalc Users's Guide for details.
  • Finally, visit flylogical.com to access the iNavCalc Google Maps interface  (simple usage example here)
Have fun. Let me know what you think @FlyLogical on Twitter


No comments:

Post a Comment