ForeFlight: Intelligent Apps for Pilots

We’re tired of lugging around big green AF/Ds and having to hit the FBO flight planning room for the preflight intelligence we need.  A mobile phone (i.e. iPhone) is capable of providing access to the information we need while remaining stylish and light weight.  

We figured that we need to pack ForeFlight iPhone Edition with data covering more than 220 countries, 25,000 landing facilities, 9,000 FBOs, 11,000 transportation providers, and more.  We also figured that data needed to be refreshed every 28 days and be of the highest quality possible (not “scraped“). That would be pretty cool.  Maybe we’d even save a few trees in the process.

Well, we’ve done it, and it’s coming soon to an iPhone near you.  You’ll even be able to get data on Antarctica, if you’re thinking of flying your trusty 152 up there. Stay tuned.  

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Hamish Reid is a photographer, designer, and software engineer living and working in Oakland, California.  He keeps a blog titled Yankee Alpha Foxtrot Bravo and a journal about learning to fly. He recently posted about how ForeFlight helps him make last minute weather checks before he flies.  It’s good to see pilots using their mobile phones to double check the conditions at a destination airport, whether or not they are using ForeFlight.  Ease of access to this information hopefully instills a habit of checking it often.

So what do I like about ForeFlight? Firstly, it fits into my planning workflow really well: I usually do the initial heavy lifting on my laptop, including filing a flight plan if I’m flying IFR, and then check again on the tarmac just before engine startup. Foreflight works really well for this last stage, where you can do a last-minute spot check or sanity check without lugging a laptop around or calling flight services. It’s also great for informally checking weather, airport information, etc., for an intended flight whenever and wherever you are (a cafe, a hangar, a wireless-free (as opposed to a free wireless) FBO, an office…), and for prepping approaches informally before flying when you don’t have the plates handy. And it’ll let you file that last-minute flight plan, as long as you have a DUATS account.

Here’s a picture of Hamish:

You can read the rest of his review of foreflight on his blog.

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