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flyingriki
11-18-2011, 01:41 PM
Is there anything going on with Flight Planner improvements? I'm giving up my AOPA membership but will sure miss theirs. Have used it to plan all over the country and found it fast and very useful. This one is very slow, has a dinky screen and is kinda clunky. Maybe Seattle Avionics is the next best option?

Tom Downey
11-20-2011, 01:00 PM
This is a dilemma for me too, I dropped AOPA also, fore flight on a iPad is too expensive for the flying I do, most the Garmen stuff has a subscription cost that are too high also.

So what to do ? ?

S3flyer
11-20-2011, 01:18 PM
DUAT Voyager and GoldenEagle Flight Prep have free versions that work pretty well.

FlyingRon
11-20-2011, 06:05 PM
I started with aeroplanner when they had a basic one for free for EAA members and upgraded it to their pro version.

I was one of the beta testers on the AOPA one but I got tired of it's poor performance in relationship to aeroplanner.

flyingriki
11-20-2011, 07:12 PM
Ron, which one were you testing? They have had a newer version out for a year or more and an even better version in testing now. I've down loaded Golden Eagle today but am finding it pretty clunky too. But I've just started using it so may get better with practice. The detail graphics and ease of editing is the AOPA planner's stong points. It's so easy to just click on points and add to the route or the new one supports rubber-banding again, like an earlier version.
Thanks for the suggestions, will be trying them all!

FlyingRon
11-21-2011, 06:02 AM
Rubber banding is almost never the way I plan things.
It sucks for IFR routing.

flyingriki
11-21-2011, 09:37 AM
Rubber banding is almost never the way I plan things.
It sucks for IFR routing.

Well, I use it a lot. But thanks for sharing....that's real helpful....

DanChief
11-21-2011, 10:57 AM
Rubber banding is almost never the way I plan things.
It sucks for IFR routing.

I've used AOPA Flight Planner exclusively for IFR planning for 5 years. Works fine for me and I rarely use rubber banding.

Mike M
11-21-2011, 11:05 AM
DUAT Voyager and GoldenEagle Flight Prep have free versions that work pretty well.

Voyager may work well if you have a Cray supercomputer. my old gateway laptop with 1thinydoodle of memory trying to run Vista just gagged and rolled over when i tried seattle avionics' duat voyager on it.

big PS
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/ask-faa-reversal-charge-government-approach-data-downloads-and-not-allowing-individuals-access-them/Hg1nqTJy?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Janet Davidson
11-23-2011, 05:16 PM
www.fltplan.com (http://www.fltplan.com)

Have used it for 3.5 years now and find it is excellent, for IFR, VFR, USA, Canada & Mexico.

And it has an excellent app for the iPhone.

And it is free.

flyingriki
11-26-2011, 10:23 AM
Tried FltPlan and it's OK for table version planning. I've gotten used to graphic planning. Helps with terrain etc. since I plan for VFR, economy and safety. Voyager is about the next best but it does run slow. When I plan cross country I go direct, then find area at about 2.5 to 3.5 hour intrevals and zoom into the area, pick an airport in the middle of that and use 'check local fuel prices' from AirNav. Select one with the best fuel prices and rubberband the route to it. Go to the next one and do the same. Adjust the route to avoid the most inhospitable terrain. In no time I have a great plan with cheap fuel and safe routing. Hard to do all this quickly with these other planners.
I was under the impression that the EAA planner was making big improvement a couple years ago and see now that it hasn't. Just a small side screen and table version plan on the side. Probably not a priority.....oh well.

FlyingRon
11-27-2011, 10:16 AM
I don't know what you get with the free "EAA" version of the service, but the full up aeroplanner now has four different flight planners and the latest "Ultimate" one is pretty nice.

I like using either that or Foreflight because I like using the real charts and not some cobbled up disaster.

flyingriki
11-27-2011, 11:23 AM
Here is another interesting site I use just to keep an eye on my flying area at a glance: http://maps.avnwx.com/

Not really a planner but if you set your airport and normal radius of interest, you can quickly get a graphic picture of the conditions all around and watch as they change to see the trend for the day. Right now in Nor Cal the conditions have reversed and the valley is socked in while the coast is clear. Lucky them.... Setting for view are at upper left. Winds aloft, TFR;s etc. are helpful.
But then it may too 'cobbled up' for some.....

PS: an interesting note; you can zoom in real close and get amazing topographic detail. Have used this for planning into fields in the mountains. Not available in FAA charts and seems very accurate, at least so far....