VFR Navigation Log:

How-To
 Steps to Creating a VFR Nav Log
• Planning your route
• Obtain weather information
• Calculate TAS (Climb Cruise and Descent)
• Find True Heading and Groundspeed
• Find Magnetic Heading
• Calculate TOC and TOD
• Calculate Estimated Time Enroute
• Calculate Fuel Burn
 Planning your route
• Plan your route using visual waypoints on a sectional. Using a plotter,
determine distances and true course in between each waypoint. Find an
appropriate altitude for each segment based on your magnetic courses.
 Your True Course Put a placeholder total distance
(what you get by using for the points in between TOC
your plotter) goes and TOD, we will change them
here. respectively after calculations
Our course is our magnetic
course, for this flight plan we
know that our magnetic variation
for this area is -10, so we will take
our true course and subtract 10 to
get this number.

Be sure to include a
“waypoint” for Top of
Climb and Top of Descent
c

Destination altitude should be 500 ft above TPA

(E63 TPA- 1589) for untowered airports to allow
for entry into the pattern/ flying over wind sock
 Obtain Weather Information
• Using ForeFlight, 1800wxbrief.com, or aviationweather.gov,
determine the winds aloft for each altitude. For this flight
plan, our highest altitude is 6500 msl.
We will use a 1300L departure (2000UTC)
For the first climb,
used 3000 msl winds
to interpolate
between initial
elevation and 4300.

Interpolated
winds
between
4500 msl and
6000 msl for
the next
climb

Used 6500
msl for cruise
altitude
winds

Used 3000 msl

winds to
interpolate
between 6500
msl and 2100 * This is all open to interpretation. Use your best judgement on what winds aloft altitude
seems appropriate for your cruising altitude, or interpolate if needed.
msl
 Calculating True Air Speed (Climb)

• To calculate TAS for

Ex.KFFZ-VPREN, we will use a
KIAS of 85 because most of
our climb is done at 85KIAS.
Go to the Performance Chart
5-12 Airspeed System
Calibration to get KCAS.
• Then use E6B to find TAS by using
Pressure Alt , Temperature and KCAS.
• To find pressure alt during a climb, use
this calculation:
Desired Alt- Initial PA= Alt Gain
Alt Gain x 0.75 (AVGing factor)= AVG Alt Gain
AVG Alt Gain + initial alt= Average PA
Ex. KFFZ-VPREN Climbing from 1400 to 4300
4300-1400= 2900 x 0.75= 2175 + 1400=
3575 AVG PA

• Using your E6B, put temperature over

PA. Find KCAS on the inner circle, the
outer circle is TAS
• We’ll do this again for the next climb. We will again climb at an airspeed of
85KIAS
 Calculating True Air Speed (Cruise)

• For True Air Speed during

cruise, we can use this
chart called the
Engine/Cruise Performance
for Constant 65% power on
5-22 of the POH.
• This chart gives us our fuel burn at 65%
power- 9.5GPH.
• To find PA for the cruise, find the Altitude
Delta from the departure field and add it to
your cruising alt.
• EX-
KFFZ field elv-1394
Baro=29.70
29.92-29.70= 0.22 x 1000= 220
220 is Altitude Delta
Cruising Alt- 6500
6500 + 220= 6720
Cruise PA= 6720.

• We can interpolate between 6000 and 8000

to determine our TAS and our RPM setting
• EX- RPM setting 2495 interpolated, 118 TAS
interpolated; -3 for wheel pants= 115 TAS

• NOTE THE CAUTION BOX! The Archers at

CAE do not have wheel pants, therefore the
cruising speed reduces by 3 KTAS
 Calculating True Air Speed (Descent)
• Find TAS during your descent using the KIAS that you usually descend at.
Typically at 105 KIAS and we will use an AVG PA of 5400.
Update Nav Log with TAS and note RPM setting
 Finding True Heading and Groundspeed
• Using the wind side of the E6B, calculate the groundspeed and Wind Correction
Angle(WCA) for each leg of the trip. Example below is for the first leg KFFZ-VPREN

