My son who is a computer wizard and student pilot came up with easy-to-use weight & balance software. It is customized for your specific airplane. I use it for my Archer. As a bonus only for Cirrus position holders, he will upgrade your software to your new Cirrus’ figures when it arrives at no extra charge, if you purhase the software for your current airplane. You can read about the program and download a demo at http://www.safestyle.com/cg.htm
Gary, I am glad your son is a computer whiz, but there are a number of flight planning software products on the market that not only do weight and balance, but also check weather (and provide a knew board size print out of any or all of the needed information), file flight plans, display VFR charts (IFR information is built in), terrain clearance profiles, etc.
I have gathered the data specific to my SR20 and loaded it into the flight planning software I am using. I use Destination Direct version 4.5 (just released) While I hear various reports about flight planning software, there are only two that are, in my view, worthy of consideration. They Destination Direct (version 4.5) and the product from Jeppesen, which I think is called FliteStar 8.0. There is at least one product I recommend against RMS’ FlightSoft. I find that one unfriendly and difficult to work with. It provides poor print outs and lousy flight planning tools. They seem to advertise in a number of publications and are careful to make sure you have a difficult time getting your money back. L
You can get a demo copy of Destination Direct from www.flightplan.com and use it for 45 days and pay up if you like it. They have various IFR and VFR options. Prices range from about $79 to $295 for the IFR Pro version.
FYI, I use the automated flight planning software for nearly every flight. I take the laptop with me and I can check weather (including graphic displays) and file flight plans in a matter of minutes. It certainly is quicker than listening to all data about hurricanes in Florida when you are trying to get weather data on a trip within CA!
All those that don’t use a flight planning software product it may be worth taking a look at these two. Regardless fly safely.
Walt,
Have you asked Cirrus, Garmin or ARNAV if you can download your flightplan directly from your laptop to the airplane (I would expect the Garmin to be the preferable choice)? I could see that you might eliminate some input errors on a complex flight plan if this is possible.
Bernie
Just for another point of view, I’ve been using Flitesoft from RMS for the past several years, and am quite happy with it. I think it is true that they do everything they can to be sure you don’t get a refund, which is both unfortunate and unnecessary IMHO. On the positive side, I find the software very useful and easy to use. It comes with topo data for the lower 48, has a good interface for DUATS and will overlay weather data on the route map, and prints what I think are very good reports. It also contains a completely configurable weight and balance section for the airplane of your choosing or design, and allows you to modify/define performance characteristics for your airplane. They also include a logbook program which is adequate, but not overly complicated. Oh yeah, it also allows me to download the route(s) to my handheld (Garmin) GPS, which I find very useful. In the three years or so that I’ve used it, it’s been very stable with no crashes that I can recall. The user manual is pretty good, I think, and the few times I asked for technical support (via email), the reply came reasonably promptly and was actually useful. No, I’m not associated with RMS in any way, and I don’t really care which program you use. I just wanted to let you know that there is at least one person out there that uses RMS quite a bit and thinks it’s a really good program. 
Konrad
(Hoping for a warm Spring in Duluth)
Gary, I am glad your son is a computer whiz, but there are a number of flight planning software products on the market that not only do weight and balance, but also check weather (and provide a knew board size print out of any or all of the needed information), file flight plans, display VFR charts (IFR information is built in), terrain clearance profiles, etc.
I have gathered the data specific to my SR20 and loaded it into the flight planning software I am using. I use Destination Direct version 4.5 (just released) While I hear various reports about flight planning software, there are only two that are, in my view, worthy of consideration. They Destination Direct (version 4.5) and the product from Jeppesen, which I think is called FliteStar 8.0. There is at least one product I recommend against RMS’ FlightSoft. I find that one unfriendly and difficult to work with. It provides poor print outs and lousy flight planning tools. They seem to advertise in a number of publications and are careful to make sure you have a difficult time getting your money back. L
You can get a demo copy of Destination Direct from www.flightplan.com and use it for 45 days and pay up if you like it. They have various IFR and VFR options. Prices range from about $79 to $295 for the IFR Pro version.
FYI, I use the automated flight planning software for nearly every flight. I take the laptop with me and I can check weather (including graphic displays) and file flight plans in a matter of minutes. It certainly is quicker than listening to all data about hurricanes in Florida when you are trying to get weather data on a trip within CA!
All those that don’t use a flight planning software product it may be worth taking a look at these two. Regardless fly safely.
Walt,
Have you asked Cirrus, Garmin or ARNAV if you can download your flightplan directly from your laptop to the airplane (I would expect the Garmin to be the preferable choice)? I could see that you might eliminate some input errors on a complex flight plan if this is possible.
