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Table of Contents
Introduction

1.1

Acknowledgments

1.2

Donations

1.3

Installation

1.4

Quick Overview

1.5

First Start

1.6

General Remarks

1.7

Menus and Toolbars

1.8

Statusbar

1.9

Map Display

1.10

Map Display Legend

1.11

Map Display Compass Rose

1.12

Map Flight Plan Editing

1.13

User-defined Waypoints

1.14

Online Networks

1.15

Search Dock Window

1.16

Search Dock Window - Procedures

1.17

Navigation Databases

1.18

Flight Plan Formats

1.19

Flight Plan Dock Window

1.20

Flight Plan Procedures

1.21

Flight Plan Edit Position

1.22

Flight Plan Route Description

1.23

Flight Plan Elevation Profile Dock Window

1.24

Information Dock Window

1.25

Legend Dock Window

1.26

Simulator Aircraft Dock Window

1.27

Weather

1.28

Printing the Map

1.29

Printing the Flight Plan

1.30

Load Scenery Library Dialog

1.31

Connecting to a Flight Simulator

1.32

Checking for Updates

1.33

Options Dialog

1.34

Running without Flight Simulator Installation

1.35

Customize

1.36

Creating or adding Map Themes

1.37

2

Coordinate Formats
Files

1.38
1.39

Tutorials - General

1.40

Tutorial - Building a VFR Flight Plan

1.41

Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

1.42

Tips and Tricks

1.43

Tips for old and slow Computers

1.44

Troubleshoot

1.45

Known Problems

1.46

How to report a Bug

1.47

Glossary

1.48

License

1.49

3

Introduction

Little Navmap User Manual
Version 2.0
Little Navmap is a free open source flight planner, navigation tool, moving map, airport search and airport information
system for Flight Simulator X, Flight Simulator - Steam Edition, Prepar3D v2 to v4 and X-Plane 11.
Do not use this program for real world navigation.

More about my projects at GitHub.

Copyright 2015-2018 Alexander Barthel

Last updated Mon Jul 09 2018 12:23:15 GMT+0200 (CEST).

4

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments
A big thank-you for all people supporting me, sending me their log files, screen shots, ideas for improvements, friendly
messages, donations and more.
A huge Thank you! to Paul Watts for his support, for testing, tips, links to incredible tools and for all his work on the
manual.
Plenty of thanks to Hervé Sors for allowing me to include his updated

magdecl.bgl

file with Little Navmap.

A very special thank-you to Roberto S. from Switzerland for his valuable input and also helping with his capability to
find the most obscure bugs.
Thanks to Navigraph for kindly allowing me to include a free AIRAC cycle in the download. Thanks for Richard Stefan
for his great support. Current AIRAC cycles can be purchased from Navigraph.
A big Thank you! to Jean Luc from Reality XP for his great support.
Thanks to Jose from fsAerodata for his kind support.
The French translation of the program was done by Patrick JUNG alias Patbest. Thank you!
Dankeschön! for the German translation to merspieler and Stephan Leukert.
Thanks to Ricardo Vitor for the translation to Brazilian Portuguese.
Thanks to Daniel "Wolf" (wolfinformatica.com) for the Spanish translation.
Thank you! to Eddy Crequie for doing the Dutch translation.
Thanks to all beta testers for their effort, patience and ideas: Barry, Jean-Pierre, Brian, Gérard, John, Remi, Paolo,
Sam and many others.
Another big Danke! to Marc from Germany for all his great ideas and endless bug reports.
Thanks to all in the forums who patiently supported me and gave invaluable feedback during the public beta:
AVSIM, SimOuthouse, FlightX.net and FSDeveloper.com.
This project and my library atools would not exist without the fabulous documentation of the BGL files in the
FSDeveloper Wiki. So, here a huge thank-you to all the contributors.
Also a thank you to Ed Williams for his Aviation Formulary.
Without the open source Marble widget that allows me to access and display all the maps I would still be busy doing
that myself for years.
No Qt application framework and I could not even draw a simple button.
Let's not forget about all the services that provide us all the online maps for free:
Stamen Design, OpenTopoMap and CARTO.
A thank-you to the GIScience / Geoinformatics Research Group of Heidelberg University for kindly giving me
permission to use their map OpenMapSurfer.
And last but not least: If there were no OpenStreetMap and its thousands of contributors none of us would have any
maps at all.

5

Donations

Donations
Donate to show your appreciation if you like my programs.
Spenden Sie, um Ihre Wertschätzung zu zeigen, wenn Ihnen meine Programme gefallen.

6

Installation

Installation
Highlighted text

is used to denote window, menu, button, file or directory names.

Little Navmap for Windows is a 32-bit application and was tested with Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 (32-bit
and 64-bit).
The macOS and Linux versions are both 64-bit and were tested with macOS Sierra and Ubuntu Linux.

Updating
Delete all installed files of a previous Little Navmap version before installing a new version. All files from the previous
ZIP archive can be deleted since settings are stored in separate directories (except custom map themes). In any case
do not merge the installation directories.
There is no need to delete the old settings directory. The program is written in a way that it can always work with old
setting files.

Windows
The installation of Little Navmap does not change any registry entries (in Windows) and involves a simple copy of files
therefore an installer or setup program is not required.
Do not extract the archive into the folder

c:\Program Files\

or

c:\Program Files (x86)\

since this requires

administrative privileges. Windows keeps control of these folders, therefore other problems might occur like replaced
or deleted files.
Extract the Zip archive into a folder like
Navmap

or

c:\Little Navmap

c:\Users\YOURNAME\Documents\Little Navmap

. Then start the program by double-clicking

,

c:\Users\YOURNAME\Programs\Little

littlenavmap.exe

.

See First Start for more information on the first start after installation.
In some cases you have to install the Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013.
Install the Visual C++ Redistributable Package if you get a warning about the SSL subsystem not being
initialized. The program will not be able to use encrypted network connections (i.e. HTTPS) that are needed to
check for updates or to load online maps.
Install both 32 and 64 bit versions.
Usually this is already installed since many other programs require it.
You also have to install the redistributable if you get an error like
context

Error while checking for updates ... Error creating SSL

.

Little Navmap is a 32-bit application and was tested with Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 (32-bit and 64-bit).
Windows XP is not supported.
You can find redistributable packages for all versions here: The latest supported Visual C++ downloads.

Other Simulators than FSX SP2
This program was compiled using plain FSX SP2 (no Acceleration) SimConnect version 10.0.61259.0.
You might have to install an older version of SimConnect if you use Prepar3D or FSX Steam Edition. If not sure about
this simply try Little Navmap out. If it fails with an error message follow the instructions below:

7

Installation

Prepar3D: In the same directory as

Prepar3D.exe

(x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\redist\Interface

have to install

FSX-SP2-XPACK.msi

is a

redist\Interface

directory (normally

C:\Program Files

). There are multiple legacy versions of SimConnect available. You

for Little Navmap.

FSX Steam Edition: The installation adds the folder

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\FSX\SDK\Core Utilities

where you can find the legacy SimConnect interfaces.

Kit\SimConnect SDK\LegacyInterfaces

Improve Start-up Time
Anti-virus program can significantly slow down the startup and execution of the program in Windows.
Therefore, it is recommended to exclude the following directories from scanning:
Disk cache for map tiles:

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\.marble\data

Scenery library and userdata databases

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel\little_navmap_db

These directories to not contain executable files and are accessed frequently by Little Navmap.

macOS
Extract the ZIP file and copy the

Little Navmap

application to the folder

Applications

or any other folder.

Linux
Extract the tar archive to any place and run the executable

littlenavmap

to start the program from a terminal:

./littlenavmap

Most file managers will start the program if double-clicked.

X-Plane
Little Navmap can only connect to X-Plane using the Little Xpconnect X-Plane plugin which has to be installed
as well.
The Little Xpconnect plugin is included in the Little Navmap archive but can also be downloaded separately. See the
included

README.txt

in the

Little Xpconnect

directory for installation instructions.

The plugin 64-bit only and is available for Windows, macOS and Linux.

Additional Programs
The downloaded Little Navmap archive contains two additional directories (or applications for macOS):
Little Navconnect

: A complete copy of the program allowing remote flight simulator connections for FSX, P3D and X-

Plane.
Little Xpconnect

: This is the 64-bit plugin that is needed for Little Navmap or Little Navconnect to connect to X-Plane.

8

Quick Overview

Quick Overview

Picture above: A quick overview of Little Navmap 1.8.5 showing the most important functions.

9

Quick Overview

Picture above: The three most important context menus (version 1.8.5) which are can be used to build a flight plan.

10

First Start

First Start
Little Navmap will copy and prepare the included Navigraph database on the first startup. See Navigraph for more
information about the integration.
The Scenery Library Dialog dialog will be shown once the preparation is finished. From there you can select all
recognized Flight Simulators and load their scenery libraries into Little Navmap's internal database.
Note that X-Plane cannot be recognized automatically. You have to set the path in the

Scenery Library Dialog

before you can load the database or selecting it in the menu.
One database is kept for each simulator and can be changed on the fly in the Scenery Library Menu.
A warning dialog will be shown on Windows when starting Little Navmap the first time on a system without FSX or
P3D flight simulator installations. See chapter Running without Flight Simulator Installation for more information on
this.
You can also go directly to the Scenery Library Dialog from there if you have X-Plane installed.
One or more scenery library databases may need to be updated when you install a new version of Little Navmap. A
question dialog will pop up prompting you to erase the now incompatible database. You can reload the scenery in the
Scenery Library Dialog after erasing the databases.

Recommended things to do after Installing
The elevation data which is used by default is limited and has a lot of problems. Therefore, I recommend to
download and use the offline GLOBE elevation data. See Options Dialog / Flight Plan Elevation Profile for more
information.
Have a look at the tutorials if you use the program the first time.
See Install Navigraph Updates on my home page for information how to update Little Navmap's navigation data.
See Connecting to a Flight Simulator for the next step to use Little Navmap as a moving map. The included Little
Xpconnect plugin has to be installed for X-Plane.

How to run a network Setup
See the two chapters below if you like to run Little Navmap in a networked setup using one computer for the flight
simulator and one computer to run Little Navmap.
Connecting to a Flight Simulator
Running without Flight Simulator Installation
How to prepare a network setup:
1. Install/extract the whole Little Navmap archive on the flying and network computer.
2. Copy Little Xpconnect to the X-Plane plugins folder if you use X-Plane.
3. Use Little Navmap to generate the scenery database on the flying computer. Main menu ->

Scenery Library

->

Load Scenery Library ...

4. Copy the database files to the network computer. Quit Little Navmap before copying.
Flying in a network setup:
1. Start the simulator
2. Start Little Navconnect on the flying computer.

11

First Start

3. Run Little Navmap on the network computer.
4. Connect Little Navmap on the network computer to Little Navconnect on the flying computer. Main menu ->
Tools

->

Flight Simulator Connection ...

See links above for detailed instructions.

General
User Interface
Dock Windows
The user interface of Little Navmap consists of a main window and several dock windows which can be detached from
the main window or arranged in any order within the main window.
The docked windows can be moved around in their docked position and can be detached from the main window by
simply dragging them outside of the main window, by double-clicking their title bar or by clicking on the window
symbol on the top right.
Double click on the docked window's title bar or click on the window symbol again to move the windows back into their
docked position.
All docked windows except the map window can be closed if they are not needed. You can even drop docked
windows on each other to create a tabbed view. The tabs will appear at the bottom of the dock stack in this case.
Hold

Ctrl

while clicking on the window titlebar to prevent a window from going into docked state and keep it

floating.
Toolbars are also movable by clicking on the left handle and can also be closed or detached from the main window.
Use the
The

Main Menu

Main Menu

->

->

Window

Window

->

menu to restore closed windows or toolbars.
Reset Window Layout

menu item can be used to reset the state and positions of all

dock windows and toolbars back to their default.

Context Menus
Use the context menus to build a flight plan.
Context menus can be found in the following places:
Map display window - Map Context Menu
Flight plan table - Flight Plan Table View Context Menu
Airport and navaid search result tables - Search Result Table View Context Menu
Procedure search tree - Procedure Tree Context Menu
The context menus provide functionality to get more information about an object at the clicked position or to build or
edit a flight plan.

Tooltip Help, Help Buttons and Help Menu
The help menu of Little Navmap contains links to the online help, an included offline help PDF document, online
tutorials and the map legend.
The program uses tooltips to display more information on buttons and other controls.
A more detailed description is shown on the left side of the statusbar if you hover the mouse over a menu item.

12

First Start

Most dialogs and some dock windows show help buttons

which will open the corresponding sections of the

online manual.

Window Title
The main window title indicates the currently selected simulator database (
XP11

A

N

), the flight plan file name and a trailing

*

FSX

,

FSXSE

,

,

P3DV2

P3DV3

,

P3DV4

or

if the flight plan has been changed.

will be appended if the Navigraph database is used:
P3DV4

: All feartures on the map and all information in dialogs and windows comes from the flight simulator

database.
P3DV4 / N

: Airports and ILS are shown and used from the flight simulator database. Navaids, airspace, airways

and procedures are used from the Navigraph database.
(P3DV4) / N

: All data is used from the Navigraph database. No aprons, no taxiways and no parking positions are

available for airports.

Information and Simulator Aircraft Text
You can change the text size permanently in the options dialog for these windows.
A quick way to change the text size is to use the mousewheel and

Ctrl

key. This setting won't be saved across

sessions, though.

Tabs
Tabs that appear on top of a window are fixed. A tooltip gives more information about the function of a tab.
Tabs at the bottom of a window appear when you drop dock windows on each other. Grab a window title bar to move
a window out of the stacked display. You can change the order of these tabs by dragging them around.
The mousewheel allows to cycle between tabs in a more convenient way.

Copy and Paste
Almost all dialogs, text labels and all information windows in Little Navmap allow copy and paste.
You can select the text using the mouse and then either use

Ctrl+C

or the context menu to copy it to the clipboard.

The information and simulator aircraft windows even support copying of formatted text including the icons. This can be
helpful to report errors.
The table views for the flight plan or airport/navaid search results allow copying of the results in CSV format to the
clipboard which can be pasted into a spreadsheet program like LibreOffice Calc or Microsoft Excel.

Translation and Locale
Little Navmap is currently available in several languages.
I will happily support anybody who would like to translate the user interface or manual into another language.
Language packages can be added to a Little Navmap installation later once they are available. See Translating in the
Github Little Navmap wiki for more information.
You can override the user interface language in the dialog

Options

the the tab

User Interface

.

13

First Start

Despite using the English language in the user interface the locale settings of the operating system will be used. So,
e.g. on a German version of Windows you will see comma as a decimal separator instead of the English dot.
The language and locale settings can be forced to English in the dialog

Options

on the tab

User Interface

if a

translated user interface is not desired.
Please note that some screenshots in this manual were taken using German locale, therefore a comma is used as a
decimal separator and a dot as a thousands separator.

Map Legend
The legend explains all the map icons and the

Flight Plan Elevation Profile

icons. It is available in the

Legend

dock

window or in this manual: Legend.

Naming Conventions used in this Manual
Highlighted text

is used to denote window, menu, button, file or directory names. See the Glossary for explanations

of common terms in this manual.

Rating
Airports get a zero to five star rating depending on facilities. Airports that have no rating are considered boring and will
be displayed using a gray symbol below all other airports on the map (
off in the

Options

dialog on the

Map Display

Empty Airport

). This behavior can be switched

tab.

The criteria below are used to calculate the rating. Each item gives one star:
1. Add-on (or 3D for X-Plane)
2. Parking positions (ramp or gate)
3. Taxiways
4. Aprons
5. Tower building (only if at least one of the other conditions is met).
All airports that are not located in the default

Scenery

directory of FSX/P3D or are located in the

Custom Scenery

directory of X-Plane are considered add-on airports which raises the rating by one star.
Airports in the

Custom Scenery/Global Airports/Earth nav data/apt.dat

file of X-Plane are 3D airports which raises the

rating by one star too.

Navdata Updates
Little Navmap comes with a ready to use database from Navigraph including airspaces, SIDs, STARs and more. The
database can be updated by using Navigraph's FMS Data Manager.
See the chapter Navigation Databases for more information.

FSX and Prepar3D
Little Navmap is compatible with navdata updates from fsAerodata or FSX/P3D Navaids update.

X-Plane
Little Navmap will use any navdata updates that are installed in the directory

Custom Data

. Any older updates installed

in the GPS directories are not used.
User-defined data from the files

user_fix.dat

and

user_nav.dat

is read and merged into the database if found.

14

First Start

Note that neither ARINC nor the FAACIFP files are supported.

Magnetic Declination
The calibrated magnetic declination of a VOR may differ from the actual declination in a region as it does in reality.
Therefore, magnetic course values might differ in some cases.

FSX and Prepar3D
The declination used to calculate the magnetic course is taken from the

magdec.bgl

file in the scenery database.

Updates for this file are available here: FSX/P3D Navaids update.

X-Plane
The declination values for X-Plane (airports and all navaids except VORs) is calculated based on the included
magdec.bgl

file which is based on the values for the beginning of 2017.

15

Menus and Toolbars

Menus and Toolbars
This chapter describes all the menu items of Little Navmap. You will find most of this functionality on the toolbars as
well which are not be described separately. Key combinations can be seen on the menu items and are not listed in
this manual.

Picture above: Menu and toolbars docked in default positions.

File Menu
New Flight Plan
Erases the current flight plan.
You have to use the Search Result Table View Context Menu, the Map Context Menu or the Flight Plan Route
Description dialog to create a flight plan.

Open Flight Plan
Opens an FSX PLN, an FS9 PLN, an FSC PLN, an X-Plane FMS or an FLP flight plan file. The type of file is
determined by content and not file extension. See Flight Plan Formats for more information.
An opened flight plan file will be reloaded on start up (reload and centering can be switched off in the
on the

Startup

and

User Interface

Options

dialog

tab).

Procedure information and ground speed will be added to the flight plan if a PLN file is saved by Little Navmap. The
additional information will be ignored by FSX or P3D but allows to reload all information by Little Navmap.

Append Flight Plan
Adds departure, destination and all waypoints to the current flight plan.
Using

Append Flight Plan

allows to load or merge complete flight plans or flight plan snippets into a new plan. All

waypoints are added at the end of the current flight plan. Then you can use the
Legs up/down

Delete selected Legs

and

Move selected

context menu items to arrange the waypoints and airports as required. See Flight Plan Table View

Context Menu.
All arrival procedures will be removed when appending a flight plan.

Save Flight Plan
Save Flight Plan as PLN
Saves the flight plan to an FSX/P3D PLN file (XML format). This annotated format allows to save all flight plan
attributes of Little Navmap.

16

Menus and Toolbars

Save Flight Plan as PLN

changes the current file type and name in Little Navmap which means that all further saves

will go into the new PLN file.
It is recommended to save all flight plans in this format to keep all information of a plan. Even when using the limited
FMS format for X-Plane. See Flight Plan Formats for more information.
Little Navmap will allow flight plans to be created that may be useful as a flight plan snippet but are unusable by the
flight simulator. This occurs if a flight plan does not have a departure or destination airport. A warning dialog will be
shown when saving a incomplete flight plan.
A warning dialog will also be shown if the departure airport has parking positions but none is assigned in the flight
plan.
Procedures will be saved as an annotation in the flight plan file if the flight plan contains any. This causes no problem
for the simulators and most other programs. Use Export clean Flight Plan if a program has problems reading the PLN
files saved by Little Navmap.
Note that the waypoints of a procedure are not saved with the flight plan. This is not supported by FSX or P3D. Use
the GPS, FMC or other ways to select a procedure in your aircraft.
The set ground speed is also saved with the flight plan.
Note that P3D v4.2 overwrites the flight plan when loading, which erases all annotations. Save a copy of the
plan to another location if you like to keep all information about procedures or speed.

Save Flight Plan as X-Plane FMS 11
Saves the flight plan using the new X-Plane FMS 11 format. This format can only be used in X-Plane 11.10 and
above. Do not try to load it into the FMS or GPS of X-Plane 11.05. It might crash the simulator.
A warning dialog will be shown with the warning above when saving.
See Flight Plan Formats for more information on limitations.
This function changes the current file type and name which means that all further saves will go into the new FMS file
and the file will be reloaded on next start.
Store FMS files into the

directory inside the X-Plane directory if you would like to use the flight plan

Output/FMS plans

in the X-Plane GPS, the G1000 or the FMS.

Save Flight Plan as FLP
Exports the current flight plan as an FLP file usable by the X-Plane FMS, Aerosoft Airbus and other add-on aircraft.
This format is limited so a dialog is shown if any unsupported features are detected in the current flight plan.
See Flight Plan Formats for more information on limitations.
This function changes the current file type and name which means that all further saves will go into the new FLP file
and the file will be reloaded on next start.
Store FLP files into the

Output/FMS plans

directory inside the X-Plane directory if you want to load it into the FMS.

Export as Clean PLN

17

Menus and Toolbars

Saves a flight plan without any procedure or speed annotations if programs have problems reading the PLN files
saved by Little Navmap. This is rarely needed.
Like any other export function this does not change the current file name and type. Further saves will still use the
same file name and format as before.
See also Flight Plan Formats.

Export Flight Plan as X-Plane FMS 3
Saves the flight plan using the older X-Plane FMS 3 format which is limited but can be loaded by X-Plane 10 and XPlane 11.05. A warning dialog is shown if any unsupported features are detected in the current flight plan.
See Flight Plan Formats for more information on limitations.
This export function this does not change the current file name and type. Further saves will still use the same file
name and format as before.
Store FMS files into the

Output/FMS plans

directory inside the X-Plane directory if you would like to use the flight plan

in the X-Plane GPS or FMS.

Export Flight Plan to other Formats (Sub-Menu)
See Flight Plan Formats for more detailed information on the available export formats.
Export functions do not change the current file name and type. Further saves will still use the same file name and
format as before.
Export Flight Plan as Garmin GTN GFP
Exports the flight plan in GFP format used by the Flight1 GTN 650/750.
Procedures are not included in the exported file.
See Flight Plan Formats for more information about this export format and how to work around locked waypoints.
Export Flight Plan as GFP for Reality XP GTN
Save flight plan as GFP file usable by the Reality XP GTN 750/650 Touch. This format allows to save procedures and
airways.
See also Notes about the Garmin Formats GFP and FPL for information about paths and other remarks.
Export Flight Plan to FPL for the Reality XP GNS
Save flight plan as FPL file usable by the Reality XP GNS 530W/430W V2.
Procedures or their respective waypoints are not included in the exported file.
The default directory to save the flight plans for the GNS units is

C:\ProgramData\Garmin\GNS Trainer Data\GNS\FPL

for all

simulators. The directory will be created automatically by Little Navmap on first export if it does not exist.
See also Notes about the Garmin Formats GFP and FPL.
Export Flight Plan as PMDG RTE
Exports the current flight plan as a PMDG RTE file.
Procedures or their respective waypoints are not included in the exported file.

18

Menus and Toolbars

Export Flight Plan as TXT
Exports the current flight plan as a TXT file usable by JARDesign or Rotate Simulations aircraft
Neither procedures nor their respective waypoints are included in the exported file.
Export Flight Plan as Majestic Dash FPR
Exports the current flight plan for the Majestic Software MJC8 Q400. Note that the export is currently limited to a list of
waypoints.
The flight plan has to be saved to

FSXP3D\SimObjects\Airplanes\mjc8q400\nav\routes

.

Export Flight Plan as IXEG FPL
Exports the current flight plan as an FPL file usable by the IXEG Boeing 737 classic.
SIDs, STARs or approach procedures are not exported.
The file should be saved to

XPLANE\Aircraft\X-Aviation\IXEG 737 Classic\coroutes

. You might have to create the directory

manually if it does not exist.
Export Flight Plan to corte.in for Flight Factor Airbus
Appends the the flight plan to a new or already present

corte.in

company routes file for the Flight Factor Airbus

aircraft.
The file will be automatically created if it does not exist. Otherwise the flight plan will be appended to the file. You have
to remove the flight plan manually from the

corte.in

file with a simple text editor if you wish to get rid of it.

Location of the file depends on aircraft type.
Export Flight Plan as FLTPLAN for iFly
Save flight plan as FLTPLAN file for the iFly 737NG. The format does not allow saving of procedures.
Save the file to

FSXP3D\iFly\737NG\navdata\FLTPLAN

.

Export Flight Plan for ProSim
Appends flight plan to the

companyroutes.xml

file for ProSim simulators. The format does not allow saving of

procedures.
Creates a backup file named

before modifying the file.

companyroutes.xml_lnm_backup

Export Flight Plan as PLN for BBS Airbus
Save flight plan as PLN file for the Blackbox Simulations Airbus. The format does not allow saving of procedures.
Save the file to

FSXP3D\BlackBox Simulation\Airbus A330

or

FSXP3D\Blackbox Simulation\Company Routes

depending on

aircraft.
Export Flight Plan for UFMC
Save flight plan as UFMC file. The format does not allow saving of procedures.
Save the flight plan to

XPLANE\Custom Data\UFMC\FlightPlans

.

Export Flight Plan for X-FMC
Save flight plan as FPL file usable by X-FMC. The format does not allow saving of procedures.

19

Menus and Toolbars

The file should be saved to Path to

XPLANE\Resources\plugins\XFMC\FlightPlans

.

Export Flight Plan as GPX
Exports the current flight plan into a GPS Exchange Format file which can be read by Google Earth and most other
GIS applications.
The flight plan is exported as a route and the flown aircraft trail as a track including simulator time and altitude.
The route has departure and destination elevation and cruise altitude set for all waypoints. Waypoints of all
procedures are included in the exported file. Note that the waypoints will not allow to reproduce all parts of a
procedure like holds or procedure turns.
Do not forget to clear the aircraft trail (Delete Aircraft Trail) before flight to avoid old trail segments in the
exported GPX file. Or, disable the reloading of the trail in the options dialog on page

Startup

.

Show Flight Plan in SkyVector
Opens the default web browser and shows the current flight plan in SkyVector. Procedures are not shown.
Example: ESMS NEXI2B NILEN L617 ULMUG M609 TUTBI Z101 GUBAV STM7C ENBO. Note missing SID and
STAR in SkyVector.
Save Waypoints for Approaches
Save Waypoints for SID and STAR
Save procedure waypoints instead of procedure information if checked. This affects all flight plan export and save
formats.
Use this if your simulator, GPS or FMC does not support loading or display of approach procedures, SID or STAR.
Procedure information is replaced with respective waypoints that allow to display procedures in limited GPS or FMS
units.
Saving flight plans with this method has several limitations:
Several approach leg types like holds, turns and procedure turns cannot be displayed properly by using just
waypoints/coordinates.
Speed and altitude limitations are not included in the exported legs.
The procedure information is dropped from the saved flight plan and cannot be reloaded properly in Little
Navmap. Thus, you will see the waypoints of a SID or STAR but not the detailed procedure information. You have
to delete the added waypoints and re-select the procedures after loading.
Due to these limitations it is recommended to save a copy of the flight plan with full information before enabling one of
these options.

Add Google Earth KML
Allows addition of one or more Google Earth KML or KMZ files to the map display. All added KML or KMZ files will be
reloaded on start up. Reload and centering can be switched off in the
Interface

Options

dialog on the

Startup

and

User

tab.

Due to the variety of KML files it is not guaranteed that all files will show up properly on the map.

Clear Google Earth KML from Map

20

Menus and Toolbars

Removes all loaded KML files from the map.

Work Offline
Stops loading of map data from the Internet. This affects the OpenStreetMap, OpenTopoMap and all the other online
map themes as well as the elevation data. A red

Offline.

indication is shown in the status bar if this mode is enabled.

You should restart the application after going online again.

Save Map as Image
Saves the current map view as an image file. Allowed formats are JPEG, PNG and BMP.

Print Map
Allows to print the current map view. See Printing the Map for more information.

