Paul Folbrecht wrote in message link.net...

1) Winds aloft forecasts are never right- usually not close.

2) There's no need to produce a nav log, etc. with checkpoints when the
route is familiar.

Well, I think you might wish to consider the implications of 1)
on 2).

If you're only planning flights which are so generously within
the range of your fuel-on-board that the Headwinds from Hell
couldn't run you out of fuel, it's not a factor.

But once you start trading fuel for other forms of useful load
(pax and baggage) and flying longer flights, you need SOME means
of giving yourself the 'wake-up' call -- whoops, I'm going to
need another fuel stop.

So, how do you accomplish this? Well, one way is to make a
hard and fast rule "always land after X hrs of flight time".
But there are problems with this strategy. First, you need to
make sure "X" doesn't become fixed in your mind as a single
number, otherwise sometime you might take off with less fuel
and be running on fumes first. That's just a matter of doing
a preflight calculation and writing the number down. Of
more concern is, it might prove inconvenient to land near
the end of the flight due to limited or no airports, expensive
fuel, or flight plan hassles taking off again. If you have
to backtrack, detour, pay through the nose, or suffer delays,
the siren call of "maybe I have enough fuel to make it--I
really should..." becomes more seductive.

So, another way is to make a flight log and compare ATAs to
ETAs for enough waypoints to realize early-on when an extra
fuel stop is likely, and make the best, most convenient choice.

This applies whether the route is so familiar that you could
fly it in your sleep, or whether you're flying it for the
first time.

Now mind you, when I was a student pilot I was made to plot
checkpoints quite close -- maybe every 20-30 miles. That's
really not necessary IRL and would become quite time-consuming
when planning a 900 mile flight.

For new routes, I am going to produce a nav log, knowing full well that
my heading will not likely match the precomputed values due to differing
winds aloft. No matter. But, of course, for such flights, I'm not
going to be doing things the old-fashioned way anymore. I want some
good software to make it easy.

Since you have a Palm OS PDA, I strongly recommend Laurie Davis'
"Co-Pilot" program with Paul Tomblin's waypoint database. It won't
run on your PC, but it's simple, user friendly, and the price is right
(donations optional but appreciated).

On the PC, I use is DUATS flight planner combined with a paper
low-altitude enroute chart to sanity check routing and Airnav.com
to find inexpensive fuel stops.

I've used AOPA's tool and Aeroplanner and I like them both, but
I can accomplish more faster without the graphical interface.

In DUATS flight planner, select "direct routing for GPS/loran"
to get a list of VOR degree-distance waypoints which make plotting
a long route onto a VFR chart a cinch.

So, I think I have two questions: 1) Does this make sense?

Makes sense, barring the caveat that familiarity does not
remove the need for a nav log in some circs, and is a very
appropriate post for either .piloting or .student IMO.

Have fun,
Sydney