Jeppesen’s FliteStar displays a myriad of detail when planning a cross-country flight.

by Jeb Burnside

Each flight begins with some sort of plan. For many flights, especially those in the vicinity of an airport or over a known route, little or no planning can be necessary or appropriate. But for longer flights, perhaps long enough to raise questions about your fuel supply, over unfamiliar territory and/or in weather, putting together a detailed plan is definitely the way to go.

Any pilot shop or catalog house has a myriad of tools and gadgets supposedly designed and marketed to make some aspect or another of our flying easier, more efficient or safer. But the real measure of any aviation tool or gadget is the extent to…