Preparing a Flight: Weather, Route and Charts

We start with the weather because it decides whether the flight happens at all, and at what time. For the chosen aerodrome, a 7-day forecast block gives sky conditions, temperatures, wind and gusts, rain and its probability. Tapping on a day shows its hourly breakdown, in UTC with local time alongside: low, mid and high cloud layers, visibility, QNH and the 0 °C isotherm altitude. These forecasts come from numerical models (GFS, ECMWF and Météo-France via Open-Meteo): they give a trend, and they don't replace a TAF or the official briefing.

Next comes real-time weather. The station map plots ground stations from Météo-France, the German weather service, MeteoSwiss and METARs from numerous aerodromes worldwide. Each station shows a barb pointing in the direction the wind is coming from, coloured according to its strength. This is especially useful where the aerodrome doesn't publish a METAR: an uncontrolled airfield often has a station just a few miles away. The aerodrome's METAR and TAF are displayed exactly as published, and also decoded in plain language, with the flight category (VFR, MVFR, IFR, LIFR) and wind components on the runways.

The precipitation radar shows where it's raining and which direction the showers are moving: its last six images play as an animation, with a pause button and a slider to step back frame by frame. The map can be panned and zoomed. Over France, the latest image comes from the Météo-France mosaic; elsewhere, the source changes depending on the region (the European OPERA network, NOAA in the United States, RainViewer). Watching the animation before deciding on a time slot is far better than relying on a single snapshot.

For a cross-country flight, the vertical cross-section below the map of nearby aerodromes rounds out the picture. It gives the forecast wind and temperature by level, from the ground up to cruise altitude, along with cloud layers, the 0 °C isotherm and the layers where icing is possible. This is what lets you choose an altitude while already knowing the wind it brings, even before plotting the route. Lastly, the day-and-night block gives sunrise and sunset times and aeronautical night, useful for knowing how late a day flight can still take place.

Once the weather looks acceptable, it's time to move on to the route, in the flight planner, accessible from the Préparation tab of the Pilot Corner or the Flight Preparation page. The route is built on the map or by code: French aerodromes by their ICAO identifier or name, VOR, VOR-DME and NDB beacons, or freely placed waypoints dropped wherever you like. Each point can be moved or removed with a single gesture, and the preparation stays saved in your browser.

The planner then asks for your aircraft. You can look it up by registration in the public registers of the DGAC for France, the FAA for the United States, and the Norwegian authority. For common light aircraft, it suggests a typical cruise speed, fuel consumption and usable fuel, which you then adjust using your aircraft's flight manual: these are training values, not the actual figures for your aircraft. Cruise altitude is capped at FL125 in the tool.

For each leg, the log gives the distance, the true track at the midpoint of the leg, the magnetic variation on the date of the flight, the magnetic track, then the forecast wind at your altitude at the midpoint of the leg. The wind triangle derives the drift correction, the magnetic heading to fly, ground speed, time, and estimated time of passage. This is the moment to redo the calculation by hand and compare: it's exactly what's asked of you in navigation exams.

The fuel calculation follows the regulatory logic: trip fuel, taxi fuel, final reserve (30 minutes by day, 45 minutes by night under VFR), minimum fuel at departure, margin and endurance. A headwind that's too strong or insufficient fuel are flagged. If the fuel balance is tight, it's the weather that needs reopening: a different altitude, a different time slot or a different day changes the wind — and so the fuel.

The data comes from the SIA's official publications (AIP France), updated with every 28-day AIRAC cycle. The planner follows your route with a realistic profile — climb, cruise, then descent — and lists every CTR, TMA, CTA, SIV, RMZ, TMZ, and every P, R or D zone crossed or skimmed, along with its class, floor, ceiling and operating hours. It tells you whether you're inside it, just below, or just above.

It warns you if your altitude takes you into Class A airspace, which is prohibited for VFR, or into a prohibited zone, and reminds you to check the activity of restricted and danger areas (NOTAM, SUP AIP, AZBA). The radio plan gives the main frequency to contact every thousand feet: the tower within a CTR, approach within a TMA, or SIV flight information elsewhere. Secondary and emergency frequencies, including 121.500, are grouped together in a separate table.

The ICAO flight plan is filled in using the preparation data: identification, flight rules and type, aircraft type, equipment, departure point and time, speed, level and route, destination, duration and alternates, endurance. Each field is explained so you learn how to fill it in, and the complete FPL message can be copied with a single click. Nothing is actually filed from ForAllPilots: a real flight plan must be filed via SOFIA-Briefing.

The nav log can be downloaded as a PDF in A4 landscape format, with an ATA column to fill in during the flight, along with the fuel calculation, radio plan, airspace crossed and the FPL message. It's clearly marked as a training document, not an official log.

These tools are designed for learning and revision, not for deciding on a real flight. Before taking off, everything must be checked against official sources: the aerodrome's VAC chart, the 1:500,000 chart, the AIP, NOTAMs and the official weather briefing. The value of training with the planner lies in understanding why heading differs from track, how wind changes ground speed and fuel, and which organisation to call and when.

To go further, ForAllPilots' PPL and ATPL question banks cover navigation, meteorology and regulations, and two blog articles each cover one of the two tools in detail: the Pilot Corner's weather features on one side, the flight planner on the other.