Import a flight plan

ways to import trip details

A lot of the ‘journey’ data on the declaration will already have been put together in your flightplan. If you are in the habit of creating a draft flight plan  before your create your declarations then you can transfer the data and save time

Trip details can be imported from

  • Skydemon
  • Foreflight
  • Garmin
  • easyvfr
  • Autorouter

Of course you have to export the flight plan first from your chosen flight planning software.  Only with Autorouter can you access content directly if you have entered your Autorouter credentials in the app.

The others require you to save your flight plan. There are numerous ‘gotchas’ For example you might have thought it was straightforward to simply open the standard “SkyDemon.flightplan” file. but this does not contain all the needed trip information. In SkyDemon you save the ‘pilot log’ – it is saved on the desktop version as a ‘.html’ file and on the tablets it is saved as a ‘.pdf’

Note where the flight plan is saved as a pdf (SkyDemon mobile, Foreflight and Garmin) the app uses OCR to interpret the content and may not always achieve a complete result.

 

there are 2 methods
  1. Use the flight plan import button within the app to import a pre-saved flight plan file
  2. Create the flight plan file in the planning app and Share or ‘Open with’

here’s the steps to import a Skydemon ‘Plog’ using method 1

The screenshot shows the desktop version of Skydemon where at the top there is an option to save the pilot log as an html file

the tablet version is similar – select pilot log, you then have to select ‘Print’   then ‘Create’ – you are not asked what type of file, you are simply asked which app you want to open the plog with.  on the list of apps you should see manifest6

if you select it, the app will open and create  a new declaration.  More on that later

 

 

the desktop SkyDemon is more conventional insofar as you will choose the type of file and where to save it-  html and a location accessible to the app

 

 

 

 

 

 

when you click on the main menu ‘create/edit’  in myGar/Manifest6  this list of previous declarations (if any) will appear. At the top right there is a button to ‘import flight plan’   There is a similar button within the edit declaration tab/pages   – they both work the same. First you select what type of flightplan it is you are trying to import

 

 

 

 

you can see the different types of Fp  – In this demonstration we are going to import a SkyDemon PLOG file in html format

A conventional file explorer (or on Mac you would use ‘finder’) appears and you navigate and find the ‘.html’ you previously exported/saved from SkyDemon

 

 

 

 

open the file and as much of the content as can be recognised will populate your Gar/declaration.  Note if your aircraft registration in SkyDemon matches one you previously save in the app then all the aircraft detail will fill in the Gar aircraft page. Also if you have recorded a pilot in SkyDemon and it matches with a record in your ‘crew/pax’ list then those details will also be filled in.  The main thing is that the journey details will be populated. A big ‘gotcha’ here is that often draft SD flightplans are incomplete and it is easy to miss that no Estimated Time Enroute has been completed  – check this the same process happens with a saved pdf though the Character Recognition is not 100%

 

Importing SkyDemon PLOG directly using a tablet

The same process can be used on a tablet where the SkyDemon app sits side by side Manifest6/myGar app

This is the sequence on an android tablet to move the SD flightplan detail into the Manifest6/myGar app.

step1 this is the ‘Home’ page in SkyDemon – click Pilot Log

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 2   now click on ‘Print’

Step 3 now click ‘create’

 

 

 

Step 4 you will be presented with an array of apps to open the PLOG file Choose Manifest6

the MyGar/Manifest6 app will open, create a new declaration and open on the 3 tab/page declaration screen with as many fields populated as recognised.
As said above if the aircraft in the FP matches one in MyGar/Manifest6 then that page will be complete. Ditto if the pilot name in SD matches a saved crew. Watch out for the ETE remaining blank

It is possible to do the same on the desktop. Navigate to the saved flightplan file and choose ‘Open with’   if the MyGar/Manifest6 app is installed then you should get the option to open with Manifest6 and it will automatically create as much of the declaration as it can.

 

Importing other flight plans

the Skydemon and EasyVFR flightplan imports complete the most data. Avoid trying to import a Skydemon.FlightPlan raw file, they save a lot of navigation data but not much that is useful for a GAR. Use the PLOG in html or pdf form . EasyVFR exports to an xml file. this also is successful in completing more fields in the GAR declaration.

Foreflight can export a pdf which can be interpreted with some success – Ditto Garmin though Garmin Pilot does not easily export files

Autorouter fpl import is the simplest of the lot – make sure you’ve entered your autorouter user nameand pwd. Select autorouter.eu -it will offer a list of the most recent 10 flightplans you have in draft on autorouter

Select one and it will populate the journey page . It too tries to match the aircraft registration but there is no crew/pax info in autorouter to extract

A step by step Foreflight import will follow soon