Advisory trip planning
Trip planner
A multi-hop chain of fuel-stop airports origin→destination — every hop within aircraft range and terrain-feasible, direct across the flats and along real airways through the mountains.
Plan a multi-hop trip
The sanctioned way to plan farther than /plan's 600 nm cap: a chain of fuel-stop airports where every hop is within range and terrain-feasible. Try the worked example KCDW → KCVO (New Jersey to Oregon in a light single). Full JSON at /v1/trip. Trips are capped at 3,000 nm great-circle.
Local equirectangular projection, north up. The shaded backdrop is 1-degree grid MORA (light → dark = low → high); red cells exceed the 12,500 ft ceiling — the wall a direct hop cannot cross — and hatched cells are unknown terrain (never flown direct). The dashed line is the origin→destination great circle. Blue hops are direct (great-circle arcs); purple hops ride real airways, drawn through their published fixes with the airway ident labeled along each run.
Trip · 6 hops · 5 intermediate stops · 2184.2 nm
This trip wants 12,500 ft westbound — the lowest VFR cruising altitude (91.159) that clears every leg's floor. It is driven by leg #5 KLWT→S95. At or below your 12,500 ft ceiling. Advisory; assumes the ≥3,000 ft AGL rule and does not apply magnetic variation on true-track fallbacks — verify.
| # | Stop | Name | Best runway (ft) | From prev (nm) | Towered | Approach | Fuel (NASR) | Category (now) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KCDW | ESSEX COUNTY | 4,552 ft | — | towered | IAP | 100LL,A | VFR |
| 2 | KPHN | ST CLAIR COUNTY INTL | 5,104 ft | 388.1 nm | non-twr | IAP | 100LL,A+ | IFR |
| 3 | KRCX | RUSK COUNTY | 4,001 ft | 396.0 nm | non-twr | IAP | 100LL,A | MVFR |
| 4 | 6H8 | HAZELTON MUNI | 3,800 ft | 390.7 nm | non-twr | none | — | no-station |
| 5 | KLWT | LEWISTOWN MUNI | 6,100 ft | 379.8 nm | non-twr | IAP | 100,100LL,A | no-station |
| 6 | S95 | MARTIN FLD | 3,819 ft | 374.2 nm | non-twr | none | 100LL | no-station |
| 7 | KCVO | CORVALLIS MUNI | 5,900 ft | 225.9 nm | non-twr | IAP | 100LL,A | VFR |
Great-circle origin→destination is 2141.3 nm; the planned chain is 2184.2 nm. Categories are current observations where a fresh METAR exists, else the reason it is absent (stops are never filtered by weather). Fuel is FAA NASR-reported (same cycle): listed grades are shown verbatim, an — means fuel is not reported for that field — not that fuel is unavailable (NASR carries no “no fuel” value); confirm fuel and hours at each stop.
Legs · 2 airway, 4 direct
Direct great circle — no airway fixes. Via corridor.
Nav log
FLOOR is the segment's FAA altitude floor — the governing MEA (airway) or grid MORA (direct), both FAA minimums. ALT is the lowest VFR cruising rung ≥ floor (14 CFR 91.159): magnetic course 0–179° → odd thousands + 500, 180–359° → even + 500. The ≥3,000 ft AGL rule is assumed (we can't compute AGL per segment; a rec at/below 3,000 AGL is legal at any altitude, and ours is still ≥ floor). T marks a rung whose hemisphere came from the computed true track (no FAA magnetic course; variation unapplied); ▲ marks a rung above your ceiling (or capped at 17,999 ft — VFR-on-top is out of scope). Advisory — verify. TRK °T is our computed great-circle track (whole degrees) — advisory, ours. TRK °M is the FAA-published outbound magnetic course where the segment rides an airway; R marks a reciprocal (flown against the airway's charted direction); it is blank where no course is published — never computed, never coerced to 0. DIST/CUM are great-circle nm; for an airway hop the airport-to-fix join distance is in the leg total above, not a nav-log row.
Terrain silhouette computed from USGS GMTED2010 300darcsec/max (~0.5 nm cells, per-cell maximum elevation) — aerodatalab-computed, advisory, NOT an FAA minimum. The grid MORA line is the FAA governing altitude. At this resolution a narrow pass can read higher than its col (a nearby ridge inside the same ~0.5 nm cell dominates the max).
Direct great circle — no airway fixes. Via corridor.
