What FlightDecide does
FlightDecide is a preflight self-briefing assistant for general aviation pilots. You enter a route, an aircraft, and a planned departure time. The app pulls live aviation weather and NOTAMs for your route and flight window, computes weight and balance, fuel, and performance from your aircraft profile, and returns a scored GO, CAUTION, or NO GO verdict with a plain-language briefing.
Behind every interpretation, the raw METAR, TAF, or NOTAM is one tap away. The app is built around the same questions you already ask yourself before a flight, organised so nothing important gets lost.
What it does well
- Reads your flight window. Forecasts and NOTAMs are interpreted for your planned departure and arrival, not just "right now."
- Scores each risk category. Departure weather, route weather, destination weather, performance, weight & balance, fuel, airspace, and NOTAMs each get their own verdict.
- Uses your aircraft's numbers. Fuel, weight and balance, and takeoff/landing distances are computed against a published model, not generic estimates.
- Keeps the raw data one tap away. Every interpretation is paired with its source METAR, TAF, or NOTAM so you can verify it yourself.
- Reports coverage gaps as gaps. A missing data source is shown explicitly, never hidden behind a silent "all clear."
Set up your aircraft
Every analysis is computed against a specific aircraft profile. Before you run your first flight, open the Aircraft tab and either pick a model from the library or build one yourself.
From the library
The library includes common general aviation models — primary trainers through high-performance singles, twins, turboprops, and light jets. Each entry carries published performance and weight numbers for the model. Pick a starting point, then tune the profile to match your tail number.
Your custom profile
A profile holds the numbers FlightDecide needs to compute for your airplane:
- Weights. Empty weight, maximum gross weight, maximum ramp weight, and maximum zero-fuel weight where applicable.
- CG envelope. Forward and aft CG limits.
- Stations and arms. Fuel arm, baggage arms, and seat row arms used for weight and balance.
- Performance reference. Climb, cruise, and descent profiles tied to a published model so fuel and time numbers are real.
- Personal minimums. Ceilings, visibility floors, crosswind limits, and runway preferences. The analysis flags any condition that exceeds your minimums even when it meets the legal limit.
Weight and balance is manual entry. Station arms, CG limits, maximum weights, and fuel arm are values you confirm yourself against your aircraft documents. You own the numbers; FlightDecide does the arithmetic around them.
Run your first analysis
Open the Analyze tab and fill in the flight you plan to make. The form is designed so you can run a fresh briefing in under a minute.
Top of the form
- Route. Departure, destination, and optional waypoints. Tap Parse Route if you have a full route string.
- Operation. Part 91 VFR or IFR (or your national equivalent). The right reserve rule and alternate logic follow from this choice.
- Use Previous Inputs. If you flew this trip recently, one tap restores the route, aircraft, and loading.
Aircraft, loading, and departure
- Aircraft. Pick the profile that matches the tail number you are flying today.
- Loading. Seat-by-seat weights, baggage, and fuel on board. The form shows estimated gross weight against max as you type, so a heavy loading is caught before you fly.
- Cruise settings. Cruise altitude and power; the app pre-fills sensible defaults from your aircraft class.
- Departure date and time. Make it realistic — forecasts and NOTAMs are interpreted against this window.
- Personal minimums (optional). Override the profile defaults if you want to be more conservative than usual.
Tap Analyze Flight. The app pulls live data, runs each scored category, generates the briefing, and shows the result. You can rerun at any time — recent analyses stay on the Dashboard so you can compare a morning briefing against a late-afternoon one and see what changed.
Tip. Run an analysis when you start planning, again the morning of the flight, and once more close to engine start. Conditions and NOTAMs change; the verdict can change with them.
Read the verdict
The top of the result page is a single advisory verdict for the whole flight, with the headline conditions underneath.
No category is in the red and no required corrective action is outstanding. The flight as planned fits within the legal envelope and your personal minimums.
One or more categories are amber. The flight is legal, but something is close to a limit or could deteriorate within your window. Read the briefing and consider the recommended actions.
One or more categories are red, or a required corrective action has not been resolved. The flight as planned does not fit. Path to GO suggests the smallest set of changes that would flip the verdict.
Below the verdict header you'll see the category disclosures. Each carries its own colour, an interpreted summary, and the raw inputs that produced the call. The verdict is the headline; the categories are how you understand it.
The verdict is an advisor, not a clearance. A GO does not mean you must fly, and a NO GO does not mean you are forbidden from flying. It means the planned flight fits, or does not fit, the rules and minimums you told the app about.
Drill into each category
Tap any category disclosure to expand its detail. Here is what to look for in each.
Departure weather
The departure METAR interpreted for your planned takeoff time, plus the next-few-hours trend from the latest TAF. Flagged states include VFR, MVFR, IFR, LIFR, low-level wind shear, thunderstorms, icing, and reported turbulence.
Destination weather
METAR and TAF at your destination interpreted for your planned arrival window. If the forecast clears or deteriorates around your ETA, you will see it called out with the specific time range from the TAF.
Route weather planning
Up to four en route TAF checkpoints along your route, each interpreted for your overhead time. A flight-window status line tells you whether the route is forecast VFR end-to-end, deteriorating, or has gaps. Raw TAFs are one tap away.
En route hazards
Winds aloft at candidate cruise altitudes, freezing levels, active G-AIRMETs and SIGMETs, and recent PIREPs along your route. Coverage gaps are shown, not hidden.
Performance
Takeoff and landing distances at the planned weights, runway, density altitude, and wind component. Margin against the available runway is computed; a thin margin raises a CAUTION.
Weight & balance
Total weight against maximum gross, ramp, and zero-fuel weights. CG plotted inside or outside the envelope. Adjust passengers, bags, or fuel and the numbers update before you load the airplane.
