Cancellation of AeroPlanner Services for EAA members

[sgfreeman]

For the EAA- please provide an explanation why I received an email that AeroPlanner services are being terminated for EAA members. It would have been nice to see something from the EAA with some explanation instead of a 2 week notice from Aeroplanner. Is there going to be any replacement flight planning service available to members or will we have to purchase the service on our own? It is one of the main reasons I am a member of EAA, so I hope there will be some type of communication with additional information before the 17th when all our flight plans will be lost if we don't pay the big bucks to join Aeroplanner.
Thanks.

[flyingriki]

It was a lousy planner. Not much left out there for free except Seattle Avionics basic freebie and AOPA's. That is, if you like graphic with good detail, VFR, easy to adjust routing etc.
Please - not trying to start another rant fest on flight planners.....!

[Charlie Becker]

sgfreeman,

Due to the extremely low utilization of Aeroplanner by our members and the proliferation of free (and fee-based) online flight planners, we decided that it no longer made sense for us to try and maintain our own EAA-branded version of Aeroplanner. Unfortunately, Aeroplanner has never shared the list of registered EAA users so we could not personally inform our members of the coming change. We offered to do a joint communication but they opted to send their notice without our input. We are considering our options for a replacement.

Here is a list of some popular free online flight planning resources:

1. DUATS http://duats.com/
2. Runwayfinder.com http://runwayfinder.com/
3. Flightplan.com http://www.fltplan.com/
4. Skyvector http://skyvector.com/
5. Duats Voyager http://www.seattleavionics.com/duatvoyager.aspx
6. Navplan.com http://www.navplan.com/

[S3flyer]

And 1a -- GoldenEagle FlightPrep (downloadable from duats.com)

[vaflier]

I really like navmonster. It gives you weather info And everything else you may want all on one site. Check it out at navmonster.com

[EDGEFLY]

For Charlie Becker:

OK, it is clear that mismanagement by EAA led to this problem. Instead of making the vendor the scapegoat for our organizations' incompetence, let there be a specific plan formulated, with a transparent schedule and objective along with an annual deduction in membership cost since we don't have one (a flight planner) for 2012. It is not a small problem, AOPA took about 10 years to finally incorporate a decent planner into their Website. Simply recommending some vague list of potentially fee-based substitutes is not an acceptable out.

flyingriki is correct that Aeroplanner was not much. Our plan should be not to avoid the problem but to provide a better product. Sorry about the rant flyingriki, but some times things have to be said. At least some of the EAA membership is presumably interested in flying.

[Janet Davidson]

Edgefly,

Pretty harsh judgement considering it is highly unlikely that you have all the facts to hand.

Charlie's list is certainly not vague. It includes some very popular, oft-used, and free flight planning services. We have been using fltplan.com for about 3 or 4 years now, both for work & when flying for fun, and find it to be an excellent service. The only thing I pay for on there is the eAPIS. With 4 flights to Canada in the last 3 weeks, I would be struggling without fltplan's eAPIS service.

Why not just use one of the services already out there, free, and proven?

And leave EAA to concentrate on other programs that they already do extremely well - YE, webinars, Hints for Homebuilders, etc, etc.

[S3flyer]

Well said Janet! I'd say that AeroPlanner was around 10th on the list of 6 free planners above....I'd rather EAA and AOPA focus on our core needs than spend resources on a "me too" planner.

[Mike M]

well, i for one was pretty disappointed when i learned we were losing aeroplanner. now i find out it was junk? maybe this is for the best. pretty surprised, too. i work ems, and every shift change i'd fire up aeroplanner, start a plan, and when the tones went off i'd plug the destination and the receiving into the blanks and hit 'enter'. worked fine, and i was usually less than two gallons off the estimate when i checked the fuel receipt later. not bad when you're burning 70 gph! so if they were lousy, who's best, folks? opinions, not facts, will be fine.

[steve]

As an active pilot, I don't think I'm alone in bidding Aeroplanner adieu and RIP. It truly was a dated and sloooow flight planning tool. Airnav and RunwayFinder are fine online tools. Additionally, the planning tool in my GPS has served me well for the last 3 years.

My $.02