David Rind wrote in message ...
I'm planning to fly from Boston to Key West next month
with a stop near Bethesda on the way down and in Charlotte on
the way back. I'll need/want to make some additional stops along
the way, of course. This is a longer flight than I have made before
and much of it will be through states I have not flown in before.
So, I have a bunch of questions:

1) What do people like to use for flight planning for something
like this? Laying multiple sectionals on the floor next to each
other seems a bit painful. Is Aeroplanner a good choice? If so,
is the basic Aeroplanner the right level for this kind of thing?

At home, we start with Airnav actually, looking for good fuel
prices. Then I use something called a "low altitude flight planning
chart" which has the whole E coast of the US on one chart. I
also use DUATS flight planner for "VOR direct routing" (if going
via airways) or "direct routing for GPS" (if going direct). The
latter gives a nice printout to plot direct routes on VFR sectionals.

Enroute replanning, we use the "low altitude flight planning chart"
to pick reasonable destinations and the PDA progam "CoPilot" with
Paul Tomblin's database to compute distances and ETAs. We also
load the relevant sections of the AOPA Airport Directory in our
PDA.

I'm not sure how it would fit with your stops, but BWI is IOE
a very GA-friendly airport with a substantial fuel discount on
weekends, even though it is Signature. We've also stopped
at Suburban (Laurel, MD) but be careful, it's very close to the
FRZ.

I think Zephyrhills, FL (KZPH) is about the right distance
from Key West, and usually has good fuel prices. There isn't
much there if you need to spend the night or want a real meal,
though. There's a golf clubhouse w/ decent sandwiches
a short walk away IIRC and a nice area with tables to flight
plan or eat in the FBO.

Can't answer any of your other questions.

What are you flying?

HTH and have fun,
Sydney