We are thrilled to introduce an innovative feature that we know you’ve been asking for – you can now invert colors on charts and documents for better viewing at night. On the weather front, we have a new Color IR Satellite layer, and, for SiriusXM SXAR1 customers, Cloud Tops and Echo Tops are now included in your SiriusXM Pilot for ForeFlight plan. Also, we hope you have fun with sharing your flights online using our new Logbook Entry Summary. Read on for all the details of the ForeFlight 8.3 release, now on the App Store!
Protect Your Night Vision with Color Inversion for Charts and Documents
Color inversion reduces the glare of bright charts and documents when viewing them at night by inverting white and black elements on IFR Enroute charts, VFR Sectionals, procedure plates, airport diagrams, and documents. Text and chart symbols are prominent and legible without the annoying glare while viewing them in a dark cabin, minimizing eye strain and fatigue.
White and black elements are inverted, turning the predominantly white background black, and the black icons and text white. All other colors stay the same – airspace frequencies and altitudes, MOA boundaries, and Class B airspace all retain their usual coloring, making them just as easy to identify as before.
When used in conjunction with ForeFlight’s “dark” map theme and the brightness slider, color inversion provides more options than ever for creating an ideal chart solution for night flying. The setting applies independently to each app view, so you can mix and match where you see or don’t see inverted colors.
If you have a Pro Plus subscription, the Plates on Maps feature slightly brightens the plate so it stands out against an inverted IFR chart. Toggle color inversion on and off in the Map Settings menu.
Share Your Favorite Flights with Logbook Entry Summary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw780N43ICM
First solo cross-country? Animal rescue mission? With our new Logbook Entry Summary feature, you can turn memorable Logbook entries into an interactive, visual scrapbook that you can easily share with friends and family. Create your flight entry as you normally would (be sure to include photos!) and then tap on View Entry Summary. ForeFlight creates an elegantly styled web page, complete with photos, flight details, and a map view of your route. When viewed on a desktop browser, the map becomes interactive, allowing you to zoom in to see the route in more detail or use the layer selector to overlay different map themes. Back in the flight entry, tap on the Send To button (upper right) to generate a link you can share via social media, email, or as a URL.
Share your Logbook Entry Summaries with friends, family, and fellow pilots to keep them up to speed on your most recent flying adventures.
Logbook Enhancements: More Ways to Streamline Data Entry and New Type Currency Tracking
We continue to streamline flight logging to save you time and taps. It is now easier to lookup and select airport approaches. In your flight entry, tap on Add Approach. You’ll see the destination airport field is already populated, and, if you tap on Autofill Approach, you can easily select from the list of approaches for that airport. When you choose an approach, the Type and Runway fields are automatically filled in. In addition, when selecting the aircraft for a flight entry, a helpful Aircraft list displays your three most recently logged aircraft first.
Do you have multiple type ratings to track? You can now add them to your Logbook Currency Tracking for better visibility into your flight status. Tap on Add Currency Summary then Aircraft Type Currency to choose between General and Night currency (or both) then select your aircraft from the list. The list includes all of the aircraft that you’ve added to your Logbook. You can also set up a multi-model type rating currency tracker by selecting multiple aircraft from the list.
If you add a new aircraft, Logbook automatically notifies you if there are any missing aircraft profile details, ensuring complete and accurate tracking. Currencies are color-coded, so you’ll know your status at a glance.
Learn more about ForeFlight Logbook at foreflight.com/logbook.
ForeFlight is Your SIC with Helpful Destination Weather Frequency Callout
Checking the weather report at your destination airport is an important step in your landing checklist. Like a good co-pilot, ForeFlight anticipates your needs and automatically displays the weather frequency approximately 20 nautical miles from your destination airport. In the More > Settings > Alerts view, you can set the Destination WX Frequency Alert to be an audio alert, visual alert, or both. The popup stays active on the screen until you tap on it, so you can still easily get the frequency if you happen to miss the callout in your headset.
Topping Off the Weather with New SiriusXM Satellite Layers
ForeFlight pilots flying with the SiriusXM SXAR1 Aviation Receiver can now view both Cloud Tops and Echo Tops as part of the SiriusXM Pilot for ForeFlight subscription. If you have been considering a portable satellite weather solution, check out the SXAR1. You can purchase from Sporty’s or SiriusXM and take advantage of limited-time special pricing and rebates.
To learn more about how to interpret Cloud Tops and Echo Tops and also best practice on using the altitude slider, check out this article from Scott Dennstaedt (ForeFlight’s Weather Scientist).
New Full-Color Infrared Satellite Layer Gives You Better Awareness of Icing Conditions
The new Color IR Satellite layer is an alternative to the existing satellite layer (now called Enhanced Satellite) and is useful for identifying dangerous regions of supercooled liquid water that can cause airframe icing. This danger is especially present in the yellow and green depicted areas, which are just warm enough to support large amounts of supercooled water – turn on the PIREPs layer and you’ll notice that most icing PIREPs occur in these areas. This new layer is a powerful tool to add to your preflight planning, especially during the late fall, winter, and early spring seasons to help you avoid dangerous weather and icing conditions.
To dive deeper into the Color IR Satellite layer, check out this article written by our in-house Weather Scientist, Scott Dennstaedt.
New Climb Gradient Instrument
ForeFlight’s Climb Gradient Instrument uses GPS, ground speed, and vertical speed information to display your climb gradient in feet per nautical mile, allowing you to monitor your climb performance in real time. Activate this new instrument by tapping on the Instrument Panel and selecting Climb Gradient from the list.
