When Else Can Ten Bucks Provide So Much Information?

In September 2006, Aero-News reported Razor's Edge Software's decision to discontinue sales of its AirPlan flight planning software, due to competitive pressure from free flight planning software, commercial flight planning software packages, and the loss of worldwide navigation data with the restriction of the DAFIF by the NGA.

OK, enough of the bad news. In January 2007, AirPlan was re-released as a very low cost shareware application, with free navigation database updates available online for the United States.

Dean Wilkinson, president of Razor's Edge Software, made the decision to make AirPlan available to all pilots at an inital cost of $10, so current navdata could continue to be provided to customers who have purchase the software over the past 10 years.

"By providing AirPlan at a very low cost with free updates, and minimizing the overhead expense that came from providing digital sectional charts, it will be possible for Razor's Edge Software to continue to make AirPlan and current navigation data available to pilots for many years to come," said Wilkinson. "The cost of operating this website will be covered by new registrations, which are very affordable to both GA pilots and flight similator enthusiasts."

AirPlan is designed for worldwide preflight planning, but has interesting capabilities in the cockpit as well, if you care to run it on a tablet computer or EFB. AirPlan's primary focus is VFR flight planning, though it does have a database of IFR airways with basic auto-routing functionality. It will also download digital approach plates.

Interestingly enough, it can also be used for simulated flight with either Microsoft's Flight Simulator or with X-Plane. Flight plans can be transferred between AirPlan and the simulator, and the simulator can be used to drive the moving map display on AirPlan the same way a GPS would in real flight.

That capability was a good deal when AirPlan cost $99; at $10, it strikes us as one heckuva bargain...

FMI: www.razorsedgesoft.com