Nav log
FLOOR is the segment's FAA altitude floor — the governing MEA (airway) or grid MORA (direct), both FAA minimums. ALT is the lowest VFR cruising rung ≥ floor (14 CFR 91.159): magnetic course 0–179° → odd thousands + 500, 180–359° → even + 500. The ≥3,000 ft AGL rule is assumed (we can't compute AGL per segment; a rec at/below 3,000 AGL is legal at any altitude, and ours is still ≥ floor). T marks a rung whose hemisphere came from the computed true track (no FAA magnetic course; variation unapplied); ▲ marks a rung above your ceiling (or capped at 17,999 ft — VFR-on-top is out of scope). Advisory — verify. TRK °T is our computed great-circle track (whole degrees) — advisory, ours. TRK °M is the FAA-published outbound magnetic course where the segment rides an airway; R marks a reciprocal (flown against the airway's charted direction); it is blank where no course is published — never computed, never coerced to 0. DIST/CUM are great-circle nm; for an airway hop the airport-to-fix join distance is in the leg total above, not a nav-log row.
Terrain silhouette computed from USGS GMTED2010 300darcsec/max (~0.5 nm cells, per-cell maximum elevation) — aerodatalab-computed, advisory, NOT an FAA minimum. The grid MORA line is the FAA governing altitude. At this resolution a narrow pass can read higher than its col (a nearby ridge inside the same ~0.5 nm cell dominates the max).
Direct great circle — no airway fixes. Via corridor.
Nav log
FLOOR is the segment's FAA altitude floor — the governing MEA (airway) or grid MORA (direct), both FAA minimums. ALT is the lowest VFR cruising rung ≥ floor (14 CFR 91.159): magnetic course 0–179° → odd thousands + 500, 180–359° → even + 500. The ≥3,000 ft AGL rule is assumed (we can't compute AGL per segment; a rec at/below 3,000 AGL is legal at any altitude, and ours is still ≥ floor). T marks a rung whose hemisphere came from the computed true track (no FAA magnetic course; variation unapplied); ▲ marks a rung above your ceiling (or capped at 17,999 ft — VFR-on-top is out of scope). Advisory — verify. TRK °T is our computed great-circle track (whole degrees) — advisory, ours. TRK °M is the FAA-published outbound magnetic course where the segment rides an airway; R marks a reciprocal (flown against the airway's charted direction); it is blank where no course is published — never computed, never coerced to 0. DIST/CUM are great-circle nm; for an airway hop the airport-to-fix join distance is in the leg total above, not a nav-log row.
Terrain silhouette computed from USGS GMTED2010 300darcsec/max (~0.5 nm cells, per-cell maximum elevation) — aerodatalab-computed, advisory, NOT an FAA minimum. The grid MORA line is the FAA governing altitude. At this resolution a narrow pass can read higher than its col (a nearby ridge inside the same ~0.5 nm cell dominates the max).
Direct great circle — no airway fixes. Via corridor.
Nav log
FLOOR is the segment's FAA altitude floor — the governing MEA (airway) or grid MORA (direct), both FAA minimums. ALT is the lowest VFR cruising rung ≥ floor (14 CFR 91.159): magnetic course 0–179° → odd thousands + 500, 180–359° → even + 500. The ≥3,000 ft AGL rule is assumed (we can't compute AGL per segment; a rec at/below 3,000 AGL is legal at any altitude, and ours is still ≥ floor). T marks a rung whose hemisphere came from the computed true track (no FAA magnetic course; variation unapplied); ▲ marks a rung above your ceiling (or capped at 17,999 ft — VFR-on-top is out of scope). Advisory — verify. TRK °T is our computed great-circle track (whole degrees) — advisory, ours. TRK °M is the FAA-published outbound magnetic course where the segment rides an airway; R marks a reciprocal (flown against the airway's charted direction); it is blank where no course is published — never computed, never coerced to 0. DIST/CUM are great-circle nm; for an airway hop the airport-to-fix join distance is in the leg total above, not a nav-log row.
Terrain silhouette computed from USGS GMTED2010 300darcsec/max (~0.5 nm cells, per-cell maximum elevation) — aerodatalab-computed, advisory, NOT an FAA minimum. The grid MORA line is the FAA governing altitude. At this resolution a narrow pass can read higher than its col (a nearby ridge inside the same ~0.5 nm cell dominates the max).
