Larry Dighera wrote in message . ..
The clunky old Cirrus Software for use with DUATS is being replaced
with a new program that looks like a terrific improvement. I haven't
had a chance to try it yet, but it's got to be better than Cirrus.

I would not call Cirrus clunky - devoid of features, perhaps, but
quite reliable. I may have just had bad luck with Golden Eagle, but it
is very slow and crashed on me several times. But it looks like a good
step forward, I am sure it will improve. The AOPA Real-Time planner is
another new option and offers nice Jeppesen-like enroute charts.

I haven't looked at the latest versions of the different GUI flight
planners lately, but its still hard to beat the text-based flight
planner in DUATS, with its ability to specify mixed user/auto routing
(*a, *g, etc.). Its also the only tool widely available on the road.
The web-based Flightprep might eventually address this, but its
presently unusable for performance reasons, IMHO.