Online Flight Planners

There are now several decent online flight planners to use. Some free, some with a nominal charge.

While I still enjoy laying out sectionals and drawing with a pencil, I also like to experiment with different routes, check on airports, and double-check my pencil and paper work with computer-aided calculations.

I provide a summary that looks like this:

Flight Planner Name

• Cost?
• Ease of use:  1-10 scale, 1 being stupid hard, 10 being 5 year old easy, the rets is somewhere between those extremes
  
• Accuracy: How good is the information produced?
  
• Output usefulness in Flight: Does it provide kneeboard print outs et cetera that are actually useful in the cockpit?

So here is my biased, slightly informed review of Flight planners I have used:
(If there is one I should use, send me a link!)

AOPA Flight Planner

• AOPA membership required 
• Ease of use: 9, this is the easiest by far, in my opinion.
  
• Accuracy: 8, it's pretty good, though closed airports still show up as options (Seven Springs, for example)
  
• Output usefulness in Flight: 7, there's a nice nav board with all the requisite data, but a print out of all airport info along the route of flight would be much awesome.

My only complaint is the lack of satellite (Google Earth or Bing Maps) view. I'm sure it would be a whopping licensing fee but it's nice to dream. as a low-level flier satellite imagery really helps prepare for flight over new terrain.


NavMonster

• Free 
• Ease of use: 8 -- this is fairly easy and intuitive, but page changes lose context.
  
• Accuracy: Seems to provide good info, but lack of sectionals is disappointing.
  
• Output usefulness in Flight: 8, the trip kits are the best of all web-based planners.

Excellent overall planning tool -- .well done!!


EAA Flight Planner

• EAA membership required 
• Ease of use: 5 -- there are simply too many varied screens, with all sorts of suggestions that you update to "Premium." Oh, ok. Maybe not
  
• Accuracy: Seems to provide good info.
  
• Output usefulness in Flight: 8, the trip kits are nice, though paper and ink hogs.

Sorry, but this one is just too busy with too much changing context. Consider me spoiled be good (e.g. consistent) interfaces.


SkyVector

• Free, registration required 
• Ease of use: 7, pretty simple, but limited in info and too many overlay screens that lose context ("what just happened? OH! There's a tab -- over what I was doing...")
  
• Accuracy: Seems ok -- sectionals are current.
  
• Output usefulness in Flight: N/A (Haven't used this in flight)

My first choice for just messing around, looking at sectionals. I don't want to enter a flight plan -- I just want to see what's where, how far from here to there, and what it looks like from the air.



Runway Finder

• Free, registration required 
• Ease of use: 8, pretty simple,and somewhat easier than SkyVector.
  
• Accuracy: Seems ok -- sectionals are current.
  
• Output usefulness in Flight: N/A (Haven't used this in flight)

Toss up between this and SkyVector. I use each about the same.


FlightAware

• Free, registration required 
• Ease of use: 4,  limited in info and too many changing contexts. I lost interest in trying it, quite frankly.
  
• Accuracy: Seems ok -- sectionals are current.
  
• Output usefulness in Flight: N/A (Haven't used this in flight)

Nice for tracking flights or keeping folks I'm flying IFR to see my progress, but not much use for VFR low level flying.


FltPlan.com

• Free, registration required 
• Ease of use: 4,  limited in info and too many changing contexts. I lost interest in trying it, quite frankly.
  
• Accuracy: Seems ok -- sectionals are current.
  
• Output usefulness in Flight:  I haven't used fltplan.come stuff in flight for at least 5 years. It was good then, but newer web-based planners have made this obsolete for my use.

One of the oldest, but showing its age. The interface is cluttered, errors are not adequately flagged (you are not alerted and thus cannot proceed at certain steps), the aircraft performance list is limited and there is no way to build a custom aircraft entry.

I used it years ago, but it's off my list of flight planners.

Flight Prep

Are you kidding? never in a million years....