Transitioning from Planning to Flying

After you’ve prepared your flight plan, it’s time to go fly it.  Here’s a typical transition from planning phase to the in flight phase:

• Upon starting up your engine and waiting while the temperatures and pressures to stabilize, set the app to Fly mode.  This will log your Off Blocks time and begin logging your aircraft’s track.

• At the correct moment of your choosing (it may differ between VFR and IFR pilots), tap the Departure button along the top of the En Route or Terminal panes. This will log your Actual Departure time, and will be displayed in bold within your flight plan (Under the Estimated Time of Departure (ETD) field.
  • Note: Tapping the Departure button will also set the plan to Fly mode if it hasn’t already been set.

• Now your flight plan is active, your plan now effectively also becomes a flight log. You will notice a TO field entered between your previous and next waypoints within the list. This contains live GPS derived data, and you can easily compare between planned versus actual performance. If actual enroute winds turn out to be vastly different from those predicted in the Area Forecast(s), you’ll be able to spot it quickly and easily. The flight log now becomes a powerful decision making tool.

• If you are busy during startup and taxi, and you don’t get a chance to tap Fly or Departure, AvPlan EFB will do those steps for you when you climb 100 feet above and depart beyond 3 NM of your departure airport. The Departure time noted won’t be as accurate as when the pilot taps the Departure button at the correct moment, but at least it will be close.
  • Note: This feature requires two settings within Settings > User Settings to be in place:
    1. Waypoint auto-sequencing must be ticked
    2. Disable moving map mode must be un-ticked
• Each time you pass a waypoint within the flight plan/log, the TO field will move down the list of waypoints accordingly. When moving from one leg to the next, your Actual Time of Arrival (ATA) is logged.
• If you are unhappy with the auto-sequencing, you can use the Previous Leg or Next Leg buttons as many times as necessary to manually cycle through to the correct leg.

• Tapping the name field (large white box on left edge of flight plan entry) of an airport within your flight plan is a handy shortcut to the Terminal pane information about that place.
• AvPlan EFB will automatically sense when you land. Once you’ve taxied back to the parking area and shut off the engine, tap the Plan button. This will log your On Blocks time and cease track logging.
• Review the overall times for entry in your logbook by visiting Planning > Log Flight.
• Close and store the flight plan by tapping the <Stored Plans button.