Fuel plan
A worked fuel plan for the flight: climb, cruise, descent, taxi, plus legal reserve. You see fuel on board, fuel required, reserve minutes available, and whether your operation's reserve rule is met. Extra fuel is shown explicitly.
Airspace & NOTAMs
Every relevant NOTAM gets a plain-language summary and a window-impact line: in effect during your flight, starts after you land, or ended before takeoff. Raw NOTAM text stays available.
Check route weather and TAFs
The dedicated Weather tab is for ad-hoc lookups outside an analysis. Type an ICAO or a route — single airport for a station view, multi-airport for an en route view.
- Type and Go. Enter an ICAO code, or a space-separated route like KBLI KSEA.
- Recent codes are saved so the next lookup is one tap.
- Active watches show route-level monitoring you have set up from an analysis result.
A route view, broken down
- The Route weather header summarises the leg.
- Each airport card shows the raw METAR and the parsed line: wind, visibility, ceiling, temp/dew, altimeter, category (VFR/MVFR/IFR/LIFR).
- The Forecast (TAF) block lists FM/TEMPO/PROB groups with the validity window and a per-group category badge.
- Scroll to see additional airports in the route stack.
Inside an analysis, the Route Weather Planning category surfaces the same data interpreted against your planned overhead times — pre-checked, with any coverage gaps labelled.
Verify against raw data
A briefing you cannot verify is not a briefing. FlightDecide is built so you can always cross-check.
- Raw METARs and TAFs. Each weather card has a Show raw disclosure that reveals the source text, the observation or forecast time, and the issuing station. Read the raw before you fly.
- Raw NOTAMs. Every NOTAM summary is paired with a Show raw NOTAM disclosure so you can read the unaltered text.
- Time stamps. Each piece of data is stamped with the time it was retrieved. If you ran an analysis well before your departure, re-run it closer to the time.
- Coverage gaps. If a data source did not respond for one of your airports, the relevant card says so. Treat it as a missing data flag and obtain the data another way before flight.
Cross-check with an official briefing. Supplement the FlightDecide result with an official weather briefing and the current NOTAM source for your jurisdiction. FlightDecide makes verification easier; it does not replace it.
Act on a CAUTION or NO GO
When a category is amber or red, FlightDecide does not stop at the warning. Each card lists ranked Required and Recommended corrective actions with specific numbers you can act on, for example:
- Shift a specific weight forward or aft to bring CG inside the envelope.
- Add fuel to meet a reserve requirement or your personal extra-fuel target.
- Request a different cruise altitude where winds aloft, icing potential, or turbulence improve.
- Delay departure until a forecast trend has cleared.
- Reduce payload to meet a takeoff or landing distance margin.
For CAUTION and NO GO flights, the Path to GO summary highlights the smallest set of changes that would flip the verdict. Apply the change, re-run the analysis, and confirm the underlying data has not moved against you.
Before-you-fly checklist
A short list to run through after the verdict and before you walk to the airplane.
- Route, alternates, planned departure time, and aircraft profile match the flight I am actually making.
- Fuel load and loading inputs match what is in the airplane right now.
- I have read each amber and red card, not just the verdict.
- I have expanded the raw METAR, TAF, and NOTAM text and they say what the summary says.
- I have obtained an official weather briefing and the current NOTAMs through my normal preflight source.
- Personal minimums are honoured, not just legal minimums.
- An alternate plan exists: wait, divert, change route, change altitude, or cancel.
- The pilot in command — me — agrees with the verdict.
Common questions
Why does my analysis show fewer en route TAF checkpoints than I expected?
Forecast coverage is not uniform. On a route with sparse forecast stations, fewer checkpoints will appear. You see what is available, and gaps are labelled rather than filled with assumptions.
Why does the verdict say "verify timing" or show a coverage gap?
A data source did not return information for one of your airports or part of your route. The app reports the gap instead of pretending it is an "all clear." Treat it as a missing-data flag and verify through an official source before flight.
What does "recommend waiting" or "recommend a different altitude" mean?
An amber or red category has a forecast trend or wind profile that would improve under a different departure time or cruise altitude. The corrective action lists the specific change that would clear the flag.
Can I use FlightDecide for an IFR flight?
Yes. Choose IFR when entering the flight and the correct reserve rule and alternate logic apply. The briefing also speaks to ceilings, visibility, and icing for IFR considerations. It is still not a substitute for the official IFR briefing, clearance, or dispatch release applicable to your operation.
Does the verdict consider my personal minimums?
Yes, when you have set them. A condition that meets the legal minimum but exceeds your personal minimum is flagged so you decide explicitly rather than by default.
Why did the verdict change between two analyses for the same flight?
Weather, NOTAMs, and forecast trends move. A morning and an afternoon briefing for the same flight can produce different verdicts. That is the point of re-running close to departure.
More questions? Browse Support or write to support@flightdecide.com.
Limits and pilot in command responsibility
FlightDecide is informational. It supports your preflight self-briefing in the spirit of FAA Advisory Circular 91-92, Pilot's Guide to a Preflight Briefing, which describes the self-briefing as a structured way to plan, interpret weather, and identify and mitigate risk. The Advisory Circular is also clear that technology and third-party tools are aids — not substitutes for pilot judgement or for contacting Flight Service when conditions require it.
FlightDecide does not:
- Issue official weather briefings or NOTAM products.
- File flight plans or request clearances.
- Authorise or release the aircraft for flight.
- Replace your obligation under 14 CFR 91.103 or your equivalent national rule to become familiar with all available information concerning the flight.
For full terms, please review the Aviation Disclaimer and the Terms of Service.
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