KLWT ⟶ ZEKELV120YOGOST276FRYMN BRCKN ARSHO MSO WAANE LOLLO DAIRE RIVAL JIROS OFINOT317CEPER PETEZ MQGV520CLOVA ALW ⟶ S95
Nav log
FLOOR is the segment's FAA altitude floor — the governing MEA (airway) or grid MORA (direct), both FAA minimums. ALT is the lowest VFR cruising rung ≥ floor (14 CFR 91.159): magnetic course 0–179° → odd thousands + 500, 180–359° → even + 500. The ≥3,000 ft AGL rule is assumed (we can't compute AGL per segment; a rec at/below 3,000 AGL is legal at any altitude, and ours is still ≥ floor). T marks a rung whose hemisphere came from the computed true track (no FAA magnetic course; variation unapplied); ▲ marks a rung above your ceiling (or capped at 17,999 ft — VFR-on-top is out of scope). Advisory — verify. TRK °T is our computed great-circle track (whole degrees) — advisory, ours. TRK °M is the FAA-published outbound magnetic course where the segment rides an airway; R marks a reciprocal (flown against the airway's charted direction); it is blank where no course is published — never computed, never coerced to 0. DIST/CUM are great-circle nm; for an airway hop the airport-to-fix join distance is in the leg total above, not a nav-log row.
Terrain silhouette computed from USGS GMTED2010 300darcsec/max (~0.5 nm cells, per-cell maximum elevation) — aerodatalab-computed, advisory, NOT an FAA minimum. The MEA line is the FAA governing altitude. At this resolution a narrow pass can read higher than its col (a nearby ridge inside the same ~0.5 nm cell dominates the max).
S95 ⟶ PDTV536OLNUC TEBKE HEPPE RENCE ROAMS ZEMAB ARNOY ZORNS DUMMP DSDV269EENIE MANTEV536JAIME ⟶ KCVO
Nav log
FLOOR is the segment's FAA altitude floor — the governing MEA (airway) or grid MORA (direct), both FAA minimums. ALT is the lowest VFR cruising rung ≥ floor (14 CFR 91.159): magnetic course 0–179° → odd thousands + 500, 180–359° → even + 500. The ≥3,000 ft AGL rule is assumed (we can't compute AGL per segment; a rec at/below 3,000 AGL is legal at any altitude, and ours is still ≥ floor). T marks a rung whose hemisphere came from the computed true track (no FAA magnetic course; variation unapplied); ▲ marks a rung above your ceiling (or capped at 17,999 ft — VFR-on-top is out of scope). Advisory — verify. TRK °T is our computed great-circle track (whole degrees) — advisory, ours. TRK °M is the FAA-published outbound magnetic course where the segment rides an airway; R marks a reciprocal (flown against the airway's charted direction); it is blank where no course is published — never computed, never coerced to 0. DIST/CUM are great-circle nm; for an airway hop the airport-to-fix join distance is in the leg total above, not a nav-log row.
Terrain silhouette computed from USGS GMTED2010 300darcsec/max (~0.5 nm cells, per-cell maximum elevation) — aerodatalab-computed, advisory, NOT an FAA minimum. The MEA line is the FAA governing altitude. At this resolution a narrow pass can read higher than its col (a nearby ridge inside the same ~0.5 nm cell dominates the max).
Each airway leg shows its full fix-by-fix routing — the join fix, every intermediate fix with the airway it rides, and the exit fix — copyable into a flight plan. The airway ident (highlighted) marks where the flown airway changes.
Open in ForeFlight
The button opens ForeFlight with this route pre-filled — it only works on a device with ForeFlight installed. Everywhere else, copy the route string above into your flight-planning tool. The string is the full trip: each stop ident, with each airway hop drawn fix-by-fix (entry fix, airway, transition fix, …, exit fix) and direct hops as adjacent idents.
Caveats
- Reported flight categories are CURRENT observations, not a forecast — a multi-day trip will see different weather. Stops are not filtered by weather.
- Fuel listings are FAA NASR-reported (same cycle) and may be stale; an UNKNOWN fuel field means the FAA did not survey it, NOT that fuel is unavailable. Confirm fuel type, availability, and hours at each stop independently.
- Direct-hop terrain feasibility is tested by sampling the great circle every moraSampleNm against 1-degree MORA cells; a covered verdict is exact only to that spacing, and each MORA is the maximum over its whole cell.
- Airway feasibility uses a conservative MEA filter: a segment with an unknown (UNKNN) or absent (blank) minimum altitude is treated as NOT flyable, and both directional minimums must clear the ceiling. Some real segments are excluded.
Snapshot & configuration
- Nav cycle
- 2607
- Artifact
- 66355e9d67a7
- Range / hop
- 400 nm
- Ceiling
- 12,500 ft
- Min runway
- 3,000 ft
- Stop penalty
- 30 nm
- Corridor half-width
- 100 nm
- Via
- none
- Require
- none
- Weather feed
- present · 75 min max age
This trip is reproducible from the values above: the same nav cycle, artifact, and config yield the same chain. Weather is an ephemeral overlay — reported per stop, never merged into the navigation data and never used to select stops.
Advisory / planning only · AIRAC cycle 2607 · not a certified navigation source.