Free VFR planning tool with maps covering entire world - Plan-G

I found very difficult in the past to find good VFR maps for my FSX flights, or a good planning tool with worldwide coverage. When I was flying in the US I usually used Skyvector, but as most of my flights are in Europe, and couldn't afford the price of proper VFR maps for all the countries I needed, I was mostly relying on the FSX flight planner to track my course.

Short time ago I came across this free VFR flight planner which will help you plan your flights, and obtain a very good VFR map no matter where in the world you are located.

Installation:

Installation is quite easy, although first you need to register on the forums to access the download page. Creating an account on the forums is easy and it takes only a few minutes to receive the activation email. After this you can login and download a 7 MB zip file containing the program. There is no installation required besides extracting the archive and copying the files in a directory of your choice, which I find good because it spares your system of different registry entries and not so necessary files.

At first run you will have to generate a database for the program, which is generated by going to Data tab and choosing Generate FSX or FS9 database, from the FSX or FS2004 scenery files. Process takes around 5 minutes. This way Plan-G will have a complete list of navigation points, airports, airways.

Interface:

Interface is very intuitive, with a tabbed like look similar to the Office suit. The map is based on Google Maps with the flight plan and navaids superimposed based on the FSX database. You can control how many elements are visible on the map using the Map settings tab.

Creating a flight plan:

Creation of a flight planner is done on the actual map, by clicking on the different waypoints. You will see informations about the flight plan in the right side of the application. When done you may save the flight plan in FSX or FS2004 format using the Save button.

Other notable features:

The program has the ability to connect to FSX/FS2004 and display real time the position on the map, as well as showing different info like winds, weather. You can also benefit from an elevation profile by downloading some external files and placing them in the program folder.

Official website.