Print Flight Plan
Opens a print dialog that allows you to select flight plan related information to be printed. See Map Flight Plan Printing
for more information.

Quit
Exits the application. Will ask for confirmation if there is a changed flight plan.

Flight Plan Menu
Undo/Redo
Allows undo and redo of all flight plan changes.

Select a Start Position for Departure
A parking spot (gate, ramp or fuel box), runway or helipad can be selected as a start position at the departure airport.
A parking position can also be selected in the map context menu item Set as Flight Plan Departure when right-clicking
on a parking position. If no position is selected the longest primary runway end is selected automatically as start.

21

Menus and Toolbars

Picture above: The start position selection dialog for EDDN.

Edit Flight Plan on Map
Toggles the flight plan drag and drop edit mode on the map. See Flight Plan Editing.

New Flight Plan from Route Description
Opens a dialog with the route description of the current flight plan that also allows to modify the current flight plan or
enter a new one. Flight Plan from Route Description gives more information about this topic.

Copy Flight Plan Route to Clipboard
Copies the route description of the current flight plan to the clipboard using the settings from the Flight Plan from
Route Description dialog.

Calculate Direct
Deletes all intermediate waypoints and connects departure and destination using a great circle line.

22

Menus and Toolbars

You can calculate a flight plan between any kind of waypoints, even user-defined waypoints (right-click on the map
and select

Add Position to Flight plan

to create one). This allows the creation of snippets that can be merged into

flight plans. For example you can use this feature for crossing the North Atlantic with varying departures and
destinations. This applies to all flight plan calculation modes.

Calculate Radionav
Creates a flight plan that uses only VOR and NDB stations as waypoints and tries to ensure reception of at least one
station along the whole flight plan. Note that VOR stations are preferred before NDB and DME only stations are
avoided if possible. Calculation will fail if not enough radio navaids can be found between departure and destination.
Build the flight plan manually if this is the case.
This calculation can also be used to create a flight plan snippet between any kind of waypoint.

Calculate high Altitude
Uses Jet airways to create a flight plan.
Calculated flight plans along airways will obey all airway restrictions like minimum and altitude. The program will also
adhere to one-way and maximum altitude restrictions for X-Plane based navdata.
The resulting minimum altitude is set in the flight plan altitude field. The flight plan altitude field is not changed if no
altitude restrictions were found along the flight plan.
A simplified east/west rule is used to adjust the cruise altitude to odd/even values (this can be switched off in the
Options

dialog on the

Flight Plan

tab).

The default behavior is to jump from the departure airport to the next waypoint of a suitable airway and vice versa for
the destination. This can be changed in

Options

dialog on the

Flight Plan

tab if VOR or NDB stations are preferred

as transition points to airways.
The airway network of Flight Simulator is not complete (the north Atlantic tracks are missing for example - these
change daily), therefore calculation across large ocean areas can fail.
Create the airway manually as a workaround or use an online planning tool to obtain a route string and use the
Flight Plan from String

New

option to create the flight plan.

This calculation can also be used to create a flight plan snippet between any kind of waypoint.

Calculate low Altitude
Uses Victor airways to create a flight plan. Everything else is the same as in

Calculate high Altitude

.

Calculate based on given Altitude
Use the value in the altitude field of the flight plan to find a flight plan along Victor and/or Jet airways. Calculation will
fail if the altitude value is too low. Everything else is the same as in

Calculate high Altitude

.

Reverse Flight Plan

23

Menus and Toolbars

Swaps departure and destination and reverses order of all intermediate waypoints. A default runway is assigned for
the new departure start position.
Note that this function does not consider one-way airways in the X-Plane database and might result in an invalid flight
plan.

Adjust Flight Plan Altitude
Changes the flight plan altitude according to a simplified East/West rule and the current route type (IFR or VFR).
Rounds the altitude up to the nearest even 1000 feet (or meter) for westerly flight plans or odd 1000 feet (or meter) for
easterly flight plans. Adds 500 feet for VFR flight plans.

Map Menu
Goto Home
Goes to the home area that was set using Set Home using the saved position and zoom distance. The center of the
home area is highlighted by a

symbol.

Go to Center for Distance Search
Go to the center point used for distance searches. See Set Center for Distance Search.The center for the distance
search is highlighted by a

symbol.

Center Flight Plan
Zooms out the map (if required) to display the whole flight plan on the map.

Center Aircraft
Zooms to the user aircraft if directly connected to a flight simulator or remotely connected using Little Navconnect and
keeps the aircraft centered on the map.
The centering of the aircraft can be changed in the

Options

dialog on the

Simulator Aircraft

tab.

Delete Aircraft Trail
Removes the user aircraft trail. It is also deleted when connecting to a flight simulator. The trail is saved and will be
reloaded on program startup.

Map Position Back/Forward
Jumps forward or backward in the map position history. The complete history is saved and restored when starting
Little Navmap.

View Menu

24

Menus and Toolbars

Reset Display Settings
Resets all map display settings back to default.

Picture above: All setting tool buttons highlighted that are affected by

Reset Display Settings

.

Details
More Details

Default Details

Less Details
Increases or decreases the detail level for the map. More details means more airports, more navaids, more text
information and bigger icons.
Note that map information will be truncated if too much detail is chosen. A red warning message will be shown in the
statusbar if this is the case.
The detail level is shown in the statusbar. Range is -5 for least detail to +5 for most detail.

Force Show Addon Airports
Add-on airports are always shown independently of the other airport map settings if this option is selected. This allows
viewing only add-on airports by checking this option and disabling the display of hard, soft and empty airports.

Show Airports with hard Runways
Show airports that have at least one runway with a hard surface.

Show Airports with soft Runways
Show airports that have only soft surfaced runways or only water runways. This type of airport might be hidden on the
map depending on zoom distance.

Show empty Airports
Show empty airports. This button or menu item might not be visible depending on settings in the
the

Map Display

Options

dialog on

tab. The status of this button is combined with the other airport buttons. This means, for example:

You have to enable soft surfaced airport display and empty airports to see empty airports having only soft runways.

25

Menus and Toolbars

An empty airport is defined as one which has neither parking nor taxiways nor aprons and is not an add-on. These
airports are treated differently in Little Navmap since they are the most boring of all default airports. Empty airports are
drawn gray and behind all other airports on the map.
Airports having only water runways are excluded from this definition to avoid unintentional hiding.
X-Plane and 3D airports
The function can be extended to X-Plane airports which are not marked as
Consider all X-Plane airports not being 3D empty

marked as

3D

in the

Options

dialog on the

3D

. This can be done by checking

Map Display

tab. All airports not being

will be shown in gray on the map and can be hidden like described above if enabled.

An airport is considered 3D if it is stored in

XPLANE/Custom Scenery/Global Airport Scenery/Earth nav data/apt.dat

The definition of

3D

3D

is arbitrary, though. A

.

airport may contain just a single object, such as a light pole or a traffic

cone or it may be a fully constructed major airport.

Show VOR Stations
Show NDB Stations
Show Waypoints
Show ILS Feathers
Show Victor Airways
Show Jet Airways
Show or hide these facilities or navaids on the map. Navaids might be hidden on the map depending on zoom
distance.

Airspaces
Note that airspaces are hidden if the airport diagram is shown.

Show Airspaces
Allows to enable or disable the display of all airspaces with one click. Use the menu items below this one or the
toolbar buttons to display or hide the various airspace types.
The airspaces toolbar contains buttons each having a drop down menu that allows to configure the airspace display
like showing or hiding certain airspace types. Each drop down menu also has

All

and

None

entries to select or

deselect all types in the menu.

Show Online Network Airspaces

26

Menus and Toolbars

This button or menu item is only visible if an online network is enabled.
It allows to hide or show center, tower, ground, approach and other airspaces from the currently selected online
network independently of the simulator or Navigraph airspaces.
Online airspaces can also be shown or hidden by type using the menu items below.
Note that the displayed airspace circles do not depict the real airspace boundaries but are merely an indicator for the
presence of an active center or tower.
See Online Networks and Online Flying.

ICAO Airspaces
Allows selection of Class A to Class E airspaces.

FIR Airspaces
Allows selection of the Class F and Class G airspaces or flight information regions.

Restricted Airspaces
Show or hide MOA (military operations area), restricted, prohibited and danger airspaces.

Special Airspaces
Show or hide warning, alert and training airspaces.

Other Airspaces
Show or hide center, tower, mode C and other airspaces.

Airspace Altitude Limitations
Allows filtering of the airspace display by altitude. Either below or above 10,000 ft or 18,000 ft or only airspaces
intersecting with the flight plan altitude.

Userpoints
Allows to hide or show user-defined waypoints by type.
The menu item

The type

Unknown Types

Unknown

shows or hides all types which do not belong to a known type.

shows or hides all userpoints which are exactly of type

Unknown

.

See User-defined Waypoints for more information on user-defined waypoints.

Show Flight Plan
Show or hide the flight plan. The flight plan is shown independently of the zoom distance.

27

Menus and Toolbars

Show Missed Approaches
Show or hide the missed approaches of the current flight plan. This does not affect the preview in the search tab
Procedures

.

Note that this function changes the active flight plan leg sequencing: Sequencing the active leg will stop if the
destination is reached and missed approaches are not displayed. Otherwise sequencing will continue with the missed
approach and the simulator aircraft progress will show the remaining distance to the end of the missed approach
instead.

Show Aircraft
Shows the user aircraft and keeps it centered on the map if connected to the simulator. The user aircraft is always
shown independently of the zoom distance.
The icon color and shape indicates the aircraft type and whether the aircraft is on ground (gray border).

User aircraft in flight.
A click on the user aircraft shows more information in the

Simulator Aircraft

dock window.

More options to change the map behavior while flying can be found in the dialog

Options

on the tab Simulator Aircraft.

The aircraft centering will be switched off when using one of the following functions. Note that this default behavior
can be modified in the options dialog.
Double-click into a table view or map display to zoom to an airport or a navaid.
Context menu item
Goto Home
Map

or

link in

Show on map

.

Goto Center for Distance Search

Information

Show Flight Plan

.

dock window.

, when selected manually, or automatically after loading a flight plan.

Centering a Google Earth KML/KMZ file after loading
This allows a quick inspection of an airport or navaid during flight. To display the aircraft again use
or enable

Show Aircraft

Map Position Back

again.

Show Aircraft Trail
Show the user aircraft trail. The trail is always shown independently of the zoom distance. It is saved and will be
reloaded on program startup.
The trail is deleted when connecting to a flight simulator or it can be deleted manually by selecting
>

Delete Aircraft Trail

Main Menu

->

Map

-

. The trail is also deleted when the user aircraft jumps over large distance when assigning a

new airport, for example.
The length of the trail is limited for performance reasons. If it exceeds the maximum length, the trail is truncated and
the oldest segments are lost.

Show Compass Rose
Show a compass rose on the map which indicates true north and magnetic north. Aircraft heading and aircraft track
are shown if connected to a simulator.

28

Menus and Toolbars

The rose is centered around the user aircraft if connected. Otherwise it is centered on the map view.
See Compass Rose for details.

Show AI and Multiplayer Aircraft or Ships
Shows AI and multiplayer aircraft or ships on the map. Multiplayer vehicles can be displayed from e.g. FSCloud,
VATSIM or Steam sessions.
The icon color and shape indicates the aircraft type and whether the aircraft is on ground (gray border).

AI or multiplayer aircraft from the simulator. This includes aircraft that are injected by the various online network
clients. A click on the AI aircraft or ship shows more information in the
Multiplayer

Simulator Aircraft

dock window in the tab

AI /

.

Multiplayer aircraft/client from an online network. See Online Networks. A click on the online aircraft shows
information in the

Information

dock window in the separate tab

Online Clients

.

Note that, in X-Plane, ship traffic is not available and AI aircraft information is limited.
The displayed vehicles are limited by the used multiplayer system if Little Navmap is not connected to an online
network like VATSIM or IVAO. Multiplayer aircraft will disappear depending on distance to user aircraft. For AI in FSX
or P3D this is currently about 100 nautical miles or around 200 kilometers.
Smaller ships are only generated by the simulator within a small radius around the user aircraft.
Little Navmap limits the display of AI vehicles depending on size. Zoom close to see small aircraft or boats.
On the lowest zoom distance all aircraft and ships are drawn to scale on the map.
Aircraft labels are forced to show independently of zoom level for the next five AI/multiplayer aircraft closest to the
user that are within 20 nm distance and 5000 ft elevation.
All aircraft icons can be customized: User, AI and Multiplayer Aircraft Icons.

Show Map Grid
Show a latitude/longitude grid as well as the meridian and antimeridian (near the date line) on the map.

Show Country and City Names
Show country, city and other points of interest. Availability of these options depends on the selected map theme. See
Theme.

Show Hillshading
Show hill shading on the map. Availability of these options depends on the selected map theme. See Theme.

Projection
Mercator

29

Menus and Toolbars

A flat projection that gives the most fluid movement and the sharpest map when using picture tile based online maps
themes like OpenStreetMap or OpenTopoMap.
Spherical
Shows earth as a globe which is the most natural projection. Movement can stutter slightly when using the picture tile
based online maps themes like OpenStreetMap or OpenTopoMap. Use the

Simple

,

Plain

or

Atlas

map themes to

prevent this.
Online maps can appear slightly blurred when using this projection. This is a result from converting the flat image tiles
to the spherical display.

Picture above: Spherical map projection with

Simple

offline map theme selected.

Theme
Please note that all the online maps are delivered from free services therefore fast download speeds and high
availability cannot be guaranteed. In any case it is easy to deliver and install a new online map source without creating
a new Little Navmap release. See Creating or adding Map Themes for more information.
OpenStreetMap
This is an online raster (i.e. based on images) map that includes a hill shading option. Note that the OpenStreetMap
hill shading does not cover the whole globe.

30

Menus and Toolbars

Picture above: View at an Italian airport using OpenStreetMap theme and hill shading.
OpenMapSurfer
The OSM Roads layer provided by Heidelberg University. This theme includes optional hill shading which is available
worldwide.
Note that the hill shading option of this map is marked experimental.
Map data for this map is provided by © OpenStreetMap contributors, rendering by GIScience Research Group @
Heidelberg University and map styling by Maxim Rylov.
SRTM; ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA.

Picture above: View at an Italian airport using the OpenMapSurfer theme and hill shading.
OpenTopoMap

31

Menus and Toolbars

An online raster map that mimics a topographic map. Includes hill shading and elevation contour lines at lower zoom
distances.
The tiles for this map are provided by OpenTopoMap.

Picture above: View at the eastern Alps using OpenTopoMap theme. A flight plan is shown north of the Alps.
Stamen Terrain
A terrain map featuring hill shading and natural vegetation colors. The hill shading is available worldwide.
Map tiles by Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under ODbL.

Picture above: View showing Stamen Terrain theme.
CARTO Light (New in version 1.4.4)
A very bright map called Positron which allows to concentrate on the aviation features on the map display. The map
includes the same hill shading option as the OpenStreetMap.
Map tiles and style by CARTO. Data by OpenStreetMap, under ODbL.

32

Menus and Toolbars

CARTO Dark (New in version 1.4.4)
A dark map called Dark Matter. The map includes the same hill shading option as the OpenStreetMap.
Map tiles and style by CARTO. Data by OpenStreetMap, under ODbL.
Simple (Offline)
This is a political map using colored country polygons. Boundaries and water bodies are depicted coarse. The map
included in Little Navmap has an option to display city and country names.
Plain (Offline)
A very simple map. The map is included in Little Navmap and has an option to display city and country names.
Boundaries and water bodies are depicted coarse.
Atlas (Offline)
A very simple map including coarse hill shading and land colors. The map is included in Little Navmap and has an
option to display city and country names. Boundaries and water bodies are depicted coarse.

Scenery Library Menu
Flight Simulators
One menu item is created for each Flight Simulator installation or database found. These menu items allow switching
of databases on the fly. The menu item is disabled if only one Flight Simulator was found.
The loaded AIRAC cycle is displayed only for X-Plane since the information is not available for FSX or P3D
simulators.
You have to set the base path to the X-Plane directory in the

Load Scenery Library Dialog

first to enable the X-

Plane menu item.
This menu is synchronized with simulator selection in the Load Scenery Library Dialog. Once a database is
successfully loaded, the display, flight plan and search will switch over to the newly loaded simulator data.
Note that the program does not keep you from using a X-Plane scenery database while being connected to
FSX/Prepar3D or vice versa. You will get unwanted effects like wrong weather information if using such a
setup.
The program might change a loaded flight plan if you switch between different databases. This can happen if a
departure position is set in the plan which does not exist in the other database. Click

New Flight Plan

before switching

to avoid this.

Navigraph
This sub menu also indicating the AIRAC cycle is added if a Navigraph database is found in the database directory.
See the chapter Navigation Databases for more information about these databases and the three different display
modes shown below.
Use Navigraph for all Features
Completely ignores the simulator database and takes all information from the Navigraph database.
Use Navigraph for Navaids and Procedures

33

Menus and Toolbars

This mode blends navaids and more from the Navigraph database with the simulator database. This affects the map
display, all information and and all search windows.
Do not use Navigraph Database
Ignores the Navigraph database and shows only information read from the simulator scenery.

Show Database Files
Open Little Navmap's database directory in a file manager. See Running without Flight Simulator Installation for more
information on copying database files between different computers. This allows Little Navmap to be run on a remote
computer (e.g. Windows, Mac or Linux) using the same database that was created on the computer running the flight
simulator.

Load Scenery Library
Open the

Load Scenery Library

dialog. See Load Scenery Library Dialog for more information. This menu item is

disabled if no flight simulator installations are found.

Copy Airspaces to X-Plane Database
Copy airspace information from an FSX or P3D database to an X-Plane database. This is needed since X-Plane
comes with limited airspace information.
All airspaces already loaded from X-Plane are deleted before copying. See X-Plane Airspaces for more information.
You have to switch to an FSX or P3D simulator database first to enable this menu item.
The airspace information is deleted when reloading the X-Plane database. Therefore you have to copy the airspaces
again after reloading.

Userdata Menu
See User-defined Waypoints for more information on user-defined waypoints.

Show Search
Raise the dock window

Search

and the tab

Userpoints

where you can edit, add delete and seach user-defined

waypoints.

Import CSV
Import a CSV file that is compatible with the widely used format from Plan-G and adds all the content to the database.
Note that the CSV format is the only format which allows to write and read all supported data fields.
See CSV Data Format for a more detailed description.

Import X-Plane user_fix.dat
Import user-defined waypoints from the file

user_fix.dat

. The file does not exist by default in X-Plane and has to be

created either manually or by exporting from Little Navmap.
The default location is

XPLANE/Custom Data/user_fix.dat

.

34

Menus and Toolbars

The imported userpoints are of type

which can be changed after import using the bulk edit

Waypoint

functionality.
The format is described by Laminar Research here: XP-FIX1101-Spec.pdf.
See X-Plane user_fix.dat Data Format for more information.

Import Garmin GTN
Reads user-defined waypoints from the Garmin

user.wpt

file. Refer to the manual of the Garmin unit you are using for

more information about format and file location.

The imported userpoints are of type

Waypoint

which can be changed after import using the bulk edit

functionality.
See Garmin user.wpt Data Format for more information.

Export CSV
Create or append user-defined waypoints to a CSV file. A dialog asks if only selected userpoints should be exported
and if the userpoints should be appended to an already present file.
Note that the exported file contains an extra column

Region

compared to the Plan-G format. The description field

supports more than one line of text and special characters. Therefore, not all programs might be able to import this
file. If needed, adapt the user-defined waypoints.

Export X-Plane user_fix.dat
Only selected userpoints or all can be exported. The exported data can optionally be appended to an already present
file.
Not all data fields can be exported to this format. The ident field is required for export.
Also, you have to make sure that the user waypoint ident is unique within the

user_fix.dat

.

See X-Plane user_fix.dat Data Format for more information about limitations.

Export Garmin GTN
Only selected userpoints or all can be exported. The exported data can optionally be appended to an already present
file.
Not all data fields can be exported to this format. The ident field is required for export. Some fields like the name are
adapted to limitations.
See X-Plane user_fix.dat Data Format for more information about limitations.

Export XML for FSX/P3D BGL Compiler
This export options creates an XML file which can be compiled into an BGL file containing waypoints.
The region and ident fields are required for this export option.
See the Prepar3D SDK documentation for information on how to compile the BGL and how to add this to the
simulator.

35

Menus and Toolbars

Create Logbook entries
Checking this menu item enables a simple logbook feature.

Little Navmap will create a userpoint of type

on each takeoff and landing when connected to a

Logbook

simulator.
These two logbook entries contain all available information, like the flight plan, time, fuel consumed and much more.

Clear database
Remove all user-defined waypoints from the database.
A CSV backup file named

little_navmap_userdata_backup.csv

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel

is created in the settings directory

before deleting all user-defined waypoints.

Little Navmap also creates a full database backup on every start. See Files.

Tools Menu
Flight Simulator Connection
Open the

Connect

dialog allowing Little Navmap to connect directly to a Flight Simulator, the Little Xpconnect X-Plane

plugin, or remotely using the Little Navconnect agent. See Connecting to a Flight Simulator for more information.

Reset all Messages
Re-enable all dialogs that were disabled by selecting

Do not show this dialog again

or similar messages.

Options
Open the Options dialog.

Window Menu
Map Overlays
Show or hide floating map overlays, like the overview on the top left or the compass on the top right corner of the map
window.

Search
Flight Plan
Information
Flight Plan Elevation Profile
36

Menus and Toolbars

Simulator Aircraft
Legend
Open or close these dock windows. The map dock window cannot be closed.

Main Toolbar, Map Toolbar, Map Airspaces Toolbar, Map Options Toolbar,
Flight Plan Toolbar, Dock Window Toolbar, Statusbar
Show or hide these toolbars and the statusbar.

Reset Window Layout
Reset the main window layout back to default. This involves visibility, position and state of all dock windows as well as
the toolbars. This function can be helpful if a dock window gets lost on multi monitor setups.

Help Menu
Contents (Online)
Show the online user manual in the default web browser.

Contents (Offline, PDF)
Show the included PDF user manual in the default PDF viewer.

NavMap Legend
Show the navigation related map legend in the

Legend

dock window. You can also access the legend here: Navmap

Legend.

Map Legend for current Map Theme
Show the map theme dependent base legend in the

Legend

dock window. Note that the legend is not available for all

map themes.

About Little Navmap
Show version and revision number for Little Navmap, also contains links to the database directory, configuration file,
log file and the author's e-mail address.

About Marble
Display information about the Marble widget that is used to download and show the maps.

37

Menus and Toolbars

About Qt
Display information about the Qt application framework that is used by Little Navmap.

Dontate for this Program
Opens the donation web page in your default browser.
If you would like to show your appreciation you can donate using PayPal.
Donations are purely optional but greatly appreciated.

Check for Updates
Allows to manually check for updates. This will also show updates that were recently ignored by pressing the
this Update

Ignore

on the notification dialog.

See Checking for Updates for more information.

Statusbar
The statusbar at the bottom of the main window shows various indications (from left to right):
Last action or quick help explaining a menu item or toolbar button.
Connection status for a local or remote connection. The tooltip provides more detail about the status, like the
hostname for remote connections.
Connecting...

: The program is trying to establish a connection which was initiated either manually or

automatically.
Connected

: A connection was established.

Disconnected

: The simulator or Little Navconnect exited.

Indicator that shows airport types, airspaces, navaids or AI vehicles currently visible on the map. The tooltip gives
more details.
A red warning message

Too many objects

will be shown if too many objects are displayed on the map due to

too high a detail level. The map display will be incomplete if this happens.
A red

message will be shown if the currently selected database has no content and needs to

Database empty

be loaded.
Map detail level. Range is -5 for least detail to +5 for most detail.
Online map download progress indicator. This shows the state of the current map download. The text is prefixed
with a red
Done.

Offline.

indication if offline mode is enabled.

: All map data loaded successfully.

Waiting for Data ...

: Map data is missing in the cache and was requested. Now waiting for reply.

Waiting for Update ...

: Map data is already loaded but expired after two weeks. Waiting for new data after

requesting an update.
Incomplete.

: Download failed. Note that the progress indicator can look like it is stuck in the message

Waiting for Data ...

if no hill shading is available for a OpenStreetMap region or if you zoom in too close

when using certain online maps.
Zoom distance (viewpoint distance to earth surface) in nautical miles or kilometers.
Cursor position on map as latitude and longitude depending on selected unit in the dialog

Options

.

Ground elevation below the cursor after a short delay if the GLOBE offline elevation data is selected.
Magnetic variance at the cursor position in degrees West or East.

38

Menus and Toolbars

Current date of month and zulu/UTC time

hours:minutes:seconds

. This is the real world time and not the simulator

time. The tooltip gives more date and time information.

Picture above: Status bar of version 1.8.5 with message about the last action on the left side (

Options changed.

), the

connection status and a tooltip that indicates what is currently shown on the map. All map features are shown. The
map detail level is unchanged and the map coordinates are shown on the bottom right. Altitude at cursor is shown too
since offline elevation data is installed. The online map download progress indicator shows

Done.

indicating all map

tiles were downloaded. Zoom distance is 7.8 nautical miles.

39

Map Display

Map Display
See the Nav Map Legend for details about the various symbols shown by the map.

Moving
Use click and drag to move the map and the mouse wheel to zoom in or out. You can also use the overlay buttons on
the right side of the map.
Alternatively use the keyboard to move around the map:
Cursor keys: Scroll the map
+

and

-

Ctrl++

: Zoom in and out
and

Alt+Left

and

Ctrl+Home
Ctrl+End

Alt+Right

Ctrl+-

: Go forward or backward in the map position history

: Increase or decrease details

: Go to home postion

: Go to center for distance search

Do not forget to activate the map window by clicking into it before using keys for movement.

Mouse Clicks
A single click on an airport, navaid, airway line or airspace shows details in the

Information

A single click on a user aircraft, AI aircraft or multiplayer aircraft shows details in the

dock window.

Simulator Aircraft

dock window.

A double-click zooms in showing either the airport diagram or the navaid closely and also shows details in the
Information

dock window. The same applies for all AI or multiplayer aircraft or ships.

The double-click and single-click functionality does not work for flight plan waypoints or airports if the flight plan edit
mode is enabled. The edit mode can be disabled using the toolbar or
Map

Main Menu

->

Flight Plan

->

Edit Flight Plan on

.

The mouse click sensitivity can be adjusted in the

Options

dialog on the

Map

tab.

Aircraft
The user aircraft and AI or multiplayer aircraft or ships will be shown on the map if the program is connected to a flight
simulator. Color indicates user or AI or multiplayer vehicle and the symbol shape indicates if the aircraft is an
piston/turboprop, jet, helicopter or a ship. The symbol outline changes to gray if an aircraft is on ground.
Little Navmap limits the display of AI vehicles depending on size. Zoom close to see small aircraft or boats
AI and multiplayer aircraft on ground are shown only on small zoom distances to avoid cluttered airports. This means
that an AI aircraft can disappear from the map when landing on an airport.
On the lowest zoom distance all aircraft are drawn to scale as are the parking spots which means you can easily
check if your aircraft fits on an apron, parking spot or taxiway.
A yellow wind arrow and labels for the situation around the user aircraft can be displayed on the top center of the map.
The displayed labels for aircraft can be configured in the dialog

Options

on tab

Map Display

. No labels are shown for

ship traffic.
See the Nav Map Legend for details about the aircraft type.

40

Map Display

Tooltips
Hovering the mouse over the map will show tooltips for all map objects including airports, VOR, NDB, airways,
parking, fuel box, towers, aircraft and ships. The tooltip is truncated and shows a message

More...

if it gets too long.

In that case reduce details or zoom in closer.
The sensitivity for the tooltip display can be adjusted in the

Options

dialog on the

Map

tab.

41

Map Display

42

Map Display

Pictures above: Tooltip with information for an airport and a VOR and a tooltip with information about airspaces.