Bernie
Bernie,
By coincidence, I emailed Garmin a couple of days ago with this question. Here is the answer I received this afternoon from Mike Franke (Mike.Franke@garmin.com):
“The 430 is not capable of two way communication with a computer so there is no way to program the 430 with a computer running flight planning software.”
I also asked him if I could send a flight plan from my handheld Garmin 295 into the 430. His answer to that was No (same reason as with laptop), but “The 295 can receive active flight plan data from the 430 which allows the two to synchronize to the same flight plan.” - and that’s quite nice to know! Of course, we want to know HOW - I’ve emailed to ask that question.
- Mike.
Bernie, I don’t mean this as a cop out, but out here in CA we frequently get “…we have a change in your routing, advise when ready to copy …”. The point is that many times even if we loaded a flight plan in advance it changes with a fair degree of frequency. As a matter of practice I load my flight plan as part of my preflight. I take with the original flight plan and it is not that difficult or time consuming to load them.
Now having said that I have to tell you that no I cannot load the flight data directly into the 430. Kevin has had some experience in cross loading flight plans between his Garmin 195 (I think it is the 195) and the 430 and that seems to work quite nicely.
I also asked him if I could send a flight plan from my handheld Garmin 295 into the 430. His answer to that was No (same reason as with laptop), but “The 295 can receive active flight plan data from the 430 which allows the two to synchronize to the same flight plan.” - and that’s quite nice to know! Of course, we want to know HOW - I’ve emailed to ask that question.
Any competent avionics shop should be able to rig this up for you. I’ve had my Garmin 195 connected to the 430 in my 260se and it’s a real boon–it rides on the yoke and I use it to display flight data and as a supplemental map.
Just for another point of view, I’ve been using Flitesoft from RMS for the past several years, and am quite happy with it. I think it is true that they do everything they can to be sure you don’t get a refund, which is both unfortunate and unnecessary IMHO. On the positive side, I find the software very useful and easy to use. It comes with topo data for the lower 48, has a good interface for DUATS and will overlay weather data on the route map, and prints what I think are very good reports. It also contains a completely configurable weight and balance section for the airplane of your choosing or design, and allows you to modify/define performance characteristics for your airplane. They also include a logbook program which is adequate, but not overly complicated. Oh yeah, it also allows me to download the route(s) to my handheld (Garmin) GPS, which I find very useful. In the three years or so that I’ve used it, it’s been very stable with no crashes that I can recall. The user manual is pretty good, I think, and the few times I asked for technical support (via email), the reply came reasonably promptly and was actually useful. No, I’m not associated with RMS in any way, and I don’t really care which program you use. I just wanted to let you know that there is at least one person out there that uses RMS quite a bit and thinks it’s a really good program.
Konrad
(Hoping for a warm Spring in Duluth)
I second that!!!
I have also used Flightsoft and I have been happy with their product for over 5 years (more like 10 yrs) Their aircraft data base has plenty of aircrafts and that is real useful for me. I have never asked for a refund so I can’t say anything about that. I do know they are a helpfull family.
I started flying an airplane that they did not have in their library, called them gave them what they needed and they send me a disk with all the work done. Zero cost with a smile, can’t ask for better.
Have a great Cirrus day
Woor
Gary, I am glad your son is a computer whiz, but there are a number of flight planning software products on the market that not only do weight and balance, but also check weather (and provide a knew board size print out of any or all of the needed information), file flight plans, display VFR charts (IFR information is built in), terrain clearance profiles, etc.
I have gathered the data specific to my SR20 and loaded it into the flight planning software I am using. I use Destination Direct version 4.5 (just released) While I hear various reports about flight planning software, there are only two that are, in my view, worthy of consideration. They Destination Direct (version 4.5) and the product from Jeppesen, which I think is called FliteStar 8.0. There is at least one product I recommend against RMS’ FlightSoft. I find that one unfriendly and difficult to work with. It provides poor print outs and lousy flight planning tools. They seem to advertise in a number of publications and are careful to make sure you have a difficult time getting your money back. L
You can get a demo copy of Destination Direct from www.flightplan.com and use it for 45 days and pay up if you like it. They have various IFR and VFR options. Prices range from about $79 to $295 for the IFR Pro version.
FYI, I use the automated flight planning software for nearly every flight. I take the laptop with me and I can check weather (including graphic displays) and file flight plans in a matter of minutes. It certainly is quicker than listening to all data about hurricanes in Florida when you are trying to get weather data on a trip within CA!
All those that don’t use a flight planning software product it may be worth taking a look at these two. Regardless fly safely.
