RUNWAYFINDER Shutting Down

[Skyhawk599]

I was a user of RunwayFinder before I became a PnP Pilot. It is an easy way to plan a trip on a VFR sectional chart using a home computer. Dave Parsons, the brains behind RunwayFinder, posted on his blog today that due to several factors, he has decided to pull the plug on Runwayfinder effective the end of February. Both Skyvector and RunwayFinder are linked in our PnP bulletin board when we check on requests for flights. Skyvector will serve our purposes well, but some of us prefer RunwayFinder.
I won't go into all the messy background, but suffice it to say that a certain software developer claimed a patent infringement by Runwayfinder, and thus, due to the "sticky" hands of legal proceedings, RunwayFinder came out on the short end of the "stick." The shame of it is that the software developer that claimed a patent infringement does not offer a product that does near what RunwayFinder does. Oh well, that is progress, I suppose, in the USA, United States of Attorneys.
Have a good day!

[admin]

This is very disappointing, I know that many of our pilots chose to use this program. I guess we will need to remove it from our options the end of this month. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone could just share and get along?

Debi

[murrayb]

I'm currently using Seattle Avionics' Voyager software for flight planning.

They've got some sort of contract with DUAT (not DUATS) and if you have an account with them you can use an almost fully featured version of Voyager free of charge. I used it for several months before acquiring the full version.

Just open your saved flight plan file and update the departure time shortly before you leave and it automatically calculates wind corrections, time/speed/distance/fuel, etc. based on the aircraft profile you select (or you can enter your own data). It'll even do weight and balance.

Download link.

[flyhy]

AOPA online has a pretty good flight planner too with real time weather that can be overlayed onto the map and the ability to file.

Dave W