My Copilot Spreadsheet Project
Background
This project was created because of my frustration with using 1970's Pilot Operating Handbooks (POHs)
for flight planning. The tables do not have altitudes or conditions that beginning pilots do
not use. Pressure altitude and standard temperatures must be calculated to be accurate.
Spreadsheets are meant to automate routine calculations like this. Why not use a computer to handle the
tedious calculations?
The benefits of automated calculations are numerous:
- more accurate calculations of flight times and fuel consumed
- better choices of altitudes and power to optimize fuel, favorable winds, etc.
- less reliance on pilot's ability to manipulate temperature and pressure weather information.
- improved safety
Download link is at the bottom of the page.
Notes on My Copilot
My Copilot, version 0.8 is a free web offering. Distribute it freely, but not for commercial use. Do
not make money on other people's work!
No warranty is provided. In fact, don't use this (except for Flight Simulators). With
some help, I hope to improve this over time. But I don't plan to make this a commerical
product (I can't imagine selling enough software to cover the liability).
If anyone wants to pursue a windows standalone version, that would be great, but would
require a lot of programming. For now, using a spreadsheet is a good way to prove in the
flow and equations.
This program does use Visual Basic functions, so if it asks you to enable them, you'll need to
get the calculations. If you want to review them first, go to Tools/Macro/Visual Basic Editor.
Usage
The spreadsheet has an "Input" screen where a pilot enters the airplane they're flying, the weather,
and their course. Separate pages capture information on specific airplanes and airplane types as well
as airports of interest.
On a "WhatIf?" page, the pilot can see the effects of changing altitudes for each course and
power settings. When the altitude and power choices are finalized, the pilot can then
print out a separate flight plan sheet that contains other useful reference information for the
flight. A "supplementary" sheet provides secondary information that can also be printed out.
The philosophy behind the planner is to separate routine data, flight plan entry data, and
analysis to be on separate sheets, each tailored to the task at hand. The printouts are
meant to exclude the source data for the calculations and provide the pilot with a sparse
list of data needed during the flight and nothing else.
Performance data (originally in POH tables) has been converted to linear equations using the
PSI Plot mathematical analysis tool. I found that the linear equations had reasonable correlation
to the original tables.
Bugs/Issues
- Not all of the flight plan tables are filled in (waiting for finalizing the format)
- Need to fill in performance data for other Cessna's (if someone types them in, I'll run regression)
- Need to review temperatures and pressures used in formulas (to make sure proper versions are used)
- Need to include the time and fuel for climbing and descending (POH only covers climbing!)
- Need to add reserve fuel to calculations
- Need to "lock" fields to prevent accidental overwriting.
- Need lots of testing - rechecking equations and using known conditions to verify tables
Releases
Feb 2007 - early version released (called FlightPlan.xls)
Jun 19, 2008 - rewritten version, called My Copilot, version 0.8, released on the web.
Contact
Contact me at: "tconrad" at sign "ptd" dot "net"
Download
Download the latest version of My Copilot
here.