ForeFlight: Intelligent Apps for Pilots

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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