iFly GPS Forum

This one is for Brian. Thought a short tutorial in the forum might help others.

I rarely use the neat Altitude Planning feature in iFly. (Out here, in the SW, the minimum altitudes are often set by mountains. And a lot of times, it doesn't make any sense to consider higher altitudes for shortish flights. For example, for our favorite $100 hamburger run, the minimum altitude is 7500' for a 24 minute trip. (Starting from 1500' on the ground.) No point in even considering 9500' for that short flight, even if the winds are 30 kts better at 9500'.)

So my question: How does iFly handle altitude in the FP when a user has not specifically entered an altitude? It seems like it sets one, even if I haven't.

Normally I wouldn't care, except for two things: The +VST pops up a lot on flights where I didn't set an altitude, telling me I've got to climb at 8000 fpm to get to some altitude I didn't knowingly set and 2) the red warning coloring on the Magenta course line is related to FP altitude.

Since iFly seems to think I set a FP altitude, I have a few hypotheses about what it's doing: It could be that iFly is looking at the altitude I enter in my Weather Briefing, and uses that for my FP altitude, even if I don't set a FP altitude. Or it could be that iFly is importing an altitude from my Saved Flight Plan. Or perhaps iFly is setting a minimum altitude based on terrain.

Anyway, instead of me guessing, I thought perhaps Brian could tell us.

That might be the default then.

Is there a way to not have iFly assign an altitude? (So no VST popup, etc.)

And too, sometimes we fly an "IFR" altitude while VFR. (Gasp!) Actually, out here, the MEA's over the mountains in the 11's. So, for example, today we flew from Phx to P14 at 9000'. There won't be any IFR that low, and most pilots will be be flying even/odd+500 VFR. So a little extra protection for everyone.

Unfortunately, iFly doesn't know that that's my plan.(Don't know if it would accept 9000 for a VFR briefing.)

I suppose I could start setting altitudes. But I would rather have it not set an altitude unless I tell it to. Perhaps an option?

By default there is no altitude assigned to a new flight plan. But as soon as you go into the Altitude Planner, it will assign an initial altitude, which is basically a minimum safe altitude based on your VFR/IFR setting and direction of flight.

If you hit "Optimize" on that form (and presuming you have wind data downloaded), it will pick the best altitude based on winds, but still obeying the direction & VFR/IFR rules.

Also, you can touch and drag the altitude route up and down, but it will "snap" to the proper altitude based on direction & VFR/IFR rules.

To set a specific non-standard altitude, or to remove altitudes totally from your plan, do this from the Flight Plan form. Touch "Opt" next to a Waypoint with an altitude set, touch "Set Altitude", then either clearn the altitude, or enter a new number.

Hope this helps!

-Walter