World Flight Planner Blog

Version 1.0.5.0 was released today. The last few releases have fixed a number of bugs and added some new features.

One of the cool new features is the ability to print off a pre-filled ICAO Flight Plan. Once you're done planning your flight, click on the "ICAO Flight Plan" link on the Navigation Log page and you will get a PDF of the ICAO Flight Plan pre-filled with your flight details. You can then use this form to hand to your dispatcher, fax to NavCanada, or as a reference for when you file your plan over the telephone.

The change list also includes:

• corrected Australian weather data retrieval and display


• added the ability to set preferences for the map display options. For example: You can get the map to always display or hide any overlay (such as airmets, or weather radar). You can adjust these in the "My Account" section.


• added a scale to the route map, to help you judge distances easier

Check out the What's New? page for more details on all the recent changes.

We've had a tremendous amount of interest in the software since we launched and everyone has been providing great feedback. So keep spreading the word and look for additional functionality in the coming weeks.

We're pleased to announce that version 1.0 of World Flight Planner is available now!

All users receive a 30 day trial and after that access to the service is only $10/month.

There are also multiple discounts available:

• If you are a member of COPA, you are eligible for $2 off per month


• If you are a member of Hope Air, you are eligible for 5% off the subscription price


• Pay for a full year, and get one month free

And the best part about these discounts is that they can be combined. Just sign up with one and contact us to have the others applied.

Although there are a variety of pre-flight planning tools currently available, World Flight Planner is the only tool to be designed specifically for access via desktop and mobile-device web browsers. It is also the only tool which brings all the important weather information together and plots it all on a map to more easily visualize the size and location of AIRMET, SIGMET, PIREP and other weather-related details.

World Flight Planner also displays animated weather radar, airport flight rules status (VFR, MVFR, IFR, LIFR), terrain clearance and numerous other aeronautical information on your plotted route map.

Among the list of most handy features in World Flight Planner is the support for mobile devices. The application has a custom view for mobile devices that makes it faster and easier to view on the smaller screens (and using less of your data plan) but at the same time keeping almost all of the same functionality available on the desktop browser version. This means it's just as easy to look up information and plan flights from anywhere your mobile device can get Internet access. World Flight Planner is also looking at building native apps for various mobile devices including the iPhone and iPad, as well as Blackberry and Android-based mobile phones.

World Flight Planner supports all flight planning functionality for Canada and some functionality for flight planning in the United States. We are also currently beta-testing flight planning for Australia. You can get more details on all the application features and functionality by viewing the product tour. And if you're interested in trying out the application, all new users are offered a free 30-day trial. Just visit the account types & pricing page for pricing information and to sign up.

The team at World Flight Planner are continuing adding more functionality to the application as well as data for more countries. And because this is a web-based application there's no need for you to do anything when the application is updated; any new features added are available immediately.

So we encourage you to try out the software and let us know how we're doing so far. And more importantly, let us know what we're missing so we can add it to the growing list of soon-to-be-added features.

The latest release has a number of changes, the biggest of which is the ability to calculate weight and balance. Using World Flight Planner you can now easily add and edit the W&B entries for your aircraft and then determine the total weight, centre of gravity and moment for any aircraft configuration. The way you organize your W&B entries is completely flexible; in the sample image we've ground the second row passengers into a single line but you could also split it into individual entries for each passenger.

We've also made some changes to the back end that should speed up your experience, including flight planning and browsing the terrain layer on the map. Finally, we've added a bunch more help content.

Look for our launch announcement in the coming weeks.

Just released another version tonight. This one brings some more improvements!

• Canadian weather radar is now animated. The last hour of radar returns are displayed, which will help you determine what the weather is actually doing.
• Terrain clearance added to the route map. The new 'Terrain Clearance' overlay on the map will help with terrain avoidance, highlighting any terrain within 100 feet (red) or 1000 feet (yellow) of your chosen altitude.
• More Help. We've improved the content within our help pages.
• Improved security. Sensitive transactions, such as logging in, now happen over HTTPS

Here's a look at the Terrain Clearance layer:

There are many more changes as well, for a full list, check out the change log.

We just released version 0.9.6 to production last night with a myriad of bug fixes and new features.

• Weather Radar for both Canada and the USA. Previously we only had weather radar coverage for the US. Now we have the latest weather radar from Environment Canada on the map.
• Low Level Airways. Low level airways for the USA are now displayed on the map.
• More detailed route points. Clicking on waypoint markers on the map will give you some detail about that waypoint.

We've also fixed over 25 bugs since the last release and working hard to get version 1.0 out there! We extend our thanks to all the users who are submitting bug reports, keep them coming!