Highlights
Airports, navaids or other features that are selected in the flight plan table or in a search result table are highlighted on
the map with a green/black or a yellow/black ring respectively.
Waypoints that are selected in the procedure preview are highlighted with a blue/black ring.
These highlight circles provide all functionality of visible map objects, even if the objects are not shown at the current
zoom distance (ring is empty). This allows double-click for zoom in, single-click for information dock window and all
context menu entries.

You can use the button

Clear Selection

on top of the flight plan and search windows to remove any map

highlights.

Airport Diagram
The display will change from a single icon to an airport diagram if you zoom in deep enough to an airport. The
diagram shows all taxiways, parking positions, gates, runways and more.
The airport diagram provides more information through tooltips for parking and tower positions. A right-click on a
parking position opens the context menu and allows to select the start position for flight plan departure.
Airspaces are hidden if the airport diagram is shown.
See the Nav Map Legend for details about the airport diagram.

43

Map Display

Picture above: High level view of the airport diagram of EDDH.

Picture above: Detailed view of the airport diagram. Shows blue gates on the right and a few green general aviation
ramp parking spots on the left. Long displaced threshold of runway 33 is visible. Dashed yellow lines indicate taxi
paths.

44

Map Display

Map Context Menu
The map context menu can be activated using right-click or the menu key. Menu items are enabled or disabled
depending on selected object and some menu items contain the name of the selected map object for clarification.

Show Information
Show detailed information in the

Information

dock window for the nearest airport, one or more airways, one or more

airspaces or all navaids near the cursor.
See the Information Dock Window for details.

Show Procedures
Open the procedure search tab of the search dock window and display all procedures for the airport.
See Procedure Search for more information.

Measure GC Distance from here
Display distances from the selected origin as you move the mouse over the map. Left-click on the map to end
measuring and keep the measurement line. All measurement lines are saved and will be restored on next start up.
You can use the keyboard, mouse wheel or the map overlays to scroll and zoom while dragging a line.
Right-click, press the escape key or click outside of the map window to cancel the measurement line editing.
Measurement lines use nautical miles, kilometers or statue miles as unit. Feet or meter will be added as unit if the
lines are short enough. This allows to measure e.g. takeoff distance for crossing takeoffs.
A great circle gives the shortest distance from point to point on earth but does not use a constant course. For that
reason the measurement line will show two course values. One for the start and one for the end position.
Course is always indicated in degrees true which is indicated by the suffix

°T

. Additional information like ident or

frequency will be added to the line if the measurement starts at a navaid or an airport.
The width of distance measurement lines can be changed in the dialog

Options

on the tab

Map Display

.

See the Nav Map Legend for details on measurement lines.

Measure Rhumb Distance from here
A rhumb line is a line of constant course and used between the waypoints of an airway or when approaching a VOR
or NDB station. Distance between points is slightly longer than the great circle route.
The course for a rhumb line is indicated in degrees magnetic and true (

°M

,

°T

or

°M/T

The magnetic declination to calculate the magnetic course will be taken from the global

if both values are equal).
magdec.bgl

file at the origin of

the measurement.
The magnetic declination of an airport or navaid will be used if the measurement starts at a such a point. Additional
information like ident and frequency will be added to the line in this case as well.
See Magnetic Declination for remarks on that topic.

45

Map Display

Remove Distance measurement
Remove the selected line. This menu item is active if you right-click on the end point of a distance measurement line
(small cross).

Show Range Rings
Show multiple red range rings around the clicked position. The number and distance of the range rings can be
changed in the

Options

dialog on the

Map Display

tab. A label indicates the radius of each ring in nautical miles.

The width of all range rings can be changed in the dialog

Options

on the tab

Map Display

.

Show Navaid range
Show a ring around the clicked radio navaid (VOR or NDB) indicating the navaid's range. A label shows ident and
frequency and the ring color indicates the navaid type.

Remove Range Ring
Remove the selected rings from the map. This menu item is active if you right-click on the center point of a range ring
(small circle).

Remove all Range Rings and Distance measurements
Remove all rings and distance measurement lines from the map.

Set as Flight Plan Departure
This is active if the click is at an airport, an airport parking position or a fuel box. It will either replace the current flight
plan departure or add a new departure if the flight plan is empty.
The default runway will be used as starting position if the clicked object is an airport. The airport and parking position
will replace both the current departure and start position if a parking position is clicked within an airport diagram.

Set as Flight Plan Destination
This menu item is active if the click is at an airport. It will either replace the flight plan destination or add the airport if
the flight plan is empty.

Add Position to Flight Plan
Insert the clicked object into the nearest flight plan leg. The object will be added before departure or after destination if
the clicked position is near the flight plan end points.
The text

Position

is replaced with an object name if an airport, navaid or userpoint is at the clicked position.

A user-defined flight plan position is added to the plan if no airport or navaid is near the clicked point.

46

Map Display

A userpoint is converted to a user-defined flight plan position if added to the plan.

Append Position to Flight Plan
Same as

Add Position to Flight Plan

but will always append the selected object or position after the destination or last

waypoint of the flight plan.

Delete from Flight Plan
Delete the selected airport, navaid or user flight plan position from the plan.

Edit Flight Plan Position
Change the name or position of a user-defined waypoint. See Edit Flight Plan Position.
The length of the name is limited to 10 characters when saving to a PLN file. Other flight plan formats have stronger
limitations on length and allowed characters.
You can also edit the coordinates directly instead of dragging the flight plan position (Flight Plan Editing).
See Coordinate Formats for a list of formats that are recognized by the edit dialog.

Add Userpoint
Add a user-defined waypoint to the userdata. Some fields of the userpoint dialog are populated automatically
depending on the selected map object.
Coordinates are always filled-in. If the selected object is an airport or navaid, a userpoint of type

Airport

or

Waypoint

respectively is created and the fields Ident, Region, Name and Altitude are filled-in.
If the selected position is empty map space, a userpoint of type

Bookmark

is created at this position. Altitude is filled-in

if GLOBE offline elevation data is installed. See Flight Plan Elevation Profile.
See Add Userpoints for more information.

Edit Userpoint
Open the edit dialog for a userpoint. Only enabled if the selected object is a userpoint. See Edit Userpoints.

Move Userpoint
Move the userpoint to a new position on the map. Only enabled if the selected object is a userpoint.
Left-click to place the userpoint at the new position. Right-click or press the escape key to cancel the operation and
return the userpoint to its former position.

Delete Userpoint

47

Map Display

Remove the user-defined waypoint from the userdata after confirmation. Only enabled if the selected object is a
userpoint.

Show in Search
Show the nearest airport, navaid, userpoint, online client or online center in the search dialog. The current search
parameters are reset.

Set Center for Distance Search
Set the center point for the distance search function. See Distance search. The center for the distance search is
highlighted by a

symbol.

Set Home
Set the currently visible map view as your home view. The center of the home area is highlighted by a

symbol.

48

Map Display Legend

Legend
By default, all speeds are given in knots, distances in nautical miles, altitudes and elevations in feet. The units can be
set to imperial or metric in the dialog

Options

on the tab

Units

.

Colors, size and text labels of some map elements can be changed in the dialog

Options

on the tab

Map Display

. This

legend shows the default values.
Heading and course are suffixed with

°T

for true course or

°M

for magnetic course.

Map Marks
Symbol

Description
Center of the home position.
Center point that will be used for distance searches.
Flight plan with distance, direction and magnetic course at each leg.
Flight plan procedure leg with the same information as above.
Active flight plan leg
Flight plan departure position on airport. Either parking, fuel box, helipad, water or runway.

Top of descent point with distance to destination.

Range rings labeled with distance.

VOR or NDB range rings labeled with ident and frequency. Color indicates Navaid type.

Great circle distance and course measurement line indicating length and true heading at
start and destination. The two heading values will be equal for small distances. For shorter
distances length is also shown in feet or meters.
Rhumb line of equal bearing distance measurement indicating distance and true heading.
Rhumb lines are used to approach a VOR or NDB or travel along airways. For shorter
distances length is also shown in feet.
Measurement lines starting from an airport or navaid have the same color and additional
ident and frequency labels. Course for rhumb lines will be shown in magnetic if the navaid
has a magnetic variation attribute.

A highlighted airport or navaid selected in the search result table.

A highlighted airport or navaid selected in the flight plan table.

49

Map Display Legend

Highlighted positions of a procedure leg in the preview. Small circle show from and large
circle to position.

Thin circle shows the recommended or related navaid of a procedure leg. This can be a
VORDME for a DME arc approach leg for example.

Compass Rose
Line thickness can be changed in dialog

Options

on the tab

Map Display

.

Symbol

Description
True north.

Magnetic north.

Distance circles and marks from user aircraft if connected.

Solid line shows aircraft track in degrees magnetic if connected.

Dashed line shows aircraft heading if connected.

Aircraft and Ships
Symbol

Description

Current user vehicle if connected to the flight simulator. Labels vary and can be customized in
Options on the tab Map Display . The user aircraft depends on selected aircraft (jet,
piston/turboprop or helicopter). Optionally a black needle protruding from the nose can show
the current track.

User aircraft or ship on ground

Needle showing the current track of the aircraft. Aircraft nose shows heading.

User aircraft trail if connected to the flight simulator.

Wind around the user aircraft with direction in degrees magnetic and speed.

50

Map Display Legend

AI or multiplayer aircraft. Labels vary and can be customized in Options on the tab Map
Display . The symbol depends on aircraft type (jet, piston/turboprop, helicopter or ship).

Online network aircraft/client. Labels vary and can be customized as above.

Airports
Airports having control towers are shown in dark blue others in magenta. Add-on airport names and idents are shown
italic and underlined. Airports that are part of the flight plan have a light yellow text background.
The symbol is shown smaller if an airport has no runways. This is the case for some add-on airports that use another
technique like photo scenery to display runways.
Symbol

Description

Airports with hard surface runways longer than 8,000 ft or 2,400 meters. All runways longer than
4,000 ft or about 1,200 meters are shown. Only for lower zoom distances.

Airports with hard surface runways. White line shows heading of longest runway.
Airports with soft surface runways.
Empty airports shown in gray. No taxiways, no parking spots and no aprons.
Seaplane base having only water runways.
Military airport.
Heliport having only helipads and no runways.
Abandoned airport. All runways are closed.
Airports that have fuel available.
Airport label showing name, ident, ATIS frequency, elevation, lighted runways ( L ) and length of
longest runway. The text labels for an airport can be changed in the dialog Options on the tab
Map Display .

Navaids
51

Map Display Legend

Navaids that are part of the flight plan have a light yellow text background.
Symbol

Description

VOR DME including ident, type (High, Low or Terminal) and frequency. Compass
rose shows magnetic variation on lower zoom distances.

VOR including ident, type and frequency.

DME including ident, type and frequency.

TACAN including ident, type (High, Low or Terminal) and channel. Compass rose
shows magnetic variation on lower zoom distances.

VORTAC including ident, type (High, Low or Terminal) and frequency. Compass
rose shows magnetic variation on lower zoom distances.

NDB including ident, type (HH, H, MH or CL - compass locator) and frequency.

Waypoint with name.
User-defined waypoint with name.
Invalid airport, waypoint, VOR or NDB that is part of the flight plan but could not be
found in the Scenery Database.

Marker with type and heading indicated by lens shape.

Jet airway with label showing name, type (Jet or Both), minimum and maximum
altitude. Text depends on zoom distance. A preceding arrow will show the allowed
direction if the airway is one-way.
Victor airway with label showing name, type (Victor or Both), minimum and
maximum altitude. Text depends on zoom distance. A preceding arrow will show
the allowed direction if the airway is one-way.
ILS with glideslope. Label shows ident, frequency, magnetic heading, glideslope
pitch and DME indication if available.

52

Map Display Legend

Localizer. Label shows ident, frequency, magnetic heading and DME indication if
available.

Procedures
See chapter Procedures for more detailed information on all the legs.
Symbol

Description
SID, STAR, approach or transition leg in preview with distance, direction and magnetic
course at each leg.
SID, STAR, approach or transition leg which is part of the flight plan.
Missed approach leg in preview.
Missed approach leg which is a part of the flight plan.
Gray yellow filled circle indicates a procedure point which is not a navaid but defined by
course and/or distance from a navaid, an altitude restriction or manual termination.
A black circle indicates an overfly waypoint. Can be a procedure point or a navaid.

Fly a heading, track or a hold until manually terminated by ATC.

Intercept the next approach leg at a course of about 45 degrees.

Procedure leg that is terminated when reaching the given altitude.

A fix defined by a course or heading and distance to a navaid.

This fix is defined by a heading or track which is terminated by reaching a DME distance.

Intercept a course to the next fix at an angle of about 45 degrees.

Airport Diagram
Runway, taxiway, helipad and apron colors indicate surface type. White is used for an unknown or invalid surface type
given by an add-on developer.

53

Map Display Legend

Symbol

Description
Runway with length, width, light indicator (

L

) and surface type.

Runway end with ident and magnetic heading.

Displaced threshold. Do not use for landing.

Overrun area. Do not use for taxi, takeoff or landing.

Blast pad. Do not use for taxi, takeoff or landing.

Taxiway with name and center line.

Closed taxiway.

Semi transparent dotted aprons and taxiways indicate that no surface is drawn. It might
use a photo texture or simply the default background.

Tower. Red if a tower frequency is available. Otherwise just view position.

Fuel

GA ramp with parking number and heading tick mark.

Gate with number and heading tick mark. Second ring indicates availability of jetway.

Cargo ramp

Military combat parking or cargo ramp.

54

Map Display Legend

Helipads. Red text indicates medical helipad. Color indicates surface.

Userpoints
Symbol

Description
Airport

Airstrip

Bookmark

Cabin

Closed

Error

Flag

Helipad

Location

Logbook

Marker

Mountain

Obstacle

Pin

POI - point of interest

Seaport

55

Map Display Legend

Unknown

VRP - visual reporting point

Waypoint

Elevation Profile Legend
Symbol

Description

Ground with departure elevation on the left and destination airport elevation on the right.

Flight plan altitude.

Top of descent with distance to destination.

Minimum safe altitude for flight plan. This is elevation plus 1000 feet rounded up to the next
500 ft. The 1000 feet buffer can be changed in the dialog Options on the tab Flight Plan
Minimum safe altitude for a flight plan segment. The same rules apply as to the minimum
safe altitude for flight plan.

User aircraft if connected to the simulator. Labels show actual altitude and climb/sink rate.

User aircraft trail if connected to the flight simulator.

56

Map Display Compass Rose

Compass Rose
The compass rose indicates true north, magnetic north, aircraft heading and aircraft track.
User aircraft heading, track, distance rings and markers are shown if Little Navmap is connected to a simulator. The
rose is centered around the user aircraft if connected.
The compass rose is kept centered in the current view if not connected to a simulator. Magnetic declination is based
on the declination in the center.
The size is adapted to the map view size but not larger than 1000 nm and not smaller than 4 nm.
Line thickness can be changed in dialog

Options

on the tab

Map Display

.

Indicators
True north.

Magnetic north.

Distance circles and marks from user aircraft if connected.

Solid line shows aircraft track in degrees magnetic if connected.

Dashed line shows aircraft heading in degrees magnetic if connected.

Examples

Picture above: Compass rose without simulator
connection.

Picture above: Compass rose centered around user
aircraft.

57

Map Flight Plan Editing

Map Flight Plan Editing
The flight plan drag and drop editing mode is enabled by default. It can be toggled using the toolbar or
Flight Plan

->

Edit Flight Plan on Map

Main Menu

->

.

You can use the keyboard, the mouse wheel or the map overlays to scroll and zoom while editing the route.
Note that the flight plan drag and drop editing is based on the assumption that a direct connection between departure
and destination already exists.
Always select departure and destination first if you would like to build you flight plan manually. This will connect both
points with a great circle line. Based on this line you can start to add navaids to your flight plan.
Note that selecting airways is not possible.

The cursor will change into a cross

if a new navaid can be added to a leg. A cursor

will be shown if a

present navaid can be replaced by another one or if a user position can be moved.
The following functionality is available:
Click on a flight plan leg: Starts editing and adds a new waypoint depending on where the next click is done:
On a single airport and navaid: Object is inserted into the flight plan segment.
On multiple airports or navaids: A menu pops up that allows you to select the object to be inserted.
No airport and no navaid: A user-defined position is inserted into the flight plan.
Click on waypoint: Starts editing and replaces the selected waypoint with an object depending on where you
click next:
On a single airport and navaid: Object replaces the selected waypoint.
On multiple airports or navaids: A menu pops up that allows to pick the object that should replace the
selected waypoint.
No airport and no navaid: A user-defined position replaces the waypoint.
Click on departure or destination: Replaces the departure or destination with an object depending on where
you click next:
On a single airport: Airport replaces the departure or destination. A default runway is assigned as start
position if the departure is replaced with a new airport.
On a navaid: Object replaces departure or destination which results in an invalid flight plan. The flight plan
can be saved and loaded (a warning will be shown) but is unusable by the flight simulator.
On multiple airports or navaids: A menu pops up that allows to select the object that replaces departure or
destination.
No airport and no navaid: A user-defined position replaces the waypoint resulting in an invalid flight plan.
Right-clicking, pressing the escape key or any click outside of the map window: Cancel current operation.
Limitations if procedures are used: You can not add navaids in or between procedures, nor can you delete
procedure legs. The cursor will not change shape when you hover over a procedure. The following is not allowed:
Add a waypoint between departure airport and SID.
Add a waypoint between STAR or approach and destination airport.
Add a waypoint between STAR and approach or transition.
Move or remove the first or last waypoint of a procedure.
All departure or destination procedures are removed if the departure or destination airport is moved or replaced. The
same applies if waypoints are prepended before or appended after departure or destination.

58

Map Flight Plan Editing

Picture above: Inserting a navaid into a flight plan leg by clicking and moving the leg line. A tool tip for the navaid is
shown.

Picture above: Replacing VOR TRA in the flight plan with another one by simply clicking and moving the waypoint
TRA onto KLO. A selection menu pops up for disambiguation.

59

User-defined Waypoints

User-defined Waypoints
User-defined waypoints (or userpoints) allow for adding, editing, searching, exporting, and importing bookmarks,
points of interest, waypoints and more. You can pick freely which types you want to see as icons on the map.

Picture above: An overview of userpoint functionality showing information on the left dock window, highlighted
userpoints on the map, userpoints selected in the search window on the right, and the drop down menu opened by
clicking the userpoint icon in the dock window.

User-defined Waypoint Search
The functionality of the search filters and the result table is similar to the airport and navaid search. See Search Dock
Window for information about search filters and buttons.
Additional context menu items and buttons allow adding, editing, and deleting of userpoints.

Top Buttons and additional Menu Items
See Search Result Table View Context Menu for a description of common context menu items across all search
dialogs.

Add Userpoint
Add a user-defined waypoint to the userdata.
Some fields of the new userpoint dialog are populated automatically depending on a selected userpoint or, if nothing
is selected in the search result table, based on previous additions. This allows to quickly add similar userpoints to the
database without the need to re-enter all the information.
Note that you have to add the coordinates manually if the dialogs starts empty i.e. nothing was selected in the result
table. Add userpoints with the map context menu Add Userpoint to avoid this and have the coordinates set
automatically.

60

User-defined Waypoints

See below for more information about the add dialog.

Edit Userpoint
Open the edit dialog for one or more userpoints.
The edit dialog shows a column of checkboxes on the right side if more than one userpoint is selected. These allow to
choose the fields to edit.
See below for more information about the add dialog.

Delete Userpoint
Remove the selected userpoints after a confirmation dialog.

Reset Search
Clear search filters and revert to showing all entries in the search result table view.

Clear Selection
Deselect all selected entries in the table and remove any highlight circles from the map.

Help
Display a quick help in the tooltip. Click to open this chapter of the manual in the default browser.

Menu Button
Drop down menu button that allows to hide or show search options.
The drop down menu prefixes menu items with a change indicator

*

to show that the related filter row has

modifications.

Add Userpoints Dialog
The dialog is shown when selecting Add Userpoint
userpoint search tab, or selecting

Add Userpoint

in the map context menu, using the top button in the

from the context menu in the search result table.

The dialog will be populated automatically depending on the selected map context, the selection in the search result
table or previous additions.
Type

can be selected from a drop down list or entered freely.

The field

Description

The field

Visible from

allows multi line text and special characters. Formatting like italic or bold is not supported.
allows to define visibility on the map depending on zoom distance. The zoom distance

(viewpoint distance to earth surface) for the current map view is shown in the Statusbar. The user point will be visible
for all zoom distances smaller than the value in

Visible from

. Maximum value is 3000 nm and minimum value is 1 nm.

61

User-defined Waypoints

Valid coordinates are required to confirm the dialog. See Coordinate Formats for a detailed description of the
recognized coordinate formats. A label below the coordinates displays the parsed coordinates or an error message in
case the coordinates could not be parsed.
All other text fields are optional and can be left blank.
The userpoint is removed on next startup of Little Navmap when

Temporary userpoint. Delete on next startup.

is

checked.
The button

Reset

clears all fields with exception of the coordinates and sets the type of the userpoint to

Bookmark

.

Picture above: Add dialog that has been populated automatically by context. The user right-clicked on an airport and
selected

Add Userpoint Airport Frankfurt am Main (EDDF)

.

Edit Userpoints Dialog
A single Userpoint
The edit dialog shows the same edit fields as the dialog used to add userpoints above.
Additional metadata shown at the bottom:
Last Change: Date and time of import, creation or change.
Imported from file: File and path of source file from CSV, X-Plane or Garmin import. You can filter the userpoint
search for this name.
Temporary userpoint - will be deleted on next startup. This indicates that the userpoint is temporary.
The button

Reset

undoes all manual changes and reverts all fields to their original state.

62

User-defined Waypoints

Picture above: Edit dialog for a single userpoint.
Multiple Userpoints
If more than one userpoint was selected for editing, the edit dialog shows a column of checkboxes on the right side.
If checked, the field to the left is unlocked and any text entered will be assigned to the respective field in all selected
userpoints. Unchecked fields will not be altered for any of the userpoints.
In combination with the powerful search function, this allows for bulk changes like fixing an invalid region and
simultaneously changing the visibility range for the affected userpoints:
1. Search for all userpoints with the invalid region.
2. Select all the resulting userpoints, e.g. by clicking on one of the userpoints among the search results and
pressing

Ctrl+A

or by clicking on the top left corner of the column header.

3. Right-click one of the highlighted userpoints and select
4. Click the checkbox to the right of the

Region:

5. Click the checkbox to the right of the

Visible from:

6. Click

OK

Edit Userpoints

from the context menu.

field and change the region.
field and adjust the value.

.

63

User-defined Waypoints

Picture above: Edit dialog for more than one userpoint. The fields

Region

and

Visible from

will be changed for all

selected points. All other fields remain unchanged.

Types
The userpoint type can be any text string. If the text matches an entry from the list below, the appropriate icon is used.
Otherwise, the icon for

Unknown

is used.

Types and icons can be customized and new types can be added. See Userpoint Category Icons for information on
how to do this.
Some types are used as defaults when adding new userpoints. This depends on the context, i.e. what was below the
cursor when right-clicking on the map.
Note that the userpoint types cannot be translated to other languages for now.

Airport: Default when creating a userpoint on top of an airport.
Airstrip
Bookmark: Default type for new userpoints.
Cabin
Closed airport
Error
Flag
Helipad

64

User-defined Waypoints

Location
Logbook: Type of automatically added logbook entries for takeoff and landing. See menu item Create
Logbook entries.
Marker
Mountain
Obstacle
Pin
POI
Seaport
Unknown: Type named

Unknown

and all types which do not match the default types in this list.

VRP: Visual reporting point.
Waypoint: Default when creating a userpoint on top of a navaid.

CSV Data Format
The CSV data format is aligned to the format already used around the flight simulator community and other
applications.
Each row in the file represents a user-defined waypoint.
The minimum fields for import are

Type

,

Name

,

Ident

,

Latitude

and

Longitude

. Only

Latitude

and

Longitude

need

to be filled, the rest can be empty.
All twelve fields are saved when exporting userpoints as CSV. Also, the multi line field

Description

is enclosed in

quotes if needed and preserves line breaks.
English number format (dot

.

as decimal separator) is used in import and export to allow exchange of files on

computers with different language and locale settings.
Little Navmap uses UTF-8 encoding when reading and writing files. This is only relevant if you use special characters
like umlauts, accents or others. Otherwise encoding does not matter.
If an application fails to load a CSV file exported by Little Navmap, use LibreOffice Calc, Microsoft Excel or any other
spreadsheet software capable of reading and writing CSV files to adapt the exported file to the format expected by
that application.
See Comma-separated values in the Wikipedia for detailed information on the format.
Example for an absolute minimal userpoint consisting of coordinates only:
,,,49.0219993591,7.8840069771

65

User-defined Waypoints

Visible from

will be set to the default of 250 nm and the userpoint will be shown using the

icon after

Unknown

import.
Example for a minimal userpoint record with type

Mountain

, ident and name for import:

Mountain,My Point of Interest,MYPOI,49.0219993591,7.8840069771

Visible from

will be set to the default of 250 nm after import.

Example for an exported userpoint with type

Mountain

and all fields set:

Mountain,My Point of Interest,MYPOI,49.0219993591,7.8840069771,1200,2.0085027218,"View,Interesting,Point","Interesting poi
nt ""Eselsberg"" - nice view",ED,250,2018-05-17T17:44:26.864

Take note of the following challenges when parsing CSV files: In the field
enclosed in double quotes since it contains commas. The field description

Tags

, the list

"View,Interesting,Point"

is

"Interesting point ""Eselsberg"" - nice view"

is enclosed in double quotes since the text itself contains a pair of double quotes (

"Eselsberg"

) which are, in turn,

escaped by another double quote each.

CSV Fields
Position

Name

Required

Empty
Allowed

Comment

1

Type

Yes

Yes

One of the predefined or user-defined types. The icon
for Unknown is used if the type does not match one of
the known types.

2

Name

Yes

Yes

Free to use field. Used for Garmin export.

3

Ident

Yes

Yes

Required only for Garmin and X-Plane export. Has to
be a unique valid identifier with maximum of five
characters for these exports.

4

Latitude

Yes

No

Range from -90 to 90 degrees using dot
decimal separator

5

Longitude

Yes

No

Range from -180 to 180 degrees using dot
decimal separator.

6

Altitude

No

Yes

Must be a valid number if used. Unit is always feet.

7

Magnetic
variance

No

Yes

Ignored on import and set to a valid calculated value
on export.

8

Tags

No

Yes

Free to use field. GUI has no special tag search.

9

Description

No

Yes

Free to use field which allows line breaks.

10

Region

No

Yes

Two letter ICAO region of a userpoint or waypoint.
Used for X-Plane export. Replaced with default value
ZZ on X-Plane export if empty.

11

Visible
from

No

Yes

Defines from what zoom distance in nautical miles
(shown on Status Bar) the userpoint is visible. Set to
250 nm if empty on import.

12

Last
update
timestamp

Yes

ISO date and time of last change. Format is
independent of system date format settings. Format:
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss . Example: 2018-0328T22:06:16.763 . Not editable in GUI.

No

.

as

.

as

66

User-defined Waypoints

X-Plane user_fix.dat Data Format
This allows to read and write the X-Plane
default and has to be saved to

user_fix.dat

file for user-defined waypoints. The file does not exist by

XPLANE/Custom Data/user_fix.dat

.

The format is described by Laminar Research in a PDF file which can be downloaded here: XP-FIX1101-Spec.pdf.
The file consists of a header and a number of rows for the user fixes. Each row has five columns which are separated
by space or tab characters.
There are five columns of data in the file:
1. Latitude
2. Longitude
3. Ident
4. Airport ident
5. Region
Example for

user_fix.dat

:

I
1101 Version - data cycle 1704, build 20170325, metadata FixXP1101. NoCopyright (c) 2017 achwodu
50.88166700

12.58666700 PACEC ENRT ZZ

-36.29987335 174.71089172 N0008 NZNI ZZ
99

Note that, while the user-defined waypoints are not displayed on the X-Plane map, they can be selected and
used to build flight plans in the X-Plane stock GPS and FMS.

