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Old 08-01-2013, 06:58   #1
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Visual Passage Planner

Hello All...can anyone give me advice on the Visual Passage Planner software..is it any good, would it replace pilot charts, is it user friendly ? any advice would be appreciated..I am off to the Pacific soon and wonder if it would be helpful to have..Thanks Smooth Sailing
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Old 20-04-2013, 13:47   #2
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Re: Visual Passage Planner

Great program. I've used it since the first version and it does exactly what it is supposed to do. And good support the one time that I needed it.
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Old 20-04-2013, 22:15   #3
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Re: Visual Passage Planner

It's a good product, and it provides the same information as the pilot charts. It may even have better resolution (detail). It is useful for "big picture" route-planning, but it's not going to give you current, actual, conditions. Remember, it's showing you a long-term seasonal average. Conditions on any given day can be completely different that the average. For real-time route planning you need wfax, or GRIB, or some other source of current data and forecasts.
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Old 21-04-2013, 01:10   #4
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I wish they would come out with a IOS version.
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Old 17-08-2013, 09:12   #5
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Re: Visual Passage Planner

IOS....try Parallels, it runs Window alongside Mac OS X applications side-by-side. You would need to have one of the latest versions of OSX on your computer.
Virtualization and Automation Solutions for Desktops, Servers, Hosting, SaaS - Parallels
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Old 19-08-2013, 20:20   #6
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Originally Posted by Ainsley View Post
Hello All...can anyone give me advice on the Visual Passage Planner software..is it any good, would it replace pilot charts, is it user friendly ? any advice would be appreciated..I am off to the Pacific soon and wonder if it would be helpful to have..Thanks Smooth Sailing
Download the demo version, it's very good.
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Old 31-08-2013, 18:16   #7
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Re: Visual Passage Planner

Quote:
..good product, and it provides the same information as the pilot charts. It may even have better resolution (detail). It is useful for "big picture" route-planning, but it's not going to give you current, actual, conditions. Remember, it's showing you a long-term seasonal average. Conditions on any given day can be completely different that the average....
Opencpn with Climatology & Weather Routing plugins is a similar "big picture" tool.
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Old 31-08-2013, 20:56   #8
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Opencpn with Climatology & Weather Routing plugins is a similar "big picture" tool.
Are both these plugins past the beta stage?
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Old 01-09-2013, 03:31   #9
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Re: Visual Passage Planner

Climatology is released and Sean is now adding Currents from 1992-2012. Climatology is quite an extensive database with wonderful graphs, including wind, current, sea level temp, sea level pressure, sea depth, cloud cover, relative humidity, cyclones, and precipitation

Weather Routing is released for Gribs, but works with Climatology too. It is not released for Climatology however.
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Old 01-09-2013, 06:24   #10
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Re: Visual Passage Planner

We used VPP, now with VPP2. Good stuff.

Remember actual wx in any given year may be way off the averages. In fact, there may be not a single year when the data is 'spot on'. If this puzzles you, read on 'averages', how they are made and how to use them.

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Old 01-09-2013, 06:53   #11
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Re: Visual Passage Planner

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Originally Posted by bazzer View Post
Are both these plugins past the beta stage?
In my opinion, both are still beta quality. Both are very promising but needs more real life testing, particularly the wx routing plugin. I can't remember seeing any reports of actual passage testing.

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Old 02-09-2013, 21:17   #12
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Re: Visual Passage Planner

In Visual Passage Planner, I like:
Simplicity and ease of creating a routing.
Instant Report with Route information and averages.
Additional data types of Dew Point, %Heavy Icing and % Light Icing.
I particularly like the Preference item for Method of Calculating Wind speed and direction during simulation of passage.
1. Use weighted average of all occurrences
2. Use highest percent occurrence.

I think it is perfectly reasonable to have two or three methods of calculation to apply to most appropriate one for the route, in the judgement of the user, because it addresses what we have noticed with Opencpn weather_routing plugin's use of Climatology plugin data. The routing finds the trade routes, but in areas where there is a high degree of variability it tends to result in routings that are too fast, because I believe it is using a method like #2 above. Having several other calculation methods, one similar to item #1 above, which I suggested earlier (the summary vector could be pre-calculated and added to the database) might be very useful.
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