Flight plan service, with check points

[pilotod]

Is there an online service where I can click on a point on flight path and have it entered into the flight plan automatically? I see there are lotsa different waypoints to put into a flight plan but how about just a random checkpoint?

I've looked at the AOPA, fltplan.com, duats and duat and all of them require the lat/long for the waypoints. Seems like there's got to be a site that can get the lat/long automatically and include it in the flight plan. I can get lat/longs off skyvector but that site doesn't do a flight plan. I can get lat/longs from skyvector and put them into another service but I have to alter the lat/long to meet that websites criteria...deleting characters...moving the N or W and making the lat long have the right number of digits.

I would like the flight planning service to get the wind and calculate my headings, ETE and all the other navigational stuff....that I can calculate on my own but would prefer not to.

Any other site out there I might try?

And one other question...when I use skyvector to draw my route I notice that the compass variation amount is not the same number from one waypoint to another. My sectional says it's supposed to be 9E. Skyvector had the number varying between 13 and 9. What's up with that? I'm only flying is a big circle, round robin, x-country. That number should stay the same. I think I noticed that same issue on another website but I can't remember which one right now.

 

[Clark1961]

check out www.skyvector.com it might do what you want

Foreflight will do what you want.

There are other planners, mostly commercial, that will do what you want.

 

[SCCutler]

I have a recollection that AeroPlanner.com will do this for you, but it has been several years since I used it.

 

[rokadave]

And one other question...when I use skyvector to draw my route I notice that the compass variation amount is not the same number from one waypoint to another. My sectional says it's supposed to be 9E. Skyvector had the number varying between 13 and 9. What's up with that? I'm only flying is a big circle, round robin, x-country. That number should stay the same. I think I noticed that same issue on another website but I can't remember which one right now.

There's a pretty in-depth discussion about this topic here:
http://skyvector.com/content/magnetic-course-numbers-few-degrees

 

[gismo]

Is there an online service where I can click on a point on flight path and have it entered into the flight plan automatically? I see there are lotsa different waypoints to put into a flight plan but how about just a random checkpoint?

I've looked at the AOPA, fltplan.com, duats and duat and all of them require the lat/long for the waypoints. Seems like there's got to be a site that can get the lat/long automatically and include it in the flight plan. I can get lat/longs off skyvector but that site doesn't do a flight plan. I can get lat/longs from skyvector and put them into another service but I have to alter the lat/long to meet that websites criteria...deleting characters...moving the N or W and making the lat long have the right number of digits.

I would like the flight planning service to get the wind and calculate my headings, ETE and all the other navigational stuff....that I can calculate on my own but would prefer not to.

Any other site out there I might try?

And one other question...when I use skyvector to draw my route I notice that the compass variation amount is not the same number from one waypoint to another. My sectional says it's supposed to be 9E. Skyvector had the number varying between 13 and 9. What's up with that? I'm only flying is a big circle, round robin, x-country. That number should stay the same. I think I noticed that same issue on another website but I can't remember which one right now.

Most of the PC based flight planning tools will do that by creating a "user waypoint" where you click. I think that Foreflight will do the same thing but I'm not certain about that. Another possibility would be the iPhone version of Seattle Avionics online planner. AFaIK their PC product can do this so maybe they extended that to the phone app.

 

[Henning]

And one other question...when I use skyvector to draw my route I notice that the compass variation amount is not the same number from one waypoint to another. My sectional says it's supposed to be 9E. Skyvector had the number varying between 13 and 9. What's up with that? I'm only flying is a big circle, round robin, x-country. That number should stay the same. I think I noticed that same issue on another website but I can't remember which one right now.

Since the magnetic pole and geographic pole don't line up, variation changes with location on Earth. Maritime charts have local variation printed inside each compass rose, and on larger charts I may have 3 different readings. Not only that, since the pole is wobbling as well, it also gives me the date of the variation and the annual change for that location.