Import
Example line from

user_fix.dat

above:

50.88166700 12.58666700 PACEC ENRT ZZ

The coordinates are read into the Little Navmap userpoint coordinates.
The fix ident

PACEC

is read into the Ident field in Little Navmap.

The fix airport

ENRT

The region

(invalid or no region) is read into the Region field in Little Navmap.

ZZ

Type will be set to

(enroute: no airport here) is read into the Tags field in Little Navmap.

Waypoint

for all imported fixes.

Export
The mapping is the same as for the import.
Ident to fix ident.
Tags to fix airport.
Region to fix region.
All other fields are ignored.
The ident is adjusted to match a up to five digit and letter combination. A generated ident is used if that is not possible
or the ident is empty.
Fix airport is always

ENRT

when exporting.

67

User-defined Waypoints

The region is adjusted for a two letter digit and letter combination.

ZZ

is used if that is not possible or the region is

empty.
The ident has to be unique in the

user_fix.dat

. Therefore it is recommended to set a unique ident for each

waypoint manually or leave the field empty so Little Navmap can generate an ident during export.

Garmin user.wpt Data Format
The Garmin user waypoint file is a CSV file. Each row in the file represents a unique user waypoint.
There must be four columns of data in the file:
1. Waypoint ident
2. Waypoint name or description
3. Latitude
4. Longitude
Example of a

user.wpt

file:

MTHOOD,MT HOOD PEAK,45.3723,-121.69783
CRTRLK,CRATER LAKE,42.94683,-122.11083
2WTER,2NM WEST TERRACINA,41.28140000,13.20110000
1NSAL,1NM NORTH SALERNO TOWN,40.69640000,14.78500000

The waypoint ident can be up to 10 numbers or capital letters but the GTN will shorten the name to the first 6
characters. No special characters or symbols can be used. Little Navmap adjusts the ident accordingly.
The waypoint name can be up to 25 numbers, capital letters, spaces, or forward slash

/

characters. The name is

displayed when selecting waypoints to provide additional context to the pilot. Little Navmap adjusts the name
according to limitations.

Import
Example line from

above:

user.wpt

MTHOOD,MT HOOD PEAK,45.3723,-121.69783

The ident
The name

MTHOOD

is read into the Ident field in Little Navmap.

MT HOOD PEAK

is read into the Name field in Little Navmap.

The coordinates are read into the Little Navmap userpoint coordinates.
Type will be set to

Waypoint

for all imported waypoints.

Export
Mapping of fields is same as import but all fields are adjusted to limitations.
Note: If an imported waypoint ends up being within 0.001° latitude and longitude of an existing user waypoint in the
GTN, the existing waypoint and name will be reused.

Export XML for FSX/P3D BGL Compiler
This export option creates an XML file which can be compiled into an BGL file containing waypoints.
The region and ident fields are required for this export option. If region is empty or otherwise invalid
waypoints are of type

NAMED

ZZ

is used. All

.

68

User-defined Waypoints

See Prepar3D SDK documentation for information on how to compile and add the BGL to the simulator.
Example:







Database Backup Files
Little Navmap creates a full database backup on every start since undo functionality is not available for userpoints.
You can also use the CSV export to create backups manually since CSV allows to export the full dataset.
See Userdata for information about database backup files.

69

Online Networks

Online Networks
The online network functionality allows to connect to VATSIM, IVAO or other online networks which publish
whazzup.txt

files. This covers display of information for centers, clients and servers on the map.

Network specific information like user names, active centers/towers, frequencies, flight plans and much more are
displayed world wide without limits like distance to the user aircraft.
Note that all related window tabs, menu items and toolbar buttons are hidden if online networks are disabled
which is the default.
Access to online networks can be enabled and configured in the dialog

Options

on tab Online Flying. Predefined

options for the well known networks are available as well as freely configurable ones.

Picture above: An overview of all online network related windows, tabs and buttons.

Simulator and Online Aircraft Duplicates
Little Navmap fetches data from online networks using an interval of three minutes depending on settings and
network.
The program also fetches AI or multiplayer aircraft from the simulator which are updated about two times a second.
These aircraft are injected into the simulator by the various online clients so they are visible within the simulator.
Therefore, the user aircraft and other client aircraft can appear duplicated on the map.
Little Navmap tries to remove these duplicates by matching the aircraft registration (simulator) and the client callsign
(online network). Aircraft can appear duplicated if this information is not available which is the case for X-Plane. Refer
to the configuration of your online network tool how to add this information.

70

Online Networks

Map Display
Clients
Online network clients or their aircraft are displayed on the map using the

symbol. This includes simulator

aircraft that were recognized as online network clients.

The user aircraft is always displayed using the yellow
simulator. Use the

Show in Search

or a similar symbol depending on aircraft type and

map context menu item to see your own aircraft in the list of online clients.

Information for online aircraft is shown on the tab

Online Clients

in the Information Dock Window.

All other functionality like context menu, double-click, tooltips, map highlights and other are the same as for the other
aircraft.
See Aircraft and Ships in the legend for all symbols.

Picture above: Online network clients/aircraft in search tab, map, tooltip and information window.

Centers
Online centers are displayed as circular airspaces in Little Navmap and provide the same functionality as the other
airspaces (tooltips, information and more). They can be enabled separately from the other airspaces by using the
button

or menu item Show Online Network Airspaces.

Note that the circles do not represent the real airspaces and are only used to indicate the presence of an
active center, tower, ground or other position.
Detailed information for online centers/airspaces is shown on the tab

Online Centers

in the Information Dock Window.

The following types are available and can be enabled in the drop down menus on the airspace toolbar or sub menu
Airspaces:

71

Online Networks

Observer: Circle size is taken from the
Flight Information (Center): Uses
Delivery (Clearance): Uses

Visual Range

Visual Range

Visual Range

value of the center.

.

.

Ground: Shows a circle with a diameter of 10 nm.
Tower: 20 nm circle.
Approach: 40 nm circle.
ACC (Center): Uses
Departure: Uses

Visual Range

Visual Range

.

.

The size of the circle shapes can be changed in the configuration file. See Online Network Center.

Picture above: Online network center/ATC in search tab, map, tooltip and information window.

Online Network Client Search
Online Network Center Search
The functionality of the search filters in these two tabs and the result tables are similar to the airport and navaid
search. See Search Dock Window for information about search filters, buttons and context menu items.

Online Server Search
Displays all online servers in a table and has no search functionality. You can use the context menu to copy parts of
the result table like the IP address.

72

Search Dock Window

Search Dock Window
The search dock window contains several tabs with similar functionality that allows to search for objects by name,
ident or other criteria.
Airport, navaid, userpoint and online search tabs contain multiple rows of search filters. These rows can be switched
on and off with the drop down menu on the menu button

on the top right in the airport, navaid and userpoint

search tabs.
The drop down menu prefixes menu items with a change indicator

*

to show that the related filter row has

modifications. You can use this to find out why a search does not give the expected results.

If you do not get the expected results or no results at all use the
press

Ctrl+R

Reset Search

menu item, button

or

to clear all search criteria.

Filters are defined by various controls which are mostly self explaining. Only text filters and the tri-state checkboxes
like

Lighted

,

Approach

or

Closed

need a few extra remarks below.

All filters can be used together where all conditions have to be met (

and

operator). All filters except the distance

search filter are applied immediately. The distance search is applied after a short delay for each change.
Entering three or four characters in the

ICAO Code

field of the airport search tab will trigger a quick search

which ignores all other filters and shows the airports matching that partial or full ICAO code.
A tooltip on the blue help button on the top right shows information about searching.

Text filters
The standard is to search for entries that start with the entered text.
The placeholder

*

stands for any text. Once a

*

is included in the term, the standard search (match start of text) is

no longer used. In that case you might have to add a

*

at the end of the search term as well to get the expected

result.
The search is negated (find all entries that do not match) if the first character in a search box is a
Note that all of the above does not apply to numeric fields like

Runways: Min

or

Altitude: Max

-

.

.

Tri state checkboxes
These are used to filter airports by presence of certain facilities or properties.
Below are the states as they are shown in Windows 10:
Black Box: Condition is ignored.
Checked: Condition must match.
Empty Box: Condition must not match.
Colors and look of these checkboxes vary with theme and operation system. So instead of gray another color might
be used (red fill on Linux or a

-

for macOS).

Distance search

73

Search Dock Window

This function is only available in the airport and navaid search.
This function allows you to combine all other search options with a simple spatial search.
The checkbox

Distance

has to be selected to enable this search. The result will include only airports or navaids that

are within the given minimum and maximum range of nautical miles from the search center. This allows you to quickly
search for a destination that is within the range of your aircraft and fulfills other criteria like having lighted runways and
fuel.
The center for the distance search is highlighted by a

symbol.

To restrict the search further you can select a direction (North, East, South and West).
Check the drop down menu for the change indicator
search does not give any or unexpected results. Use
Ctrl+R

*

and the search fields for any remaining text if the distance

Reset Search

in the context menu of the result table or press

to clear all search criteria.

Picture above A complex distance search: Find all airports within a distance between 200 and 400 nautical miles
from Frankfurt (EDDF). Airports should have a rating greater than 0 and should have at least one lighted runway.
Military and closed airports are excluded. The resulting airports are highlighted on the map by selecting them in the
search result table.

74

Search Dock Window

Picture above A complex search for scenery: This example shows how to find specific add-on scenery by using
the

Scenery Path

search field. This shows all airports of the Orbx New Zealand South Island add-on scenery that have

lighted runways.

Search Result Table View
All selected elements in the table view will be highlighted on the map using a black/yellow circle. See Highlights for
more information.
Use

Shift+Click

or

Ctrl+Click

to select two or more elements (multi-selection).

Header
The header of all table views allows the following manipulation:
Click on the top left corner of the column header: Select all result rows.
Click on a column header: Sort ascending or descending (only for search result tables - not for flight plan table).
Click and drag on the column header: Change column order.
Double-click on column border: Automatically fit column size to content.
Click and drag on column border: Change column width.
Click into the empty space below all rows: Deselect all entries and remove highlights on the map.
The above applies to all table views in the program and partially also to the tree view of the procedure search.
The program saves the sort order, column widths and positions until

Reset View

is selected in the context menu.

75

Search Dock Window

Picture above: Airport search result table. All additional search options are hidden by using the drop down menu of
the menu button on the top right.

Picture above: Navaid search limited to ICAO region

LI

(Italy) and VOR, VORTAC and TACAN stations that have a

range of 100 or more nautical miles.

Mouse Clicks
A double-click on an entry in the table view shows either an airport diagram or zooms to the navaid or other feature.
Additionally, details are shown in the

Information

dock window. Single click selects an object and highlights it on the

map using a black/yellow circle.

Top Buttons
Available buttons and menu items depend on search tab.

Reset Search
Clear search filters and show all entries again in the search result table view.

Clear Selection
Deselect all entries in the table and remove any highlight circles from the map.

Help
Display a quick help in the tooltip. Click to open this chapter of the manual in the default browser.

Menu Button
Drop down menu button that allows to hide or show search options.
The drop down menu prefixes menu items with a change indicator

*

to show that the related filter row has

modifications. You can use this to find out why a search does not give the expected results.

Search Result Table View Context Menu
Available menu items depend on search tab.

76

Search Dock Window

Show Information
Same as the Map Context Menu.

Show Procedures
Open the procedure search tab of the search dock window and display all procedures for the airport.
See Procedure Search for more information.

Show on Map
Show either the airport diagram or zooms to the navaid, userpoint or other features on the map.

Follow Selection
The map view will be centered - not zoomed in - on the selected feature when this function is enabled.

Filter by Entries including/excluding
Use the field under the cursor to set a search filter that includes or excludes the text of the field. This is only enabled
for text columns.

Reset Search
Clear search filters and revert to showing all entries in the search result table view.

Show All
The table view does not show all entries initially for performance reasons. This menu item allows to load and show the
whole search result. The view switches back to the limited number of entries after a search filter is modified or the sort
order is changed. The number of all, visible and selected entries is shown at the bottom of the tab.
Be aware that showing all navaids and airports can take some time especially if they are highlighted on the map when
selecting all entries in the search result. The program does not crash but needs a few seconds to highlight all the
objects on the map.

Show Range Rings
Show Navaid range
Remove all Range Rings and Distance measurements
Set as Flight Plan Departure
77

Search Dock Window

Set as Flight Plan Destination
Add Position to Flight Plan
Append Position to Flight Plan
Same as the Map Context Menu.

Copy
Copy the selected entries in CSV format to the clipboard. This will observe changes to the table view like column
order and sort order. The CSV includes a header line.

Select All
Select all visible entries. To select all available entries the function

Show All

has to be used first.

Clear Selection
Deselect all entries in the table and remove any highlight circles from the map.

Reset View
Reset sort order, column order and column widths to default.

Set Center for Distance Search
Same as the Map Context Menu.

78

Search Dock Window - Procedures

Search Dock Window - Procedures
The tab

Procedures

allows previewing and adding approach and departure procedures to the flight plan. Procedures

of a selected airport are arranged in a tree which indicates the dependencies between approaches and transitions.
Note that the SID and STAR names are limited to 5 characters in FSX and P3D due to a limitation in the BGL file
format. Therefore procedure names are slightly modified. However, this does not apply to procedures from a
Navigraph or X-Plane scenery database.
See the Procedures chapter of this manual for more details.
Procedure legs are shown when a procedure node is expanded in the tree. Procedures can be filtered by runway and
type.
Right-click on a procedure to get more options in the context menu, like centering the map on the procedure or adding
it to your flight plan.
Use the context menu of the flight plan table to remove procedures like any other waypoint. See Delete Selected Legs
or Procedure.
Procedure legs are highlighted in red if one or more navaids could not be resolved. A warning dialog will be displayed
if you try to add this procedure to a flight plan.

Picture above: Showing a transition and a RNAV approach. Start and endpoint of a transition leg are highlighted on
the map.

Procedure Tree
Legs are shown in dark blue while missed approach legs are shown in dark red color.
Bold red text indicates an error in the leg. The procedure is incomplete and should not be used in a flight plan.
Description
Course °M

: Either description of the procedure or flight instruction for procedure legs.

: Magnetic course for a leg.

Dist./Time

: Distance of flying time for a leg. Holds can have a leg time in minutes or a leg distance in nautical

miles.
Ident

: Ident of the initial fix or name of the procedure. Fix name for legs.

Restriction

: Either minimum altitude for en route airway segment, procedure altitude restriction or procedure

79

Search Dock Window - Procedures

speed limit. A

/

separates altitude and speed restriction. The following altitude restrictions exist for procedures:

Number only: Fly at altitude or speed. Example:

5.400

or

.

210

Prefix

A

: Fly at or above altitude or speed. Example:

A 1.800

Prefix

B

: Fly at or below altitude or speed. Example:

B 10.000

.
or

B 220

.

Range: Fly at or above altitude one and at or below altitude two. Example:
Altitude and speed limit: Values separated by
Speed limit only: A prefixed
Remarks

/

/

. Example:

A 8.000, B 10.000

A 8.000, B 10.000/B220

.

.

indicates no altitude but a speed restriction. Example:

/B250

.

: Shows fly-over, turn direction or related navaid for a procedure leg.

Top Buttons
Type Filter (All Procedures)
The type filter is not available for an FSX or P3D stock database. A navdata update is needed to get SID and STAR
procedures.
This filter is always available for a X-Plane database which contains SIDs and STARs already in the stock data.
The type filter allows the selections below:
All Procedures

: SID, STAR and approaches

Departure Procedures
Arrival Procedures

: Only SID

: STAR and approaches

Only Approaches and Transitions

: No SID and no STAR

The respective transitions are always shown.

Runway Filter (All Runways)
This filter is always available and helps to find procedures for a certain departure or arrival runway.

Clear Selection
Deselect all entries in the table and remove any highlight circles from the map.

Help
Open this chapter of the manual in the default browser.

Procedure Tree Context Menu
Show on Map
Center the map on the selected procedure.

Follow Selection
The map view will be zoomed on the selected procedure when this function is enabled.

Insert into Flight Plan / Use as Destination / Use as Departure
80

Search Dock Window - Procedures

Text and functionality of this menu item depends on the selected procedure type and whether the procedure's airport
is already the departure or destination airport of the current flight plan.
Use the context menu of the flight plan table to remove procedures. See Delete Selected Legs or Procedure.
If a transition is selected, the corresponding procedure (approach, SID or STAR) is added or replaced as well.
Insert ... into Flight Plan

:

This menu item will add the selected procedure to the current flight plan. A procedure of the same type (SID, STAR or
approach with or without transition) will be replaced if already present in the flight plan.
Use ... as Destination

or

Use ... as Departure

:

This will add or replace the destination or departure airport and add the selected procedure.
If the flight plan is empty, the departure or destination airport is added to the flight plan as well.

Expand All / Collapse All
Expand all procedures so that their legs and transitions are shown or collapse the tree.

Reset Search
Clear search filters and revert to showing all procedures in the tree.

Clear Selection
Deselect the currently selected procedure and remove the preview from the map.

Reset View
Reset column order and column widths to default.

81

Navigation Databases

Navigation Databases
Little Navmap can use up to two databases in parallel:
1. Simulator database: Created by reading the scenery library of FSX, P3D or X-Plane.
2. Navigation database: Provided by Navigraph. Does not have to be compiled and can be updated by the
Navigraph FMS Data Manager.
Little Navmap is bundled with a navigation database from a recent AIRAC cycle that is enabled per default.
See Install Navigraph Updates on my home page for information how to update Little Navmap's navigation
data.
Three display modes can be selected from the menu

Scenery Library

as shown below.

Use Navigraph for all Features
Uses only information from the Navigraph database.
Note that airport information is limited in this mode. This means that aprons, taxiways, parking positions, runway
surface information and fuel information are not available. Additionally, smaller airports might be missing.
Runway layout might not match the runway layout in the simulator if you use stock or older airport scenery.
An advantage of this mode is that approach procedures always match the airport runway layout.

Picture above: Airport diagram for EDDN from simulator scenery (X-Plane) as shown in the modes
Navigraph Database

and

Use Navigraph for Navaids and Procedures

Do not use

.

Picture above: Airport EDDN from the Navigraph database while

Use Navigraph for all Features

is enabled. Note

missing runway surface information and missing aprons, taxiways and parking positions.

82

Navigation Databases

Do not use Navigraph Database
Completely ignores the Navigraph database and shows only information read from the simulator scenery.

Use Navigraph for Navaids and Procedures
Default mode after installation or update of Little Navmap.
This mode blends navaids and other features from the Navigraph database with the simulator database. This affects
the map display, all information windows and and all search windows.
The following features are taken from the simulator database when using this mode:
Airports (also

Search

dock window, tab

Airport

)

Aprons
Taxiways
Parking positions
COM frequencies
ILS
The following features are taken from the Navigraph database:
Navaids (waypoints/intersections, VOR, NDB, marker) which affects:
Search

dock window, tab

Navaid

Flight plan calculation
Route Description
Procedures (approaches, SIDs and STARs). This affects:
Search

dock window, tab

Procedures

Loading and display of procedures from flight plans.
Airways
Airspaces

Limitations in this mode
Little Navmap ignores any mismatches between procedures and runways due to airport updates and will not
display a warning. Update an airport using payware or freeware scenery if you find that an approach or departure
procedure does not start at a runway end of an airport.
Procedures cannot be recognized when selecting
ident (e.g.

Kulik Lake

for all Features

LKK

to

Show Procedures
PAKL

in the menu if an airport has changed its ICAO

). If you suspect such a case use the mode

Use Navigraph

to get the procedures for the airport.

The airport search
all Features

: ident changed from

Procedures

only considers procedures available in the simulator. Switch to

Use Navigraph for

to look for airports that have procedures from the Navigraph database.

ILS placement or presence might not match approach procedures if an airport has a new ILS which is not present
in stock scenery or an old scenery add-on. If you encounter an ILS approach without ILS station, switch to
Navigraph for all Features

Use

to overcome this limitation.

Using the fsAerodata navdata update will mitigate or even remove all of the limitations above since it will synchronize
the simulator scenery with the Navigraph database.

83

Navigation Databases

Picture above: An extreme example for runway/procedure mismatch. The approach from the Navigraph database
cycle 1707 ends at the not visible runway 09 while the outdated scenery from FSX shows the airport at the wrong
position. EDVK was rebuild north of Calden in 2013. The OpenStreetMap backgound shows the new airport.

84

Flight Plan Formats

Flight Plan Formats
Little Navmap supports several flight plan formats, all of which have different limitations. Only some of these formats
can be loaded and saved.
The program uses different

Save as ...

file dialogs instead of just one. This means the directory for each file format is

retained separately, removing the need to navigate back and forth between the FSX flight plan directory, the P3D
flight plan directory and the X-Plane FMS output directory.
Note the difference between
current file name while

Save Flight Plan as ...

Save as ...

and

Export Flight Plan as ...

:

Export

does not change the

does.

Feature Table
The table below shows the capabilities of Little Navmap and the supported flight plan formats (X = supported, 0 = not
supported):

Read

Write

Airw.

VFR/
IFR

User
Wpt.
Names

Dep.
Parking

Cruise
Alt.

Ground
speed

Proc.

FSX PLN
annotated

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

FSX PLN

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

0

0

FS9 PLN
clean

X

0

X

X

X

X

X

0

0

FSC PLN

X

0

X

0

X

0

0

0

0

X-Plane
FMS 11

X

X

X

0

X

0

X

0

X

X-Plane
FMS 3

X

X

0

0

X

0

X

0

0

FLP

X

X

X

0

0

0

0

0

X

Reality XP
GNS FPL

0

X

0

0

X

0

0

0

0

Reality XP
GTN GFP

0

X

X

0

X2

0

0

0

X

Flight1 GTN

0

X

X

0

0

0

0

0

0

PMDG RTE

0

X

X

0

0

0

0

0

0

TXT

0

X

X

0

0

0

0

0

0

Majestic Dash
FPR 1

0

X

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

IXEG 737 FPL

0

X

X

0

0

0

0

0

0

FLTPLAN
for iFly

0

X

X

0

0

0

0

0

0

ProSim

0

X

X

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

X

X

0

0

0

0

0

0

Format

companyroutes.xml

PLN for
BBS Airbus

85

Flight Plan Formats

UFMC

0

X

X

0

0

0

0

0

FPL for
XFMC

0

X

X

0

0

0

0

0

0

X

X

0

0

0

X

0

0

X

0

0

0

0

0

0

Flight Factor
corte.in

GPX

Procedure waypoints are excluded from all file formats by default, except for GPX. You have to use the GPS or FMS
in the simulator to select procedures.
You can enable saving of waypoints by checking the menu items Save Waypoints for Approaches and/or Save
Waypoints for SID and STAR.
A dialog is shown if any unsupported features are detected in the current flight plan when trying to save a plan. You
can disable this dialog for future saves if you know what you are doing.
The current file name and type will change if you save a plan to a format that is readable and writable. This does not
happen when exporting.
An example shows how the program deals with the limited formats:
1. Create a flight plan including procedures.
2. Save as PLN - current filename changes to new file name

NAME.pln

.

3. Save as FMS - a warning is shown and after saving the current filename changes to new
4. Restart program -

NAME.fms

NAME.fms

.

will be reloaded and procedures are lost.

5. Now export as GFP - Current filename remains

NAME.fms

.

User Waypoint Names
User waypoint names will be adapted to format limitations when saving. That means that waypoint names can change
when reloading a flight plan.
PLN: Maximum length for FSX or Prepar3D is 10 charaters and no special characters are allowed. Unsupported
characters will be removed and the length will be truncated.
FMS: No spaces allowed. These will be replaced with underscores (

_

).

FLP: All user waypoint names will be replaced by coordinates.

FSX PLN
The format FSX PLN is used as a default format because it supports most features and allows to include additional
information in form of annotations which will be ignored by flight simulators and most other tools.
Note that P3D v4.2 overwrites the flight plan when loading, which erases all annotations. Save a copy of the
plan to another location if you like to keep all information about procedures or speed.

FS9 PLN
File format of the Flight Simulator 2004. Uses the same PLN extension as the FSX PLN format. Little Navmap can
only read this format. Therefore a warning dialog is shown before overwriting a file with the newer FSX PLN format.

Clean PLN
86

Flight Plan Formats

This is the same as the FSX PLN but without additional annotations which contain information about selected
procedures or ground speed. Use this format if an application cannot deal with the annotated format.

FMS 11 (X-Plane)
New X-Plane FMS format which can be loaded into the stock GPS, the G1000 and the FMS of X-Plane 11.10. This is
the default save format for X-Plane FMS now. Use the export function to save old FMS version 3 files.
This format is supported as of X-Plane 11.10. It can already be used in the beta versions but might crash XPlane version 11.05 and below.
Little Navmap can read and write this format.
Store these files into the

Output/FMS plans

directory inside the X-Plane directory.

FMS 3 (X-Plane)
X-Plane FMS format which can be loaded into the stock GPS and FMS of X-Plane 10 and 11.05. The format is very
limited and basically stores only a list of waypoints.
Little Navmap can read and write this format.
Store these files into the

Output/FMS plans

directory inside the X-Plane directory.

FLP
A format that can be read by the X-Plane FMS (not the X-Plane GPS), Aerosoft Airbus and other add-on aircraft.
Supports airways and procedures.
You can load these files into the X-Plane FMS including airway information. Procedures are saved in the FLP but
cannot loaded yet by the FMS. You have to select these manually after loading the flight plan.
Store these files into the

Output/FMS plans

directory inside the X-Plane directory if you want to use them in X-Plane.

FPL (Reality XP Garmin GNS)
Flight plan format as FPL file usable by the Reality XP GNS 530W/430W V2.
This file format can only be exported. Reading is not supported.
See below for information on known problems when exporting flight plan data for the GNS.
Little Navmap considers the

GNSAPPDATA

environment variable if set. See the GNS manual for more information.

The default directory to save the flight plans for the GNS units is

C:\ProgramData\Garmin\GNS Trainer Data\GNS\FPL

for all

simulators. The directory will be created automatically by Little Navmap on first export if it does not exist.

GFP (Reality XP Garmin GTN)
Save flight plan as GFP file usable by the Reality XP GTN 750/650 Touch.
This file format can only be exported. Reading is not supported.
See below for information on known problems when exporting flight plan data for the GTN.
Little Navmap considers the

GTNSIMDATA

environment variable if set. See the GTN manual for more information.

87

Flight Plan Formats

Garmin GTN Trainer 6.41
The default directory to save the flight plans for the GTN units is

C:\ProgramData\Garmin\Trainers\GTN\FPLN

for all

simulators. The directory will be created automatically by Little Navmap on first export if it does not exist.

Garmin GTN Trainer 6.21
If you're using the trainer version 6.21 then the default path is

C:\ProgramData\Garmin\GTN Trainer Data\GTN\FPLN

. You

have to create this directory manually and then navigate to it in the file dialog when saving. Little Navmap will
remember the selected directory.

GFP (Flight1 Garmin GTN)
This is the flight plan format used by the Flight1 GTN 650/750.
This file format can only be exported. Reading is not supported.
See below for information on problems when exporting flight plan data for the GTN.
The default directories to save the flight plans for the GTN units are:
Prepar3D v3:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\F1TGTN\FPL

Prepar3D v4:

C:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\F1TGTN\FPL

Flight Simulator X:

.

.

