What is FlyVFR?

FlyVFR is a planning aid for VFR pilots: draw your route, see the multi-day forecast at every waypoint and keep an eye on live conditions along the way. It runs in your browser on any device and complements your official flight preparation.

This wiki explains every feature. Pick a topic on the left; the badge next to a heading shows what needs Pro.

Your account and the free trial

1. Sign up with your email address and choose a password.
2. Confirm your email address with the link we send you.
3. Log in. You land on your dashboard, the starting point for everything else.

Every new account starts with 14 days of Pro for free, no payment details needed. After that your account simply continues on the free plan unless you subscribe.

Set up your profile

1. Open your dashboard and click the pencil icon on your pilot card.
2. Enter your display name, your home airfield as an ICAO code and your aircraft.
3. Choose your weather source: DWD (Bright Sky) for Germany or Open-Meteo worldwide.
4. Click “Save profile”.

With a home airfield set, your pilot card shows its current METAR. More under Live conditions.

Free and Pro at a glance

A planning aid, not a briefing

FlyVFR shows no NOTAMs, no airspace and no official weather. It complements your official flight preparation and never replaces it. The decision to fly stays with you as pilot in command.

Check the official weather briefing before every flight.

Create a route

1. On your dashboard click “+ New Flight Route”.
2. Give the route a name and enter your cruising speed in knots.
3. Click on the map to set waypoints, or type an ICAO code or place name into the search field and click “+ Add”.
4. Click “Save Route”. The forecast for every waypoint is fetched right away.

A route needs at least two waypoints. Distance and estimated flight time update while you plan.

Edit waypoints

The list next to the map shows every waypoint with the leg leading to it: distance in NM, true track and flight time at your cruising speed.

• Drag a waypoint by its handle (☰) to change the order.
• Type into the name field to rename a waypoint.
• Remove a waypoint with the bin icon.
• To change a saved route later, open the route options on your dashboard and choose “Edit route”.

Airfields and place search

The map shows more than 41,000 airfields worldwide. Click an airfield for its name, ICAO code, elevation and runways. Closed fields are marked as closed.

Every new waypoint is named after the nearest airfield within 10 km, otherwise after the nearest town. You can rename it at any time.

The place search finds towns and landmarks by name, powered by OpenStreetMap. The request runs through our own server, so your IP address is not passed on.

Multi-day trips and overnight stops

Every waypoint has a day selector from Day +0 to Day +14. Set the day on which you reach that stop: a waypoint on Day +1 is reached the day after departure.

• Later waypoints move along automatically, so the days never run backwards.
• The legs on the map change colour with each trip day.
• The forecast reads every waypoint for the day you reach it.
• An overnight stop counts twice: on the evening you arrive and on the morning you leave.

Your dashboard shows the estimated flight time and the number of trip days in the header of each route.

Automatic intermediate waypoints

On a long leg the forecast would only cover both ends. Tick “Intermediate waypoints every” in the editor and set the spacing (150 NM by default). FlyVFR splits every longer leg into equal sections and puts a forecast point at each split.

• The points are named after their position on the leg, for example “33% → EDDH”.
• They are shown in a lighter style and recalculated whenever you change the route.
• They count towards the waypoint limit. A leg that would exceed it gets none.

Limits per route and account

• Up to 100 waypoints per route, intermediate waypoints included.
• Up to 100 routes per account, on every plan. Saving changes to an existing route always works.

Export as a GPX file

Open the route options on your dashboard and choose “Download GPX file” to take the route into another planning tool or your EFB.

The forecast matrix

Every route on your dashboard has a forecast matrix with one column per departure day. Each column header shows sunrise and sunset. Expand a route to see one row per waypoint.

Each cell shows the weather symbol, temperature, rain and rain probability, sunshine hours, and the strongest wind and gusts in knots. Each waypoint is read for the day you reach it: depart on Saturday, and a stop on Day +1 shows Sunday.

Values in red need a closer look: rain probability of 50 % or more, sustained wind of 15 kt or more, gusts of 25 kt or more.

Whole-route summary per departure day

One row sums up the whole route for each departure day, collapsed and expanded:

• the worst weather along the way,
• the temperature span from the lowest minimum to the highest maximum,
• the highest rain probability and the average sunshine,
• the strongest wind and gusts.

Hover over a cell to see at which waypoint the rain or the wind occurs. Severity from worst to best: thunderstorm, hail, sleet, snow, fog, rain, wind, overcast, partly cloudy, clear.

If the forecast does not yet reach every waypoint on that day, the column shows “—” instead of an incomplete summary.

Choose your weather source

• DWD via Bright Sky: the German Weather Service’s data, for Germany.
• Open-Meteo: worldwide coverage.

Change the source under “Edit profile” on your dashboard. The forecasts for all your routes are reloaded from the new source straight away.

Automatic updates

Forecasts older than an hour are refreshed in the background as soon as you open your dashboard. A small spinner shows while data is loading, and the dashboard redraws once everything is current.

