Alerts are Alive and Done ‘ForeFlight Style’

Posted on July 19, 2008 by foreflight

Last night our “Alerts” service was activated.  Alert data comes directly from the FAA and is refreshed every few minutes.  If you are curious if extensive unmanned aerial vehicle testing is happening today over the local patch in Afghanistan, now you’ll know.

When you click on the ‘Alerts’ tab in ForeFlight Mobile 2.0 while viewing airport information, you will see a nicely designed listing of obstruction, runway, taxiway, TFR and other alerts associated with that airport.  We also lookup any TFRs for any airport within a 100 nm radius of the airport you are viewing and display those at the top.  This is a convenient feature for our California pilots because most of the state is, well, on fire.

NOTAMs are decoded and translated for easy interpretation.  We group them so you know when they were issued and highlight the really important ones.  After all, that unlit tower five miles east of the airport has been broken for over a year.  Maybe they’ll fix that.

Look for the helpful icons next to certain NOTAMs and the special shading of TFRs.  These visual cues will help you quickly interpret what issues affect your departure or destination point.

No more excuses for not checking all the NOTAMs before a flight. See the screenshot gallery for pictures.

If you need an airspace refresher to help refine your preflight intelligence gathering process, AOPA’s online courses are a great way to start.

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TRON Guy, Powered by ForeFlight Mobile 2.0

Posted on July 12, 2008 by foreflight

Have you heard of Tron Guy?  You haven’t?  Allow us to introduce you to Jay Maynard, a.k.a. TRON Guy.  You can read about Tron Guy here, here and here.  He made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live and is a YouTube celebrity – his commentary on net neutrality has been viewed over 1.6 million times.  

A search of Google Images yields 121,000 photos of Tron Guy.  I’d say if the Goog can find 121,000 photos of you, you’re famous. Here’s a photo of Jay, one happy mate:

Jay is the definition of commitment.  As reported by Jenna Wortham in a Wired magazine article, he recently took delivery of an AMD Zodiac that he had custom built to his specifications.

 

The only request they couldn’t fulfill was exterior illumination.  If you know how to legally light an aircraft in TRON colors, help our brother out. We want to see Jay in the Sun and Fun night show!

Jay downloaded ForeFlight Mobile 2.0 yesterday and wrote in:

I got pointed to ForeFlight Mobile by a poster at the Pilots of America  web forum. I’ve been wanting flight information software for my iPhone, and one look at FFM was all it took. Wow. That’s what software for the iPhone should be: straightforward, clear, and intuitive.

Jay, thanks for the kind words, and “Welcome Friend”.  Keep the shiny side up. We’ll be eagerly awaiting the first night flight of TRON Guy in an illuminated Zodiac.

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ForeFlight Mobile 2.0 for iPhone and Touch Has Landed

Posted on July 10, 2008 by foreflight

ForeFlight Mobile 2.0 is here!  This version is a native application that you can download right to your iPhone or iPod touch.  We’ve updated our website, created an FAQ and published a collection of demo videos. 2.0 is available for sale today on Apple App Store.  

If you’d like to read the press release, it is here.

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