C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator X\F1GTN\FPL

You might need to change the user privileges on this directory if your saved flight plans do not show up in the GTN.
Give yourself full control and/or ownership of this directory to avoid this.
A typical symptom is that you can save the flight plan in Little Navmap and you can also see the saved plan in Little
Navmap's open dialogs but it does not show up in the GTN unit. Change the privileges of the export directory as
mentioned above if that is the case.
The file is a simple text format containing only one line of text. Example for the content of a flight plan file named
CYPU.gfp

KEAT-

:

FPN/RI:F:KEAT:F:EAT.V120.SEA.V495.CONDI.V338.YVR.V330.TRENA:F:N50805W124202:F:N51085W124178:F:CAG3:F:N51846W124150:F:CYPU

RTE (PMDG)
A PMDG RTE file. File location depends on the used aircraft but is usually

PMDG\FLIGHTPLANS

in the simulator base

directory.

TXT (JARDesign and Rotate Simulations)
A simple file format usable by JARDesign or Rotate Simulations aircraft. Location depends on the used aircraft which
is usually in the X-Plane directory

aircraft

.

The file is a simple text format containing only one line of text. Example for the content of a
CBZ9CYDC.txt

TXT

file named

:

CBZ9 SID AIRIE V324 YKA B8 DURAK STAR CYDC

FPR (Majestic Dash)
Flight plan format for the Majestic Software MJC8 Q400. Note that the export is currently limited to a list of waypoints.
The flight plan has to be saved to

YOURSIMULATOR\SimObjects\Airplanes\mjc8q400\nav\routes

.

88

Flight Plan Formats

Note that the FMC in the Dash will show invalid coordinates when you press

INFO

on a waypoint or airport. The flight

plan, navigation and autopilot are not affected otherwise.

FPL (IXEG Boeing)
Exports the current flight plan as a FPL file usable by the IXEG Boeing 737. The format is the same as TXT but with a
different file extension.
The file should be saved to

XPLANE\Aircraft\X-Aviation\IXEG 737 Classic\coroutes

. You have to create the directory

manually if it does not exist.

corte.in (Flight Factor Airbus)
A format for the Flight Factor Airbus. The file is not truncated and flight plans are appended when saving.
Flight plans are saved in a slightly extended ATS route notation which also allows to save the cruise altitude and
approach procedures. Edit the file with a simple text editor if you want to remove flight plans.
Example:
RTE ETOPS002 EINN 06 UNBE2A UNBEG DCT 5420N DCT NICSO N236A ALLEX Q822 ENE DCT CORVT KJFK I22R JFKBOS01 CI30 FL360
RTE EDDFEGLL EDDF 25C BIBT4G BIBTI UZ29 NIK UL610 LAM EGLL I27R LAM CI25 FL330

FLTPLAN (iFly 737NG)
Flight plan format for the iFly 737NG for FSX or P3D. The file has to be saved to
YOURSIMULATOR/iFly/737NG/navdata/FLTPLAN

.

Procedures cannot be saved.

companyroutes.xml (ProSim)
A flight plan format for ProSim. The flight plan is appended to the file

companyroutes.xml

when saving. Remove flight

plans manually in a text editor.
Little Navmap creates up to two backup files when saving the flight plan:
companyroutes.xml_lnm_backup.1

companyroutes.xml_lnm_backup

and

.

Procedures cannot be saved.
Example:


EFMA RUNGA N872 TEB N623 BEDLA N866 NEGIL ESGT
LGIR SUD UJ65 TRL UM601 RUTOM M601 QUENN Q123 LULIX P167 GINOX UM601 BCN UN975 SELVA LEDA


PLN (BBS Airbus)
This format is for the Blackbox Simulations Airbus for FSX or P3D. Save this to
Simulation/Company Routes

or

YOURSIMULATOR/BlackBox Simulation/Airbus A330

YOURSIMULATOR/Blackbox

depending on aircraft type.

This format cannot save procedures.

UFMC (Universal Flight Management Computer)
89

Flight Plan Formats

A flight plan format for the UFMC. The format does not allow saving of procedures.
Save the flight plan to

XPLANE\Custom Data\UFMC\FlightPlans

.

FPL for X-FMC (Universal FMC for X-Plane)
Save flight plan as FPL file for the X-FMC. The format does not allow saving of procedures.
The file should be saved to Path to

XPLANE\Resources\plugins\XFMC\FlightPlans

.

GPX
GPX is not a flight plan format.
The GPS Exchange Format can be read by Google Earth and most other GIS applications.
The flight plan is embedded as a route and the flown aircraft trail as a track including simulator time and altitude.
The route has departure and destination elevation and cruise altitude set for all waypoints. Waypoints of all
procedures are included in the exported file. Note that the waypoints will not allow to reproduce all parts of a
procedure like holds or procedure turns.

Notes about the Garmin Formats GFP and FPL
Various problems can appear when reading exported flight plans into the Garmin units. Most of these are a result of
the Garmin navigation database which uses data of an older AIRAC cycle (mostly 1611 at the time of writing).
Updated simulator or add-on databases (like the one in Little Navmap) can use the latest navdata or an old one from
FSX or P3D stock data. X-Plane 11.10 stock navdata is currently based on 1611.
Any waypoints, airways or procedures that are removed, added or renamed over time can cause locked waypoints or
other messages when reading a flight plan into the GNS or GTN.
It is easy to remove locked waypoints within the GNS or GTN to enable the flight plan to be activated. Refer to the
documentation of the Garmin unit.
Little Navmap allows to change the Garmin export to replace all waypoints with user-defined waypoints to avoid
locking. While this is a sufficient approach to avoid the locked waypoints it comes with a few limitations:
Departure and destination airport are not saved as user-defined waypoints. These have to exist in the Garmin
navigation database.
Navaid information like frequencies cannot be displayed since the waypoint cannot be related to the radio navaid.
Procedures like SID and STAR cannot be saved with the flight plan and have to be selected manually.
The GTN (not the GNS) changes all names to a generic

USERWPT...

scheme.

The export of user-defined waypoints can be enabled in the options dialog on tab

Flight Plan

.

1
. The FPR format does allow saving of airways and procedures but this will be implemented in a future release
of Little Navmap. ↩
2. User-defined waypoints will be renamed when loading into the GTN. ↩

90

Flight Plan Dock Window

Flight Plan Dock Window
Upper Part
The top shows a label that contains departure, departure position (parking, runway or helipad), destination, flight plan
distance, traveling time, used procedures and flight plan type.
Besides the label there are three input fields on top of this dock window:
Speed (kts): Ground speed. The value of this field is used only for calculating traveling times in the table view:
Leg Time

and

ETA

(estimated time of arrival at a waypoint given 0:00 as start time). It is saved as an annotation

with the flight plan and not used for simulator user aircraft calculations.
Cruise altitude (ft): This value is saved with the flight plan and is also used to calculate an airway flight plan
based on given altitude. This field is set automatically to the minimum altitude for a flight plan if a plan along
Victor or Jet airways is calculated and altitude restrictions were found. See Calculate based on given Altitude.
Flight Plan Type (IFR or VFR): This is saved with the flight plan.

Flight Plan Table
The table view allows the same operations as the search table view except sorting. See here for more information.
All selected elements in the flight plan table view will be highlighted on the map using a black/green circle. See
Highlights for more information. Use

Shift+Click

or

Ctrl+Click

to select two or more elements (multi-selection).

The active flight plan leg is highlighted in magenta when Little Navmap is connected to a simulator.
Procedure legs have dark blue color and legs of a missed approach have a dark red color.
If a waypoint of a flight plan cannot be found in the database it will be displayed in red. This can happen if the used
AIRAC cycles do no match. The same applies to airways. The position on the map is still correct.

Picture above: The waypoint

ALTAG

and parts of the airway

V324

could not be found in the database.

Table Columns
Ident

: ICAO ident of the navaid or airport.

Region
Name

: Two letter region code of a navaid.

: Name of airport or radio navaid.

Procedure Type
Approach

or

: The type of this leg's procedure.

Missed

Airway or Procedure
Restriction

SID

,

SID Transition

,

STAR

,

STAR Transition

,

Transition

,

.
: Contains the airway name for en route legs or procedure instruction.

: Either minimum altitude for en route airway segment, procedure altitude restriction or procedure

91

Flight Plan Dock Window

speed limit. A

/

separates altitude and speed restriction. The following altitude restrictions exist for procedures:

Number only: Fly at altitude or speed. Example:

5.400

or

.

210

Prefix

A

: Fly at or above altitude or speed. Example:

A 1.800

Prefix

B

: Fly at or below altitude or speed. Example:

B 10.000

.
or

B 220

.

Range: Fly at or above altitude one and at or below altitude two. Example:
Altitude and speed limit: Values separated by
Speed limit only: A prefixed
Type

/

/

. Example:

A 8.000, B 10.000

A 8.000, B 10.000/B220

.

.

indicates no altitude but a speed restriction. Example:

/B250

.

: Type of a radio navaid.

Freq.

: Frequency or channel of a radio navaid.

Range

: Range of a radio navaid.

Course °M:

** This is the start course of the great circle route connecting the two waypoints of the leg. Use this

course at departure if you travel long distances without navaids. Be aware that you have to change you course
constantly when traveling along a great circle line.
Direct °M:

** This is the constant course of the rhumb line connecting two waypoints of a leg. Depending on route

and distance it can differ from the course of the great circle line. Use this course if you travel along airways or
towards VOR or NDB stations. Opposed to the course shown by the flight simulator GPS unit this will give you the
precise radial when approaching a VOR or NDB on a flight plan.
Distance

: Distance of the flight plan leg.

Remaining
Leg Time
ETA

: Remaining distance to destination airport or procedure end point (usually the runway).

: Flying time for this leg. Calculated based on the given ground speed.

: Estimated time of arrival. This is a static value and not updated while flying.

Remarks

: Turn instructions, flyover or related navaid for procedure legs.

Picture above: The

Flight Plan

dock window. The flight plan uses a SID for departure and a STAR, a transition and

an approach for arrival.

Mouse Clicks
A double-click on an entry in the table view shows either an airport diagram or zooms to the navaid. Additionally,
details are shown in the

Information

dock window. A single click selects an object and highlights it on the map using a

black/green circle.

Top Button
Clear Selection
92

Flight Plan Dock Window

Deselect all entries in the table and remove any highlight circles from the map.

Flight Plan Table View Context Menu
Show Information
Same as the Map Context Menu.

Show on Map
Show either the airport diagram or zoom to the navaid on the map. The zoom distance can be changed in the dialog
Options

on the tab

Map

.

Move Selected Legs up/down
Move all selected flight plan legs up or down in the list. This works also if multiple legs are selected.
Airway names will be removed when waypoints in the flight plan are moved or deleted because the new flight plan
legs will not follow any airway but rather use direct connections.
Procedures or procedure legs cannot be moved and waypoints cannot be moved into or across procedures.

Delete Selected Legs or Procedure
Delete all selected flight plan legs. Use

Undo

if you delete legs accidentally.

The whole procedure is deleted if the selected flight plan leg is a part of a procedure. Deleting a procedure deletes its
transition too.

Edit Name of User Waypoint
Allows to change the name of a user-defined waypoint. The length of the name is limited to 10 characters.

Calculate for selected Legs
This is a submenu containing entries for flight plan calculation methods as described here:

Calculate Radionav,

Calculate high Altitude,

Calculate low Altitude and

Calculate based on

given Altitude.
Calculate a flight plan fragment between the first and last selected waypoint. All existing legs in between are deleted
and replaced with the calculated flight plan fragment.
This menu is only active when more than one flight plan leg is selected and neither the first nor the last selected row is
a procedure. You can either select the first and the last leg (
whole range of legs (

Shift+Click

Ctrl+Click

) and start the calculation or you can select a

and drag) before calculation.

This function can be useful if you have to cross oceanic legs that are void of airways:
1. Set departure and destination.

93

Flight Plan Dock Window

2. Find the last waypoint on an airway before entering the ocean. Choose the closest to the flight plan line. Add the
waypoint to the flight plan.
3. Select departure and this waypoint and calculate the flight plan fragment.
4. Repeat the process for the first waypoint on an airway close to the coast of your destination continent.
5. Select this waypoint and the destination and calculate the flight plan fragment.
While not entirely realistic, this is a sensible workaround until Little Navmap supports NAT or PACOT tracks.

Show Range Rings
Same as the Map Context Menu.

Show Navaid range
Show the range rings for all selected radio navaids in the flight plan. Simply select all legs of the flight plan and use
this function to display a range circle for each radio navaid in the flight plan.
Otherwise, the same as the Map Context Menu.

Remove all Range Rings and Distance measurements
Same as the Map Context Menu.

Copy
Copy the selected entries in CSV format to the clipboard. The CSV will include a header. This will observe changes to
the table view like column order.

Select All
Select all flight plan legs.

Clear Selection
Deselect all currently selected flight plan legs and remove any highlight circles from the map.

Reset View
Reset the column order and column widths to default.

Set Center for Distance Search
Same as the Map Context Menu.

94

Flight Plan Procedures

Procedures
General
Departure and arrival procedures will typically be used when flying an airliner, but smaller aircraft, too, have to use at
least an approach procedure at their destination when flying IFR. Flight simulator stock data provides only approaches
and transitions. SIDs and STARs are not available. These can be added by navdata updates.
An airline flight containing all variations can use the following procedures or segments:
1. Departure airport
2. SID
3. SID Transition
4. En route airway system
5. STAR transition
6. STAR
7. Transition to approach
8. Approach
9. Destination
A small aircraft IFR flight can use the following procedures or segments:
1. Departure airport
2. En route airway system
3. Transition to approach
4. Approach
5. Destination
Note that transitions make only sense together with an approach, a SID or a STAR which will guide you to or from the
runway. You can select a transition only together with the respective procedure (although the SID may be empty and
consist only of a transition). If you delete a procedure from the flight plan, its transition will be deleted too.
Procedure information is saved together with a flight plan as an annotation in the PLN file and will be restored by Little
Navmap when loading the flight plan.
Procedure waypoints are excluded from all flight plan formats by default. You have to use the GPS or FMS in the
simulator to select procedures.
Procedure waypoints are not saved in the flight plan since the PLN format does not support all the different leg types
and the flight simulator would not be able to display them correctly. Select the procedures manually in your GPS or
FMC as needed.
You can enable saving of waypoints by checking the menu items Save Waypoints for Approaches and/or Save
Waypoints for SID and STAR.

Inserting a Procedure into a Flight Plan
Right-click on an airport in the map, the airport search table, or the flight plan table, and select
Show Departure Procedures

dock window

Search

,

Show Arrival Procedures

Show Procedures

) from the context menu. This will show the tab

Procedures

(or

in the

.

Insert a procedure into the flight plan using the context menu in the procedure tree view.
See Procedure Search for more information.

Deleting a Procedure from a Flight Plan
95

Flight Plan Procedures

Deleting a Procedure from a Flight Plan
Deleting a single leg that is part of a procedure will remove the whole procedure and its transition. Deleting a leg that
is part of a transition will remove only the transition.

Picture above: About to remove the transition

MUN

of the approach

RNAV BEGEN

from the flight plan.

Limitations when editing a flight plan with procedures
Deleting a leg of a procedure will remove the whole procedure from the flight plan.
You cannot move a procedure leg up or down neither can you move or add a flight plan leg into a procedure.
You cannot add waypoints in between procedures (e.g. between a STAR and an approach). Waypoints can only
be added to the route between departure and arrival procedures.
You cannot add waypoints between departure airport and a SID procedure.
You cannot add waypoints between arrival procedure and destination airport.
If you delete or replace the departure airport all SID procedures are removed too.
If you delete or replace the destination airport all approach and arrival procedures are removed too.

Flying Procedures
Procedure legs are pre-calculated, with the exception of holds and procedure turns. This means you can fly them
mostly as they are drawn on the map. If in doubt about how to fly a leg (e.g. if too many lines are overlapping) look at
the procedure table in the flight plan window.

96

Flight Plan Procedures

Holds
No entry or exit procedure is shown. You have to find a proper entry procedure yourself. Holds have a straight leg
flying time in minutes or a distance.
If a time is given, fly the hold as usual:
1. Enter at the fix using a proper entry procedure
2. Do a standard turn
3. Fly the straight leg for the given time (typically one minute)
4. Do standard turn
5. Fly to fix
6. Exit hold when done or instructed by ATC
Do not follow the lines exactly, they are just an indicator for what to fly. An exception are holds where a distance is
given for the straight leg. The hold size will match the distance in this case.

Picture above: A hold with 2 nautical miles straight segment length. Enter and exit at

ZUNAD

and fly at or above 2600

feet. Course is 61° magnetic degrees.

Exiting a Hold
Little Navmap will detect when a hold is exited and advance the active leg to the next one if one of the two conditions
is met:
1. If the next leg continues after or at the hold fix: When approaching the hold fix after one circuit continue
straight on. The next leg will be activated after half a nautical mile up to one nautical mile.
2. If the next leg starts before the hold fix: Exit the hold at its fix. Exit right turn holds to the left and vice versa
(i.e. turn outside the hold). Proceed to the fix of the next leg which will be activated.
You can activate the next leg manually if you do not exit the hold at its fix. Right-click in the flight plan table on the
next leg and select

Activate Flight Plan Leg

.

Procedure turns
The flight simulator data moves the turn point of a procedure turn 10 nautical miles out from the fix which is usually too
far away.
Fly the procedure turn as usual: Minimum one minute from the fix. Use more if you need space to catch the next fix
after the course reversal. Then turn using an teardrop or a standard 45/180 degree turn. Again: Follow the
procedures, not the lines.

97

Flight Plan Procedures

Picture above: A procedure turn. Fly at least one minute outbound 61° from
turn 180° and fly to

LAMMB

, then 242° to

ABERN

ABERN

, turn left to 16°, fly one minute,

.

Distances
All procedure legs, with the exception of holds and procedure turns, are included when calculating flight distance. This
means the total flight plan distance as well as the top of descent point will change when selecting an approach or a
transition.
The top of descent point calculation does not consider altitude restrictions in procedures.

Special Leg Types
All procedure leg types (

Track to Fix

,

Initial Fix

and more) that are shown in Little Navmap are based on the

ARINC 424 path terminator concept. A deeper knowledge of these leg types is not important for the simulator pilot
with the exception of two types that are added by Little Navmap.
Start of Procedure

: This leg is added if a procedure does not start with an initial fix but rather with a course,

heading or track to a fix. It indicates the first position of the procedure and is not related to a fix.
Proceed to Runway

in a SID: The first leg of a SID to indicate the start position on the runway. The program might

fall back to the airport center if the runway could not be found. The altitude restriction indicates the elevation of
the runway.
Proceed to Runway

in an approach: This leg is added to an approach procedure to show the course line from a

missed approach point (MAP) to the runway end. It is added if an approach does not end with a runway fix and
has an altitude restriction 50 feet above the threshold.

Fix Types in a Procedure
Waypoints: Terminal waypoints or radio navaids. Some are marked as
Radial and distance: Example:
Distance to DME: Example:

WIK/7nm/291°M

WIK/9nm

flyover

in the approach table.

. A fix defined by a course or heading and distance to a navaid.

. This fix is defined by a heading or track which is terminated by reaching a

DME distance.
Intercept Course to Fix
Intercept Leg
Altitude

: Intercept a course to the next fix at an angle of about 45 degrees.

: Intercept the next approach leg at a course of about 45 degrees.

: A leg or hold that is terminated by reaching a certain altitude and is used mostly on missed

approaches. Since the distance depends on the aircraft, 2 nautical miles length are used for this leg. You can
ignore the line and proceed to the next leg once the altitude criteria is satisfied.
Manual

: Fly a heading, track or a hold until manually terminated by ATC.

Runway fixes are prefixed with

RW

. They usually have an altitude restriction a few feet above the runway. Higher

altitude restrictions (i.e. > 500 ft) indicate a circling approach.

98

Flight Plan Procedures

Altitude and Speed Restrictions
Restrictions are shown on the map and in the flight plan table.
Number only: Fly at altitude or speed. Map examples:

5400ft

or

210kts

Prefix

A

: Fly at or above altitude or speed. Map example:

A1800ft

Prefix

B

: Fly at or below altitude or speed. Map example:

B10000ft

or
or

.

A200kts
B240kts

.
.

Range: Fly at or above the first altitude and at or below the second altitude. Map example:

A8000B10000ft

. Same

for speed.

Related Navaids
Many fixes have a related or recommended navaid. This can be a VOR, NDB, ILS or a waypoint. The related navaid
comes with radial and distance values that can be used to locate waypoints when flying without GPS or simply for
cross checking the position.

Missed Approaches
Missed approach legs are activated once the simulator aircraft passes the last point of an approach. The display of
remaining flight plan distance will switch to display of remaining distance to last missed approach leg.
No missed approach legs are activated if missed approaches are not shown.

Leg Highlights on the Map
Up to three points will be highlighted when clicking on a procedure leg in the tree in the search window:
A small blue circle shows the beginning of the leg.
The end of the leg is shown by a large blue circle.
A thin circle shows the location of the recommended or related fix if available.

Invalid Data
A leg entry will drawn red if a navaid was not resolved during the scenery database loading process. This happens
only when the source data is not valid or incomplete. In this case, the resulting procedure is not usable and a warning
dialog will be shown if essential navaids are missing.

99

Flight Plan Edit Position

Edit Flight Plan Position
This dialog allows to edit a user-defined flight plan position that was added with

Add Position to Flight Plan or

Append Position to Flight Plan.

Name
You can enter any string but all invalid characters will be removed when saving as a FSX/P3D PLN file. Other file
formats have more limitations.
Allowed are upper and lower case letters, digits, underscore

_

and space. All other characters are removed when

the flight plan is saved and long names are truncated to 10 characters.

Coordinates
You can also edit the coordinates directly in this dialog besides using the drag and drop Map Flight Plan Editing. This
can be useful if you'd like to add waypoints with well known coordinates like visual reporting points.
The tooltip of the coordinate input field shows the available formats.
See Coordinate Formats for more information.

Picture above: Editing a user-defined flight plan position.

100

Flight Plan Route Description

Flight Plan Route Description
This dialog allows you to create a flight plan from a route description as generated or provided by various online
services.
The

New Flight Plan from Route Description

dialog opens with the route description for the current flight plan which also

contains information about speed and cruise altitude if enabled.
The top half of the dialog holds the route description input field, while the bottom half shows any messages, warnings
or errors that occur during reading.

The menu button

provides a dropdown menu than can be used to customize the generated route string.

The description parser will try to use as much of the route as possible even if parts of the flight plan like waypoints or
airways cannot be found or names are ambiguous. You will see warnings in the bottom half if that is the case.
If a route covers a long distance and contains a waypoint name which is not unique, a wrong waypoint might be added
to the flight plan. Correct or remove this waypoint manually.
Many waypoints and airways will not be found if route descriptions from the latest AIRAC sources are used together
with FSX/P3D stock data from 2005. It is recommended to use a navigation data update for the stock scenery when
reading route descriptions from online sources like RouteFinder, Online Flight Planner, SimBrief or SkyVector.
If a navdata update is not an option, pick the online service's AIRAC cycle that is closest to the cycle the navigation
data of your flight simulator is based on.
Note that even flight plans calculated in Little Navmap cannot be converted back exactly in some cases. This happens
due to navaid ambiguities like NDB and VOR stations having the same names or errors in the source data.
The cruise speed and altitude are used to create the flight plan if given. Otherwise the cruise altitude is automatically
determined by the flight plan type (IFR or VFR) and the minimum altitude of the used airway segments.
SID and STAR procedures require a navdata update except for X-Plane which already comes with a complete
navigation database.

101

Flight Plan Route Description

Picture above: A route description that was read successfully with a few warnings about ignored elements. The
waypoint

could not be found. Speed, altitude, SID and STAR were recognized. The ground speed of 433 knots is

LLL

calculated based on given mach number 0.74 and standard atmosphere conditions.

Buttons
: Copy the current description as plain text to the clipboard.

To Clipboard

From Clipboard

: Insert text from clipboard into the input field. The inserted text is converted to upper case and all

invalid characters are removed from the text.
Update from Flight Plan

: Create the route string from the current flight plan again. Use this after changing settings

with drop down menu button.
Read Route Description

: Reads the route description and displays any messages, warnings and errors in the

bottom half of the dialog. The current flight plan is not affected by this action.
/

IFR

: Defines the type of the generated flight plan and the automatically determined cruise altitude.

VFR

Menu Button

:

Add departure and destination airport

: Note that disabling this option will result in a route string which cannot

be read back into a flight plan.
Add DCT (direct) instructions

: Add

DCT

Add cruise speed and altitude instruction

for any direct waypoint connections in the flight plan.
: Add cruise altitude from flight plan and ground speed as set in the

flight plan dock window.
Add SID and STAR

: Add SID and STAR names if any are used for departure or arrival.

Add generic SID and STAR

: Add the generic

SID

and

STAR

keywords if no real SID and/or STAR were

selected.
: Does not insert any airway names but uses waypoints only.

Add Waypoints instead of Airways

: Closes the dialog and creates a new flight plan for the parsed route description and replaces

Create Flight Plan

the current plan. You have to click

Read Route Description

before you can create a flight plan.

Format
The route description has to follow the format rules below:
FROM[ETD] [SPEEDALT] [SID][.TRANS] [ENROUTE] [STAR][.TRANS] TO[ETA] [ALTERNATES]

All elements in square brackets are optional.
FROM

and

Examples:
ALTERNATES

TO

: These are the required 3 or 4 letter idents for departure and destination airports.

KEAT

,

CYPU

,

S16

.

: Alternate airports are optional and are simply appended to the flight plan. Alternates cannot be used in

combination with an approach procedure.
SPEEDALT
ENROUTE

: An optional entry that contains the cruise speed and altitude. See below for a details.

: This is a list of either

WAYPOINT

or an

AIRWAYWAYPOINT

forming the actual flight plan. The first entry has to be

an airport, waypoint, VOR or NDB.
WAYPOINT

: A waypoint, VOR, NDB, airport or user-defined coordinates. See below for a details about coordinates. A

waypoint can be prefixed with
an optional

/SPEEDALT

Examples:

TAU

AIRWAYWAYPOINT

Examples:

,

to indicate a direct connection not using an airway. Waypoints can be suffixed with

DCT

value although this is ignored.

BOMBI

,

AST

,

CL

,

EDDF

.

: Airway and end waypoint on the airway separated by a space.

V495 CONDI

,

V338 YVR

,

V330 TRENA

.

102

Flight Plan Route Description

and

SID.TRANS

STAR.TRANS

: Either the words

transition is separated by a
Examples:

RDHK2.HOLLE

,

.

SID

or

STAR

. The generic keywords

OHIO3.LFK

,

RDHK2

,

OHIO3

SID

or real SID, STAR and transition names where the optional
and

STAR

create a direct connection to the en route part.

.

Features not supported
ETD

and

ETA

: Four digit departure and arrival time attached to the airport ident are ignored.

WAYPOINT.SPEEDALT

: For example

BOMBI/N0090A060

. Altitude changes at waypoints are not supported and ignored when

reading.

Speed and Altitude
Cruising ground speed and cruising level not separated by a space.
Speed is prefixed with:
K

: Kilometers per hour followed by a four digit value.

N

: Knots followed by a four digit value.

M

: Mach followed by a three digit value. The mach value is converted to knots ground speed assuming standard

atmosphere conditions at the give flight altitude.
Altitude is prefixed with:
F

:Flight level in three digits.

S

: Metric flight level in three digits of tens of meters.

A

: Altitude in hundreds of feet in three digits.

M

: Altitude in tens of meter in four digits.

Examples:
410 knots at flight level 310.

N0410F310
M071F320

Mach 0.71 at flight level 320.

K0790M0710

790 kilometers per hour at 7100 meters.

Coordinates
Coordinates can be supplied in different formats:
Degrees only (7 characters): Two digits and north/south indicator plus three digits and east/west indicator.
Example:

51N010E

Degrees and minutes (11 characters): Two digits degrees, two digits for minutes and north/south indicator. Then
three digits for degrees, two digits for minutes and east/west indicator.
Example:

4010N03822W

.