Some of the features we're working on:

• Weight and Balance. Flight planning is only half of the battle! You will be able to calculate w&b for your flight in the future.
• Safety Enhancements.Tools to make decisions when it comes to diverting easier.
• ICAO Flight Plans. Once you're done planning, 'one click print' will allow you to print off your completed ICAO flight plans.

This release was a long time coming! Today, version 0.9.5 was released to production. It includes some exciting new features:

• We now have limited support for flight plans in the United States and Australia. We are in the process of adding support for low level airways in Australia and United States.
• We've revamped the way flight plans are organized. They should be much more simple to manage and understand.
• A bunch of bug fixes (behind the scenes stuff), please continue to report them!
• We''ve updated our databases to include the latest navaids and airports.
• You can now plan your flight for any arbitrary date/time.

We're working as hard as possible to get a 1.0 release this spring. We're very appreciative of everyone with their bug reports. It's going to help make this product better for everyone to use.

If you have any additional features you'd like to see, please let us know. In the works right now are:

• Printable ICAO flight plans. So you can fax them to NavCanada or leave them with your dispatcher.
• A "point and click" option for planning your flight. Use the map to click on your waypoints and hit "plan!"
• A "quick plan" option for planning your flight. You will be able to enter in your flight plan using the standard ICAO format, then hit "plan!".

We're currently looking for some Australian pilots to help test the software for plans within Australia. Please let us know if you can help out.

This past Monday we released version 0.9.4 of WFP for testing.

The majority of changes are behind the scenes as bug fixes, but there are some feature enhancements that the testers have requested that are now available:

• We've added the "google roads" layer to the map. This additional base layer may be helpful to VFR pilots to navigate around.
• A new map layer called "VFR Waypoints" is now available
• The navaid frequency (for tuning in a VOR or NDB) is now displayed in the nav log
• A warning is displayed if you are likely to fly through Class "F" airspace. At the moment there is no altitude defined for this type of airspace so even though you may be flying higher than it, it still gives you a warning.
• You can now choose how far back you would like pireps to display on the map. You can change this setting in your user preferences.

The testing from our beta testers has been invaluable! Keep sending in your feedback and suggestions!

We've just released version 0.9.3 yesterday as we make our way to version 1.0. This release covers a bunch of bug fixes and feedback from a few users. Here is a quick rundown of what has changed:

• A list of all the airspace, and it's type is now displayed on the nav log page. You can see at a quick glance (without looking at the map) what types of airspace you may be flying through.
• You can now login using your email address instead of your username.
• A list of pireps within 25nm of your route is displayed in the nav log page.
• Fixed a bug whereby you had to type in all the identifiers in upper case. You can now use both upper case and lower case letters for identifiers.
• Incorporated some changed due to user feedback.

We still have a lot planned for the next version! So if you want to help shape the tool, submit your feedback and we'll be sure to incorporate it into the next version.

If you haven't already done so, you can sign up for an account to get started.

SIgmets are a way of letting pilots know of dangerous flying conditions in a particular area. The danger could be thunderstorms, hail, a tornado, or even a radio active cloud! They are issued by Environment Canada and is disseminated to pilots over the radio by Flight Service Stations and ATC.

I've heard a sigmet broadcast over 126.7Mhz by London FSS one time. I wanted to play you an example but can't seem to find a clip anywhere online. It went something like this:

"All stations, all stations, all stations, this is London Radio: Sigmet Alpha One. Valid 1200Z to 1600Z Within an area bounded by Simcoe VOR, Musoka Airport, and CFB Bordon, Severe Thunderstom moving west at 10KTs. Sigmet will up dated as storm conditions change".

You can also look up sigmets online at on AWWS.

Here is an active sigmet for the Praries:

SIGMET A1 VALID 241040/241440 CWEG- WTN 30 NM OF LN /5614N11914W/50 E FORT ST JOHN - /5535N11936W/35 NW GRANDE PRAIRIE - /5453N11822W/25 SE GRANDE PRAIRIE. OCNL SEV LLWS FCST BLO 5 HND AGL DUE TO STG WLY LLJ AT 35 KT. AREA QS. LTL CHG EXPD NEXT 4 HRS THEN SFC WNDS WILL BECM WLY AND LLWS WILL SLOLY DMSH. END/GFA32/YG/CMAC-W

This is a sigmet for severe low level windshear below 500' due to a steady westerly low level jet blowing at 35Kts. The area is quasi stationary and little change is expected in the next 4 hours where windows will become westerly and the low level windshear will slowly diminish.

Because Sigmets are such an important tool, I felt that it was important to be able to display such notices on a map, especially for flight planning purposes. This is why in an upcoming version of World Flight Planner we've decided to include sigmets on the map and as warnings if your filed plan if you pass through an area identified by a sigmet.

The above sigmet is indicated on the map as a red/yellow hashed area. Clicking on the area will bring up a pop-up with the Sigmet information.