1 Introduction
Route analysis
In this topic, you learn how to find information about different routes between a city pair so that you can compare them and choose the most efficient flight path.
We estimate that this will take 3 minutes to complete.
Route analysis
N-Tracking makes it possible for you to analyze city pair routes between two airports and compare fuel and flight time requirements to select the best possible route. With weather overlays enabled, you can choose the best route to avoid weather obstacles and choose the most effective flight path.
You can import flight paths from N-FP and contrast them with the CDR and PREF routes and choose whether to import a different flight path back into N-FP for further use.
Click the Palette button.
With your map set at the appropriate zoom level, let's analyze route alternatives between JFK airport and LAX in the U.S..
Click the Route
List
button.
Click the Origin input field.
Type kjfk into the active
input field.
Click the Destination input field.
Type KLAX into the active
input field.
Click the Registration input field.
Enter 7474.
Click the Search button.
With the appropriate weather layers enabled,
you will be able to "eye-ball" the best route overlaid on the
map and the weather layers.
For more
information on using the weather layers, consult the Weather
topics.
Click the 
button to minimize the Flight List.
To select a route to review, either
■ click the route directly on the map or
■ click the route
string in the Route List to see which route
on the map that string represents.
For this exercise, we'll click the route strings in the Route List.
Minimizing
the Flight List is an optional step that you may find useful
to clear your screen.
Click CDR
route string in the Route List table.
N-Tracking highlights the route you select
both on the map and in the Route List.
When you click a
route on the map, a related weather details table may also
display for your consultation.
Let's find out which route this first listed CDR route string represents.
Click the route
string
slider.
N-Tracking highlights the route on the map in
yellow.
In your
analysis, you would probably reject routes, that add flying
time to the flight path.
Use the slider
to hide such routes.
Repeat this step
to clear any other immediately rejected routes.
Click the NFP route string in the
Route List table.
Compare possible routes against the flight plan imported from N-FP.
In this example, it makes sense to temporarily
clear many of the less direct routes.
(For this
exercise, this step is done for you.)
Click the 
(Additional Info) button.
The N-FP route is highlighted in gray.
Click the Close button.
Examine these additional details to see the
estimated fuel and time requirements for the proposed flight
path imported from N-FP.
Compare this
information with that for the other routes to weigh the costs
and benefits of selecting a different route.
The display of
fuel and time data depends on this route having been recently
calculated in N-FP.
Click another
listed route string to compare against the N-FP route.
With the N-FP is route and its fuel and time requirements in mind, select the route that you believe is "next best" or "better" and compare its fuel and time requirements to help in your analysis.
For this exercise, let's imagine that this CDR route is one that seems to be a good alternate route.
Click the button for this route.
Click the 
(Clipboard) button.
For the CDR and PREF routes listed in the Route
List,
you see fuel and time data only if you have recalculated that
particular route in N-FP.
Imagine that
this route is a better choice
than the N-FP route that you reviewed. You can use the
clipboard to copy and export this route to N-FP.
At that point,
you calculate its requirements in N-FP and then export it back
to N-Tracking for
tracking purposes.
Click the Close button.
Click the Close button.
With your analysis and route selection complete, close the Route List.
Another way you can work with the listed routes is to click the slider to the right of "Route String" to hide all of the routes, then click the NFP route string slider to display just that route, and then proceed to re-activate other routes one at a time for display and analysis purposes.
The route pair used in this example, crossing
the entire U.S., includes many routes.
Analyzing the
routes between two closer airports, you may be able to set
your zoom at a level that displays the codes of the included
waypoints/navaids.
2 Detailed Explanation