Great! I was eagerly waiting for that. By coincidence, my RR subscription lapses today!
That said, VFR filing would be a must for me to change horses entirely. As would be the creation of briefing packs (like RR’s) which would cover me in case of a ramp check.
I have been beta testing it and it works brilliantly.
For the first time I have been able to do everything out of my phone, without it being a user interface torture which it is on the other sites I tried.
Tom+Achim have done a fantastic job in making everything easier.
That said, VFR filing would be a must for me to change horses entirely.
I think EuroFPL is quite nice and it is always good to have a backup solution as Peter keeps saying We will do VFR eventually but it requires a different technology — the plain old Telex system AFTN.
As would be the creation of briefing packs (like RR’s) which would cover me in case of a ramp check.
We do send you a PLOG and you can retrieve our GRAMET. We do not send a NOTAM list yet but this will come sooner or later (we want to get the NOTAMs from the official source at Eurocontrol because we’ve seen other sources like the FAA be unreliable for European airports and we don’t want to get in trouble for not showing you a relevant NOTAM). There is fuel planning with calculation of ICAO reserves. W&B is not there yet but there are a zillion tools to do it and usually you only need 3-4 different sheets so it’s not at the top of our list. You can view the current METARs for your routes and your filed flight plans as graphical indications on the map (very practical on the phone before takeoff, just take another quick look). At this time, we do not send out those METAR/TAFs as part of the briefing pack but are considering to add this.
I hate the UI of EuroFPL…
Looks good! Of course any route to the South of the UK originating in or terminating at Aberdeen EGPD is a nightmare and has to be done by hand (best done on Skydemon I find)…but everywhere else seems fine….I did notice though that if you select one of the alternative routes offered, it is not possible to go back to the original proposed route (there is no icon to enable it to be selected)..
EuroFPL was great for importing a route generated by the EuroGA router, via the FPL import box at the bottom of its flight plan entry form.
I found that to be the easiest way to transfer the route from the router to EuroFPL, especially on my phone.
But now that the two functions are integrated in the EuroGA router, it is super smooth.
Note that you are presently getting SMS confirmations without paying for the SMS – a true free lunch in Europe!
A backup will be always needed (even if hopefully you never use it) because we are so totally reliant on the internet now. And I have needed to use a backup for EuroFPL a few times (I maintain the fairly horrible UK AFPEX account for that).
Anthony, what would be good routes in and out of Aberdeen, and why?
I can see that Autorouter currently creates very long routes. This is the result of a few things:
In Scotland you can file long DCTs in Class G e.g.
EGKA WOD M605 POL P18 NATEB DCT BALID EGPD
(FL140-150)
It seems to work via Eurocontrol and it works practically because Scottish Control are very generous about the service.
London Control and Manchester Control will cut the service off fairly quickly when you enter Class G (sometimes they maintain it for a bit if you are re-entering shortly) but Scottish Control just maintain the service without any issue.
So you say we should limit our UK specific DCT avoidance to London and Manchester control?
Yes you are correct Peter….Thomas don’t tell VB, but DCTs are essential for me in order to get anywhere South of Newcastle!
A route I have done a lot recently at FL100 (and sometimes up to FL140) looks like EGPD DCT BALID DCT SAB DCT AGPED DCT NATEB P18 STAFA DCT EGBO…. Of course once airborne I don’t actually fly to SAB or AGPED but due to the 50nm max DCT I need to file that way…
If I am going down to France I will use even more DCTs from NATEB all the way down to DVR as there are no airways down the East coast
Btw Peter, there is no more Manchester Control….Just Scottish and London