Pilot tools
Random flight generator
Pick how far you want to fly and what size airports you like, and get a random route to fly in your sim, with its distance, a rough flight time and a link to plan it in SimBrief. Or pick from routes Stratos pilots actually fly.
Your flight
An example route. Press Generate for your own.
From
YSSY
Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport
Sydney (Mascot), Australia · SYD
To
YMML
Melbourne Airport
Melbourne, Australia · MEL
- Distance
- 381nm
- Jet, 450 kt
- ~0:50h
- Light aircraft, 120 kt
- ~3:10h
Show calculationsHide calculations
Flying with Stratos? Add your SimBrief username and it draws your planned route on the tracking map, with top of climb and top of descent.
For flight simulation only. Don't use it for real-world flight planning or navigation.
How it works
The generator runs in your browser over about 49,000 airports and seaplane bases from OurAirports, a free, public domain airports database. It never picks a seaplane base, and it never sends a flight back to the airport it left.
Without a departure, it picks a random airport of the sizes you ticked, then picks an arrival at random from every airport that fits. If that departure has nothing in range, it tries another. With a departure, every airport that fits is equally likely. The distance is the great circle, the shortest line over the Earth:
distance (nm) = 2 × 3,440 × asin(√(sin²(Δlat ÷ 2) + cos lat₁ × cos lat₂ × sin²(Δlon ÷ 2)))
The flight times are rough: the distance at a steady 450 kt for a jet airliner in the cruise and 120 kt for a light single like a Cessna 172, with no wind, taxi, climb or approach. Real routes follow airways and procedures, so they come out longer.
Flown with Stratos picks from the departure and arrival pairs that at least three different Stratos pilots completed in the last 90 days, up to the 500 that most pilots flew. The list is refreshed every day and holds totals only: no airline, pilot or flight. The top of descent calculator helps with the other end of the flight.
Questions
How does the random flight generator pick a route?
It picks a departure at random from the airport sizes you ticked, or uses the one you typed, then picks an arrival at random from every airport that fits your flight length, sizes and region. If the departure it tried has nothing that fits, it tries another. Distances are great-circle distances, the shortest path over the Earth's surface, so the route you actually fly will be a little longer.
Are the routes real?
With Any airports, no: it pairs two real airports, but no airline has to fly between them. Switch to Flown with Stratos and it picks only from departure and arrival pairs that at least three different Stratos pilots completed in the last 90 days. Those come from totals for each pair, with no airline or pilot attached.
How do I fly the route in MSFS or X-Plane?
Plan it first. The Plan it in SimBrief link opens SimBrief's dispatch page with both airports filled in (you sign in to SimBrief first), and SimBrief builds the route, fuel and a flight plan you can load into the sim. Or use the sim's own planner: in Microsoft Flight Simulator, choose the departure and arrival on the world map; in X-Plane, start at the departure from Flight Configuration and enter the route in the aircraft's FMS or GPS.
How do I pick a route my aircraft can fly?
Set the longest flight well under your aircraft's range, because you also need fuel for reserves, an alternate and any headwind, and a real route is longer than the great circle. Then tick only the airport sizes it can use: an airliner needs the long runways of large and medium airports, while a light aircraft can use small strips too. Check the range and runway figures in the aircraft's own documentation.
Why do some small airports have no ICAO code?
ICAO codes (four letters, like YSSY) are given out by each country's aviation authority, and many small airfields, farm strips and private fields never get one. The airports data then uses a local code instead, such as a US FAA identifier or a code like AU-0123. Look them up by name in your sim. The generator only offers the SimBrief link when both airports have an ICAO code.
Stratos by Skyvex Software
Free ACARS for every pilot.
On Windows, macOS and Linux.
Stratos reads Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane directly. Add your SimBrief username and it draws your planned route on the map, then files the PIREP before you leave the cockpit.