Recreational pilots need a great deal of information before they can fly. Of course flight planning is essential, but calculating headings, times and fuel consumption is just the tip of the iceberg. There are very many aeronautical information sources that need to be considered, including charts, airfields, restricted areas, weather observations and forecasts, daylight hours and many more.

As well as the the aeronautical information, pilots often need to find accommodation and local attractions at their destination. And after that, they want to tell their friends about where they went and show them the photographs.

iVFR.net is a single tool that does everything that a VFR pilot needs to prepare for, and publish, their flights. It provides a single interface that fetches and organises data from a variety of information sources, either displaying it live (eg runway diagrams and weather information) or as a link where to buy it (eg aviation charts). At all phases of flight preparation, the route can be displayed on a Google Map along with relevant nearby aeronautical features and the ability to search for features on the map. And once you are happy with your plan, you can send it to your GPS.

At last, the entire workflow for cross-country flights has been automated in a single place, making it possible for pilots to spend minutes preparing, instead of hours, and more time flying or enjoying their destination.

There are many other "Flight Planning" services. Some of them are very good, but only run on Windows and are useless when you're not at your computer. Some of them are web-based services or run on a PDA. But none of them cover the entire workflow.

iVFR.net is available from any web browser, including mobile phones with browsers. You can use an Internet cafe or the computer at your destination's flying club. And, coming soon — a native iPhone application that automates the cockpit workflow, tracking waypoint times, radio calls and so on. But if you don't have an iPhone or a web phone, iVFR.net will print everything you need in the cockpit, including the flight plan, ERSA pages, NOTAMs, weather details for the entire route, checklists and so on.

VFR pilots only need one tool: iVFR.net.