flight-planner_skill

Overview

This skill plans multi-leg flights end to end, producing wind-optimized timing and creating calendar events. It parses a route, computes leg times with winds aloft, recommends best cruise altitude for the longest leg, and assembles a block-time timeline ready for calendar scheduling. It can also add attendees and ground-time buffers for realistic planning.

How this skill works

Given a route and desired departure, the skill extracts the airport sequence and calls the flight-time calculator for each leg to get distance, track, winds, and time. It evaluates several altitudes for the longest leg to recommend a wind-optimized altitude and then inserts standard ground time at intermediate stops. Finally it compiles a full timeline, computes totals (nm, flight time, block time, estimated fuel), and can create a calendar entry with the route summary, detailed timeline, and optional attendees.

When to use it

• Planning a multi-leg VFR or IFR trip that needs winds-aligned timing
• Preparing a dispatchable timeline for pilots, crew, or passengers
• Scheduling a flying mission into a team calendar with attendees
• Estimating block time and fuel for trip briefings or flight logs
• Checking whether a different altitude reduces time on a long leg

Best practices

• Provide a clear route string (e.g., "HSV to JWN to HMP to HSV") and preferred departure time
• Confirm whether attendees should be invited before calendar creation
• Review altitude recommendation for performance and airspace considerations
• Adjust ground-time defaults if you need longer turn or passenger handling
• Validate aircraft TAS and fuel-burn inputs for accurate fuel estimates

Example use cases

• Create a day-trip flight plan with two intermediate stops and add passengers to the calendar
• Compare cruise altitudes on a long cross-country leg to pick the fastest option
• Produce a concise timeline and fuel estimate for flight briefing
• Schedule a training sortie with buffer ground times between hops
• Generate a single calendar block covering all legs for crew scheduling