DUATS - Flight Log?

[CC268]

I just started watching the King Schools VFR Cross Country Videos. John King talks about DUAT for flight planning/flight log. However, when I looked this up I noticed it is no longer active.

What do you guys use for flight planning/flight logs? (I am guessing many use ForeFlight)
It looks like there are quite a few out there just from doing an initial Google search.

 

[AggieMike88]

Check out www.1800wxbrief.com which is is Lockheed-Martin's replacement/competition to DUATS and DUAT

It will do everything the Kings are talking about and a few things more. Including providing you a navigation log.


Now, that said, we know you're doing lots of reading ahead of your actual flying and work with a CFI. While I am okay with that, make sure to bookmark this activity (flight planning, route planning, and nav log creation) as an important lesson to do with your instructor. There are lots of fundamental and key lessons to be learned here that you may miss if you let an "automated" system like ForeFlight or 1800wxbrief do it for you.

Leaning to do it by hand and with a whiz-wheel or electronic E6-B is with the investment of time to understand how the auto systems come up with the answer.

 

[James331]

FltPlan.com for the win.

Probably the best flight planning site out there, also give you nav logs to print.

After you set up your free account, set up your aircraft, you just pick your departure point and destination, hit go and fill in the blanks, even recommends routes based on ATC, picks ideal altitudes, shows freezing levels, winds aloft climb fuel, cruise fuel, time etc. It is BY FAR the most accurate planning app/site out there.

After this is makes your nav log, even gives you the option to email to make a pax brief, or export it for a garmin or other higher end nav systems, you can also click a box and it will file it, or get a official wx brief.
As you can see below 7,000 and 9,000 are both below freezing since they are depicted in blue.

certified weather for your flight plan.

FltPlan is probably the system more of the higher time folks choose, that said as a new pilot I would recommend printing up all your weather and flight logs, including the nav logs you do old school style by hand, and YES you need to know how to do it ALL manually, then CALL flight services 1-800-992-7433 and get a standard briefing, this way it confirms what you already read from fltplan and if you don't understand anything you can ask, at least this is what I would have all my students do.

 

[CC268]

Check out www.1800wxbrief.com which is is Lockheed-Martin's replacement/competition to DUATS and DUAT

It will do everything the Kings are talking about and a few things more. Including providing you a navigation log.


Now, that said, we know you're doing lots of reading ahead of your actual flying and work with a CFI. While I am okay with that, make sure to bookmark this activity (flight planning, route planning, and nav log creation) as an important lesson to do with your instructor. There are lots of fundamental and key lessons to be learned here that you may miss if you let an "automated" system like ForeFlight or 1800wxbrief do it for you.

Leaning to do it by hand and with a whiz-wheel or electronic E6-B is with the investment of time to understand how the auto systems come up with the answer.

I am actually flying now - I have 5 hours of flight. Flying Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays!

 

[CC268]

FltPlan.com for the win.

Probably the best flight planning site out there, also give you nav logs to print.

After you set up your free account, set up your aircraft, you just pick your departure point and destination, hit go and fill in the blanks, even recommends routes based on ATC, picks ideal altitudes, shows freezing levels, winds aloft climb fuel, cruise fuel, time etc. It is BY FAR the most accurate planning app/site out there.

After this is makes your nav log, even gives you the option to email to make a pax brief, or export it for a garmin or other higher end nav systems, you can also click a box and it will file it, or get a official wx brief.
As you can see below 7,000 and 9,000 are both below freezing since they are depicted in blue.

certified weather for your flight plan.

FltPlan is probably the system more of the higher time folks choose, that said as a new pilot I would recommend printing up all your weather and flight logs, including the nav logs you do old school style by hand, and YES you need to know how to do it ALL manually, then CALL flight services 1-800-992-7433 and get a standard briefing, this way it confirms what you already read from fltplan and if you don't understand anything you can ask, at least this is what I would have all my students do.

Cool thanks a lot! I will check that out tonight!

 

[AggieMike88]

I am actually flying now - I have 5 hours of flight. Flying Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays!

Excellent start! And if you can keep up the 3 flights a week routine, you'll have this done before Memorial Day.

 

[flyingron]

DUATS.com (which was the Contel/GTEFSD DUAT offering) is still there. Duat.com (DTC's offering) ended when the FAA finally got around to a (rather flawed in my opinion) recompete of the contract and as stated above, the winning contractors were LockMart and GTE.

 

[denverpilot]

Wonder if the GTE system is still run out of a basement in Chantilly, VA?

Stood there and gawked at it many moons ago. The cafeteria food was meh.

 

[flyingron]

I guess it's CSC now, but to my knowledge, it's the same guys in the same building that it was back when it was Contel. I was involved in the local amateur radio club putting a repeater up on that building.

 

[denverpilot]

I guess it's CSC now, but to my knowledge, it's the same guys in the same building that it was back when it was Contel. I was involved in the local amateur radio club putting a repeater up on that building.

That's cool. As I recall it was a pretty tall building. Where did the repeater cover?

I spent my time with a couple of GTE/FSD-FAA guys in the basement in a little lab almost right next door to the DUATS folk.

We started talking about things while waiting around for things to load software, and they found out I was a pilot, so they dragged me next door after lunchtime to meet everyone and see the DUATS stuff.

I remember the drive over there on the highway in a very dense deciduous forest, something we just never see out West here.

Ah the fun days of being lost in a new city every week as a Field Engineer long before portable GPS was affordable or available...

 

[flyingron]

I don't know if it ever got installed. The Vienna Wireless Society (my wife was one time president, I was secretary) was doing it. We had one site in the middle of Vienna and put another up at Fair Oaks hospital. But all that was a long time ago.