Cancellation of AeroPlanner Services for EAA members

[Hiperbiper]

So what...you folks actually PLAN your flights???

[stlskybob]

AGAIN I would like to protest EAA no longer supporting such a useful tool, NO WHERE else have I been able to find a flight planning program that you could print a trip tik like AeroPlanners, it was perfect for me, and I'm sure a lot of others used it as well. Individule replacement cost is ridiculous. Maybe if I cancel BOTH my EAA, and AOPA memberships I could put the cost towards Aeroplanner.

[Bill Greenwood]

I plan my trips here. I use the charts, both sec and wac, a yardstick and a plotter, and pen and paper, as well as a simple calculator.
It takes me about an hour or so.
I have never used some computer program, both because I am not much good on computers, but also the planning and drawing the course line on the charts, just like I learned it in basic flight school 30 years ago, gives me an idea of what is really out there; not just some numbers on a computer sheet, that don't relate to much if I have to divert for weather or otherwise.

[Mattmutz2]

Unfortunately, Aeroplanner has never shared the list of registered EAA users so we could not personally inform our members of the coming change.

That statement is entirely untrue. Back in my days on staff, I periodically received this data from Aeroplanner and compared it to the database of active members and worked with Aeroplanner to remove accounts whose EAA membership had lapsed.

[sgfreeman]

So, I'm the one who started this thread. After reading all the input, a few added words of my own. I used Aeroplanner for several years and must have had over 50 saved flight plans- some of them I put a lot of time into including flying cross country, creating waypoints to for a safe passage through the Rockies, etc. With the cancellation, all of that work was lost (I did print hard copies, but that just means I have to re-enter all the data somewhere else. I had hours and hours invested in creating those flight plans which I have used more than one time.

I checked out all the free flight planners people reference one by one. I didn't find one that I felt did the same as Aeroplanner without buying the upgrade version. So, I joined AOPA and have started using their flight planner. I like the EAA and what type of flying it stands for, but will most likely drop my memebership instead of paying for two.

As for the people that don't like computer based flight planners- don't be so quick to judge. That is like saying that steam gauges are much better than EFIS and EIS units. You may be more used to and comfortable flying with steam gauges or planning manually, but that has nothing to do with whether it is better or not. Most who say that have never really given the computer based systems a chance. I have flown with both now for several years and I would not ever want to give the valuable information provided by the computer based systems. They do everything you can manually plus many other valuable features. Quickly looking at the affect of different flight levels for winds aloft, automatic notams along your flight path, weather, replacing or adding waypoints with a click of a button, etc. , etc., etc.

So, I am over losing Aeroplanner. I miss some of the features, like the format you could print out your flight plan in. But, I am used to using the AOPA tool now and doing just fine. I just still have to enter all those flight plans in manually.