Seattle Avionics

The following screenshots briefly illustrate the different screens that SmartPlan offers and how simple flight planning can be when you use technology the right way.

Planning a Flight

This is the main Flight Plan Window in SmartPlan. Most of the window is filled with a Chart. Below the Chart is a Profile view (Premier only) that shows your flight over terrain and through airspace and clouds. On the left is a NavLog that shows each waypoint during your flight.

From here, you can alter the flight path, create new waypoints, control what is shown on the chart, see a more detailed NavLog, print kneeboard-sized documents, etc.

Flight Plan Wizard

Creating wind-optimized flight plans, using the Flight Plan Wizard, is as easy as answering a few questions. You don't even need to know the ident of the airports as SmartPlan looks them up based on name, closest city, etc.

Preferred Routes

SmartPlan Premier automatically looks for FAA preferred routes between the selected airports or to airports in the general area. It automatically filters-out routes not applicable to your aircraft and gives you additional information to help you decide which, if any route, is appropriate.

Alternates

As good as modern weather prediction is, there's still a lot of uncertainty to it. And, even given perfect weather predictions, no one wants to be left without options — alternates — just in case. Voyager makes selecting IFR alternates easy. You quickly see how far each potential airport is from your landing airport (in terms of distance, time and fuel), and the runway and procedure information you need to decide which airport is best. Perhaps best of all, quick weather indicators show the current METARs and the TAFs that apply at the planned landing time.

SmartRouter™

Now let SmartPlan's revolutionary 3D, wind-optimized SmartRouter™ find the quickest route to your destination. Unlike other products, both SmartPlan Premier and Express take expected winds-aloft into account during the planning process to choose the best path for your specific takeoff time. This is a key difference as SmartPlan works by optimizing for Best time not necessarily minimizing distance. With SmartPlan Premier, you can also optimize for Best economy if your plane burns fuel differently at different altitudes (and/or different temperatures and weights).

You can choose between Airway (Victor only in Express, Victor or Jet in Premier) or GPS Direct routing. With either, you can also choose to add fuel stops and route around various types of airspace or water. As SmartPlan is a 3D autorouter, it usually avoids TFRs (downloaded every hour, by the way) and other airspace by taking you over or under the airspace, rather than going around. Imagine the difference between going all the way around Class B airspace and simply flying under the lid!

Note: The detailed options below are available with SmartPlan Premier only. With SmartPlan Express, the system uses common defaults.

SmartFuel™ Fuel Price Optimizer

Not only does it plan the route to minimize time and avoid terrain, it also automatically avoids an even more ominous hazard of flying — high fuel prices.

Voyager now uses constantly updated fuel price data from 100LL.com to automatically find the least expensive fuel along the way, potentially saving you hundreds of dollars.

SIDs/STARs

If you fly IFR, you'll appreciate SmartPlan Premier's ability to plan for expected departure and arrival procedures. Not only can you pick the Procedures but also the specific transitions and even the entry/exit points. On the right, SmartPlan Premier shows a diagram of the selected Procedure and, if you click the Procedure tab, even shows the printed Procedure (PDF) itself.

Weight and Balance

SmartPlan makes it simple and fast to be safe by streamlining weight and balance calculations with a "type it once, I'll remember it" approach. For example, in the Front Passenger area, just type Tonya and enter her weight once. After that, select Tonya from a drop-down list and SmartPlan automatically fills-in her weight (which means you don't have to ask her again!). Frequently fly with the same group? Just use the Save As button to save/load common configurations.

Plate Packs

And, if you also have the SmartPlates module, you can even create a Plate Pack with all the IFR approach procedures you might need for the trip.

Finally, before you finish the Wizard, SmartPlan keeps you safe by quickly looking for problems with the proposed flight such as terrain clearance, night flying, fuel issues, VFR flights into IMC, etc. Of course, as Pilot in Command, SmartPlan simply warns, never overrides you.