Australian users are now able to use the elevation and generated MOCA (minimum obstacle clearance altitude) values while planning their trip.

A flight from Sydney to Brisbane with the elevation layer turned on.

To take advantage of this new data be sure to turn on the “elevation” layer in the map or press the “calculate MOCA” button on the route page.

We’ve been working hard for the past 3 months on the latest version of World Flight Planner. Here are some of the key new features included this release:

Version 1.3 of World Flight Planner has been released. Although the focus of this release was enhancing the stability of the application by fixing up the majority of the outstanding bugs, we also managed to include a handful of new features: support for the NOAA Global Forecast System (GFS), METAR decoding, improved mapping, Garmin® FPL export and support for the CoPilot iPhone app.
Details on new/updated features:
METAR decoding – There is now a [decode] link beside METAR when viewing airport weather, including the information displayed on the dashboard for your home or nearest airport. When you click on the link, a pop-up box is displayed in the centre of the screen with the decoded METAR.
NOAA GFS – The NOAA produces a global weather model, predicting wind, pressure and temperature beyond that typically produced by the various aviation authorities. WFP has made available forecasts of up to 72 hours from the present time which can be used in place of other upper wind forecasts.
Enhanced Mapping – The map system is faster than ever. And we’ve updated the symbols used with the proper ICAO symbol set, allowing you to easily distinguish the type of airport or navigation aid.
You can now distinguish between airports, heliports, and seaplane bases.
Garmin® FPL Export – If you fly an aircraft equipped with the G1000 (or other GPS capable of importing a route in Garmin’s FPL format), you can now export your routes to a FPL file. Please note this feature is currently in BETA and only available for routes within Canada. The FPL export feature should be available for all supported countries in the next major release.
CoPilot – If you are a user of the CoPilot app for the iPhone (or other iOS devices), you can now use your World Flight Planner account to pull wind data into your routes within CoPilot automatically. Look for other features connecting WFP to CoPilot in the near future.
For the complete list of all changes made to the application this release, check the changelog and please continue to contact us with your feedback.

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.

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:

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.

• 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.