Hello sprucemonkey.
I really liked using the ultranav for W&B and T/O performance planning. Best, easiest and most accurate method I've seen. Wish we used it where I work now. When I first used it, ithe software came allready loaded on an old HP computer that looked like a very large calculator. These days, it's just a CD. You load it on to a desktop or laptop and it"s ready to use. From there, the software can be crossloaded to a palm or equivalent piece of hardware suitable for keeping in the plane. You may load it on all flight dept. computers for easy access. I interpret this to mean pilot home PC and laptops too. All you have to do then is enter the BOW and % MAC and the seat station numbers for your cabin configuration and you're ready to go. If you haven't done it yet, I suggesr visiting their website. Since posting commercial web links may be pushing the PPRuNe rules too far, just type "ultranav" into your search engine and let it find the WWWs and .COMs. It looks like the straight DA50 and EX versions are grouped together. You can download a demonstration from the site. Push the "FA" button on the main page. Seems like alot of money for a CD, but I think it pays for itself pretty quickly by allowing you to plan right to limits with a higher degree of accuracy than the graphs or tab data.
Best regards,
Westhawk