SkyDemon Plan Documentation: Planning a Route
Your route is displayed in SkyDemon as a thick magenta line, which little white circles at turning points. The circles have a green dot inside if the turning point coincides with a known waypoint, or they are empty if it's just an unnamed point in space.
Creating a Route on the Map
Route are normally created between waypoints, and SkyDemon includes most types of waypoints you're likely to want to use: towns, airfields, radio navigation aids, visual reporting points and airways reporting points. You can also add your own waypoints and these are referred to as user waypoints. All waypoints light up when the mouse is oved over them.
The most productive way to plan a route is to press the New button on the toolbar, which brings up the New Route window where you can enter you start and destination airfields. Once that route is created as a straight line, you can drag the leg to intermediate waypoints to create doglegs and avoid certain features. In this way it's very easy to create a detailed route in minutes. If you prefer to use the map exclusively, you can click on one waypoint then click on another, then another, and your route can be created in this way.
TIP: When typing in the New Route window you can enter the ICAO identifier of the airfield or you can start typing its name. Either way, as you start typing a list is displayed below the box and you can press the down arrow to highlight the one you mean. The box turns green when it understands which airfield you are referring to.
As an example, let's say you need to create a route from Barkston Heath to Conningsby via Cranwell. Press New then type EGYE in the first box, press tab, then type EGXC in the second and press enter. Your route is created direct, and the map zooms to show all of it. Now click and drag on the purple route line, and move it over Cranwell and release the mouse button. Your route now consists of two legs and you're done. To clear your route and start again, press the New button on the toolbar.
Creating a Route with the Keyboard
It is possible to create a detailed route using only the keyboard, in the New Route window. Press the New button (or Ctrl-N) to bring up the New Route window and type in the start and destination airfields as detailed in the previous section. You can also specify your alternate airfield here (or you can do so later).
In the Route box you can type a list of waypoints. SkyDemon understands standard flightplan syntax for specifying a route, but since it's a VFR product it is quite forgiving when it comes to syntax. It's fine just to type a list of waypoints (including airfield ICAO identifiers). When finished just press enter and your route is created.
While typing your route a warning is displayed if SkyDemon cannot find a waypoint you have referred to. If multiple waypoints with the same identifier are found, the closest one to the last waypoint is assumed.
When specifying a route like this in SkyDemon the DCT part is optional; you can just type a list of waypoints separated by spaces. Any errors in the route are highlighted as you type. A waypoint can be entered as a VOR radial and distance (SAM17522). A change of speed and level can be appended to a waypoint after a slash (EGHA/N0100A025). An example route is shown on the right.
Altering your Route
A route is usually comprised of many legs, each between two turning points. Both legs and turning points can be selected and manipulated. As an example, find Blackpool airport on the map and create a route from there to Barrow (20 miles north) by clicking on one then the other. If you then decided you'd like to route via the Fleetwood VRP, which is a few miles to the east of the route, you would click and drag on the leg and drag it to that VRP. When the mouse moves close to the VRP the cursor will "snap" to it, and the turning point circle will gain a green dot.
Moving a turning point to a different waypoint is accomplished in the same manner: if you decided you'd like to start from Warton instead of Blackpool you would drag the Blackpool turning point to Warton.
This technique can be used to avoid danger areas or other pieces of airspace you do not want to fly through. Create a route from Exeter to Bodmin: this will take you straight through the Dartmoor Danger Area. Grab the leg over the danger area and drag it upwards so that the route is clear. Your route will now have two legs. You could then subdivide these two legs even further by dragging them, so that you skirt very closely around the airspace.
Removing Turning Points
You can simplify or change your route by removing turning points. To remove one, select it then press Del, or right-click it and choose Delete Turning Point. You can also remove one by dragging it on top of a neighbouring turning point in your route.
For example, to remove the secondary turning points created in the route above, drag them one at a time on top of the middle turning point at the top, and they will disappear.
Specifying your Alternate Destination
You can specify the alternate airfield for your route at the time you create it with the New Route window, but if you forget or need to change it, simply right-click another airfield and choose Set as Alternate. The airfield is now the alternate for your route.
Reversing the Route
To quickly reverse the route you have planned, click the Reverse button on toolbar or press Ctrl-R. If you have specified an alternate destination you will need to redo this, as obviously it cannot be included in a route reversal. In this manner you can efficiently generate the return route home, after planning an outward route.
Vertical Navigation
The broad parameters for your route can be changed using the controls in the Flight Details window, which is at the bottom right of the screen. It allows you to pick the aircraft, level and speed for the route as a whole. To change the level, click on the current level (which is blue and underlined) and type a new level. It can be an altitude in feet or a flight level starting with FL. Press enter to confirm your change.
You can also set the level and speed for each leg individually. To bring up the properties for a specific leg, double-click on it to show the Leg Properties window. In this window you can see many attributes of the leg such as its distance, tracks and headings (true and magnetic). A checkbox labelled "use route level" can be unchecked, and if unchecked you can type a different level for the leg. When you press OK to confirm your changes you will see in the Enroute Features window that your aircraft is now having to perform a climb and descent to achieve your new level.
A more intuitive way of changing the level of a specific leg is to simply drag it up and down in the Enroute Features window. As you drag, the climbs and descents in your route are hidden, leaving each leg a straight line representing its specified level. When you release the mouse button to confirm your change, new climbs and descents are calculated and shown.
Other Route Conditions
Takeoff Time
In the Flight Details window on the right you can also set the date and time of your flight. This is saved along with your route plan and is used in various places, such as producing an ICAO flightplan, filtering NOTAM and getting the forecast weather for the flight. If the date and time of a flight is not set, the assumption is made that you are about to undertake it. To set it, click on the "Not Set" hyperlink and type a new date and time into the boxes. Press enter to confirm, and you'll notice that your landing time is now also shown.
Fuel Plan and Cost
Towards the bottom of the Flight Details window is the fuel plan. First you'll see the minimum fuel required to undertake your journey safely, which is calculated from the various parameters associated with the selected aircraft (more on customising your aircraft in a later secton). This can be expanded to show the individual calculations: taxi/takeoff (fixed), enroute (calculated), diversion (calculated), holding (fixed), landing (fixed) and contingency. These values are all updated in real time as you plan your route.
Next comes the planned fuel, which you can set by clicking on the blue underlined text. A slider will appear and you can set any value between the minimum required (as shown above) and the maximum that can be held by the aircraft.
Next is the absolute endurance resulting from the planned fuel, then finally the cost of the flight. To make this cost accurate, you'll need to specify the cost of fuel in the Planning Options window under the Setup menu.
Managing your Routes
To save a route to disk, press the Save button. You'll be prompted to enter a name for the route. SkyDemon creates a SkyDemon folder within your personal Documents folder, and the Routes folder within that is where all your saved journeys are stored by default, though you can save them elsewhere if you choose.
To load a previously-saved route, press Open and select it. You can also launch SkyDemon with any route loaded by double-clicking the route file in Windows Explorer.
SkyDemon route files are small and can easily be shared with friends who are also using SkyDemon.
