SimLetsFly started as a personal tool to break out of flying the same old routes — a habit that's easy to fall into going back to the FSX days. With the incredible scenery in today's simulators, there's a whole world worth exploring. This app makes it easy to discover flights you'd never think to plan yourself. Most airports should be available in commercial flight simulators.
How It Works
Set your search parameters and hit Let's Fly!. SimLetsFly picks a random departure and arrival that match your criteria. Not happy? Hit it again or lock your departure and randomize only the arrival.
SimLetsFly can also generate an IFR route between your airports using real-world airway data, and export it directly to your simulator. See the Get IFR Route & Export section below.
⚡ Challenge Mode
Hit the ⚡ CHALLENGE button instead of Let's Fly! to find a challenging arrival airport — regardless of your normal arrival filters. Your departure filters and distance range still apply.
Challenge Factors
An airport qualifies as a challenge if it has one or more of the following: SHORT RUNWAY — max runway under 4,500 ft ·
HIGH ELEVATION — field elevation above 3,500 ft ·
NO ILS — no instrument landing system ·
UNPAVED — grass, gravel, or dirt surface
Challenge Badges
The arrival card shows red ⚡ badges for each challenge factor. When you save a challenge flight it is flagged in My Flights with a ⚡ Challenge badge, and your total challenge count appears in the stats bar.
Departure Options
Enter Specific Airport
Type an ICAO code and hit Validate, or search by airport name or city to find the ICAO if you don't know it.
Favorite Airports
Pin airports you fly from regularly. Requires a free account. The app randomly picks one of your pinned airports as departure.
Last Airport in My Flights
Automatically uses the arrival airport from your most recently saved flight as the departure. Great for continuing a tour or retracing a route. Requires a free account and at least one saved flight.
Random — Match Criteria
Let SimLetsFly pick a random departure based on your location, airport type, and runway filters. If you're signed in, your last-used filters are restored automatically on login.
Search Parameters
Location
Continent, Country, Region/State, or fully Random
Range
Min and Max distance between departure and arrival. Use the NM | HRS toggle to switch between nautical miles and flight time. Hours are decimal — 1.5 hrs = 1 hour 30 minutes. When using hours, distance is calculated from your cruise speed.
Airport Size
Small, Medium, Large, Seaplane Base, Heliport
Runway Surface
Hard (paved), Soft (grass/gravel), Water, Helicopter pad
Runway Length & Heading
Min and Max runway length in feet. The Direction dropdown (Random / N / S / E / W) filters arrival airports to those roughly in that compass direction from your departure — useful for planning tours or staying in a region.
Cruise Speed & Airways
Use the Aircraft Preset dropdown to select a common aircraft and fill in its cruise speed automatically. You can also type your own. Speed is used for flight time estimates and HRS range mode. Choose High or Low airways — High for jets (FL180+), Low for props and GA aircraft.
Nav Aids (Arrival)
Filter arrival airports by ALS (approach lighting), VASI/PAPI, and/or ILS availability
Flight Results
Airport Cards
Each result shows ICAO, name, type, elevation, location (region, country, continent), nav aid tags, and live METAR weather.
Runway List
Each airport card shows all individual runways with length, surface type, and nav aids labeled per runway end. Once METAR loads, the recommended runway is shown based on current wind direction with headwind and crosswind components.
METAR & TAF Weather
Live METAR is fetched for both airports when a flight is generated. Click Decode for a plain-English breakdown. A TAF forecast is also shown below the METAR where available — useful for planning ahead on longer flights.
Weather Radar
The route map shows a live weather radar overlay pulled from RainViewer. The most recent radar frame updates automatically when a flight is generated.
Flight Summary
Shows distance in nautical miles, bearing with a compass rose, estimated flight time based on your cruise speed, and an interactive route map.
Multi-Leg Flights
Use Next Hop to chain flights together. Each leg appears in the flight plan list. Click any leg to load it into the search results — then use Get IFR Route and Export on that specific leg.
Vertical Profile
After a flight is generated, the Vertical Profile tab (next to the Map tab) shows a side-on altitude graph of your flight — climb to cruise altitude, cruise segment, and descent to the arrival airport.
