Creating a Flight Plan

We are going to create an example flight plan from San Francisco Intl. (KSFO) to Los Angeles Intl. Airport (KLAX) using Aerofly FS navigation planner. With only a few clicks we can generate a route between two airports which will be displayed as the active flight plan within the aircraft and can be used to navigate from A to B.

Steps to Create a New Route

1. Open Navigation Menu

From the main menu click the button “Navigation” to open the navigation flight planner.
Using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out or use both index fingers in VR to stretch the map.
Hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse to drag the map. With VR hand controllers use one index finger to touch the map and move it around.

2. Delete Old Route

In the top right corner of the navigation menu click the route reset button to delete any previous route entirely.

3. Select Origin

Move the map to the west coast of the United States, zoom into the California region until you see San Francisco on the map.
On the map area click on San Francisco to select it.
Press the option “Set as origin” to set it as the route origin.

4. Select Departure Runway

On the left click on the edit button next to the departure runway (RWY) if the right hand side is not already showing a list of runways.
In the right column select the desired runway for departure, we’re using runway 28R in our example.

5. Select Departure (optional)

On the left side click the edit button next to the departure (DEP).
On the right hand side select a standard instrument departure (SID) from the list, we’re using the Porte4 departure here.

6. Select Destination

Pan the map until you see the Los Angeles area, south-east of San Francisco.
Click on Los Angeles Intl. airport to select it. If you hit multiple items with your click you have to select the airport from the right hand column.
With Los Angeles KLAX selected press the “Set as destination” button to set the route destination.

7. Select Destination Runway

On the left side click the edit button next to the destination runway (RWY).
On the right hand side click on the desired runway, in this case runway 24L.

8. Select Approach

On the left hand side click on the approach edit button (APP).
On the right side select the ILS approach I24L.

9. Select Arrival (optional)

On the left select the arrival edit button (ARR).
On the right select the desired standard terminal arrival route (STAR), in this case the Kimmo2 arrival.

Search

The Aerofly FS navigation and location menus have a search function integrated into them.

Select something you want to search for, e.g. select the destination on the left.
Type the name, ICAO or IATA code into the textbox.
Press enter to select the first item or click on the desired item in the list.

How to Follow the Route?

The copilot can fly the entire route from takeoff to landing with the press of a single button. Check out the copilot tutorial to get more info.

Copilot Tutorial

How to Program a Route using the MCDU?

In Aerofly FS you also have the opportunity to create a flight-plan inside of the virtual cockpit, using the Multifunction Control Display Unit (MCDU) in the aircraft. Check out our tutorial on how to do that for the A320.

A320 MCDU Programming