Flying Rhino
RHINO AVIATION

Preflight Planning

Before Planning the Flight

  1. Confirm that the Aircraft Type exists and has correct W&B envelope, buckets, and anchor positions.
  2. Confirm that the specific Aircraft exists and is linked to the correct type.
  3. Confirm that the desired form Template exists and is not disabled.

Step 1. Build the Current Loading

  1. Go to the W&B page.
  2. Select the aircraft registration.
  3. Enter passengers, baggage, and fuel as needed.
  4. Review the Loading Summary.
  5. Make sure the envelope and bucket limits are acceptable.

Step 2. Enter the Flight Route and Timing

  1. Go to the Flight page.
  2. Select the same aircraft used in W&B.
  3. Enter Departure and Destination airports.
  4. Enter ETD.
  5. Enter ETE.
  6. If needed, enter Departure Alternate and/or Alternate.
  7. If an alternate is entered, enter Alt ETE.
  8. Only use runway override fields when you intentionally want to override runway selection.
  9. Use Route Mode to switch between Single-Leg and Multi-Leg. Switching from Single-Leg to Multi-Leg preserves Departure, Destination, Alternate, timing, aircraft, and safety factors, but drops Departure Alternate.
  10. Switching back from Multi-Leg to Single-Leg retains Departure, Destination, and Alternate for the Single-Leg view; intermediate stops are preserved when switching back to Multi-Leg.
  11. ETE and ground-time fields accept h:mm, h:m, :m, :mm, 0h5, 0h05, decimal hours such as 3.5, or whole minutes such as 12. After submit, values are shown canonically, such as 1h32 or 0h10.
  12. On the Multi-Leg page, use RWYS syntax arrival/departure for stops. Examples: 12/30, 36R-14, 9 27, and 13++++31.
  13. Multi-Leg RWYS separators may be slash, hyphen, en dash, em dash, non-breaking hyphen, whitespace, semicolon, colon, or plus. A single runway without a separator applies to both arrival and departure.
  14. Multi-Leg Weather and Runway Performance shows all route airports. Intermediate stops show LAND first and T/O second; only flight time, not ground time, is used for fuel-burn weight interpolation.

Step 3. Refresh Weather

  1. Click Refresh Weather.
  2. Review the weather status pill and any panel message.
  3. Review each airport’s weather facts and performance facts.
  4. If you configured Personal Mins in Admin Preferences, the selected VFR or IFR flight type chooses the applicable set. Weather values beyond that set are shown in red, and switching flight type updates the coloring immediately. Red personal-minimum styling is advisory and does not replace review of the complete weather report.
  5. If the page presents override-choice selectors, choose the desired resolution and then refresh again if needed.

Step 4. Review Runway and Performance Data

  • Check the selected runway, runway length, slope, headwind, and elevation.
  • Check right-traffic and calm-wind markings in the runway lists.
  • Check the ground-roll and obstacle-clearance values.
  • Pay attention to overrun or warning styling on performance values.

Step 5. Generate the Form

  1. Click Generate Form.
  2. Select the template.
  3. Select the output target. RTF targets download directly; DOCX and PDF targets require server-side LibreOffice conversion support.
  4. Choose whether to include W&B.
  5. Review the output name.
  6. Confirm generation if the page warns that weather is stale or missing and you still intend to proceed.

Step 6. Save the Flight

  • Use Save if you are updating the current saved flight.
  • Use Save As to create a separate saved copy.
  • Use Open to reopen a saved flight and restore its route and related state.

Common Errors to Avoid

  • Refreshing weather for one aircraft, then changing to another aircraft before generating the form.
  • Entering an alternate airport without entering Alt ETE.
  • Using a runway override that does not exist at the chosen airport.
  • Entering a departure-arrival runway pair on a Multi-Leg row where one operation does not apply. The page shows a gray info note when an arrival runway on Departure or a departure runway on Destination/Alternate is ignored.
  • Editing the route after refresh and then forgetting to refresh weather again.
  • Building W&B for one aircraft while the Flight page is set to another aircraft.