Degrees, minutes and seconds (15 characters): Two digits degrees, two digits for minutes, two digits for seconds
and north/south indicator. Then three digits for degrees, two digits for minutes, two digits for seconds and east/west
indicator. This format is used by SkyVector for example.
Example:

481200N0112842E

.

103

Flight Plan Route Description

North Atlantic track points (NAT). Two digits degrees north and two digits degrees west followed by character
Example:

5010N

.

N

.

Coordinate waypoint pairs with degrees and minutes as above and prefixed with north/south and east/west
indicator.
Examples:

N4200 W02000

or

N4200/W02000

.

Garmin GFP format (13 characters) north/south indicator, two digits degrees, three digits for minutes by 10. Then
east/west indicator, three digits degrees, three digits minutes by 10. This format is used by the Flight1 GTN 650/750.
Example:

N48194W123096

Flight Plan Description Examples
Frankfurt Main (EDDF) to Fiumicino (LIRF):
Direct connection:
EDDF LIRF

or

EDDF DCT LIRF

.

VOR to VOR:
EDDF FRD KPT BOA CMP LIRF

.

Same as above with departure time (
EDDF1200 FRD KPT BOA CMP LIRF1300

ETD

) and arrival time (

ETA

) which both will be ignored:

.

Same as above on flight level 310 at 410 knots:
EDDF N0410F310 DCT FRD DCT KPT DCT BOA DCT CMP DCT LIRF

Using Jet airways:
EDDF ASKIK T844 KOVAN UL608 TEDGO UL607 UTABA UM738 NATAG Y740 LORLO M738 AMTEL M727 TAQ LIRF

Same as above on flight level 310 at mach 0.71 with an additional speed and altitude at

NATAG

which will be

ignored:
EDDF M071F310 SID ASKIK T844 KOVAN UL608 TEDGO UL607 UTABA UM738 NATAG/M069F350 Y740 LORLO M738 AMTEL M727 TAQ STAR LIRF

User-defined waypoints with degree/minute notation and an alternate airport

LIRE

:

EDDF N0174F255 4732N00950E 4627N01019E 4450N01103E LIRF LIRE

Flight plan using SID and STAR procedures with transitions:
KPWA RDHK2.HOLLE ATOKA J25 FUZ J33 CRIED J50 LFK OHIO3.LFK KHOU

Flight plan using the generic SID and STAR keywords:
KPWA SID ATOKA J25 FUZ J33 CRIED J50 LFK STAR KHOU

104

Flight Plan Elevation Profile Dock Window

Flight Plan Elevation Profile Dock Window
This dock window shows the ground elevation and flight plan cruise altitude together will all flight plan waypoints. It is
only available when a flight plan is loaded. The user aircraft will be shown too if Little Navmap is connected to the
simulator.
Elevation processing is done in the background since data has to be downloaded and computation is CPU intensive.
Therefore, the update of the elevation display can take from a few seconds up to half a minute. This background
update is started after creating or changing the flight plan or when new elevation data was downloaded. The display
will be updated accordingly whenever new data is available.
Close the

Flight Plan Elevation Profile

window if you think that it causes performance problems or stutters. All

updates will stop once the window is closed.
Be aware that the elevation display covers only the flight plan and will not change the depiction if you get off flight plan
with your simulator aircraft.
The flight plan is only shown at cruise level and the descent segment. Although, you will see your user aircraft and
trail climbing and descending.

Online Elevation Data
Note that the online elevation data does not cover all countries and currently ends at 60 degrees north. The data
contains multiple known errors.
The calculation of online elevation points is limited to flight plan segments not longer than 2000 nautical miles to avoid
overloading. Add more waypoints or calculate a flight plan to avoid this limitation.

Offline Elevation Data
Using the freely downloadable GLOBE - Global Land One-km Base Elevation Project elevation data has several
advantages:
Faster updates
World wide coverage
No known errors
Display of altitude below the cursor in the status bar
See the dialog Cache and Files in the options dialog for instructions how to download and install the GLOBE data.

Profile Window
Additional information is shown in a label on top of the window if the mouse is hovered over the diagram. The
corresponding position within the flight plan is highlighted on the map too.
Following information is shown in the top label if connected to a flight simulator with an active session:
Distance from user aircraft to flight plan destination
Distance to the top of descent
In addition, the information below is shown in the top label when hovering the mouse over the diagram:
From and to waypoint

105

Flight Plan Elevation Profile Dock Window

Distance from departure and to destination from the position of the mouse cursor.
Ground elevation at cursor position.
Flight plan cruise altitude above ground.
Safe altitude for the current flight plan leg at the position of the mouse cursor.
For more information see the

Navmap

tab in the

Legend

dock window or the Nav Map Legend for details.

Picture above: Flight plan elevation profile with line indicating the mouse hovering position. Orange lines show
minimum safe altitude for flight plan segments. Top of descent point is shown on the upper right part of the window.

106

Information Dock Window

Information Dock Window
This dock window contains text information about airports in several tabs as well as information for one or more
navaids, airways in another tab plus an additional tab showing airspace information.
A tab

Weather

also includes decoded weather information for the selected airport.

All information can be copied to the clipboard as formatted text. Use the context menu of the text fields or use
to select all and

Ctrl+C

Ctrl+A

to copy the content to the clipboard.

Information is shown when selecting one of the

Show Information for ...

context menu items in the map, flight plan

dock window or the search result table. One airport and all navaids are loaded into the information display if multiple
objects are close to where you right-clicked on the map.
A blue link
the tab

Map

allows jumping to the shown airport or navaid on the map. Additional links for helipads are available in

Runways/Helipads

.

An airway is always displayed with all its waypoints. Click any blue waypoint link to center the map around the
waypoint.
The information about airports and navaids includes one or more links at the bottom of the object information in
section

Scenery

. These links point to the matching BGL (FSX, P3D) or DAT (X-Plane) files that contain information

about the airport or navaid. Click the links to open the containing folder in your file manager (e.g. Windows Explorer).
If possible, the matching file will be selected automatically.
Multiple links can appear for airports since these can be modified by multiple BGL or DAT files from different add-on
sceneries or navdata updates.

107

Information Dock Window

Picture above: Airport information overview. Additional tabs show information for runways, COM frequencies,
approaches and weather.

108

Information Dock Window

Picture above: Navaid information. Two navaids were close to the cursor when clicked.

Simulator Aircraft Dock Window
This dock window shows information about the user aircraft and about AI or multiplayer aircraft in several tabs. Little
Navmap has to be connected to the simulator to enable this feature. See Connecting to a Flight Simulator for more
information on this topic.

Tab Aircraft
Gives an overview about the user aircraft and shows type, weight and fuel information.

109

Information Dock Window

Picture above: Aircraft information when connected to a Flight Simulator.

Tab Progress
Shows information similar to a flight management computer about the user aircraft. This covers flight plan progress,
altitude, speed, ambient and environment parameters.

110

Information Dock Window

Picture above: Progress and ambient information of the current flight situation. Some fields or tables like
Waypoint

Next

are only available when a flight plan is loaded.

Tab AI / Multiplayer
Information about an AI or multiplayer aircraft from the simulator (not online networks) or ship is displayed in this tab if
a vehicle is clicked on the map.

111

Information Dock Window

This also includes the aircraft's departure and destination airports that can be shown on the map by clicking on the
blue links (only for FSX or P3D and if a flight plan is filed).
Note that information on AI aircraft is limited on X-Plane. Only position, altitude and heading can be displayed.

Picture above: Information about an AI aircraft.

Legend Dock Window
Contains two tabs: One tab

Navmap

explaining the various airport and navaid symbols and a tab

Map

which shows the

general legend for the base map like the OpenStreetMap for example.
The contents of the

Navmap

legend are also available in the online manual: Nav Map Legend.

Note that the general map legend is not available for all map themes.

112

Weather

Weather
Little Navmap can display METARs from several sources:
FSX or P3D if connected. This also applies to network setups.
X-Plane real time weather from the

METAR.rwx

file. Not available when Little Navmap runs on a different computer

than your flight simulator.
NOAA online weather service
VATSIM network online weather service
HiFi Simulation Technologies:
Active Sky Next (ASN)
AS16
Active Sky for Prepar3D v4 (ASP4)
You can define in the
tooltips or the tab

Options

Weather

dialog on the

in the

Information

Weather

tab which sources are used to display the METAR information in

dock window.

You have to set the base path for X-Plane in the

Load Scenery Library

dialog to enable reading of the weather file.

Certain features like regions of manually created weather files are not supported.
METARs are shown in the airport tooltips and on the
sources is available in the tab

Weather

Airport

overview tab. Decoded weather information for all

.

The date and time information of the decoded weather display is highlighted in red if the METAR information is older
than six hours.
Notes about X-Plane weather: Little Navmap can only read the X-Plane

METAR.rwx

file which contains downloaded

online weather. The program cannot read custom weather situations from X-Plane. If you use custom weather, Little
Navmap only has access to the local weather around the aircraft. Be aware that Little Navmap might display
information from an obsolete or inactive downloaded weather file.

113

Weather

Picture above: Decoded weather information from two online sources. Flight simulator is not connected.

Flight Simulator
Weather information from a flight simulator or the X-Plane

METAR.rwx

falls in one of three categories, depending on the

selected airport:
Station

: The airport has a weather station. This is the most precise weather indication.

Nearest

: The selected airport has no weather station and the report from the closest existing weather station was

fetched. The ident of the closest station as well as distance and elevation are shown in the METAR and on the
decoded weather tab. Note that the this weather station is not necessarily an airport.
Interpolated

(not for X-Plane): The weather is interpolated by the flight simulator using three stations closest to

the selected airport. FSX and P3D only provide non-interpolated weather for airports close to the user aircraft.
The weather for other airports is always interpolated. The ident of the selected airport is used in the METAR
report for this kind of weather report.
The flight simulator weather is updated every 15 seconds to catch changes in the weather theme.
Little Navmap watches the X-Plane

METAR.rwx

file for changes and will apply updates immediately.

Note that the nearest weather will not necessarily depict the weather at the selected station due to the interpolation
between multiple stations which is done by the simulator.

Online - NOAA and VATSIM
Online weather from both sources is updated every 10 minutes.

114

Weather

Active Sky
All Active Sky programs are recognized automatically on startup for each simulator. The
activeflightplanwx.txt

current_wx_snapshot.txt

and

files are loaded and monitored for changes. Weather will be reloaded and updated in the

information display if necessary.
You can also select the

current_wx_snapshot.txt

all installed flight simulators. The

file manually. In that case the METARs from this file are displayed for

activeflightplanwx.txt

will be loaded from the same directory.

Manual file selection can also be useful if a new Active Sky version is not supported by Little Navmap yet.
Departure and destination weather will be displayed if a flight plan is loaded in one of the Active Sky programs. A
suffix

Destination

or

Departure

will indicate the usage of Active Sky flight plan weather on the tab

Weather

. This gives

Active Sky users the most precise weather indication for departure and destination.
Note that the indication of

Departure

or

Destination

depends entirely on the flight plan loaded in Active Sky and not

the flight plan in Little Navmap.

115

Printing the Map

Printing
Print Map
Open the print preview dialog allowing the current map view to be printed.
Printing is currently limited to the screen resolution of the current map view. To get a less blurry printout enlarge the
map window as much as possible. You can undock the map window to achieve this.

Picture above: Print preview dialog for the current map.

Print Flight Plan
Print the current flight plan together with departure and destination airport information.

Options for customizing the Flight Plan Table
The printed flight plan table will have the same order of columns as the flight plan table in the dock window. Columns
will be omitted from printing if their width is reduced to minimum size. See Table View for more information.

116

Printing the Map

Picture above: The column

Name

is collapsed and will not be added to the printed flight plan table.

Options for Departure and Destination
Overview

: Print the airport overview as show in the

Runways / Helipads

Information

dock window on tab

Airport

.

: Print runway and helipad information.

Include runways with soft surface
Detailed runway information

: Include runways with soft surfaces like grass, gravel and others.

: Include detailed information for the runway ends like approach lighting, VASI types,

ILS information and more.
COM frequencies
Weather

: Include communication frequencies like tower, ATIS, UNICOM and others.

: Print the decoded weather for all enabled sources as shown on the tab

Weather

in the

Information

dock

window.

General options
Print flight plan table
Text size

: Print the flight plan as seen in the flight plan table.

: Reduce the text size to avoid unnecessary line breaks or increase it for better readability.

Picture above: Print flight plan options dialog.

117

Load Scenery Library Dialog

Load Scenery Library Dialog
This dialog allows loading of the scenery library data from all four supported flight simulators into the Little Navmap
internal database. The scenery library to load can be selected in the

Simulator:

drop down box.

The dialog shows information about the currently selected database including the number of loaded airports, database
version and more.
FSX and P3D only: The base path and the

scenery.cfg

path will be shown in two text edit fields for the currently

selected simulator. These fields are populated automatically, but can be changed to any other valid location. All
values are saved individually for each flight simulator type.
X-Plane only: X-Plane cannot be recognized automatically. You have to select the base path manually. On Windows
that can be a path like

C:\Simulators\X-Plane 11

, the executable being

C:\Simulators\X-Plane 11\X-Plane.exe

.

Loading a scenery library can take from 2 to 15 minutes depending on your setup and amount of scenery add-ons.
You can speed this up by excluding directories containing neither airport nor navigation data in the
the

Scenery Library Database

Options

dialog on

tab.

For FSX/P3D, all airports that are not located in the default
on airports. For X-Plane, all airports located in the

Scenery

Custom Scenery

directory of FSX/P3D are considered to be add-

directory of X-Plane are considered to be add-on

airports. Add-on airports are highlighted on the map using emphasized (bold and italic) text.
If an add-on only corrects airport elevations or navigation data, it might be undesirable to display the updated airports
as add-on airports on the map. You can exclude folders populated by this add-on from the add-on recognition in the
Options

dialog on the

Scenery Library Database

tab.

See Options for more information about excluding scenery.
If you cancel the loading process or if the loading process fails, the previous scenery library database is restored
immediately.
The menu

Scenery Library

->

Flight Simulators

is synchronized with the simulator selection in the dialog. Once a

database is successfully loaded, the display, flight plan and search switch instantaneously to the newly loaded
simulator data.
Note that the final number of airports, navaids and other objects shown in the

Load Scenery Library

dialog are lower

than the counts shown in the progress dialog, because, after the data has been loaded, a separate process removes
duplicates and deletes stock airports that were replaced by add-ons.
FSX or P3D only: The program tries to find the base paths and
of the

Scenery.cfg

Scenery.cfg

files automatically. The typical locations

for Windows 7/8/10 are:

Flight Simulator X:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX\Scenery.cfg

Flight Simulator - Steam Edition:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX-SE\Scenery.cfg

Prepar3D v2:

C:\Users\YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\Scenery.cfg

Prepar3D v3:

C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\Scenery.cfg

Prepar3D v4:

C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\Scenery.cfg

An error dialog is shown after loading if any files could not be read or directories were not found. In this case you
should check if the airports of the affected sceneries display correctly and show the correct information. The error
dialog allows copy and paste of formatted text which is useful for error reporting.

118

Load Scenery Library Dialog

The

Load Scenery Library

dialog shows the last time of loading (

Last Update:

), the program and the database version.

Major database version differences indicate incompatible databases. The program will ask if the incompatible
databases can be erased on startup before the scenery database can be reloaded. Minor database differences
indicate compatible changes where a reload is recommended but not required.

X-Plane Airports and Navdata
Little Navmap reads airport and navaid data from X-Plane's

*.dat

files. To check a version of a file you can open it in

a text editor that is capable of dealing with large files. The first lines of the file will look like:
A
1100 Generated by WorldEditor 1.6.0r1
1

1549 0 0 0A4 Johnson City STOLport

...

The first number in the second line is the file version. Here it is

1100

.

Little Navmap can read the following X-Plane scenery files:
Airports (

apt.dat

): Version 850 up to 1100. This covers X-Plane 10 airports and older add-on scenery. Newer

files than 1100 might work but are not tested.
Navdata (

,

earth_awy.dat

earth_fix.dat

and

earth_nav.dat

): Version 850 up to 1100. This excludes X-Plane 10

navdata files. Newer files than 1100 might work but are not tested.
Procedures (
Airspaces (

in the

ICAO.dat

*.txt

Additionally the files

CIFP

): The included

user_fix.dat

and

directory): All procedures from X-Plane 11.
usa.txt

and all files in OpenAir format. See next chapter for more information.

user_nav.dat

in the X-Plane directory

Custom Data

are read.

X-Plane Airspaces
All files in OpenAir airspace format will be loaded when reading the X-Plane scenery library.
You can also copy airspaces from a present FSX or Prepar3D database if you own these simulators. See Copy
Airspaces to X-Plane Database.
Note that airspace files can have errors which may prevent the loading of an airspace file. These hard errors are
reported after loading the scenery library. Other errors only affecting single airspaces or the geometry are reported in
the log file only.
X-Plane 11 comes with a single airspace file that can be found in
data/airspaces/usa.txt

YOUR_XPLANE_DIRECTORY/Resources/default

. Additional airspace files can be downloaded from the OpenAirspace Directory, Soaring

Services, openAIP or Luftraumdaten Deutschland for example.
Airspace files must have a

.txt

extension and are loaded from the following directories by Little Navmap:

YOUR_XPLANE_DIRECTORY/Resources/default data/airspaces
YOUR_XPLANE_DIRECTORY/Custom Data/Airspaces
YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME/Documents/Little Navmap/X-Plane Airspaces

where

Documents

is the documents directory in your

language.
The files can be encoded in any UTF format but must have a BOM to be recognized properly. Otherwise Windows
ANSI coding (

Windows-1252

) is used. Special characters like umlauts or accents are not displayed correctly in names if

the encoding is not correct. All other functionality is unaffected.
You can convert the files using any advanced editor like Notepad++ for example.

119

Load Scenery Library Dialog

Airspaces will appear as duplicates in the map if an airspace file is found in more than one of these directories.
If X-Plane crashes when loading certain airspace files, move these files to the folder
Plane Airspaces

Documents/Little Navmap/X-

instead. This way, the airspaces are at least available in Little Navmap which is more error

tolerant.

Load Scenery Library Dialog Options
Simulator

: Select the simulator to load, show database statistics in the label above.

Reset Paths

: Reset all paths back to default values.

Flight Simulator Base Path

and

Select ...

usually the directory containing the
scenery.cfg

: The path to the base directory of the selected flight simulator. This

FSX.exe

or

Prepar3D.exe

. This is the base for all relative paths found in the

file.

Scenery Configuration File

and

Select ...

(only FSX and P3D): The file

scenery.cfg

of the simulator. You can

also create copies of the original file, modify them by removing or adding sceneries and select them here for
loading.
Read inactive Scenery Entries

(only FSX and P3D): This will read all scenery entries, also the inactive/disabled

ones. This is helpful if you use a tool to disable scenery before flying but still want to see all add-on sceneries in
Little Navmap without reloading.
Read Prepar3D add-on.xml packages

(only P3D v3 and v4): If enabled, reads P3D v4 or v3

These are read from subdirectories of

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons
Load

add-on.xml

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Prepar3D v4 Files\Add-ons

packages.

and

.

: Starts the database loading process. You can stop the loading process at any time and the previous

database is restored. The dialog is closed and the program will switch to show the loaded database once it is
successfully loaded.
Close

: Keep all settings and changes in the dialog and close it without loading anything.

Picture above: Load Scenery Dialog. Scenery data is already loaded for FSX.

120

Load Scenery Library Dialog

Picture above: Progress dialog shown while loading the scenery library into Little Navmap's internal database.

121

Connecting to a Flight Simulator

Connecting to a Flight Simulator
The setup procedure is different for local connections and remote (networked) connections to a flight simulator.
Little Navmap can connect directly if all programs are running on the same computer. The Little Navconnect agent is
needed if Little Navmap is used on a remote computer.

Local Connection
All Simulators
Open the connection dialog in Little Navmap by selecting

Main Menu

->

Tools

->

Flight Simulator Connection

and

choose the simulator to which the connection should be established.

Picture above: Little Navmap connect dialog set up for a local connection to FSX or P3D. The connection will be
established manually.
Select

Connect directly to local Flight Simulator

Now click
Clicking
Enable

Connect

Close

.

. The dialog will close and Little Navmap will try to establish a connection in the background.

keeps all changes and closes the dialog without establishing a connection.

Connect automatically

if you do not want to connect manually. The start order of programs does not matter if

this is checked and Little Navmap will find the simulator once it is started or when it is already running. This is the
recommended setting.
Deselect

Fetch AI or multiplayer aircraft

or

Fetch AI or multiplayer ships

to disable the transfer of this information to

the program. This can be useful for performance reasons if you use large amounts of AI but do not want to see it in
Little Navmap.

X-Plane
122

Connecting to a Flight Simulator

You have to intall the included Little Xpconnect plugin to use Little Navmap as a moving map with X-Plane.
The plugin is bundled with Little Navmap and can be downloaded separately too.
Copy the whole plugin directory

into the directory

Little Xpconnect

installation. The complete path should look like

plugins

in the directory

Resources

in the X-Plane

.../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/Little Xpconnect

You can check the X-Plane plugin manager to see if it is loaded correctly.
When connecting with Little Navmap select the option

Connect directly to a local X-Plane simulator

.

Remote Connection
User aircraft and weather information is transferred to Little Navmap on a remote computer by using the Little
Navconnect agent on the flying computer which circumvents the error prone and tedious setup of a remote
SimConnect connection.
Note that weather information cannot be transferred across a remote connection from X-Plane.
You have to extract the ZIP archive that contains

littlenavmap.exe

and

littlenavconnect.exe

on both computers. Then

load the scenery database on the computer running the simulator and copy the database over to the remote
computer. See Running without Flight Simulator Installation for details.
Make sure that the major versions of Little Navmap and Little Navconnect match, otherwise you might get an error
message. Use the version of Little Navconnect which is included in the Little Navmap download archive if unsure.
For X-Plane you also have to install the Little Xpconnect plugin. See the file

README.txt

in directory

Little Xpconnect

for installation instructions.

Start Little Navconnect on the Flying Computer
Little Navconnect is bundled together with the Little Navmap download archive. Start Little Navconnect
(

littlenavconnect.exe

) on the computer running the simulator and take note of the message that is printed in the

logging window. You only need the colored values which tell you the name and address of the computer running the
simulator. You can use the IP address or the hostname.
Little Navconnect can print multiple IP addresses or hostnames depending on your network configuration. This can
happen if you have Ethernet plugged in and are connected using wireless LAN too, for example. You have to try if you
are unsure which one to use. Also make sure to set up the Windows firewall properly to allow communication between
littlenavmap.exe

and

littlenavconnect.exe

on both computers.

Picture above: Little Navconnect is running and waiting for a Flight Simulator. It is running on the computer
win10.fritz.box

with the IP address

192.168.2.13

Change the port in Little Navconnect's

Options

.

dialog if you see an error message like shown below:

123

Connecting to a Flight Simulator

[2016-07-27 16:45:35] Unable to start the server: The bound address is already in use.

Start Little Navmap on the Client / Remote Computer
Open the connection dialog in Little Navmap by selecting

Main Menu

->

Tools

->

Flight Simulator Connection

.

Picture above: Connect dialog with correct values to access the computer running the simulator and Little
Navconnect as shown above.
Now do the following after opening the dialog:
1. Select

Connect to a remote Flight Simulator

.

2. Add the value for hostname. This can be either the hostname or the IP address printed by Little Navconnect.
3. Check the value for the port.

51968

is the default value and usually does not need to be changed.

4. Click connect. The dialog will close and Little Navmap will try to establish a connection in the background.
Establishing a connection can take some time, depending on your network. The aircraft will show up on the map and
on the

Simulator Aircraft

dock window once a flight is set up and loaded on the simulator. If no flight is loaded yet

(i.e. the simulator still shows the opening screen), you will see the message
Simulator Aircraft

Connected. Waiting for update.

in the

dock window.

Note that it can take a while until an error is shown if you used the wrong values for hostname or port.
Selecting

Connect automatically

is recommended. The start order of all three programs (simulator, Little Navconnect

and Little Navmap) does not matter if this is checked and the programs will find each other.
Deselect

Fetch AI or multiplayer aircraft

or

Fetch AI or multiplayer ships

in

Tools

->

Options

of Little Navconnect to

disable the transfer of this information across the network. This can be useful for performance reasons if you use large
amounts of AI but do not want to see it in Little Navmap.

Connect Dialog Options
Disconnect
Connect

: Disconnect the current session and stop automatic reconnect.

: Try to connect. An error dialog will be shown if no connection can be established. Little Navmap will

constantly try again if

Connect automatically

is enabled.

124

Connecting to a Flight Simulator

Close

: Close the dialog without any changes to the current connection status.

Connect automatically

: Little Navmap will try to connect constantly if this is enabled. This is the recommended

setting.
All connection attempts will stop immediately if you deselect this button.
You have to click
Update Time Interval

Connect

once to start the automatic connection attempts after checking this button.

: Allowed range is 50 milliseconds up to 1 second. Little Navmap fetches data from a

simulator using this time interval. Increase this value if you experience stutters or lag in the simulator. A lower
value will result in more fluid map updates in Little Navmap.
Fetch AI or multiplayer aircraft

and

Fetch AI or multiplayer ships

: Disables fetching of AI vehicles. These

settings are applied immediately. Note that ship traffic is not available for X-Plane.

125

Checking for Updates

Checking for Updates
Little Navmap will automatically check its home page for available updates on startup. Frequency and update
channels are configurable. See below for configuration options.
You can always check manually for updates by selecting

Main Menu

->

Help

->

Check for Updates

.

Note that the installation still has to be done manually.

Notification
The dialog showing available updates contains a change log, various other messages and one or more download
links.

Ignore this Update
Pressing this button will put the shown version on a blacklist. You will not see any reminders for this version again but
for newer versions.
This button is not visible when checking manually.
Note that a manual check for updates ignores the blacklisted updates.

Remind me Later
Dismiss the dialog. You will be notified again on next startup depending on selected frequency. You can also press
the escape key to trigger this action.
This button is not visible when checking manually.

Picture above: Update notification dialog showing an available beta version including change log and download link.

Options
Check for Updates:
Daily

Select

,

Weekly

or

Main Menu

Manual

->

Help

.
->

Check for Updates

to search manually for new versions.

126

Checking for Updates

Note that the daily or weekly check is only done when starting the program.

Update Channels:
Stable Versions only

: This will show only notifications for tested and stable versions with a complete manual.

Stable and Beta Versions

: Will additionally check for beta/test versions. Beta versions are program releases that

already contain all planned features for a stable release but are still not tested carefully. The manual might be
incomplete.
Stable, Beta and Development Versions

: Little Navmap will also show notifications for development releases. These are

neither complete nor well tested. Features might change over time and the manual is not updated for new
functionality.
A backup of all settings is recommended before running a development version.

Check for Updates now
Checks for updates immediately. This will use the current settings as shown in the dialog. It will also show notifications
for updates that were ignored by pressing the

Ignore this Update

Picture above: Update notification settings in dialog

Options

on the notification dialog.

.

127

Options Dialog

Options Dialog
Most options are self-explaining and tooltips contain more detailed explanations if applicable.
You can immediately check the effect of your changes on the map display by moving the dialog
and pressing
The button

Apply

Options

to the side

.

Restore Defaults

only restores the options of this dialog back to default. Other settings like map display,

table views or dock window positions are not affected. To reset all saved settings completely see Troubleshoot.

Startup
Allows to customize what should be loaded and shown on startup of Little Navmap.
You can also configure the frequency of the automatic update check and channels. See Checking for Updates for
more information.

