AOPA Internet Flight Planner

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There is a lot of flight planning software out there and AOPA has had a couple different versions themselves. They definitely got it right with their Internet Flight Planner! Their application is 100% web-based so you can access your data and use all your flight planning tools and even file from anywhere...your computer at home, the computer at the FBO you stopped at for gas, your computer at work (just don't tell my boss,) etc.

The main view has all the airports, navaids, airspace waypoints, etc. you could want. It also shows major topographical features. You can search for places with known identifiers or just click on an area of the chart to see what's there. Need info for an airport? An info page has links to the AOPA airport directory and approach plates for free. Near real-time weather overlays include radar, lightning, winds aloft and more. You can save profiles for different aircraft you fly and once you get your route planned, a click of the mouse auto-generates a navigation log for you to put on your knee board. One more click takes you to the flight plan page. Add any remarks, hit submit and it goes directly to FSS...too easy.

This app is free...to members of the AOPA. How much does it cost to join? A mere $39 per year. Not only does that get you access to this versatile and handy flight planer, it also gets you 12 issues of a great flying magazine AOPA Pilot, access to all kinds of online resources, rental car deals and other perks, a voice for General Aviation in Washington D.C., and a chance to win a different amazing sweepstakes plane every year. With all those benefits, it's tough to imagine $39 going much further.

This app isn't perfect. I wish it would let you overlay a sectional or IFR chart on the main page. I also wish you could overlay Google maps. Occasionally the zoom and search functions are a tad cumbersome.

All in all though, it's a great tool. I've used it to plan most of my travels in N5792C and it's very accurate. I even have a profile for my work airplane and this program comes up with flight planning numbers similar to the expensive proprietary software we use. This is my primary flight planning program and I can't imagine anyone else can beat this functionality for the price. I definitely recommend it.