iFlightPlanner by AOPA

Many pilots prefer to use their EFBs for the purposes of flight planning. But some of those apps have limitations. Premium features hidden behind higher subscription tiers, or some things that just aren’t well made or optimized for the general aviation pilot. That’s where one of your membership perks, iFlightPlanner for AOPA, comes in.

It has all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a modern flight planner—you can get a weather briefing, file a flight plan, and plan a VFR or IFR routing. You can keep and maintain aircraft information to ease the next time you plan. It also serves as a helpful tool to help close the gap with features your EFB apps might not have (or charge you extra).

Flying out of AOPA headquarters at Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK) in Maryland, I was exposed for the first time to any kind of mountain flying, having learned to fly in the Midwest. iFlightPlanner’s route cross-section has been a major help. It gives you the option to choose a corridor width, and it’ll show you the highest terrain in that corridor along your route. You can also configure the top of climb and top of descend and it will show you a standard descent to your destination and if terrain might affect that descent.

If you like a good nav log or are learning to write them, what the iFlightPlanner nav log spits out is by far the cleanest and easiest to read I’ve ever come across (seriously, some of these EFB apps make nav logs that are super hard to read). Even better, you can fold the printout into a kneeboard size, unlike competitors which often print an 8x10 page that doesn’t fit on a kneeboard unless you fold it in half, which then hides half of the information.

The one page “flight document” it makes from your route includes that nav log, route information, airport information, FBO information, and more. If I’m flying to a new area or airport, I enjoy having a one-page that briefs my trip. Worst case, it collects dust behind my tablet on my kneeboard. Best case, it’s a serious aid to help relieve task saturation if you start to get lost in the EFB.

In aviation, we always talk about getting the “full picture.” Be it the weather, the terrain, or the route, iFlightPlanner displays things better on a computer as compared to an EFB app on your tablet or phone. I find weather briefings more customizable and easier to read. In conjunction with an EFB in flight, a good flight plan from a different source can help you make sure you’re getting a full picture, every time.

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