User Interface
Has options for text sizes in information windows and flight plan as well as the search result table.
You can also change the overall style for the graphical user interface. The user interface styles contain a

Night

mode

that can be used for night flights in dark rooms. You can also dim the map and elevation profile display.
A restart is not needed but recommended after changing a style.
The colors for the styles

Fusion

and

Night

can be changed by editing configuration files. See Customize for more

information.
This tab also contains options to force the program language and locale settings (number, date and time formats) to
English if you do not want to use a translated user interface.

128

Options Dialog

Picture above: Tab

User Interface

using the style

Night

.

Map
Has map related customization options. Allows to set the click sensitivity, zoom distances and more.

Map Display
This tab contains options for symbol and text sizes, flight plan and aircraft trail colors and more.
The right side of the tab contains a tree view that allows to select the text labels that should be shown at airports, user
aircraft and AI/multiplayer aircraft.

Picture above: Tab

Map Display

.

Units
You can change all units that are used by Little Navmap on this tab between nautical, imperial and metric. Mixed
settings like meter for altitude and nautical miles for distance are possible.
Note that any numbers used in the program are not converted when changing units. That means that you will
have a minimum altitude buffer of 1000 meter after changing the setting

Altitude and Elevation

from feet to

meter. This also applies to flight plan altitude. Therefore, do not forget to adapt these numbers after changing
units.

Simulator Aircraft
Allows to change various aspects around the display of the user aircraft. All settings resulting in a more fluid aircraft
display will use more CPU and can potentially induce stutters in the simulator.

Center map on aircraft and next flight plan waypoint

129

Options Dialog

The map is zoomed to show both the aircraft and the next active waypoint on the flight plan if this is enabled.
The default mode is to simply center the map on the aircraft.
The map will fall back to the default mode if no flight plan is loaded.

Do not use box mode for following the aircraft. Move the map constantly.
Map will follow the aircraft constantly when checked. This is also used for
waypoint

Center map on aircraft and next flight plan

.

This option will cause Little Navmap to consume more CPU resources while flying.

Simulator aircraft scroll box size (percent of map window size)
Smaller values keep the aircraft centered and will move the map often. Large values will update the map only when
aircraft reaches map boundary.
This setting is ignored when

Center map on aircraft and next flight plan waypoint

is checked and a flight plan is set.

Keep active leg on top of flight plan table
The active (magenta) leg will be shown on top of the flight plan table when a new leg is activated.

Allow scrolling and zooming in the map
The map will stop following the aircraft for the given time if the user does any interaction with the map like scrolling or
zooming. You can quickly check out the destination or your overall progress, and after you stop interacting with the
map, Little Navmap will return to following your aircraft.

Jump back to aircraft and resume aircraft following after this time
Time until aircraft following is activated again after any map interaction like scrolling or zooming.

Cache and Files
Map Display
Here you can change the cache size in RAM and on disk. These caches are used to store the downloaded images
tiles from the online maps like the OpenStreetMap, OpenMapSurfer or OpenTopoMap.
All image tiles expire after two weeks and will be reloaded from the online services then.
Note that a reduction of size or erasing the disk cache is done in background and can take a while.
The RAM cache has a minimum size of 100 MB and a maximum size of 2 GB.
The disk cache has a minimum size of 500 MB and a maximum size of 8 GB.

Flight Plan Elevation Profile
The bottom part of this tab allows to install the the freely downloadable GLOBE - Global Land One-km Base Elevation
Project elevation data.
Download the ZIP archive from the link in the dialog and extract it. Select the extracted directory using
Directory ...

so, that it points to the files

a10g

to

p10g

Select GLOBE

. The label in the dialog will show an error if the path is invalid.

130

Options Dialog

Picture above: Tab

Cache and Files

with properly selected GLOBE elevation data.

Flight Plan
Here you can set preferences for flight plan calculation or adjust the rule of thumb for the top of descent display.

Weather
You can select the various weather sources that should be shown in the

Information

dock window or in the map

tooltips.
The weather type
METAR.rwx

Flight Simulator

will either display weather from the FSX or P3D connection or from X-Planes

weather file.

Active Sky can only be selected if either Active Sky Next, AS16 or Active Sky for Prepar3D v4 are installed or the
weather file is selected directly. Selecting the Active Sky weather file directly can be useful if you run a networked
setup. Use Windows shares or a cloud service to get access to the file on the remote computer.
The URLs of the NOAA and VATSIM weather can be modified if you like to use another source or the services change
the URLs.
The test buttons for the online weather services can also be used to find out if Little Navmap can connect to Internet.
Check your firewall settings if these fail.

131

Options Dialog

Picture above: Tab

Weather

with manually selected Active Sky weather file on a network share.

Online Flying
This tab allows to change settings for online networks.
Note that all related window tabs, menu items and toolbar buttons are hidden if this is set to

None

.

See Online Networks for an overview.
Not all networks might be enabled depending on release.

Picture above: Tab

Online Flying

with VATSIM network enabled.

Online Service
None
Disables all online services and hides all related window tabs, menu items and toolbar buttons. No downloads will be
done.
VATSIM
Uses the predefined configuration for the VATSIM network. No other settings are needed.
The update rate depends on configuration and is typically three minutes.

132

Options Dialog

IVAO
Uses the predefined configuration for the IVAO network. No other settings are needed.
The update rate depends on configuration and is typically three minutes.
Custom with Status File
This option allows to connect to a private network and will download a
further links to e.g. the

whazzup.txt

status.txt

file on startup which contains

file.

Custom
This option allows to connect to a private network and will periodically download a

whazzup.txt

file which contains

information about online clients/aircraft and online centers/ATC.

Settings
Status File URL
URL of the

status.txt

file. You can also use a local path like

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\status.txt

.

This file is downloaded only on startup of the program.
A push button

Test

allows to check if the URL is valid and shows the first few lines from the downloaded text file.

This does not work with local paths.
The status file format is explained in the IVAO documentation library: Status File Format.
Whazzup File URL
URL of the

whazzup.txt

file. You can also use a local path like

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\whazzup.txt

.

This file is downloaded according to the set update rate.
A push button

Test

allows to check if the URL is valid. The test does not work with local paths.

The whazzup file format is explained in the IVAO documentation library: Whazzup File Format.
Update Every
Sets the update rate that defines how often the

whazzup.txt

file is downloaded.

Allowed values are 30 to 1800 seconds, 180s being the default.
You can use smaller update rates for private online networks to improve map display updates.
Do not use update rates smaller than two minutes for official online networks. They might decide to block the
application if downloads are excessive.
Format
IVAO

or

VATSIM

. Depends on the format used by your private network. Try both options if unsure.

Scenery Library Database
Allows to configure the loading of the scenery library database.
Note that these paths apply to all Flight Simulators, FSX, P3D and X-Plane.
You have to reload the scenery database in order for the changes to take effect.

133

Options Dialog

Select Paths to exclude from loading
All directories including sub-directories in this list will be omitted when loading the scenery library into the Little
Navmap database. You can also use this list to speed up database loading if you exclude directories that do not
contain airports or navaids (landclass, elevation data and others).

Select Paths to exclude add-on recognition
All scenery data that is found outside of the base flight simulator

Scenery

directory is considered an add-on and will

be highlighted on the map and also considered during search for add-ons.
You can use this list to modify this behavior.
Add-ons, like Orbx FTX Vector or fsAerodata add scenery files that correct certain aspects of airports like elevation,
magnetic variance or others. All these airports will be recognized as add-on airports since all their files are not stored
in the base flight simulator

Scenery

directory.

Insert the corresponding directory into this list to avoid unwanted highlighting of these airports as add-ons.

Picture above: Tab

Scenery Library Database

with three directories excluded from loading and two directories

excluded from add-on recognition.

Examples
Provided your simulator is installed in

C:\Games\FSX

.

ORBX Vector
Exclude the directories below from add-on recognition. Do not exclude them from loading since you will see wrong
airport altitudes.
C:\Games\FSX\ORBX\FTX_VECTOR\FTX_VECTOR_AEC
C:\Games\FSX\ORBX\FTX_VECTOR\FTX_VECTOR_APT

Flight1 Ultimate Terrain Europe

134

Options Dialog

Exclude these directories from loading to speed up the process:
C:\Games\FSX\Scenery\UtEurAirports
C:\Games\FSX\Scenery\UtEurGP
C:\Games\FSX\Scenery\UtEurLights
C:\Games\FSX\Scenery\UtEurRail
C:\Games\FSX\Scenery\UtEurStream
C:\Games\FSX\Scenery\UtEurWater

ORBX Regions
Exclude these directories from loading:
C:\Games\FSX\ORBX\FTX_NZ\FTX_NZSI_07_MESH
C:\Games\FSX\ORBX\FTX_NA\FTX_NA_CRM07_MESH
C:\Games\FSX\ORBX\FTX_NA\FTX_NA_NRM07_MESH
C:\Games\FSX\ORBX\FTX_NA\FTX_NA_PNW07_MESH
C:\Games\FSX\ORBX\FTX_NA\FTX_NA_PFJ07_MESH

135

Running without Flight Simulator Installation

Running without Flight Simulator Installation
You can use

littlenavmap.exe

on all computers no matter if SimConnect or a flight simulator are installed or not.

Follow these steps if you want to install Little Navmap on a computer not containing any flight simulator installation for
a networked setup, for example. No functionality is affected except direct connect capability which are not needed in
this case.
This scenario is typically used when connecting to the flight simulator to watch the progress of a flight remotely.
Flight plans can be created, loaded and saved on the client computer. You only have to make sure that these are
transfered to the flight simulator computer using Windows shares or by other means.
These instructions apply to Windows, macOS and Linux computers equally.
1. Install Little Navmap on both your flying computer and the client computer without simulator.
2. Start it on the flying computer and generate the scenery library databases. See Load Scenery Library Dialog
above for more information.
3. Select

Main Menu

->

Scenery Library

->

Show Database Files

on the flying computer. This will open the directory

containing the database files in a file manager like Windows Explorer or Apple Finder. You will find one or more
database file like

little_navmap_fsx.sqlite

,

little_navmap_p3dv3.sqlite

or

little_navmap_xp11.sqlite

.

4. Exit Little Navmap on the flying computer.
5. Start Little Navmap on the client/remote computer and select

Scenery Library

->

Show Database Files

.

6. Exit Little Navmap on the client computer so you can copy the datbase files.
7. Copy the database files to your client computer using network shares, USB sticks or whatever you like. Use the
file manager windows opened by the procedures above.
8. Start Little Navmap on the client computer. The menu

Scenery Library

should contain an entry for each copied

database file or no entry at all if only one database file was copied. Airport icons should be visible on the map in
either case. There is no need to reload the scenery library database now since you just copied a fully
populated database file.
See the Connecting to a Flight Simulator for information about networked setups.

136

Customize

Customizing General
Little Navmap creates multiple configuration files in the directory

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel

when

started. These allow extended customization of the program.
The files use the Windows-

INI

style that has groups in square brackets and

key=value

lines. See here for more

information about this type of configuration files.
Note that you have to restart Little Navmap to see any changes. Also, do not edit the files while Little Navmap is
running since it might overwrite your changes.
To undo all changes simply delete a file. It will be created again containing the default values when Little Navmap is
started.
Single lines can also be deleted and will be restored with the default value when Little Navmap is started.
Keys and values are case sensitive. Order in the files is not important if the keys remain in their respective sections.
The program might reorder the keys when saving or updating the files.

Version
Some of the INI files contain a section

[Options]

with a key

Version

as shown below.

[Options]
Version=2.0.1

Do not delete this since Little Navmap relies on this information when updating the file. It will reset the file
occasionally whenever the default settings change. A backup will be created to save your user
customizations.
Add this version section to all new files. Otherwise, Little Navmap might reset the content.
Examples for backup files:

little_navmap_mapstyle_backup_2.0.0.ini

or

little_navmap_mapstyle_backup.ini

.

The file will be backed up and reset if you delete or change the version.

GUI
Only two user interface styles can be customized. These are

Fusion

and

Night

and can be found in the dialog User

Interface tab of the options dialog. These two styles are available on all operating systems.
Two files are generated that allow the customization for all window, button and dialog colors. These are:
C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel\little_navmap_fusionstyle.ini
C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel\little_navmap_nightstyle.ini

The key names in these files are derived from the Qt palette options. Each key consists of the group and role name
separated by an underscore. See below for more information on the color formats used.
See here for more information about groups and roles.

Online Network Center
137

Customize

The configuration file

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel\little_navmap.ini

allows to change the size of the

online network center circles.
Radius is in nautical miles. The visual range is used if radius is -1. No circle is drawn if the value is 0.
Do not delete this file since it contains all program settings, map history, opened files and more. Edit only the
keys shown below.
[Online]
CenterRadiusACC=-1
CenterRadiusApproach=20
CenterRadiusDelivery=-1
CenterRadiusDeparture=-1
CenterRadiusFIR=-1
CenterRadiusGround=5
CenterRadiusObserver=-1
CenterRadiusTower=10

Map Display
The file

allows to customize various aspects of

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel\little_navmap_mapstyle.ini

the map display and is currently limited to colors and pens. Most key names are self explaining. See below for more
information about color values.

Color Format
Color can be in one of these formats which are commonly used in web design:
#RRGGBB

each of R, G, B and A is a single hex digit. Each color value ranges from 00 - FF (decimal 0-255)

#AARRGGBB

first two digits contain the alpha/transparency value.

00

equals to fully tranparent and

FF

(decimal

255) to opaque.
SVG color name
SVG color name is one of the colors defined in the list of SVG color keyword names provided by the World Wide Web
Consortium; for example,

steelblue

or

gainsboro

. Note that you cannot enter an alpha channel value if you use a

color name.
You can use the w3schools color picker to get the hex values for a color.
Examples:
Active_Highlight=#308cc6
AlertFillColor=darkred
ApproachFillColor=#3060808a

Pen Format
A pen contains the following values in a comma separated list:
Color as described above
Pen width as a floating point value measured in pixels. You have to use

.

as decimal separator no matter what

your locale defines.
Pen style. One of the following values:

Solid

,

Dash

,

Dot

,

DashDot

and

DashDotDot

.

Examples:
RestrictedPen=#fd8c00, 2, DashDotDot

138

Customize

ModecPen=#509090, 2, Solid
NationalParkPen=#509090, 2.1, Solid

Icons
To change an icon download it from the Github source repository Icon Resources or extract the included file
Navmap/customize/icons.zip

Little

.

Modify the icon and save it into the settings directory

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel

. Little Navmap will

automatically detect and use the icon on next startup.
The format is limited to SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny 1.2 Specification) where advanced graphics
effects like textures will not work.
You can use the free vector drawing program Inkscape to edit the icons. Restart Little Navmap to see the changes.

User, AI and Multiplayer Aircraft Icons
All icons for user, AI/multiplayer aircraft, helicopters and ships are stored in the program but can be overloaded by the
user.
The icons are:
aircraft_boat_ground_user.svg
aircraft_boat_ground.svg
aircraft_boat_user.svg
aircraft_boat.svg
aircraft_helicopter_ground_user.svg
aircraft_helicopter_ground.svg
aircraft_helicopter_user.svg
aircraft_helicopter.svg
aircraft_jet_ground_user.svg
aircraft_jet_ground.svg
aircraft_jet_user.svg
aircraft_jet.svg
aircraft_small_ground_user.svg
aircraft_small_ground.svg
aircraft_small_user.svg
aircraft_small.svg
aircraft_online.svg
aircraft_online_ground.svg

The suffixes are chosen by vehicle type, status (ground or airborne) and user or AI/multiplayer. The icon is for
airborne vehicles if

ground

icons are prefixed with

is missing and for AI/multiplayer vehicles if

aircraft

user

is missing. For historical reasons all

.

Userpoint Category Icons
Icons for userpoint categories are stored in the program but can be overloaded by the user as well.
Default category icons can be overloaded with another icon by placing a file with one of the default category names in
the settings directory.
New categories can be added by placing a new icon adhering to a certain name pattern in the default directory.

139

Customize

userpoint_Airport.png
userpoint_Airstrip.png
userpoint_Bookmark.png
userpoint_Cabin.png
userpoint_Closed.png
userpoint_Error.png
userpoint_Flag.png
userpoint_Helipad.png
userpoint_Location.png
userpoint_Logbook.png
userpoint_Marker.png
userpoint_Mountain.png
userpoint_Obstacle.png
userpoint_Pin.png
userpoint_POI.png
userpoint_Seaport.png
userpoint_Unknown.png
userpoint_VRP.png
userpoint_Waypoint.png

The text between the first underscore
Places.png

creates a new category

Do not use special characters like

_

and the

My Places
/

.png

ending defines the category. For example

userpoint_My

.

for categories. Only letters, digits, space, underscore and dashes are allowed.

Umlauts and accented characters are no problem.

140

Creating or adding Map Themes

Creating or adding Map Themes
To add an arbitrary online or offline map to Little Navmap simply add the map directory from a downloaded or self
created map theme to the

data\maps\earth

directory.

The full path to the DGML file (see links below for more details about DGML) describing the map must be
Programs\Little Navmap\data\maps\earth\opencyclemap\opencyclemap.dgml

c:\Own

if you like to add the OpenCycleMap for example.

The DGML file can refer to an online map service or included offline map data. Usually a map theme contains many
more files than only the DGML.
The menu

Main Menu

->

Map

->

Theme

and the toolbar drop down box will receive an entry for each additional map

theme.
The options

Show Country and City Names

and

Show Hillshading

are enabled for all additional map themes but might not

work depending on properties defined in the map's DGML file.
More maps and information about map configuration and DGML files can be found here on the Marble/KDE pages:
Download more maps for the Marble widget (only Earth maps are supported in

Little Navmap

): Additional Maps

A tutorial that shows how to create a map theme based on tiled images: Marble/CustomMaps
A tutorial showing how to create a map theme based on OSM Slippy Maps: How to create map themes based on
OSM slippy maps
How to create a historical map for Marble: Historical Maps for Marble

141

Coordinate Formats

Coordinate Formats
This chapter briefly describes the recognized coordinate formats in flight plan position dialogs and userpoint dialogs.
The input field shows a message below which indicates if the coordinates were recognized and shows the translated
coordinates in the preset format as chosen in dialog

on tab

Options

Units

. A red message is shown in case of error.

Check the displayed translated coordinates to verify that your input was parsed correctly.

Picture above: Editing a user-defined flight plan position. Tooltip gives a quick help on coordinate formats.

General
Latitude has to be first and longitude second.
N/S and E/W designators are required. Case does not matter.
Degree, minute and second signs can be omitted if numbers are separated by spaces.
A space is only required to separate latitude and longitude or degrees/minutes/seconds if no unit signs are used.
Decimal separator can be period (English) or the locale dependent separator like e.g. comma (German).

Other Formats
These have to be given exactly as shown in the examples.
Degrees and minutes:
Degrees only

N44124W122451

Degrees and minutes

N14544W017479

or

S31240E136502

4620N07805W

Degrees, minutes and seconds
Degrees and minutes in pair
NAT type

,

46N078W

481200N0112842E

N6500 W08000

or

(Skyvector)

N6500/W08000

5020N

Examples
Degrees, minutes and seconds:
Degrees and decimal minutes:
Decimal degrees only:

N49° 26' 41.57" E9° 12' 5.49"
N54* 16.82' W008* 35.95'

49.4449° N 9.2015° E

or

,

or

49° 26' 41.57" N 9° 12' 5.49" E

N 52 33.58 E 13 17.26

or

49° 26.69' N 9° 12.09' E

N 49.4449° E 9:2015°

142

Files

Files
Logs
Log files of Little Navmap are stored in these directories:
Windows:
Linux:

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Temp\abarthel-little_navmap.log

/tmp/abarthel-little_navmap.log

macOS:

/var/folders/RANDOMIZED_DIRECTORY_NAME/abarthel-little_navmap.log

The program keeps three log files and rotates these on each startup. So you may find up to three logs:
abarthel-little_navmap.log

,

abarthel-little_navmap.log.1

and

abarthel-little_navmap.log.2

.

Make sure to send the correct log file after a crash. The program will rotate the log files on restart. If unsure send all
copies in a Zip-file.
If you like to report an issue when loading the scenery database: Load the database and quit the program. Then copy
the log file to another folder before restarting the Little Navmap.

Configuration
All configuration files for my programs are stored in these directories:
Windows:

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel

Linux and macOS:
little_navmap.ini

$HOME/.config/ABarthel

: INI style configuration file. Text file.

little_navmap.history
little_navmap.track

: The map position history. Binary file.

: The user aircraft track. Binary file.

Three more configuration files are created for customization of colors and styles:
little_navmap_fusionstyle.ini
little_navmap_nightstyle.ini
little_navmap_mapstyle.ini

: INI style configuration file for customizing the GUI colors of the style

: As above but for the style

Night

Fusion

.

.

: INI style configuration file. Text file. Used for customization of the map display.

See Customization for more information.
Little Navmap might reset these files when updated, but only after creating backup files.

Disk Cache
The disk cache that is used to store all the downloaded online map tile images can be found here:
Windows

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\.marble\data

Linux and macOS:

$HOME/.local/share/marble

You can delete the cache manually to save space if Little Navmap is not running.

Databases
Databases are stored in the directories:
Windows:

C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\ABarthel\little_navmap_db

Linux and macOS:

$HOME/.config/ABarthel/little_navmap_db

143

Files

All these databases are SQLite files which can be viewed with e.g. DB Browser for SQLite if you're interested in
relational databases.
Do not modify, move, rename or delete databases while Little Navmap is running.

Scenery Library
The number of files depends on which simulators you have installed and which scenery libraries you've loaded.
The files are:
little_navmap_.sqlite

: An empty dummy database.

little_navmap_fsx.sqlite

: Flight Simulator X

little_navmap_fsxse.sqlite

: Flight Simulator - Steam Edition

little_navmap_p3dv2.sqlite

: Prepar3D v2

little_navmap_p3dv3.sqlite

: Prepar3D v3

little_navmap_p3dv4.sqlite

: Prepar3D v4

little_navmap_xp11.sqlite

: X-Plane 11

little_navmap_navigraph.sqlite

: Navigraph navdatabase. Can be either the included database or an update

installed by the Navigraph _FMS Data Manager.

Userdata
The file

little_navmap_userdata.sqlite

contains the user-defined waypoints.

Little Navmap creates a backup copy on startup and keeps up to four backup files:
to

little_navmap_userdata_backup.sqlite.3

little_navmap_userdata.sqlite

little_navmap_userdata_backup.sqlite

. You can copy these files back to the original database

if you did something wrong.

Other Database Files
Additional files like
little_navmap_compiling.sqlite

,

little_navmap_compiling.sqlite-journal
little_navmap_temp.sqlite

,

,

little_navmap_temp.sqlite-journal
little_navmap_onlinedata.sqlite

,

or

little_navmap_onlinedata.sqlite-journal

are used by temporary processes like the database compilation or online network data. These can be ignored.

144

Tutorials - General

Tutorials
General
The tutorials are based on:
FSX or P3D scenery but can be easily adapted to X-Plane.
An already loaded scenery database which normally happens right after the first startup.
The stock navigation data of FSX or P3D. Differences might appear if you use navdata updates or airport scenery
add-ons.
All functions will be referred by the names in the main menu by using

Menu Name

->

Menu Item

. The icons are shown

as well, so you can find the buttons on one of the toolbars. Screenshots will provide more help.

Quick Start
To have a clean common base, I recommend the following:
Select

Window

->

Reset Window Layout

Use the map theme

OpenStreetMap

Reset the map display settings in

to get all the dock windows back into their default place.

with hill shading
Map

->

enabled.

Reset Display Settings

to make sure that all needed features are shown

on the map.
Select

File

->

New Flight Plan

to start with a clean flight plan.

Tutorials
1. Building a VFR Flight Plan This tutorial will show how to create a simple flight plan based on the map and its
context menus.
2. Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures This long tutorial will show you how to create a more
complex IFR flight plan including approach procedures. It introduces the advanced airport search functionality,
the spatial search and the automatic flight plan calculation.

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Tutorial - Building a VFR Flight Plan

Building a VFR Flight Plan
General
This tutorial will show how to create a simple flight plan based on the map and its context menus.
The flight will take us through the lovely valleys of the French alps. You can use this flight plan for any small aircraft
like the free Flight1 Cessna 162 SkyCatcher or the default Cessna 172.
The flight will only go through Class E airspace. There is no need to contact ATC.
The flight plan is: Meythet (LFLP) Parking 11, Ramp GA Small to Challes-les-Eaux (LFLE), 41 nm, 0 h 24 m, Direct

Departure Airport
Find the departure airport: Click into the map and zoom to the French Alps. You can use the following functions to
navigate:
The map overlay on the left.
The mouse (click and drag) to move and the mousewheel to zoom.
The cursor keys to move and the keys

+

and

-

for zooming in and out (click into the map window to activate it

before using the keys).

Use the back

and forward

buttons to jump in the position history like a web browser.

See also Map Display.
Look for the departure airport

Meythet (LFLP)

around here:

Closer with tooltip:

146

Tutorial - Building a VFR Flight Plan

Now:
Zoom in until you see the airport diagram showing taxiways, runway details, parking positions and more.
Zoom in further until you see the white parking numbers.
Right-click on the center of one of the green ramp parking spots (11 is used here).
Choose

Select Airport Meythet (LFLP) / Parking 11 as Flight Plan Departure

in the context menu.

This will select your departure parking position which will be highlighted by a black/yellow circle. The airport will be
added to the flight plan as departure too.
You can also click on the airport icon and select it for departure. A runway will be automatically assigned as departure
position.

147

Tutorial - Building a VFR Flight Plan

En Route Waypoints
We add the waypoints now:
Scroll along the valley to the south east across the lake Lac d'Annecy.
Click

Append Position to Flight Plan

. The clicked position will be added as an user-defined waypoint to the

end of your plan.

Click undo

or redo

Another function is

if you don't like what you just added.

Add Position to Flight Plan

which will insert the clicked position to the nearest flight plan leg.

You can use this to add user-defined positions, airports or navaids in the middle of a flight plan. The nearest leg will
be chosen automatically by Little Navmap.
Little Navmap will automatically assign names to the user-defined waypoints. You can leave these as they are or
replace them with a more meaningful name.

To change a waypoint name right-click on the user waypoint and select

Edit Name of User Waypoint

. Use nearby

villages, mountains, lakes or other points of interest.
The flight simulator limits the name to a certain length and to certain characters. Nothing will be added to the name if it
is too long or if you type the wrong characters.

148

Tutorial - Building a VFR Flight Plan

Keep adding points and stay away from the mountains until you're at

Challes-les-Eaux (LFLE)

.

Destination Airport
To add the destination:
Right-click on
Select

Challes-les-Eaux (LFLE)

Set Airport as Flight Plan Destination

.

Now there is a flight plan. Yours might look a bit different.

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Tutorial - Building a VFR Flight Plan

You can also use the drag and drop feature to move points or add new ones. Enable it by checking
Edit Flight Plan on Map

Flight Plan

->

and click on a flight plan waypoint to move it. Click on a flight plan leg to add a new

waypoint into this leg.
See Map Flight Plan Editing for more information.

Cruise Altitude
Change the flight plan type to

VFR

if not already done.

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Tutorial - Building a VFR Flight Plan

Now check the cruise altitude:
Look at the flight plan elevation profile. There is a red line indicating the minimum safe altitude.
Adjust the flight plan cruise altitude until you're above the red line.
Select

Flight Plan

->

Adjust Flight Plan Altitude

to get the correct altitude adjusted by the hemispherical

rule.
Note that the default hemispherical rule is not correct for France until you change it in the options dialog, but I'll avoid
this for the sake of simplicity now.

You probably noticed that you will get close to ground near the destination. Be prepared to circumvent some
mountains there.

Airspaces
Now look if your flight plan touches any airspaces.
Click into one of the airspaces nearby start and destination and have a look at the information dock window. There are
several airspaces:
Geneva TMA Sector 8

which starts at 9,500 feet above mean sea level (MSL). This is higher than our cruise altitude

and won't affect us.
Two Class E airspaces. The information window notes for these:
IFR only

Controlled, IFR and VFR, ATC clearance required for

. No problem because we will fly using VFR.

