To keep things simple and release the plotting chart late last year, we required that flight plans be FILED before activating the plotting chart, and further required that the flight plan was calculated on ARINCDirect. Both of those restrictions have been relaxed in the upcoming version 6.1.1. This is good news for those using other companies for their international handling, and also those who want to familiarize themselves with the feature without “committing” to a real filing.
Here’s how you'll be able to use 3rd-party flight plans in the plotting chart:
Just like you’d use it if it were a native ARINCDirect flight plan.
With 3rd-party plans, though, it will be a little more manual. We do not get segment fuel or time values in a format we can use with 3rd-party plans and therefore you will have to populate ETA and EFR manually while using Plotting Chart. Also, we do not get enough ETP or ETOPs data in 3rd Party Plans so the ETP > Plan as well as the ETOPs sections of the Plotting Chart are not available. Live ETPs will work, and that’s a great bit of situational awareness. We should also point out that if you are using an ARINCDirect flight plan for Plotting Chart, it no longer needs to be Filed. Lifting this restriction will make the process of mimicking a 3rd-party plan in the ARINCDirect system and using it for Plotting Chart with full functionality much easier.
We know that we have more work to do for 3rd-party support in the plotting chart, and we are looking forward to using standard formats for flight-plan delivery and being able to pre-populate waypoints with more information. Stay tuned for a separate email announcing the launch and supplying further guidance on the new features.
