How do I plan a round-the-world simulator flight?

To plan a round-the-world flight in a flight simulator, divide the globe into flyable legs, choose an aircraft whose practical range suits each sector, select airports with adequate runways and fuel, then build and save every route separately. Recheck weather, alternates, payload and reserve fuel before flying each leg.

This general method applies across Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane, Prepar3D and FSX. Treat the tour as a campaign made from individual flights, not as one enormous route that must remain loaded for weeks or months.

Can one flight plan cover the whole world?

No. Keep a master itinerary for the complete circumnavigation, but create a separate operational flight plan for every leg. Simulator ATC, avionics and flight-management systems work more reliably when given one departure, one destination and a manageable set of waypoints.

For each sector, use our method for creating and checking an individual simulator flight plan. Do not join every sector into one file: procedures may change with the weather, planners can impose waypoint limits, and one damaged save could affect the entire tour.

Before drawing the route, define your own completion rules:

• Start and finish at the same airport.
• Decide whether aircraft changes, repositioning and mid-flight saves are allowed.
• Choose realistic fuel availability or permit refuelling at every stop.
• Set a preferred maximum flight time for each session.
• Decide whether to use live weather and time or fixed conditions.

Choose the aircraft and leg length together

The aircraft determines where the world route can go. Never use its advertised maximum range as the normal leg limit; winds, climb fuel, payload, deviations, an alternate and reserve fuel all reduce usable range.

Use the performance information supplied with the exact simulated aircraft, especially for detailed add-ons. A generic planner may assume different engines, weights or fuel flow. After several representative legs, compare planned fuel with actual consumption and adjust later sectors without reducing the reserve.

Which direction should I fly around the world?

Neither direction is always best. Eastbound routes may gain tailwinds from prevailing westerly airflow at many mid-latitudes, while westbound travel can extend usable daylight when simulation time follows local time; season and daily weather can outweigh either advantage.

• Northern routes can reduce great-circle distance through North Atlantic and North Pacific staging points, but bring stronger winds, cold weather, darkness and fewer diversion choices.
• Mid-latitude routes offer more major airports and recognisable destinations, although the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean sectors still dictate aircraft range.
• Lower-latitude routes avoid polar conditions but are not automatically easier. Thunderstorms, tropical weather and long gaps between suitable islands remain significant.

Start with the difficult ocean crossings and work back towards the easy continental legs. A cylindrical map exaggerates high-latitude distances, so use a planner that displays great-circle distance, terrain and airport details. We explain how to choose a route-planning tool for a multi-leg simulator tour.

How do I build the route leg by leg?

1. Create the master itinerary. Record every planned airport in order, using ICAO identifiers where available. Include distance, expected time, runway, fuel requirement and a provisional alternate.
2. Set a practical range ceiling. Keep routine sectors comfortably inside the aircraft's still-air range instead of designing every leg at its limit.
3. Solve the longest crossings first. Confirm that the chosen aircraft can cross the largest ocean or remote-land gap with the expected wind and reserves. Change the route or aircraft before filling in easier stops.
4. Add intermediate airports. Choose stops that fit your preferred session length and provide suitable runway length, surface, elevation and approach options.
5. Verify every airport in the simulator. Planner databases and installed scenery can disagree about identifiers, runway dimensions or whether an airport exists. Check the airport selection screen and loaded scenery rather than trusting the map alone.
6. Choose flight rules and altitude. Use VFR for suitable sightseeing sectors and IFR where weather, airspace or the aircraft makes it appropriate. Check terrain clearance rather than selecting one cruise altitude for the entire tour.
7. Dispatch the next sector shortly before departure. Update winds, payload, runway, alternate and fuel instead of relying on figures prepared months earlier. Our simulator dispatch workflow combines those items for each leg.
8. Load and cross-check the route. Confirm departure, destination, first and last waypoints, cruise altitude and approach. Remove duplicated procedures and resolve flight-management-system discontinuities before take-off.
9. Record the completed flight. Save planned and actual times, fuel used and the final parking airport. If preferred, follow our guide to recording simulator flights automatically with Volanta, but retain a simple manual backup as well.

How much fuel and weather planning does each leg need?

Recalculate fuel for every flight rather than copying the previous sector's percentage. A practical simulator model is block fuel = taxi + trip + contingency + alternate + final reserve + extra, with the exact reserve policy chosen to match the realism level of the tour.

Payload matters because extra weight increases fuel burn and may reduce the amount of fuel the aircraft can carry. If the planned landing weight is too high, reduce payload, shorten the leg or choose another stop; do not simply remove the reserve.

Weather also decides the runway, departure, arrival and alternate. Keep those details provisional in the master itinerary, then select them when preparing the actual sector. For oceanic or remote legs, identify more than one diversion possibility because a single alternate may become unsuitable in poor weather.

What usually breaks a round-the-world simulator plan?

Most failed world tours are caused by range assumptions, database mismatches or unreliable progress records rather than by the broad route itself.

• The map distance is misleading: check great-circle and routed distance, then add the effect of forecast headwind and any airway detour.
• The airport is unsuitable in the installed scenery: verify runway length, surface and parking before committing to a remote stop.
• A procedure appears twice: do not include a SID or STAR in the imported route and then add the same procedure again in the aircraft. Inspect every transition and discontinuity.
• Planned fuel does not match the add-on: calibrate later estimates from actual cruise fuel flow and flight time while retaining proper reserves.
• A saved flight will not restore correctly: complex aircraft may not reload every switch, route or system state. Test save-and-resume behaviour before relying on it for a very long sector.
• The simulator logbook misses a leg: maintain your own numbered records, such as Leg_001_ORIG_DEST, and note flights in UTC to avoid confusion when crossing the International Date Line.