1. Set wind direction

(180) under True Index
Step 1, Step 2
1. Set True Course
(120) under True Index

3. Slide Wind
Velocity mark to
TAS (93)
2. Mark
wind Ground
velocity
(4kts)
Speed reads
up from under
center
point
grommet (91)
and WCA
reads
between
center line
and wind
velocity mark
(+2)
Update Nav Log with GS and WCA
 Finding Magnetic Heading
• On the sectional chart, we can find our East/West magnetic variation by
looking for the dashed magenta lines. We subtract easterly variations and
add westerly variations. Here in the Phoenix area, we will almost always be
using -10 as our magnetic variation.
Update Nav Log with Magnetic Heading
 Update Nav Log with Compass Heading
• Our Archers do not have magnetic deviation, so our magnetic course + wind
correction will be our compass heading. This is the heading you will use in
route.
 Calculating Top Of Climb
• Again we will use the calculation to get AVG PA and use this in our Climb Performance chart
from the POH on page 5-18
• 6500-4300= 2200 x 0.75= 1650 + 4300= 5950
5950 AVG PA
• We are gaining 405 ft/min during our climb. We now need to convert this number from
ft/min to ft/mile using this calculation:
(rate of climb x 60 min) / GS
(405 x 60) / 93 =261
• 261 ft/ mile
• Now use this rate of climb to find how many miles it will take to reach the Top of Climb:
• 2200/261= 8.4 miles~ 9 miles
 Calculating TOD
• To calculate top of descent, we know that we want to descend at 500 FPM at
105 KIAS. We can use the same formula to convert FPM to FPNM.
• (rate of climb x 60 min) / GS
• (500 fpm x 60 min) / 114 = 263 fpnm
• (Cruise alt – desired alt)/ fpnm
• 6500-2100= 4400/263= 16.7
• 16.7nm ~ 17nm

• We will need to start our descent 17 miles out from our destination.
 Update Nav Log with TOC and TOD
• Now that we have our TOC and TOD, we can update the distance column to reflect that.

We plotted 12NM between VPREN and

Johnson Ranch, and calculated VPREN to
TOC is 9NM. Therefore, TOC to Johnson
Ranch is 3NM (12-9=3)

We plotted 20NM between the

private airfields and E63, and
calculated TOD to E63 is 17NM.
Therefore, private airfields to TOD is
3NM.
 Calculating Estimated Time Enroute

• To calculate ETE, use the

flight computer side of the
E6B by placing the rate
arrow on groundspeed,
finding miles on the outer
scale and reading minutes
on the inner scale.
Update Nav Log with Time Enroute
 Calculating Fuel Burn

• On climb out we use about 15GPH and

descent is about 7GPH. Earlier we
used the Engine Performance table
and found our cruise fuel burn is 9.5
GPH (We can round to 10).
• To calculate fuel burn using the E6B,
place the rate arrow on the GPH. Find
the estimated time in minutes on the
inner scale, and fuel burn will be on
the outer scale. Don’t forget to add
1gal to the first leg for taxi.
• Rounding up to the nearest half gallon is
recommended, you can never have too
much fuel.
Update Nav Log with Fuel
1800WxBrief.com guidance
This is a typical form on 1800wxbrief in
a CAE Archer.

What does it mean?

-Aircraft ID-call sign (OXFXXXX)
-Flight type- G (general aviation)
-Aircraft type- make/model (PA28)
-Wake Turbulence- L (light)
-Aircraft Equipment- list what equipment your
plane has
(ex. B=LPV, D=DME, etc)
-Cruising speed- N0xxx
(ex- 118kts is N0118)
-Level- cruise altitude AXXX
(ex. 6,500msl is A065)
-Surveillance Equipment- list what surveillance
equipment your plane has
(ex. B1=ADS-B out)
Fuel Endurance- how much fuel in hours will
you have on board