Matthew,

I have been following this thread with interest, as I have done planning
both manually and with the computer.

Matthew P. Cummings wrote:

You don't understand it do you? There is no way you can call every
airport within 30 miles of your planned fuel stop and get prices quickly.
There is no way you can call each FSS along the path and get a briefing
quickly. Do them both and you'll spend more time on the phone than it
takes to plan the flight.

Flight planning software is not needed above. A quick stop at
airnav.com will give you the relevant information for fuel prices.

To obey the FAR's requires you to become familar with your route of
flight.

I agree with this statement.

You can't do it by calling only your local FSS and consulting the charts in front of
you.

I respectfully disagree with this statement. You mentioned TFRs. Most
if not all TFR's are posted on DUATS and FSS also would be knowledgeable
on TFRs. Specifically presidential TFR's are not generally "popped up"
out of the blue. Therefore the local FSS should have the relevant
information. If another TFR came up, lets say due to a catastrophy
happened while you were in route, you would get busted sorta like the
pipe line person in NJ busting the presidential motorcade TFR if I
recall. And that pipeline person did get a briefing from FSS. So, it
happens, but all the preparation in the world would not prevent
incidents like this.

are not obtaining it according to your statements of not calling FSS's
along the way. You're lucky you haven't been shot down in some TFR so far
based on your lack of calls to FSS's.

I am a VFR only pilot at this time, and for my "long" cross countries, I
get flight following. I have never called FSS enroute other then to
give PIREPS. My only call to FSS is immediately prior to departure when
I file my plan and ask for a standard briefing. If I get on DUATS, I
will ask for an abreviated briefing. I have called flight watch enroute
as weather in the deep south sometimes trips up even the best of
briefers.

Maybe you're wealthy and don't care about fuel pricing, maybe you feel
lucky and don't think you'll ever get caught in a TFR. Well, I'm not
rich, and I don't want to be caught in a TFR so I take extra long to
VERIFY ALL the information pertaining to my flight, like the FAR's require
for each flight.

Checking DUATs, and calling my local FSS does meet the FARs requirement
in verifying all information pertaining to a flight. The briefer
provides NOTAMs for my departure and destination airport. No
specialized software is needed and I have only made one phone call.

What I have said, and will say again, software speeds up the process of
discovering problems with your flight plan.

I will agree with this ONLY in that software will speed up discovering
problems with terrain and airspace issues in your flight plan. Software
WILL NOT speed up discovering TFR's due to the dynamic nature of TFRs.

I myself, break out the sectionals, use the plotter to make a line from
point A to B, then due a manual checkpoint chart, and use DUAT's flight
planner to supplement my numbers I put on the flight planning chart. On
my flight planning sheets, I put in all the VOR's I pass, so I can dial
in the from radial on the VOR frequency. This locates me pretty much
exactly where I am on the line I drew on the sectional and increase my
situational awareness. I use my GPS as a supplement to this as I want
my eyes OUTSIDE the cockpit.

Using software does not always get you as intimately familiar with your
flight plan as good as just studying the line you drew on your sectional
maps.

Allen