Creating Foreflight User Waypoints from given coordinates

Jaybird180

Jaybird180

Final Approach
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Jaybird180
I need help!

I figured out the import procedures but I can't get the lat/long to import correctly.

I'm starting from a paper copy of given coordinates. The coordinates look like this:
NAA BB.CC W0AA BB.CC putting the coordinates in the northern hemisphere, west of the prime meridian.

Foreflight says: Lat/lon values should be in simple numeric decimal-degree format (ie: 34.7 or -81.457, where "negative" Longitude indicates W). No other Lat/Lon formats are supported for bulk importing.

This is driving me bananas. I think I'm starting from incorrect assumptions about the given coordinate format. Because some of the CC coordinates are above 60, it leads me to believe that it's decimal.

What am I overlooking?
 
A is clearly in degrees
then it's B(dot)C where some of the Cs are above 60, which wouldn't happen if it were decimal.
 
I found it! Thank you!
It's Deg Minutes
This is going to take some manual conversion on my part but it's doable.
 
It is not hard. With decimal minutes, divide the minutes by 60 to get decimal degrees.

So 50 degrees 28.57 minutes is (28.57/60) + 50. So .476 + 50 = 50.476 degrees
 
The OP format is N for North, then AA degrees, BB minutes, CC seconds.
What Pinecone said also works for seconds because there are 60 seconds in a minute of angle.

If your coordinate is N 47 degrees, 12 minutes, 34 seconds you start with the seconds. 34/60 is 0.5667
Add that to your 12 minutes for 12.5667, then divide by 60 gives 0.2094 degrees. Now add that to 47 degrees.
So your value for foreflight is 47.2094. If you were in the southern hemisphere instead of northern it would be -47.2094
 
I work almost exclusively in coordinates for my job. I have my FF units set for DD°MM.mm (Settings->Units). If I am given a note for N64 50.87/W149 56.32, it gets entered in the search bar or the FPL box as 6450.87/-14956.32. Once entered, it will take you to those cords, and you can save, add to route, or direct the waypoint from there. If you are given in format DD°MM’SS” then you will have to divide as mentioned above.
 
Last edited:
pilotmandan said:
I work almost exclusively in coordinates for my job. I have my FF units set for DD°MM.mm (Settings->Units). If I am given a note for N64 50.87/W149 56.32, it gets entered in the search bar or the FPL box as 6450.87/-14956.32. Once entered, it will take you to those cords, and you can save, add to route, or direct the waypoint from there. If you are given in format DD°MM’SS” the you will have to divide as mentioned above.
Click to expand...
Fun fact: ForeFlight also accepts MGRS. You feed it MGRS@12abc3456789012 (it accepts from 0 to 10 digits for 1m up to 10km resolution).

The nice thing about standards is how many there are to choose from.
 
Pinecone said:
It is not hard. With decimal minutes, divide the minutes by 60 to get decimal degrees.

So 50 degrees 28.57 minutes is (28.57/60) + 50. So .476 + 50 = 50.476 degrees
Click to expand...
I went through that when I wrote a navigation log spreadsheet back in ancient times (y'know, mid 1990s :D). As I recall, the database was in degrees, minutes and seconds and the calcs needed decimal degrees.
 
midlifeflyer said:
I went through that when I wrote a navigation log spreadsheet back in ancient times (y'know, mid 1990s :D). As I recall, the database was in degrees, minutes and seconds and the calcs needed decimal degrees.
Click to expand...
Or did the functions expect radians, which you only discovered when you were intercepted over Mexican airspace? I think I have an idea for my next techno-thriller novel!
 
If you already have the waypoints in a spreadsheet, just make 4 columns, first column is the user waypoint name, second column is description, third column is latitude, fourth column is longitude. Don't include the column titles at the top. If at all possible, keep the user waypoint names to 6 characters, upper case, no special characters, no spaces. Keep the description to 25 characters or less, ideally all Caps, spaces are allowed.The latituude and longitudes are sdd.dddddd where s is the sign if negative and is - if in southern hemisphere and - if in western hemisphere. So I am at 35 09 11 N/ 80 47 56W in degrees minutes and seconds. Converting to decimal is 35 +09/60 +11/3600 and 80 +47/60 + 56/3600. That yields 35.153056 for the latitude and 80.798889 for the latitude but you need to make it negative for W, so the 35.153056 for the latitude and -80.798889 for the longitude. If your locations are already decimal, just make sure the signs are correct. The reason for using all caps and the rules stated above are that then the same file can be imported into a GTN GPS and ForeFlight using a .csv file and the waypoint names can transfer from ForeFlight to the GTN using the same names and same file contents. For ForeFlight, the file should be named user_waypoints.csv and renamed to user.wpt for the GTN750.
 
pilotmandan said:
I work almost exclusively in coordinates for my job. I have my FF units set for DD°MM.mm (Settings->Units). If I am given a note for N64 50.87/W149 56.32, it gets entered in the search bar or the FPL box as 6450.87/-14956.32. Once entered, it will take you to those cords, and you can save, add to route, or direct the waypoint from there. If you are given in format DD°MM’SS” then you will have to divide as mentioned above.
Click to expand...
Yes, works fine for a single point entry on the MAPS screen. Doesn't work when trying to import a series of User Waypoints. It accepts only one format and will recompute to somewhere you do not intend.
 
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