Just for another point of view, I’ve been using Flitesoft from RMS for the past several years, and am quite happy with it. I think it is true that they do everything they can to be sure you don’t get a refund, which is both unfortunate and unnecessary IMHO. On the positive side, I find the software very useful and easy to use. It comes with topo data for the lower 48, has a good interface for DUATS and will overlay weather data on the route map, and prints what I think are very good reports. It also contains a completely configurable weight and balance section for the airplane of your choosing or design, and allows you to modify/define performance characteristics for your airplane. They also include a logbook program which is adequate, but not overly complicated. Oh yeah, it also allows me to download the route(s) to my handheld (Garmin) GPS, which I find very useful. In the three years or so that I’ve used it, it’s been very stable with no crashes that I can recall. The user manual is pretty good, I think, and the few times I asked for technical support (via email), the reply came reasonably promptly and was actually useful. No, I’m not associated with RMS in any way, and I don’t really care which program you use. I just wanted to let you know that there is at least one person out there that uses RMS quite a bit and thinks it’s a really good program.
Konrad
(Hoping for a warm Spring in Duluth)
I second that!!!
I have also used Flightsoft and I have been happy with their product for over 5 years (more like 10 yrs) Their aircraft data base has plenty of aircrafts and that is real useful for me. I have never asked for a refund so I can’t say anything about that. I do know they are a helpfull family.
I started flying an airplane that they did not have in their library, called them gave them what they needed and they send me a disk with all the work done. Zero cost with a smile, can’t ask for better.
Have a great Cirrus day
Woor
Gary, I am glad your son is a computer whiz, but there are a number of flight planning software products on the market that not only do weight and balance, but also check weather (and provide a knew board size print out of any or all of the needed information), file flight plans, display VFR charts (IFR information is built in), terrain clearance profiles, etc.
I have gathered the data specific to my SR20 and loaded it into the flight planning software I am using. I use Destination Direct version 4.5 (just released) While I hear various reports about flight planning software, there are only two that are, in my view, worthy of consideration. They Destination Direct (version 4.5) and the product from Jeppesen, which I think is called FliteStar 8.0. There is at least one product I recommend against RMS’ FlightSoft. I find that one unfriendly and difficult to work with. It provides poor print outs and lousy flight planning tools. They seem to advertise in a number of publications and are careful to make sure you have a difficult time getting your money back. L
You can get a demo copy of Destination Direct from www.flightplan.com and use it for 45 days and pay up if you like it. They have various IFR and VFR options. Prices range from about $79 to $295 for the IFR Pro version.
FYI, I use the automated flight planning software for nearly every flight. I take the laptop with me and I can check weather (including graphic displays) and file flight plans in a matter of minutes. It certainly is quicker than listening to all data about hurricanes in Florida when you are trying to get weather data on a trip within CA!
All those that don’t use a flight planning software product it may be worth taking a look at these two. Regardless fly safely.
Most of you are quite happy with your specific flight planning software;
and some of you are unhappy with the Avidyne MFD;
and all mentioned above is Windows “powered”.
So my question is: does anyone know/use/recommend flight planning software for the Mac ?
Thanks for any suggestions,
Wilfried
Just for another point of view, I’ve been using Flitesoft from RMS for the past several years, and am quite happy with it. I think it is true that they do everything they can to be sure you don’t get a refund, which is both unfortunate and unnecessary IMHO. On the positive side, I find the software very useful and easy to use. It comes with topo data for the lower 48, has a good interface for DUATS and will overlay weather data on the route map, and prints what I think are very good reports. It also contains a completely configurable weight and balance section for the airplane of your choosing or design, and allows you to modify/define performance characteristics for your airplane. They also include a logbook program which is adequate, but not overly complicated. Oh yeah, it also allows me to download the route(s) to my handheld (Garmin) GPS, which I find very useful. In the three years or so that I’ve used it, it’s been very stable with no crashes that I can recall. The user manual is pretty good, I think, and the few times I asked for technical support (via email), the reply came reasonably promptly and was actually useful. No, I’m not associated with RMS in any way, and I don’t really care which program you use. I just wanted to let you know that there is at least one person out there that uses RMS quite a bit and thinks it’s a really good program.
Konrad
(Hoping for a warm Spring in Duluth)
I second that!!!
I have also used Flightsoft and I have been happy with their product for over 5 years (more like 10 yrs) Their aircraft data base has plenty of aircrafts and that is real useful for me. I have never asked for a refund so I can’t say anything about that. I do know they are a helpfull family.