“Weather data updated:” on your dashboard tells you when the newest data was fetched.

Open the live map

1. Open the route options on your dashboard.
2. Choose “Show live map (METARs & webcams)”.

The live map shows your route with the weather stations, webcams and airfields around it. “Refresh Data” reloads the observations.

Live METARs and TAFs

Stations along your route are colour-coded by flight category:

• VFR
• MVFR
• IFR
• LIFR

Click a station for the raw METAR and its TAF.

METAR for your home airfield

Your pilot card on the dashboard shows the current METAR for your home airfield. If your field issues no METAR, FlyVFR picks the nearest reporting station within 150 km and tells you how far away it is.

Webcams on the map

foto-webcam.eu, Windy and the airfields’ own cameras show the real sky before you launch. Click a camera for its latest image. A foto-webcam.eu image opens the camera’s own page.

Crosswind component

For an airfield with a METAR and known runways, the popup shows the crosswind and headwind component per runway, for the gusts too.

Approximation: METAR wind is true, runway direction is magnetic.

Radius slider

The “Range to route” slider (0 to 100 km, 25 km by default) sets how far from your route stations, cameras and airfields are shown. At 0 km they are all hidden.

What a focus does

Normally FlyVFR only keeps the latest forecast. While a route is in focus, the forecast for every one of its waypoints is saved four times a day. These samples are what the VFR trend is built from.

Start and end a focus

1. Click the pushpin icon in the route header on your dashboard.
2. The route moves to the top of your list, framed in blue, with a bar showing since when its weather is recorded.
3. Click the pushpin again to end the focus.

Rules of the focus

• One route at a time: focusing another route ends the previous focus.
• A focus ends automatically after 30 days.
• The focused route stays at the top, whatever you sort or filter.
• Focusing is free. On a free account it works on the routes that have weather.

What does the score tell you?

The VFR score condenses the forecast for every waypoint of your route into one rating per departure day. It shows at a glance which days are worth a closer look. It is a planning aid, not a briefing: it complements your official flight preparation and never replaces it.

100 points, minus what speaks against flying

Every day starts with full marks. Each weather factor deducts points, and the result is limited by hard VFR rules.

Daylight only

Rain, wind, visibility and cloud are read between sunrise and sunset, the hours you can fly VFR.

Every value of the day

Weather type, visibility, fog risk, low cloud, sunshine, rain, wind, gusts and temperature all count.

Missing data costs nothing

If the provider gives no value for a factor, it is left out instead of guessed.

Visibility first, the rest when it gets extreme

The most points each factor can cost. Visibility and cloud cost points as soon as they get worse. Wind and temperature cost almost nothing in the normal range and only climb steeply at the extremes.

How each value turns into points

Every chart uses the same scale, from 0 to 80 points off, so you can compare them directly.

Weather type

The weather that dominates the daylight hours.

Thunderstorm −60

Hail −60

Fog −45

Sleet −40

Snow −40

Rain −10

Overcast −6

Windy −5

Partly cloudy −2

Clear sky 0

Fog risk

A small gap between temperature and dew point warns of fog and low stratus. Next to a real visibility forecast it only adds a little.

Icing risk

Near freezing (2 °C or colder) with precipitation costs another 15 points.

Points add up

Several moderate drawbacks together can pull a day down as far as one severe one.

Below the VFR minimum, no day looks good

Some conditions rule out a relaxed VFR flight no matter how nice the rest of the day is. They cap the score.

Typical days and their score

Calculated live with the same formula your dashboard uses.

Day	Visibility	Wind	Max. temp.	Rain	Largest deduction	VFR score
Clear sky, light wind	30 km	12/18 kt	22 °C	0 %	Sustained wind −2	98
Partly cloudy, six hours of sun	30 km	6/12 kt	22 °C	0 %	Weather type −2	95
Morning fog, clearing by noon	7.6 km	6/12 kt	5 °C	0 %	Low cloud −12	67
Heat wave	30 km	6/12 kt	37 °C	0 %	Heat −21	79
Low overcast, no sun	15 km	6/12 kt	22 °C	0 %	Low cloud −23	56
Haze and light rain	6 km	6/12 kt	22 °C	50 %	Visibility and fog risk −15	51
Strong wind with gusts	30 km	22/30 kt	22 °C	0 %	Sustained wind −30	48
Visibility below the VFR minimum	4 km	6/12 kt	22 °C	0 %	Visibility and fog risk −33	30
Afternoon thunderstorms	30 km	10/28 kt	29 °C	70 %	Weather type −60	1

Wind is shown as sustained wind / gusts.

The weakest point weighs most

Every waypoint is rated on the day you will be there. The route takes 70 % from its weakest waypoint and 30 % from the average of all the others.

Weakest waypoint weighs 70 %

One leg under low cloud is enough to spoil the trip, so the lowest waypoint score counts 70 %.