This tab is intended for quick reference and general planning only. It does not factor in weather, terrain, wind, aircraft performance curves, step climbs, or any other real-world variables. Always use proper flight planning tools for actual simulator operations.
TOC & TOD Markers
The graph marks the Top of Climb (TOC) in green and Top of Descent (TOD) in amber. TOC distance is shown in nm from departure; TOD is shown in nm from destination — the point to begin descending. For very short routes where cruise altitude can't be reached, a single PEAK marker is shown instead.
Stats Bar
Below the graph, a stats row shows: Cruise Alt, Cruise Speed, Departure (with elevation), TOC distance, Cruise Segment length, TOD distance, Arrival (with elevation), Descent Rate, and estimated Climb / Cruise / Descent times. Cruise Alt and Cruise Speed are editable — adjusting them updates the graph and all stats live.
Defaults
Cruise altitude defaults from your selected Aircraft Preset. If no preset is chosen, Low airways defaults to 8,000 ft and High airways defaults to FL280. Cruise speed defaults to whatever is set in the main controls. All calculations use a standard 3° descent profile — the same rule used for real-world IFR approaches.
Phase Time Estimates
Climb, Cruise, and Descent time estimates are shown in the stats bar. These are approximations based on cruise speed and are useful for setting timers or planning when to begin your descent. The estimated descent time can help you gauge how long before arrival you should start down.
Winds Aloft
The Winds Aloft card shows the forecasted wind direction, speed, and temperature at your cruise altitude, along with the headwind or tailwind component relative to your route. An adjusted total flight time is shown accounting for the wind. Requires a free account.
Wind data is sampled at a single point at the route midpoint — it does not map winds along the full route or account for varying conditions at different altitudes during climb and descent. Use it as a general indication of whether you'll have a favourable or unfavourable cruise, not as a precise forecast.
Get IFR Route & Export
SimLetsFly can generate a real-world IFR route between your airports using airway data from Flight Plan Database, then export it directly to your simulator.
Get IFR Route Button
Located in the Pilot Notes header. Fetches both a High airways route (for jets, FL180+) and a Low airways route (for props/GA). The route matching your current High/Low airways setting is shown first. Route is formatted as waypoints and airways separated by dashes, e.g. APE24 - J152 - BLISS. The date the route was pulled is stamped in the notes header. Note: the route service may take a few seconds to respond on first use after a period of inactivity — if it times out, wait a moment and try again.
Export ▾ Dropdown
Located in the bottom action bar. Opens a menu with the following options:
SimBriefOpens SimBrief with your departure and arrival pre-filled for full IFR planning. No route pull required.
X-Plane 12Downloads a .fms flight plan file for X-Plane 12. If Get IFR Route was used, full waypoints are included and the filename ends in -ROUTE. Without it, exports a direct dep→arr flight.
X-Plane 11Same as above in X-Plane 11 format (.fms).
MSFS 2020Downloads a .pln XML file for MSFS 2020. Includes full routing if Get IFR Route was used, otherwise exports direct dep→arr.
MSFS 2024Same as above for MSFS 2024 (.pln).
Multi-Leg Export
Export works on one leg at a time. If you have multiple hops, click the leg in the flight plan list to load it into the results window, then Get IFR Route and Export for that leg.
Saving & Sharing
Save Flight
Saves the current flight to your account. Requires a free account. If you used Get IFR Route before saving, the full route is saved with the flight so you can export it with waypoints directly from My Flights later. Each time you click Let's Fly while signed in, your search preferences are also saved — location filters, airport types, runway surface, range, cruise speed, and display theme — and restored automatically next time you log in.
Flight Brief
Three options: Copy to Clipboard pastes a plain-text summary into any notes app. Save as Text File downloads the same content as a .txt file. Save as HTML Brief downloads a formatted HTML document — open it in any browser for a professional-looking briefing with a live route map, two-column airport details, vertical profile chart, winds aloft data, and pilot notes. All three include the vertical profile stats and winds aloft if loaded. The HTML map requires an internet connection to display tiles; all other data is fully embedded in the file.
