What do you use for making flights?

[CowlFlapsOpen]

I probably take the prize for the most complicated of the posters so far. Flight planning is part of the fun for me. I also fly light to medium GA
aircraft and rarely above FL 180 to enjoy the (BEV, FSGenesis, add-on scenery) views. So here goes:

1. My planning begins with the free Golden Eagle software for flight planning from FlightPrep (http://www.flightPrep.com I think). This depicts a VFR
Sectional-like image with all navaids, NOTAMS, Prohibited areas, J/V routes, intersections, airports, etc AND terrain data (like the default GPS).
It has a vertical information diagram so that you can see the route's track across/through mountians, airspace classes, plan descents, and--for J/V
airways--make judgments in relation to depicted MEAs. It is updated once a cycle over the internet. I look for best routes/altitudes that keep me
away from Prohibited areas, Military routes, over/below Class B, have proper separation from mountains, and make the fewest ATC changes, etc. Double
clicking Navaids and airports gives COMM and other information such as PDFs of airport diagrams and approaches etc. (Did I say this is all free! It
is a great program).

2. I copy the waypoints down temporarily and then start MSFS and enter them in FSNav. While there, I add bearing points to intersections etc. (a
nice feature of FSNav). I then print the flight plan in FSNav (so the bearing point info is handy), save it for the future, and then export it to MSFS.

3. I then load the exported flight plan in MSFS flight planner (by default it is set to IFR so I have to reset it to VFR as necessary and resave
once, a MSFS bug).

4. I then load it in ActiveSky and process it. From ActiveSky I learn the flight time (considering wind) and use this to compute fuel and ETE for
FSPassengers.

5. Back to MSFS, where I start FsP and load passengers, fuel, and ETE to destination.

6. Finally, once the avionics are on, I program the flight plan into the GPS. I do not use the MSFS GPS. All my aircraft are payware and have
alternate native GPSs or RealityXP 530s. I save the flight plan in the GPS.

In practice this doesn't always take too long because I fly the same routes over and over now that I am using FsP. So these routes are already saved,
printed, and available in the GPS, etc. I just need to load them in MSFS, the GPS, and process them in ActiveSky for the particular weather that day
and enter the information in FsP.

As I said, I like the planning aspect of flying as much as the flying itself. Trying to prepare for real world lessons in the near future.