The other waypoints count 30 %

The average of all other waypoints makes up the remaining 30 %. A route that is fine everywhere else rates better than one that is marginal throughout.

Hard limits still apply

A hard limit at any waypoint (thunderstorm, poor visibility, fog, strong gusts) caps the whole route. A thunderstorm on one leg keeps the day red.

The right day per waypoint

On a multi-day trip each waypoint is read on its own trip day. An overnight stop counts on arrival and on the next morning.

Complete forecasts only

A departure day gets a score only when the forecast covers every waypoint, so the horizon never bends the number.

Your weather source

Bright Sky (DWD) for Germany or Open-Meteo worldwide, hourly data condensed per day.

Why the score is low

On the dashboard and the trend page the score names its main factor: the value that costs the most points and the waypoint where it happens, e.g. “Low cloud at EDQD (−13 points)”. Under an amber or red score it appears right below the number, otherwise in the tooltip.

If a hard limit holds the score down, the main factor names that limit instead, for example a thunderstorm or visibility below the VFR minimum.

What the trend shows

A single forecast says what the weather will probably be. The trend says where it is heading: if every new forecast run rates Saturday a little better, your window is opening. The trend is built from the samples of your focused route.

Take a route into focus first. More under Route focus.

VFR trend on your dashboardFree

Under the day headers of your focused route, the “VFR trend” row shows an arrow per departure day and the change in score points since the focus began. It is available on every account.

The trend appears after the second sample. Until then the row says so.

Reading the arrows

• ↗improving
• →steady
• ↘worsening

A day only counts as improving or worsening once the fitted change reaches a minimum. Smaller changes are shown as steady, so normal forecast noise does not make the arrow flicker.

• VFR score8 points
• Temperature (max)1.5 °C
• Rain probability10 pp
• Sunshine1 h
• Wind (strongest)3 kt
• Gusts (strongest)4 kt

For temperature the arrow only says rising or falling, without colour, because warmer is not automatically better.

How the trend is calculated

• While a route is in focus, the forecast for each of its waypoints is saved four times a day.
• For every departure day, each waypoint is read for the day you would reach it. The route values are: average temperature and sunshine, highest rain probability, strongest wind and gusts.
• A sample only counts for a departure day if the forecast reaches every waypoint on that day.
• The trend is the fitted change across all samples since the start date — a single outlier run does not flip it.
• A hollow last point is a live forecast fetched between the scheduled samples. It is shown but not saved; the next scheduled sample replaces it.

Favourites

Click the star in a route header to mark it as a favourite. Click it again to remove the mark.

Filter and sort

“Filter/Sort” on your dashboard opens the controls:

• Sort by manual order, date added, flight time or distance.
• Filter by start, destination, trip days, flight time or favourites only.
• “Reset” brings back the full list.

Your own order

In manual order with no filter active, drag routes by their handle into the order you like. The order is saved automatically.

Duplicate and delete

The route options offer “Duplicate route” for a variant and “Delete route”. Deleting asks for confirmation and cannot be undone.

Share with a public link

1. Open the route options and choose “Share route (public link)”.
2. Copy the link and send it to your passengers or friends.
3. They see the map and a 7-day forecast for the whole route, no account needed.

A shared route is marked with an icon on your dashboard. “Revoke link” in the same dialog switches the link off at once.

The shared page uses your weather source. If the route has no weather on a free account, the page shows the map only.

Save shared routes

On a shared page, “Copy this route to my account” saves a copy into your account. Without an account you sign up or log in first, and the route is copied afterwards. Your copy is independent: changes do not affect the original.

What Pro includes

• Weather on every route instead of only the first two.
• The VFR score on every route.
• Detailed weather trends for your focused route.
• On-demand weather refresh.
• Import of GPX, KML and GeoJSON files.

Everything else in this wiki is free.

The 14-day trial

Every new account gets 14 days of Pro for free, without payment details. When the trial ends without a subscription, your account continues on the free plan. Nothing is deleted.

Subscribe

1. Open the Pro page and choose the monthly or annual plan.
2. Pay with PayPal.
3. Pro is active as soon as PayPal confirms the subscription.

Prices are final prices and include 19 % VAT. You can subscribe during your trial too.

Compare plans and prices

Cancel

You can cancel at any time to the end of the billing period: with “Cancel contracts here” in the footer of every page, no login needed, or in your PayPal account. You keep Pro until the end of the period you have paid for.

Back on the free plan

Nothing is ever deleted. You keep all your routes on the free plan — but weather and live data are shown for your first two routes only. The rest stay ready and their forecasts come back the moment you upgrade again.

Privacy first

No trackers, no ads, no third-party fonts. Weather and place search run through our own server.

Your routes are visible only to you, unless you share one with a link. All details are in the privacy policy.

Privacy Policy

Any device, English and German

Built mobile-first for phone, tablet and desktop, nothing to install.

Switch the language with EN · DE at the bottom of every page.

Staying logged in

You stay logged in while you use FlyVFR. After four hours without activity you are logged out automatically.