On Thu, 2 Jun 2005 22:24:29 -0600, Michael 182 wrote:

I'm kind of curious - does anyone with more than 100 hours do a flight plan,
with winds and all, before they fly cross country?

I always do a flight plan. No, not with the ole EB6, but with DUATS or
AOPA flight planner. I always print out my briefings to take with me. I
still always call FSS before departure.

I do this so the person at my destination will know my arrival time. For
those flights that I don't have flight following or that I filed IFR, at
least they know to start worrying if I am overdue by more then 20 minutes.

I generally pad 10 minutes to my expected ETA for ATC deviations around JAN
approach and weather considerations.

Since getting my IA rating, it's either IFR or no ATC contact. I have not
filed a VFR flight plan pretty much since my initial training.

So far, my IFR flights, I have filed direct even though I file /A on the
flight plan.

The majority of my cross country trips are greater then 100 NM which I do
at minimum 2 times a month. Anything shorter, I find that my commute to
the airport, flight and then airport to my destination negates the time it
takes to drive from point A to B anyway.

Allen