ForeFlight: Intelligent Apps for Pilots

We are re-posting the following bulletin at the request of AeroNav:

Effective on 2-9-2012, the Anchorage (ANC) VOR/DME will be shut down.  The Anchorage (TED) VOR/DME will be in use. The VOR was relocated roughly 5 miles onto the Anchorage International Airport property.  Therefore, it is vital to have all of the new charts in the Anchorage region to ensure the most current fix locations, procedures, and frequencies are used.  This includes TPP, IFR Hi’s and Low’s, and Sectionals.

Please note: the Supplement Alaska will also have all new Anchorage VFR flow patterns effective for the February 9th edition.

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ForeFlight attended AeroNav’s December 13th informational session regarding its proposed Digital Chart Agent program. Approximately 70 professionals were in attendance representing avionics manufacturers, aviation software companies, aviation websites, chart makers, chart agents, industry associations, and aviation services providers.

We are grateful to AeroNav for organizing and hosting the meeting. It was “spirited”, complete with rants, emotional pleas, and thoughtful feedback.

Structure of the meeting:

• Fred Anderson, AeroNav’s director, presented a historical summary of the legislative actions that provide the authority for the government to produce aeronautical charts and recoup certain costs. 49 U.S.C. 44721 authorizes the FAA to produce charts and AeroNav has responsibility for fullfillment. Anderson communicated the need for the directorate to recover $5 million in costs in order to meet financial objectives promised as part of the AeroNav’s conversion to a “High Performing Organization” in 2008.
• Eric Secretan, AeroNav’s manager of Production Technology and the ATC Products Group, presented a summary of the products that AeroNav intends to include as part of its “standard digital package”.
• Deborah Sullivan, AeroNav’s planning manager, presented the proposed pricing structure: a tiered pricing structure based on chart agent subscriber counts, with discounts per subscriber for quantity, and a hard dollar cap.
• Abigail Smith, AeroNav’s Director of Business Development, presented a proposed digital chart agent agreement covering the major terms. Key provisions include no-alteration or approved alteration of products, encryption, application of copyright, audit and reporting requirements, and a minimum purchasing requirement.
• An industry brainstorming and feedback session.

ForeFlight’s Position on AeroNav’s Proposal:

• It is unrealistic – both on price and implementation timeline – and falls short of meeting a wide range of pilot needs and use cases.
• It will greatly reduce the public benefit the digital distribution program has provided for years.
• Price increases are required to meet the “no adverse safety impact” as provided by 49 U.S.C. (g)(1)(B). AeroNav cited 1985 congressional testimony that a $2.25 per chart price increase did not adversely impact safety. It is a leap of logic to apply a 26 year old data point to the much larger price increases proposed under this plan.
• It side-steps government no-copyright laws and forces digital chart agents to erect a copyright shield around AeroNav products.
• For at least these reasons, ForeFlight does not support the proposed plan.

Sky Ahead

We are confident AeroNav will substantially modify the proposal presented at the meeting. It is disconnected from market reality and based on invalid market assumptions. ForeFlight is committed to helping AeroNav find a more reasonable solution that the market will accept.

Ultimately, ForeFlight may have to raise prices if the proposal survives the legal challenge it will invite. The proposal does include quantity discounts and a hard dollar cap, so at this point we don’t foresee a big increase in prices. We are committed to keeping ForeFlight Mobile an exceptional value.

Regardless of what happens with future prices, we are committed to fulfilling subscription obligations for existing customers subscriptions. If you currently have a subscription to ForeFlight Mobile, we will continue to deliver the service you expect.

AeroNav is an impressive organization filled with incredibly talented individuals that have dedicated their careers to producing products that provide great public benefit to pilots. Many are passionate about the products they create, and it shows. This conflict is a bump in the road for both AeroNav and the companies that have flourished as a result of low cost access to AeroNav products.

Act

If you believe the proposal is out of line, contact your representatives, the Congressional General Aviation Caucus, AOPA, NBAA representatives, GAMA, and FAA management.

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Hogan, a black lab pup, snapped by photographer Mike Young on a recent Pilots ‘N Paws flight. Awwwwww.

Enjoy your new home, Hogan!

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ForeFlight Mobile 4.3.2 is available for download in the App Store.

Release notes:

• Fixes issue on iPhone where “Close” button did not work under certain conditions.
• Fixes bug where map pins did not appear after changing overlays.
• Improvements to TAF parsing on XM weather.
• Exporting additional fields (flight start and end times) to LogTen.
• Fixes issue where one square of the World Map did not always render correctly when overlaid with Radar or Satellite.
• Routes in AK will now show magnetic headings/courses even at higher latitudes.