The situation is similar at the destination.

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Tutorial - Building a VFR Flight Plan

Groundspeed
Now adjust the speed to your expected ground speed. This allows the program to estimate flying time for the whole
plan and for the legs.
The speed is saved as an annotation in the PLN file. So when you load the plan into Little Navmap it will restore the
given speed. The speed value has no effect in the simulator.
Note that the plan is static and will not change during flight.

Save the plan using

File

->

Save Flight Plan

. The program usually finds the right directory for the flight plans

and gives a sensible name by default.

Flying
Follow the steps below to get a moving map and see your aircraft in Little Navmap:

Open the dialog

Connect

using

Tools

->

Flight Simulator Connection

and check if

Connect automatically

is

selected. Enable it if not. Little Navmap will find the simulator no matter if it is already started or will be started
later.

Click

Connect

Enable

Map

which will close the dialog.

->

Center Aircraft

. The map will jump to the simulator aircraft and keep it centered if an

active flight is loaded, i.e. the simulator is not in the opening screen.
Start the simulator if not already done, load the flight plan and go flying.

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Tutorial - Building a VFR Flight Plan

See also Connecting to a Flight Simulator.

Looking at Places while Flying
The program will stop following your aircraft if you start any action that zooms in to an airport or navaid (double-click,
toolbar button or link in the information window):
Double-click on the destination airport for example to zoom to the airport diagram.
When done click the back button
Then enable

Map

->

Center Aircraft

until you are back at your aircraft.
again to keep the aircraft centered.

153

Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures
This tutorial will show you how to create a more complex IFR flight plan including approach procedures. It introduces
the advanced airport search functionality and the automatic flight plan calculation.
While this tutorial looks quite lengthy it is normally a matter of half a minute to get a flight plan if you know where to
go. The planning effort shown here is bigger to highlight some of the more advanced features of the program.
You should at least read through the VFR tutorial Building a VFR Flight Plan.
The flight plan will go across the UK using an IFR capable aircraft. Its maximum range should be more than 600
nautical miles including reserves and a cruise altitude of 10,000 feet.
I will not go into detailed fuel planning procedures in this tutorial. That is another story for another time.
The tutorial assumes the following preconditions:
You left your aircraft at

Bembridge (EGHJ)

at the end of the last flight or treat this as you home base.

You don't know where you want to fly today.
You know the requirements for your aircraft:
Range
Minimum runway length
Hard runways
Need a parking spot at the destination
Fuel for flying back

Cleanup Search
Go to the dock window

Search

and follow the steps below:

Right-click into the result table and select

Reset Search

to get rid of all search criteria that may affect the

query.
Click the menu button
from Mark

and make sure that the search groups

Facilities

,

Runway

,

Parking

and

Distance

are checked. Deselect all others you don't need.

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Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

Assign Departure
Now look for the departure airport:
Enter

EGHJ

in the

ICAO Code

search field on the top left (case does not matter).

Right-click on the airport in the result table.
Choose

Set as Flight Plan Departure

. This will assign a default runway as a start position.

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Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

Your flight plan has one entry now. This is already sufficient if you want to fly a pattern and like to see distance, speed
and time information to the airport.
Starting from a runway is not quite realistic. Let's select a parking position:

Go to

Flight Plan

->

Select a Start Position for Departure

.

Choose one of the GA small ramp positions.
Click

Ok

and the position will be highlighted on the map.

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Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

Alternatively you can also select the start position directly on the map's context menu as described in the VFR tutorial.
See also Set as Flight Plan Departure

Search for Destination
Now look for a suitable destination airport:
Right-click on
Select

EGHJ

in the search result again.

Set Center for Distance Search

. You can also do this in the map. This is the center point for the

spatial search.
Clear the

ICAO Code

search field now (it is a common mistake to leave the text fields filled when doing distance

searches which will give you an empty result table).
We will now look for airports that are in range of the aircraft but not too close. Also, certain criteria have to be fulfilled,
like having parking spots that fit the aircraft and a runway which is long enough.
You can also find airports in aircraft range by using the range rings where you can right-click into the map on your
departure airport and select

Show Range Rings

, although this function does not allow the detailed airport filters.

We will use the spatial search instead of range rings since we'd like to see only suitable airports for out aircraft.
Check the following in the airport search tab:
1.

Rating

: We'd like to get airports that are either add-ons or have basic scenery requirements, like taxiways,

parking spots and more. Everything else is boring.
2.

: Show only airports that have procedures to spice up the approach a bit.

Procedures

3. Deselect

Military

and

Closed

(click the checkboxes twice): This will return only civilian airports and avoid

airports that have all runways closed.
4. Also check

Avgas

so we can fill up for our return trip and don't have beg for fuel at a nearby road.

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Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

5. In the combo box

Any or no Ramp

select

At least Ramp GA small

. This will include only airports in the result that

have suitable parking spots.
6. In the combo box

Any Surface

select

Any is Hard

to avoid airports having only soft surfaced runways.

7. Select a minimum runway length of 2,500 feet for your aircraft in the field

Runways:

Min:

.

See also Search Dock Window - Airports and Navaids.
You can also limit the maximum runway length if you are looking for a short landing challenge, but not now.
The search result changes on the fly while doing all these adjustments, though we are not there yet:
Check

Distance:

to activate the spatial search.

Change the maximum distance to 600 and the minimum to 400 nautical miles (to avoid short hops). The result
table will now update with a small delay since the distance search is more complex.
To find only airports north of your position select

North

in the combo box

Any Direction

. Note that the search

result is sorted by distance with the closest airport first.
Choose an airport for your trip. We use

Wick (EGPC)

for this tutorial.

Right-click on Wick in the result table.
Select

Show Information

Select the tab

Weather

. This will fill the tabs in the dock window

Information

.

and look for the wind direction to get an idea of the expected landing runway. Start AS16

or Active Sky Next if you are using these.
For this tutorial we assume that the winds favor runway 13.

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Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

See also Weather.

Select an Approach Procedure
We'll select an approach procedure now:
Go back to the search result.
Right-click on the airport Wick again. Select
Choose
Select
Choose

Runway 13
Expand All

in the

All Runways

. This will pop up the procedure search tab.

Show Procedures

combo box to see only approaches for 13.

in the context menu to see also the transitions for each approach.

Approach VORDME 13 FD13

using

Transition (Full) WIK10

since we expect to land on runway 13 and arrive

from south.
The top label in the procedure search shows

Wick (EGPC) Approach VORDME 13 FD13 Transition (Full) WIK10

for the selected

approach and/or transition. You can also see a preview on the map.

Right-click on the transition and select

Show Approach and Transition on Map

. This will center the procedure on the

map. You can hover the mouse over the waypoints of the approach to see more information in a tooltip. You can also
click on the legs in the procedure tree to see the respective start and end points.

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Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

The procedure looks sufficiently complicated to make an interesting approach.
More information on procedure search: Search Dock Window - Procedures. Also see Procedures for general
information on procedures.
If you like what you see right-click again on the transition and select

Use EGPC and Approach and Transition as Destination

.
This will do two things:
1. Add Wick as the destination airport to the flight plan. Any previous destination in the flight plan will be replaced.
2. Add the approach and its transition to the flight plan. The procedure legs use a dark blue color and the missed
approach legs use a dark red color in the flight plan table. Flight plan en route legs are black. Again, any previous
procedure is replaced with this new one.
About adding transition and approaches: Approaches and transitions are closely related which is already indicated
by the tree structure in the procedure search tab. You can add an approach alone but a transition always belongs to
an approach.
You have to select the transition to add or show both, approach and transition.

Calculate a Flight Plan
160

Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

Now we have the departure airport, an approach procedure and the destination all connected by a line. Next is the en
route part of the flight plan:
Set

IFR

as the flight plan type in the dock window

Flight Plan

. This allows the automatic flight plan calculation

to adjust the cruise altitude.
Click

Flight Plan

->

to start the automatic flight plan calculation for Victor airways.

Calculate low Altitude

The calculation will create a route from your departure airport to the intial fix of the transition.
The flight plan cruise altitude is automatically adjusted according to the hemispherical rule (the rule can be changed in
Tools

or

IFR

->

on the tab

Options

Flight Plan

), the altitude restrictions of the airways and the flight plan type (

). You can see the minimum altitude for each airway segment in the flight plan table in the column

The altitude can also be adjusted according to the hemispherical rule by clicking
Altitude

Flight Plan

->

VFR

Restriction

.

Adjust Flight Plan

.

Now the minimum altitude of 16,000 feet is a bit too high.
Therefore, try an alternate calculation method which limits your cruise altitude:
Enter 10,000 feet in the

Flight plan altitude

Click on

Calculate based on given Altitude

Flight Plan

->

field.
. This will result in a flight plan that uses only

airways having a minimum altitude below or equal to 10,000 feet. Note that you can get a mix of Victor and Jet
airways depending on used altitude. The calculation might also fail if you set the cruise altitude too low.

Use this flight plan for now.

Save the plan using

File

->

Save Flight Plan

. The program usually finds the right directory for the flight plans

and gives a sensible name by default.
The waypoints of the approach procedure are not saved in the flight plan. You have to select the approach in your
GPS or FMC in the simulator or fly it by radio navaids and a stopwatch.
What Little Navmap saves in the PLN are the procedure names which allows the program to restore the approach
when loading the PLN file.
The top label in the flight plan dock window reads now:
Bembridge (EGHJ) Parking 1, Ramp GA Small to Wick (EGPC)
Via WIK10 and VORDME FD13 to runway 13
517 nm, 5 h 10 m, Low Altitude

161

Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

Adjust the ground speed in the flight plan dock window according to the used aircraft to get a better time estimate.
The plan might look different, depending if you use stock navaids or navdata updates.

Now you can check if you pass through any airspaces:

Enable airspaces by selecting
Check

Map

->

Airspaces

->

Map

->

Airspaces

->

Show Airspaces

At flight plan cruise altitude

if not already done.

in the menu or the toolbar menu button.

162

Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

This will display only airspaces on the map that are relevant for your cruise altitude. You can also select
only

Below 10000 ft

to see all relevant airspaces in the climb or descent phase. Use the tooltips on the map to get information about

airspaces like type, minimum and maximum altitude.

Flying
Open the dialog

Connect

using

Tools

->

Flight Simulator Connection

and check if

Connect automatically

is

selected. Enable, if not.
Litte Navmap will find the simulator no matter if it is already started or if it is started later. Click

Connect

.

See also Connecting to a Flight Simulator.

163

Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

Enable

Map

->

. The map will jump to the simulator aircraft and keep it centered. This will

Center Aircraft

happen only if an active flight is loaded, i.e. the simulator is not in the opening screen.
Start the simulator if not already done, load the flight plan and go flying.

Top of Descent
A top of descent indication is displayed on the map and in the elevation profile which also shows the distance from top
of descent to the destination. This number includes the distance of approach procedures (excluding holds).
Note that altitude restrictions are not considered yet in the top of descent calculation.

You can change the descent rule in

Tools

->

on the tab

Options

Flight Plan

. The default is 3 nautical miles

for 1,000 feet.

The tab

Progress

Progress

section:

in the dock window

Simulator Aircraft

will show the distance to the top of descent in the

Flight Plan

Flight Plan Progress
To Destination:

74 nm

Time and Date:

21.05.17 12:33 UTC

Local Time:

14:33 CEST

TOD to Destination:

64 nm

To Top of Descent:

10,1 nm

The section

Altitude

will show the vertical path deviation after passing the top of descent:
Altitude

Indicated:

5,090 ft

Actual:

5,051 ft

Above Ground:

5,051 ft

Ground Elevation:

0 ft

Vertical Path Dev.:

-511 ft below ▲

Changing Procedures
Now the weather has changed requiring an approach to runway 31:
Right-click on the destination airport at the bottom of the flight plan table.
Choose

Show Procedures

.

Then change the runway filter to

Runway 31

.

Expand the approach VORDME 31 to see the transition.
Select the transition.

164

Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

The label on top of the window shows now

Approach VORDME 31 FD31 Transition (Full) CHINN

.

Right-click on the selected transition.
Choose

Use EGPC and Approach and Transition as Destination

from the context menu which will replace the

current procedure in your flight plan with the new one.
The top label in the flight plan dock window reads now:
Bembridge (EGHJ) Parking 1, Ramp GA Small to Wick (EGPC)
Via CHINN and VORDME FD31 to runway 31
526 nm, 5 h 15 m, Low Altitude

To completely get rid of a procedure:
Select any leg of the procedure in the flight plan table.
Right-click and choose
the

Del

Delete selected Leg or Procedure

to remove the whole procedure. Alternatively press

key.

If ATC clears you to the initial fix of the procedure:
1. Delete any intermediate waypoints between your current aircraft position and the initial fix of the procedure: Rightclick in the flight plan table and select

Delete selected Leg or Procedure

for all waypoints between your

current aircraft position and the initial fix or start of the procedure. Avoid deleting your approach (you can also
right-click on a flight plan waypoint on the map and delete it from the context menu).
2. Then right-click on your aircraft on the map and select

Add Position to Flight Plan

.

This will give a direct connection from your current aircraft position to the start of the procedure which you can use to
get course and distance to the intial fix.
Below: After changing the approach procedure and adding a user-defined waypoint at the aircraft position to the flight
plan. Now we get course and altitude indications for a direct leg to the start of the transition (43 nm and 314 degrees
magnetic course).

165

Tutorial - Building an IFR Flight Plan with Approach Procedures

Going Missed
I recommend hiding the missed approaches on the map by unchecking

Map

->

Show Missed Approaches

. This

helps uncluttering the map display.
If the missed approach is not shown: The progress window shows distance and time to destination. Activating
the next leg (shown in magenta color) will stop if the destination (i.e. the runway threshold) is reached, even when
passing the threshold.
If the missed is shown and the aircraft passes the runway threshold: The first leg of the missed approach is
activated and simulator aircraft progress will display the remaining distance to the end of the missed procedure.

166

Tips and Tricks

Tips and Tricks
Show all Navaid Ranges of a Flight Plan
Select all legs in the flight plan table, then right-click on any leg and select

Show Navaid Range

. This will place a

range ring around every radio navaid in the flight plan.
See also Show Navaid range.

Remove the range rings by selecting

Remove all Range Rings and Distance Measurements

.

Use the measurement lines to get a VOR Radial Intersection
Measurment lines can start at airports or navaids where they use the magnetic variation if available. You can use
them to find an airport by radial and distance if you like to navigate the old fashioned way.
Below is an example that gets radial and distance from two VORs for
NDBs or waypoints. Note the suffix

M

ETUO

. Measurement lines can also start at

which indicates magnetic course.

See also Measure GC Distance from here and Measure Rhumb Distance from here.

167

Tips and Tricks

The same can be used when flying airways without GPS. In the example below fly 323 degrees magnetic to VOR
SFD

(radial 143). You are at

intercept 302° to

GWC

WAFFU

when the DME shows 13.7 nautical miles. Then turn left to 280°M until you

.

168

Tips and Tricks

Use the measurment lines for Approach Guidance
Right-click on the airport and choose

Measure Rhumb Distance from here

. Pull the line using the opposing course to

3 nautical miles out to get guidance for the final approach.

Search for Add-On Airports
You can use the scenery path to look for add-on airports of a certain developer. Click on one of the add-on airports
and copy the relevant part of the path from the information window. Insert this path fragment into the
input field in the airports tab of the search dock window. Add

*

Scenery Path

at the beginning and at the end since it is only part of

a path.
See also Text Filters.
Select all in the result table to get all airports highlighted on the map.

Use the Search Function to plan a Round the World Trip
The spatial search function is useful to plan a round the world tour. Assume you'd like to go east:

169

Tips and Tricks

1. Go to the dock window

Search

, right-click into the result table and select

Reset Search

to get rid of all

search criteria that may affect the query.
2. Set your departure airport.
3. Right-click on your departure airport in the search or on the map and select

.

Set Center for Distance Search

This is the center point for the spatial search.
4. Add any additional criteria in the search like lighted runways, procedures, fuel, minimum runway length and more.
5. Adjust the minimum and maximum distance, set direction to

East

and click the checkbox before

Distance

.

6. Select all in the result table to see the airports on the map.
7. Choose your next destination airport.
8. Add as destination.
9. Calculate plan.
10. Fly.
11. Back to 2. until you are done around the world.
Picture below shows a query result for airports in the east. Note that the black/yellow highlight circles have tooltips too
no matter if the airport is visible or not.

170

Tips for old and slow Computers

Tips for old and slow Computers
Save CPU Cycles
Dialog

Options

->

Map

Dialog

Options

->

Simulator Aircraft

->

Details while scrolling ...

->

: Use

Normal ...

Simulator Aircraft scroll box size ...

: Use a higher value to reduce map

updates.
Close the window

Flight Plan Elevation Profile

. It will stop all background processing when closed.

Avoid airspaces. Switch them off using the
Switch off all AI traffic in the dialog
Use the map projection

Mercator

Connect

button on the airspaces toolbar.
. See here.

. It consumes less resources since it can use the downloaded image tiles as is

and does not transform them to the spherical format.

Reduce Memory Consumption
Replace the complete section

[Settings]

in the

little_navmap.ini

with the section below to reduce cache sizes.

[Settings]
DatabaseCacheKb=5000
InfoQueryAirportCache=100
InfoQueryAirportSceneryCache=100
InfoQueryAirwayCache=100
InfoQueryApproachCache=100
InfoQueryComCache=100
InfoQueryHelipadCache=100
InfoQueryIlsCache=100
InfoQueryNdbCache=100
InfoQueryRunwayCache=100
InfoQueryRunwayEndCache=100
InfoQueryStartCache=100
InfoQueryTransitionCache=100
InfoQueryVorCache=100
InfoQueryWaypointCache=100
MapQueryAirspaceLineCache=100
MapQueryApronCache=100
MapQueryHelipadCache=100
MapQueryParkingCache=100
MapQueryRunwayCache=100
MapQueryRunwayOverwiewCache=100
MapQueryStartCache=100
MapQueryTaxipathCache=100

Troubleshoot
Program crashes on start up: Delete the settings and the database files. In Windows 7, 8 or 10 these can be
found in

c:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Appdata\Roaming\ABarthel

little_navmap.ini

,

little_navmap.track

,

. Delete (or better: rename or move) the files

little_navmap.history

and the directory

little_navmap_db

. Try to delete the

database first if these cause the problem. Then try to delete the settings files if removing databases did not help.
Program starts slowly: This can happen if a distance search is enabled in one of the search tabs. The search is
executed at each start. Simply disable the distance search or reset the search options to avoid the slow startup.
Online maps do not load or update: Check your firewall settings if Windows blocks any outgoing connections.
Also check if the offline mode was not enabled accidentally in menu
the internet by going to the options dialog on tab

Weather

File

. Check if Little Navmap can connect to

. Use one of the buttons

Test

for NOAA or VATSIM

171

Tips for old and slow Computers

weather. Little Navmap cannot reach the internet if these fail.
Zoom can be too fast when using a touchpad with OpenStreetMap, OpenTopoMap or one of the other online
map themes. Use the
and

-

Plain

,

Simple

or

Atlas

map themes or use the overlay zoom buttons or the keyboard (

+

).

side-by-side configuration error: You are running Little Navmap on a computer without simulator (i.e. no
SimConnect) installation if you get this error. Use

littlenavmap-nosimconnect.exe

functionality except direct connection and scenery database loading. Note:
used anymore as of Little Navmap version 1.4.4. You can use

instead which provides all
is not

littlenavmap-nosimconnect.exe

on all computers no matter

littlenavmap.exe

if SimConnect is installed or not.
Search shows no result or unexpected results: Check the drop down menu for the change indicator

and

*

the search fields for any remaining text if the distance search does not give any or unexpected results. Use
Search

in the context menu of the result table or press

Ctrl+R

Search or flight plan tables shows strange column names like
program is updated. Use

Reset View

Reset

to clear all search criteria.
airport_id

or others: This can happen if the

in the context menu of the result table.

Online maps like OpenStreetMap or OpenTopoMap maps can end up blurred when using functionality like
Center Flight Plan

or

Go to Home

. Zoom once in and out using the mouse wheel, overlay zoom buttons or

keyboard to fix this.
The flight plan elevation profile has errors or invalid elevation data: The online elevation data contains
several known errors. Use the recommended GLOBE offline elevation data. See here for information how to
install the offline data.
OpenStreetMap shows a dark gray background on some places without hill shading coverage (for example
New Zealand). Use another map theme or switch off hill shading for the OpenStreetMap.
Loading of the scenery database takes too long: Exclude scenery directories containing only landclass,
elevation data or other for Little Navmap irrelevant data. You can do that in the
Library Database

Options

dialog on the

tab. See Options.

Crash while loading the scenery library database: You can exclude scenery directories in the
on the

Scenery

Scenery Library Database

Options

dialog

tab if loading of an add-on BGL causes the program to crash. Do not restart the

program after it shows the crash dialog and instead load the log file which is typically
C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\Temp\abarthel-little_navmap.log

. The path may vary depending on your Windows

installation. Search for the last line in the log-file that looks like:
[2016-10-14 22:58:21.903 default INFO ] unknown: ==== "404 of 521 (77 %)" "APX41080.bgl"

Now search for

APX41080.bgl

and exclude its directory from loading in the

Options

dialog.

Known Problems
Some airport add-ons do not modify the stock airports but only add new scenery and buildings. These add-ons
will not be recognized as such and are therefore not highlighted on the map (italic and underlined text).
Add-on developers have to use all kind of workarounds to avoid FSX or P3D limitations which means the display
and information given for add-on airports is not always correct. A lot of these changes are also done to make AI
behave properly. Typical examples are: Airports without runways, airports with runway dimensions 0 by 0 ft or 0 ft
runway width, taxiways with 0 ft width, seemingly closed taxiways, duplicate airports, duplicate runways in water,
taxiways in water, military gates at civilian airports and more.
Route description parsing can skip waypoints in rare cases even for previously calculated flight plans. This can
happen due to fragmented airways, errors in the source data or ambiguities between navaids.
Some KML/KMZ files do not show up on the map. Adding a center point pushpin to the KML/KMZ file can fix this.
Coverage for online elevation and OpenStreetMap hill shading data is limited and currently ends at 60 degree
north. Use the OpenTopoMap, OpenMapSurfer or Stamen Terrain map themes which have world wide coverage
for hill shading.
There are errors in the online elevation source data (like in northern Italy, Po Valley or Lake Titicaca in Peru and

172

Tips for old and slow Computers

Bolivia) which will show up in the flight plan elevation profile.
The Mercator projection shows occasional display problems depending on zoom distance like horizontal lines
near the anti meridian or missing flight plan segments.
The Marble floating map overlays on the map can be configured but do not save all settings except their visibility.
Flight plan and airways are drawn using great circle lines instead of rhumb lines. Distance and course are not
affected by this.
Magnetic variance is partially not set (for example VORDME Cambridge Bay YCB) or inconsistent between
airports an adjacent navaids. This is an error in the source.
Airports are misplaced (for example Cabo San Lucas, MM15 in Mexico) compared to the background maps. This
is an error in the source data and cannot be fixed.
Map printouts can be fuzzy since they depend on screen resolution. As a workaround increase the size of the
visible map window.
Very long route legs can disappear from the map when zooming in. The label is still visible though.
Tooltips of large airspaces can appear at wrong places.
Scrolling the map can be very slow for some complex X-Plane airports.
The wrong procedures are restored sometimes if the flight plan is reloaded when an airport has more than one
procedure with the same name.
Procedures are drawn incorrectly in some cases.
The airport search attribute

Procedures

does not work correctly in the mixed database. It will show only simulator

airports having procedures instead of using the Navigraph airport status.

How to report a Bug
If something goes wrong send me any involved files like KML, PLN or BGL (if copyright permits), Little Navmap's log
file and configuration file which both can be located in the about dialog. My e-mail addresses are shown in the about
dialog of Little Navmap as well.
Add all necessary information:
Operating system:
Windows: 7, 8 or 10
macOS: El Capitan, Sierra or High Sierra
Linux: which distribution and version
Simulator:
X-Plane: 10, 11.05 or 11.10 beta version
FSX, FSX SE, P3D V4 or V4.1
Add any flight plans or other files if involved in the error
Please add all steps that are necessary to reproduce the error.
If possible send me the log file.
Please compress log files using zip to avoid stuffing my mailbox.
When an error occurs during loading of the scenery library send me the offending file if size permits. The full name
and path of the file is shown on top of the error dialog if a specific is the cause.
If you're concerned about privacy when sending log files: The log files will contain all system paths (like your
Documents

directory) which will also include your username as a part of the path. They might also contain your

computer's name and IP address in your network.
I would suggest you remove this information if you're concerned about it.

173

Tips for old and slow Computers

In no case are file names of anything but the flight simulator or its configuration files included. No names or contents
of personal files are included in the log files.
I strongly recommend sending the log files by private forum message or by email and not attach them to forum posts
where they are publicly visible.

174

Glossary

3D
X-Plane airport which contains at least one 3D object. May be a fully constructed major airport.

Add-on airport
This is an airport that was found outside the Flight Simulator default scenery folder when loading the database.

Arrival Procedure
Approach, transition or STAR procedure.

BGL
A binary file with the extension

BGL

which is part of a flight simulator scenery containing airport, navaid or airway

information. These files can also contain traffic, landclass, elevation or other information which is not relevant for Little
Navmap.

DAT
A text file format used by X-Plane to store airport, navaid and procedure information.

Departure Procedure
SID procedure.

CSV
Comma-separated values text file.

DME
Distance measuring equipment or a radio navaid.

Empty airport
An airport that has no taxiways, no parking positions or gates, no aprons and is not an add-on airport and is not a
water airport.

Fix
This term refers to a waypoint, radio navaid or an calculated point on a procedure.

175

Glossary

FLP
Flight plan format used by the X-Plane FMS, Aerosoft Airbus and other add-on aircraft.

FMS
X-Plane flight plan format.

FS9
Flight Simulator 2004.

FSX
Flight Simulator X or Flight Simulator - Steam Edition.

GIS
A geographical information system like Google Earth for example.

Initial Fix
This is the first fix of a procedure.

Navaid
VOR, VORTAC, TACAN, NDB or waypoint/intersection.

NDB
Non directional beacon - radio navaid.

P3D
Prepar3D v2 to v4.

Parking
GA ramp, cargo ramp, fuel box or gate.

PLN
FSX and P3D flight plan format. Can save all information in flight plans using annotations.

176

Glossary

Procedure
Approach, transition, SID or STAR.

Radio navaid
VOR, VORTAC, TACAN or NDB.

Rating
Airport zero to five star rating depending on facilities.

Scenery Library Database
This is an internal database (SQLite) that is created by Little Navmap when reading all the flight simulator BGL or DAT
files. It allows fast complex searches and map display.

SID
Standard instrument departure.

SimConnect
A programming interface that allows applications to read and write flight simulator parameters.

STAR
Standard terminal arrival procedure. Usually followed by a transition and an approach.

Start position
Used for departure in flight plans. Either runway, helipad, GA ramp, cargo ramp, fuel box or gate.

TACAN
Tactical air navigation system - radio navaid used by military aircraft.

VOR
VHF Omni Directional Radio Range - radio navaid.

VORDME

177

Glossary

VHF Omni Directional Radio Range with distance measuring equipment- radio navaid.

VORTAC
Co-located VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) beacon and tactical air navigation system (TACAN) beacon.

Userpoint
A user-defined waypoint like a bookmark, point of interest or visual reporting point (VRP).

VRP
Visual reporting point for VFR flights. A userpoint type.

POI
General point of interest. A userpoint type.

Flight Plan Position
A user-defined waypoint which is part of the flight plan.

178

License

License
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see
http://www.gnu.org/licenses.

179



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