• vertical speed at sea level;
• vertical speed at service ceiling;
• and air speed.

In this case the final vertical speed (and thus, enroute time) will be dependent (calculated) on Min and Max values.

For example, if it set Max value to 500 ft/min (mean sea level) and Min value to 100 ft/min (e.g., at 16000 ft MSL) my vertical speed will be 400 ft/min at 4000 ft, 300 ft/min at 8000 ft etc.

thx.

I use the routeplanner requests, which only provide ECMWF data, for other models one has to fetch the data for each point, which will take a lot longer, but it is feasible, if you want to wait a minute or 5.

https://i.ibb.co/0s77SGN/Capture.png

Thanks!

PS: is it possible to use ICON-D2 forecast model somehow? It has crispy 2.2 km resolution compared to hazy 9km from ECMWF.

Good suggestion.

I should perhaps add a slider for vertical speed, in climb and descent. Also climb and descent airspeed, as percentage of cruise? The UI becomes rather crowded. Let me know what you think.

I would like to see more fine-grained interpolation of altitude for climbs/descents. For example, an altitude gain of 8625 ft (from 1375 to 10000 ft ) resulted in 5 readings:

1st leg for 1375 ft;
2nd - 3100 ft;
3rd - 4825 ft;
4th - 6550 ft;
5th - 8725 ft (the end of the 5th leg is where 10000 ft reading starts).

See screenshot: https://ibb.co/0GZZXLJ

I also would really appreciate if you can implement a vertical speed (in ft/min) to get more accurate calculations. On the screenshot above there's a final red dot which represents my own calculations for Top-Of-Climb point at 500 ft/min.

Thanks. There is indeed a bug in uploading the gpx file. I will try to fix it this weekend.

In the meantime, once you have uploaded, just set 'n new start time. This will reset the read weather data, then click read Wx again, and it should read correctly.

Draw the flightplan and set the departure time.

Then: click Read Wx. This loads the forecast data for the route from the windy backend, and interpolates it for the time when you reach that point. I then calculate the ground speed, and with the GS, calculate the time you when you will read the next point.

Then: Open the routeplanner.

If you Read Wx when the routeplanner is open, it should update.

The purpose of the Read Wx button is to prevent continuous calls to the server, so it is only done once you have drawn the flightplan.

Hope it helps.

Hi

Thanks for using the plugin.

Do you click the Read Wx button?

The problem I have is that the forecast updates on elapsed time according to airspeed alone, so after a day of flying the forecast updates to the wrong time. With a hundred knot tailwind after a day I am thousands of miles beyond where it thinks I am. The same thing shows up in the flight planner panel, where the elapsed time does not include the impact of tailwinds. Am I missing something?

Here is the route if you are interested.

Try now.

Thanks for the explanation. I have been planning on doing this for a while. Thx for the inspiration.

MSL is a default value for route altitude that's set in aircraft options (aircraft - edit - climb & descent). In the above's example it's repeated for the first and the last leg of a flight. I checked out my aircraft settings, and it's set for 3000 above mean sea level.

LevelChange="B" (Change level before this leg starts)
LevelChange="F" (Start changing level when this leg starts)

See screenshot below.
https://postimg.cc/Z934nVcF

Thanks for taking a time to implement it! 👍

PS: you can you download Skydemon and try to make your own tests? It's free in trial mode for 1 month.

@igor-320

< PrimaryRoute CourseType="GreatCircle" Start="N501953.00 E0155714.00" Level="3000" CruiseProfile="ISA 1000ft - 2270rpm" Rules="Vfr" PlannedFuel="113.560000">
    < RhumbLineRoute To="N500925.45 E0152302.00" Level="MSL" LevelChange="B" />
    < RhumbLineRoute To="N500907.45 E0145006.55" Level="5000" LevelChange="B" />
    < RhumbLineRoute To="N502259.35 E0152304.85" Level="4000" LevelChange="B" />
    < RhumbLineRoute To="N502548.00 E0151959.00" Level="MSL" LevelChange="F" />
    < WeightBalance>
      ...
    < /WeightBalance>
    < ReferencedAirfields />
  < /PrimaryRoute>

Your example shows: 3000-> MSL -> 5000 -> 4000 -> MSL, but I think I get it now: The PrimaryRoute contains the default level, and if the later routes says only MSL, it implies the default Level.

What does LevelChange mean?

The plugin loads altitudes, but they values don't match for some reason.

added

your example goes from level=3000, to level="MSL", then up again to 5000.

Test a few more examples.

Can you re-check it one more time, please? For some reason, Flight Planner doesn't pick up the first (starting) point from *.flightplan route file.

PS: I re-uploaded my RAR-file, because url was broken.