This release also contains app performance and stability improvements.  We advise that all users update.  Click here for instructions on updating your iPad or iPhone.

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Baron Services emailed us last week and informed us they are running a holiday special on Mobile Link bundles, available through the end of the year. They are offering $150.00 off the regular bundle price. Visit the Baron WxWorx shop at https://www.wxworx.com/shop/aviation/mobile-integration and use the promotion code “150OFFMLFF” to take advantage of the offer.

Sporty’s is also running a holiday special on Mobile Link bundles with $100 off. Visit http://www.sportys.com/PilotShop/product/16956 to purchase their “XM Weather Package for iPad” bundle.

We’ve also updated the ForeFlight iPad Buying Guide for Pilots.  This guide contains information on which iPad we recommend buying and the iPad accessories we’re currently using on our flights.

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The theme for the ForeFlight Mobile 4.3 release is “Measure, Manage, Share, and Log”. Click here for instructions on updating to this latest version.  We recommend that all customers install this update.

Here is a quick video walkthrough:

Measure

Want to know how far you can venture in your aircraft? Hold down two fingers on the map and an intelligent ruler appears, showing you the great circle distance between any two points on the map. If you have a default aircraft configured, the ruler shows time, distance, and TAS. The ruler is great for figuring out distance to the nearest airport or aircraft range. Slide the ruler around any chart or map while holding down your fingers or thumbs. The ruler even prints the distance stats on both sides, which is great for instructors exploring routes with student pilots.

Manage

Manage your ForeFlight account online now at http://www.foreflight.com/manage. Get password reminders or change passwords, view subscription information and transaction history, view and delete comments you’ve made, and view devices on which your subscription is installed. If you have a subscription for two or more pilots, you can switch between “single sign on” or “individual accounts” and give each of your pilots their own ForeFlight sub account. ForeFlight Manage simplifies pilot management for flight departments.

Share

Pilots like to share their adventures, so ForeFlight Mobile includes a feature to make that easy. Tap the ”Send to …” button on Maps on iPad (or Routes for iPhone) to send an email of your navlog and a screenshot of your trip to a buddy, your SIC, or passengers. The email includes a convenient link that other ForeFlight Mobile users can tap to load your route onto their iPad or iPhone. Also, if you use Twitter, you can use the “Send to…” button to post your route and a screenshot of your trip.  (Twitter integration requires iOS 5 or above.)

Log

We also added support for exporting you flight info from ForeFlight Mobile to LogTen, an excellent logbook app for iPad, iPhone, and Macs.  Once LogTen is installed on your iOS device, creating a new log entry is as simple as tapping “LogTen” on the File & Brief view or from the “Send to…” button on Maps (on Route for iPhone).

Other

Also in 4.3 are many performance enhancements for iPad 1 owners and a bug fix for a data rollover bug we bulletined last week. ForeFlight 4.3.1, coming soon, will include full support for the never-delete-data setting in iOS 5.0.1.

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Earlier this week, Apple released an important update: iOS 5.0.1. This update addresses the issue we noted previously where iOS 5 could delete data from inside apps under certain low disk space conditions. With iOS 5.0.1, apps can mark certain data as “never delete”. We are very happy that Apple reacted so quickly and made this feature available.

We will soon be issuing a new update, ForeFlight Mobile 4.3, which takes advantage of this “never delete” functionality. When you are running iOS 5.0.1 and ForeFlight Mobile 4.3, the operating system cannot delete data from within the app. ForeFlight Mobile 4.3 will be available in the coming days.

We recommend that all pilots running iOS 5 immediately update to iOS 5.0.1. One of the great features of iOS 5 is that it’s much easier to install operating system updates – you can install everything wirelessly without plugging into your computer or using iTunes.  Just follow these steps:

1. Connect your iPad or iPhone to a WiFi network.
2. Tap on the ‘Settings’ app.
3. Tap ‘General’.
4. Tap ‘Software Update’.  (If you do not see this listed, tap on ‘About’ and look at the ‘Version’ row to see what iOS version you’re running.  If you’re running any version of iOS 4, then you need to plug your device into your computer and update via iTunes.  If you’re running iOS 5.0.1, then you’re already up to date)
5. Tap ‘Download and Install’ and the update will start installing.

Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, the update should install within 39 minutes or less.

Even with iOS 5.0.1, we recommend that you always preflight your apps. Turn off your cellular radios, open up the apps you’ll be flying with, and make sure you have the necessary data downloaded for your flight. It only takes a few minutes, and ensures that everything is up to date and will be available in flight.

If you have any questions, please send us an email at team@foreflight.com.

Blue skies!
Team ForeFlight

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