How to find stopover airport?

[Continental Sky]

I've searched the forum, but haven't found this topic - how do you find most efficient stopover airport, the one that will extend the distance as low as possible?

I will explain how do I do it at the moment, but I wonder if there is an easier way?

So, let's say that I have a plane with range of 1,300 nm, I want to fly route of 2,000 nm, and I need leg distance to be maximum 1,150 nm, because payload drops after that range.

In stopover section for outbound flight, I search for airports within distance between 1,120 and 1,150 nm.

For inbound flight, I select range from 880 to 910 nm - total distance minus first leg distance. Depending on country, there is usually 5-10 airports in the list, and then I look if there is a common one in both sections; if there is, that's my stopover (provided, of course, its level and opening hours suit my flight). In worst case, I lose 60 nm, if that airport is at 1,150 nm from origin and 910 nm from destination, i.e., I fly 2,060 nm for a 2,000 nm route.

If there is no common airport, I move onto the next range, 1,090-1,120 nm for outbound flight and 910-940 nm for inbound flight, and so on, untill stopover for inbound flight reaches maximum distance of 1,150 nm. I usually find stopover after 2 or 3 attempts, but if I don't find any, then I extend 30 nm window to 50 or 60 nm, i.e., I look at 1,100-1,150 nm range for outbound and 900-950 nm range for inbound flight, and repeat the process.

Of course, this initial 30 nm window is not carved in stone - it depends on "density" of airports in that area and route distance; for shorter routes I start with 15 or 20 nm, while intercontinental routes require 100 nm or more.

[DanDan]

I use https://www.acscdg.com/

Be aware: not always is the shortest route the most economic one; it sometimes seems like some airportshave shorter approaches than others. Due to winds it is sometimes also the case that inbound/outbound stopovers are better checked separately. Basically one can spend hous checking for perfect stopover airports to save 5 or 10 min per flight. Sometimes though, one even prefers not to save the time to get into the destination airport later (curfews/red eye)... it is a bit of a science on its own.

[Todorojoz]

I use www.gcmap.com Great Circle Mapper.

[Mr.HP]

I look at the route map, at the bottom of route planning page. Then I look at the airport map (View airport map at airport information page), Check and see which airports are on the flight path, prefer one with 24h open and long runway. Take me usually like 5 mins for 1 route. It's a shame the route map can't be zoom

[Amelie090904]

Quick tip:

1) Click on "Routes" in the header and select "Airport Information"
2) In the new window, click on "View Airport Map" which you can find next to "View airport list"

This will show you all the available airports in the game in the select continent. Simply select North America, Asia or whatever you need to find available airports.

To find the route your plane will fly:
1) Go to www.gcmap.com
2) Select "map flight path"
3) Enter your route pair (e.g. "PEK-LHR")
4) Click on "Draw Map"

Now combine that flight path on the map on www.gcmap.com with the available airports in the game. Select an airport that is close to the flight path. Obviously it needs to have a long enough runway for your plane and preferably no curfew.

Note that flying eastwards is usually faster due to wind. I noticed for example that for PEK-BOS it is best to fly Beijing - Fairbanks - Boston - Usinsk - Beijing. So I would be flying eastwards constantly. First from Beijing over Alaska to Boston. Then over the Atlantic to Siberia and back to Beijing. It saves about 1-2h in total (and fuel). In the end, I rarely check it that detailled but it can be worth it.

[Jake]

Just for simplicity i think https://www.greatcirclemap.com/ is better to use

[Continental Sky]

Thank you for replies, guys! Valuable resources there, not only for the purpose here in the game, but interesting to read.

[swiftus27]

Swipe right on the one that looks the best

[groundbum2]

I also check the timetable of the destination airport. Odd's are other people have already done your homework for you. Want to map EGLL-RJTT? Look at the RJTT timetable and you'll likely find flights to EHAM, EBBR EGKK etc and you see how their stopovers work for you.

Simon

[gazzz0x2z]

I'm hardcore old school. I look at the map screen (of the open route screen), I guesstimate where I shall stop my planes, and then open the maps of the countries. Works as well. Of course, I also happen to use Groundbum's method, sometimes... but many times, I spotted inferior choices in other player's tech stops.

[Karl]

You have to make sure that the stop over airport is open at the time of the stop over arrival and departure.

[gazzz0x2z]

You have to make sure that the stop over airport is open at the time of the stop over arrival and departure.

as well. I'm using Narsarsuaq quite a lot, but the 1708 curfew is really nasty.

[Cornishman]

I'm hardcore old school. I look at the map screen (of the open route screen), I guesstimate where I shall stop my planes, and then open the maps of the countries. Works as well. Of course, I also happen to use Groundbum's method, sometimes... but many times, I spotted inferior choices in other player's tech stops.

Whole-heartedly agree with Gazzz - I get it you can shortcut the process by using what others do... but all too often others haven't got the best solution and if you do your own homework you will find the optimum fuel-stop using the websites others offer above.... or here's another (my old favourite):

https://skyvector.com/

when you get onto the home page, click on "Flight Plan" in the top left (in the grey strip) then enter your departure base and destination base in the boxes that pop up and there's the route. If you scroll in on the map roughly where you hope to find an airport that works you can see many but it's not always easily evident as a match with what AWS calls the airport, so a bit of extra work is sometimes needed, just like the other methods mentioned above.

[knobbygb]

Also, importantly, don't forget to keep some kind of note of the stopover airports you've previously used.  It can save you a lot of work in future games, especially if you play the same airport more than once (which I think is quite common for cargo in particular).  It can be REALLY annoying repeating all that discovery.

Since I already list all my routes in a spreadsheet during the game, I've just finished writing a tool to extract them into a text string that can be plugged directly into GCM giving me a visual representation of what I've used.  In the attachment you can see all my BHX to India cargo routes. As I've already upgraded many of these to larger a/c that can fly direct, I wanted to preserve the data for the future.

And no, you can't have a copy of the code.  In any case, it runs against my own spreadsheet, NOT the online data from the game which is not allowed under the rules. And yes, I know, I could save a lot of hassle by flying ALL those routes via GYD or TBS but where would the fun be in that?

[DanDan]

Also, importantly, don't forget to keep some kind of note of the stopover airports you've previously used.  It can save you a lot of work in future games, especially if you play the same airport more than once (which I think is quite common for cargo in particular).  It can be REALLY annoying repeating all that discovery.

Since I already list all my routes in a spreadsheet during the game, I've just finished writing a tool to extract them into a text string that can be plugged directly into GCM giving me a visual representation of what I've used.  In the attachment you can see all my BHX to India cargo routes. As I've already upgraded many of these to larger a/c that can fly direct, I wanted to preserve the data for the future.

And no, you can't have a copy of the code.  In any case, it runs against my own spreadsheet, NOT the online data from the game which is not allowed under the rules. And yes, I know, I could save a lot of hassle by flying ALL those routes via GYD or TBS but where would the fun be in that?

just be aware that a lot has changed with implementation of wind and change of winds... so what as perfect 3 years ago may be suboptimal now

[knobbygb]

Yeah I agree. This is something I started doing just recently.

On that subject, as this is turning into a proper beginners stopover tutorial, don't forget that the stopovers don't have to be at the same place outbound and return and that winds sometimes means they shouldn't be or even can't be.  OR that you might need two stopovers in one direction and just one in the other, or even NONE. Just to make things more complicated...

[DanDan]

OR that you might need two stopovers in one direction and just one in the other, or even NONE. Just to make things more complicated...

especially true with cargo, when you possibly dont need much capacity in one direction.