Flight planning is where pilotage and dead reckoning come together. You figure out your heading, ground speed, time, and fuel before you ever start the engine, then verify it against landmarks as you fly. Here is the method, step by step.
Part of our Navigation and Flight Planning guide. For the tool itself, see our E6B flight computer guide.
Pilotage and dead reckoning
Pilotage is navigating by visual landmarks, comparing what you see out the window to your sectional chart. Dead reckoning is computing your heading, time, and fuel from known values: distance, true airspeed, and the wind. Together they let you fly a planned route confidently and catch errors early.
The planning steps
- Pick your route and checkpoints. Choose easily identifiable landmarks every several miles.
- Measure true course and distance for each leg using a plotter on the chart.
- Get the winds aloft from a current forecast.
- Solve the wind triangle on your E6B to find the wind correction angle, true heading, and ground speed.
- Convert to a compass heading. Apply magnetic variation to get magnetic heading, then compass deviation to get the compass heading you will actually fly.
- Compute time and fuel for each leg from ground speed and distance, and total them with reserves.
True, magnetic, and compass
Charts and winds aloft use true north. Your compass points to magnetic north, offset by the local variation, and the compass itself has small errors called deviation. The flow is true course, then true heading (add wind correction), then magnetic heading (apply variation), then compass heading (apply deviation). Getting this sequence right is a classic student milestone.
The navigation log
You record all of this on a navigation log: legs, checkpoints, headings, distances, ground speeds, times, and fuel. In flight you note your actual time over each checkpoint and adjust. A good nav log turns a long trip into a series of short, manageable legs.
Don’t forget the climb
Your airplane climbs slower than it cruises, so account for the time, distance, and fuel to reach altitude. Many students forget the climb and run their times short on the first leg.
What you'll need
Flight planning tools from PilotMall.com.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between pilotage and dead reckoning?
Pilotage navigates by visual landmarks; dead reckoning calculates heading, time, and fuel from speed, distance, and wind.
How do you go from true course to compass heading?
True course to true heading (apply wind correction), to magnetic heading (apply variation), to compass heading (apply deviation).
Why account for the climb?
The airplane climbs slower than it cruises, so the first leg takes more time and fuel than cruise math alone suggests.