The very best flight planning for the money is using your EAA membership to get the DUATS Golden Eagle program. It is the very best 'free' flight planning package available. It is exceptional software with to many features to list. Rubber banding, down loadable to your GPS, muti-chart options, and strip maps just to name a very few. Even if you do not belong to EAA, you can down load and use the system for $49 a year, as I recall. There are more expensive super advanced versions for commercial pilots flying mostly IFR. But the advanced systems are really not worth all that much for casual and VFR operation.
For AOPA members, there is a very new just initiated on-line planning program called AOPA On-Line. It is easy to use, free for AOPA members, but hair less feature packed as Golden Eagle. To the best of my knowledge, it does not down load to your GPS, a major draw back. While I have Voyager, a somewhat expensive software package with a subscription requirement, And while like Golden Eagle very much, Voyager has a FREE version that works very well with as many or even more feature than Golden Eagle. You just will not be using current charts and data. If you are buying current charts anyway, and don't mind making your phone calls before take-off, it is a super - super program. Be warned, it takes a GOOD computer with some real power to run properly.