Copy Link
Copies a shareable link for the flight. Anyone with the link can open it and see the same route — they can also save it to their own account.
My Flights (Logbook)
Access your saved flights at My Flights in the header (requires sign in). Your logbook lets you:
Rate Your Flight
1–5 stars across 8 categories: Takeoff, Landing, Procedures, Navigation, Scenery, ATC, Fun Factor, and Overall.
Pilot Notes
Add free-form notes about the flight — weather encountered, challenges, memorable moments. Get IFR Route results are also saved here when you use them.
Mark Completed
Track which flights you've actually flown vs. flights saved for later.
Route Map
View an interactive map of any saved flight showing departure and arrival positions.
Flight Stats
The top of My Flights shows running stats across all your saved flights — total distance, completed flights, regions explored, longest trip, average leg distance, and more.
Load Route
Opens any saved flight back in the main app with the departure, arrival, cruise speed, pilot notes, and IFR route all restored. Useful for re-flying a favourite or continuing from where you left off.
Export ▾
Export any saved flight to your simulator — X-Plane 12, X-Plane 11, MSFS 2020, or MSFS 2024. Also includes Flight Brief options to copy or download a text summary. If a route was saved with the flight, the full IFR waypoints are included in the export.
Copy Link
Copies a shareable link for the flight. Anyone with the link can open it and load the route — they can also save it to their own account.
Add Manual Flight
Add a flight to your logbook manually — useful for logging past flights or flights planned outside SimLetsFly. Type an ICAO code for departure and arrival (autocomplete pulls from the airport database), optionally set a date flown, completed status, and notes.
Visited Airports Map
At the bottom of My Flights, an interactive world map shows every airport from your completed flights.
Route lines connect each dep→arr pair — blue for normal flights, red for challenge flights.
Airports are color-coded: amber = departure only, blue = arrival only, gold = both.
Each marker shows how many times you've visited.
Your Data & Privacy
SimLetsFly is a personal hobby project. Here's exactly what is stored if you create a free account:
Your email address (used for sign-in, and occasionally to send a product-update newsletter — you can opt out anytime)
Saved flights, ratings, and pilot notes you choose to add
Search preferences and cruise speed (to restore your setup on login)
Favorite airports you pin
Anonymous usage activity is captured via Google Analytics and internal event tracking — including page visits and feature interactions such as generating flights, pulling routes, and exporting files. This data contains no personal information and is used only to understand which features are being used and identify areas for improvement. No advertising analytics or data selling is involved.
Account data is stored securely via Supabase.
You can request deletion of your account and all associated data at any time by leaving a note in the feedback box below.
Why some features require an account
Features like Get IFR Route, Save Flight, and Favorite Airports require a free account.
Get IFR Route calls a third-party flight planning API on your behalf — requiring sign-in protects that from automated abuse and keeps the service available for everyone.
Saved flights and favorites use database storage tied to your account.
A free account requires only an email address and takes less than a minute to create.
Leave Feedback
Have a suggestion, bug report, or just want to say hello? Leave a note below. A free account is required to submit feedback.
Leave Feedback
Have a suggestion, bug report, or just want to say hello? Leave a note below.
Viewing Tips
Install as an App
SimLetsFly can be installed like a native app — no app store required. On Chrome or Edge (desktop), look for the install icon (⊕) in the address bar and click it. On Android, tap the browser menu and choose "Add to Home Screen." On iOS Safari, tap the Share button then "Add to Home Screen." Once installed it opens in its own window and the airport database works offline.
Light / Dark Mode
Use the ☀ / ☾ toggle in the top-right corner of the header to switch between light and dark themes.
Browser Zoom
If text or cards feel too small or large, adjust your browser's zoom level. Use Ctrl + / − on Windows/Linux or ⌘ + / − on Mac.
SimLetsFly is intended for flight simulator use only and is not for real-world aviation planning or navigation. All data is provided as-is with no warranties, expressed or implied. Always use certified aviation resources for actual flight operations.