Jerry Bryan recently messaged me asking "You mentioned in the past that you used Navmonster [for flight planning]. Since it is gone, what are you using now?"

I answered Jerry that I haven't found anything as simple or effective... There are plenty of different "planners" out there but most are either cumbersome, expensive, or not that helpful or useful...

What do you use for flight planning? What are your favorite websites or services?  What about iPad / iPhone apps? 

Let's help each other by sharing what we know.

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Really miss the Navmonster site. I have not found a replacement. I have been using a combination of Airnav, DUATS, and NOAA ADDS site. One site I use a lot - and is very difficult to find, is pasted below.  

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/zoa/mwmap3.php?map=usa

I too am a Pocket FMS fan mainly because it has a very customizable display that is more visible in the plane than some others (I have a tablet PC mounted in the instrument panel) and I can also run it on my Android or Iphone. But my favorite flight planning program is Seattle Avionics Voyager. There's also a light version that is free called Duat Voyager, used to be called Voyager Free Flight.

If Seattle Avionics would make a few tweaks to Voyager to make it easier to see in flight it could easily become my favorite in flight also.

For those that use ForeFlight on your I-pad in the cockpit, have any of you had thermal shutdown? I have had it turn off in my 601 due to heat. Checking with the Apple there is a thermal shutdown at 96 degres F. That was not what I expected. Alan

Yeah, my iPhone does that also if it's in the sun (on the dash) while charging and talking...  It would  probably stay cool enough not to shut itself off without the charger...

Doesn't anyone use the AOPA flight planner?  Free, Prints out everything you need and links to DUATS.  I take that paper in the airplane and use my Android notebook with GPS and an app called Naviator (also does flight plans but doesn't file) for moving map.

Naviator costs $49/year but I just get 30 day subscriptions at $4.99 each.  Some months I don't go cross country.

Agree.  If you're an AOPA member (and all American pilots should be) the online Flight Planner is pretty useful.  It does take a while to get used to it, but it does have some useful and interesting features, and is free to AOPA members.

Has anybody used Garmin Pilot on either iPad or Android Tablet?

Another vote for foreflight. By far the best part is the ability to file an IFR flight plan on the ramp from your iPad, get an email confirming it a minute later, and able to get a clearance from delivery a few minutes later. I find I don't use it much in flight, certainly not for the moving map (the planes and I use have moving map) and after it shut down due to heat during an approach, I now always have a kneeboarding backup for the planned stops, rather than frantically digging through the pubs bag. Also have issues with the burn time on the ipad3 but a battery backup fixes that. Without it, you will be lucky to get a 5 hour flight, as it doesn't auto-sleep with foreflight running, unless you tell it to. It is convenient for last minute planning, if you are low enough for cell, and don't have ads-b. the way weather/ceilings and other info is presented allows fast interpretation and the two finger range/time calcs let you quickly find an alternate, much much faster than the g1000 methodology. It's not too pricey, and it keeps you from having to cruise around numerous web sites, which I really hate. Even though legally we're not allowed to use it for weather, I've converted most of my coworkers with iPads to foreflight, as it is a 100 times better than the DOD "Phaero" program.

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