I started flying an airplane that they did not have in their library, called them gave them what they needed and they send me a disk with all the work done. Zero cost with a smile, can’t ask for better.
Have a great Cirrus day
Woor
Gary, I am glad your son is a computer whiz, but there are a number of flight planning software products on the market that not only do weight and balance, but also check weather (and provide a knew board size print out of any or all of the needed information), file flight plans, display VFR charts (IFR information is built in), terrain clearance profiles, etc.
I have gathered the data specific to my SR20 and loaded it into the flight planning software I am using. I use Destination Direct version 4.5 (just released) While I hear various reports about flight planning software, there are only two that are, in my view, worthy of consideration. They Destination Direct (version 4.5) and the product from Jeppesen, which I think is called FliteStar 8.0. There is at least one product I recommend against RMS’ FlightSoft. I find that one unfriendly and difficult to work with. It provides poor print outs and lousy flight planning tools. They seem to advertise in a number of publications and are careful to make sure you have a difficult time getting your money back. L
You can get a demo copy of Destination Direct from www.flightplan.com and use it for 45 days and pay up if you like it. They have various IFR and VFR options. Prices range from about $79 to $295 for the IFR Pro version.
FYI, I use the automated flight planning software for nearly every flight. I take the laptop with me and I can check weather (including graphic displays) and file flight plans in a matter of minutes. It certainly is quicker than listening to all data about hurricanes in Florida when you are trying to get weather data on a trip within CA!
All those that don’t use a flight planning software product it may be worth taking a look at these two. Regardless fly safely.
Most of you are quite happy with your specific flight planning software;
and some of you are unhappy with the Avidyne MFD;
and all mentioned above is Windows “powered”.
So my question is: does anyone know/use/recommend flight planning software for the Mac ?
Thanks for any suggestions,
Wilfried
Hello Wilfried,
I love Mac’s, I think they are great. B u t . . .
This is why I have a PC.
Wish I could help you but I can’t.
PS. Get the board that allows you to do Mac and PC in your Mac.
Have a great Cirrus Day
Woor
So my question is: does anyone know/use/recommend flight planning software for the Mac ?
Thanks for any suggestions,
Wilfried
I think Destnation Direct has a version for Mac.
I don’t know about Mac flight planning software yet, but I prefer Macs too. I bought VirtualPC ($200 from www.connectix.com) to run the Garmin 430 simulator on my Mac. VirtualPC runs an actual copy of the Windows OS, and any Windows programs that you want, in a window on your Mac that looks like a PC desktop. It’s a ghastly experience to see Windows peering out from your Mac – sort of like climbing into an SR20 and seeing a Cessna panel. But it works, and the performance on my G3 Mac is pretty good.
Best of all, Windows is relegated to a single Mac window, and you can switch back and forth between Windows programs and Mac programs, copy and paste between them, and drag files back and forth. For instance, I downloaded the Garmin sim onto my Mac, dragged the Garmin folder into the Windows desktop, double clicked on the install program, and it was off and running.
They claim that PC networking and modem programs work seamlessly too, but I haven’t tested any yet. I’m hoping that I won’t have to buy a PC laptop to carry with me on flights.
So my question is: does anyone know/use/recommend flight planning software for the Mac ?
Thanks for any suggestions,
Wilfried
Hello and thanks to everybody who answered.
I’m happy to hear that there are still some Apple-commited around - and obiously happy and loving their Mac.
I received following from flightplan.com:
"We do not have a version for Mac computers. I run the program on my iMac
using Virtual PC version 4.0 from Connectix Software. You can also run other
Windows based software using this great program.
Regards
Gary Hawkins
Tech Support"
nota bene they use themselves Macs but don’t make software for them.
Is it that complicated to develop common source code for different platforms ? (hey Clyde “Mr. CrossCompiler” what do you say?) Or just have a look to the great FlightSim sofware VirtualWings, source code in C++, compiled both for Win and MacOS !?!
Using any PC emulation is not only “a ghastly experience to see Windows peering out from your Mac – sort of like climbing into an SR20 and seeing a Cessna panel.” -it’s like flying a Cirrus which would just with one click behave like a Cessna; like switching from comfort, safety, performance, neat appearence and design back to the last century.
OK I’m using myself VPC, especially for the 430 sim, and it’s still better to cope with then all the mess with a real PC. So I just make a copy of a drive image with a “clean” installation for trying any software and if it dosen’t work I just trash it without having *)/!"§$&% up all the dll’s and registry. Sort of rather having a Cirrus and toggle between Cirrus and Cessna mode, than having the 172 only.
But anyway thanks to all you folks for your input,
“Have a great Mac day…”
Wilfried