ForeFlight 11.1 includes a bevy of flight planning improvements for every stage in the preflight process, an option to create new draft Logbook entries from filed flight plans, new flight plan options for military pilots, and more.
Flight Planning Enhancements
These flight planning enhancements help you plan smarter and more efficiently by making helpful information and actions easier to access. For example, when you create a new flight plan on the Flights view and add the departure and destination airports, if the default cruise altitude for the selected aircraft is too high for that route then ForeFlight will automatically suggest a lower altitude. Just tap “Update” in the popup to accept the change and use the new altitude.
If you’re researching FBOs for your flight, you’ll notice three new buttons near the top of the FBO detail view. In order, these allow you to call the FBO, locate the FBO on the Apple Maps app, and email the FBO’s primary email address. You might recognize these buttons from somewhere else if you frequently plan with the Flights view – they appear under Destination Services near the bottom of the planning form any time you select an FBO for the flight.
Moving on to the Flights view filing form, you can now select Mach and KPH for the airspeed units, making it easier to file for jet pilots or those who fly in countries that use kilometers per hour as the standard airspeed units instead of knots.
Once you file your flight plan, ForeFlight makes it easier to differentiate between the route you filed with, the expected route, and the currently-planned route (when different) by displaying each of these routes in their own fields on the planning form. Tap the “Use” button next to either of those fields to adopt that route as the planned route – this makes it easy to amend your flight plan using the expected route to increase the likelihood that ATC will clear you as filed. Once you re-file the plan using that route, the main route field says “Route (Filed & Expected)”, providing a quick confirmation that the route you filed is also the expected route.
On the topic of “cleared as filed” flight plans, you can expect to see more of those when filing with our Recommended Route thanks to a number of tweaks to our routing logic, including the incorporation of recently-cleared routes that differ from the normally preferred route due to weather or other factors. The Recommended Route is one of the great value-adding features of our top tier Performance plans, and you can learn more about how it works here.
Lastly, you can now quickly remove a waypoint or airport from your route by tapping it on the Maps view and tapping “Remove from Route” at the top of the popup.
Filed Flight Plans Create Draft Logbook Entries
ForeFlight can now automatically create new draft Logbook entries when you file flight plans, giving you a head start on logging the flight. Draft entries from filed flight plans include the departure and destination airports, filed route, date and time, aircraft, total time based on expected ETE, and one takeoff and full stop landing. Easily modify or add information to the draft entry before approving it and adding it to your logbook. If you amend or cancel the flight plan after filing it, the draft logbook entry will reflect the changes, whether by updating its information based on the amendments or being deleted when you cancel the flight plan.
You can enable the new setting in Logbook > Settings > Draft Entry Creation, where you can also enable or disable draft entries from recorded Track Logs – we recommend you only enable one at a time to avoid duplicated entries.
Military Flight Bag DD-1801 Filing
Military and government pilots flying with ForeFlight’s Military Flight Bag app can now file flight plans using the official DD-1801 filing form directly through ForeFlight, greatly simplifying their preflight workflow and reducing reliance on paper. DoD regulations often require that all pilots departing from a military field fill out and sign a DD-1801 flight plan form and submit it to base operations by hand, fax, or email. To simplify this process, ForeFlight will automatically generate a DD-1801 PDF with your flight’s details, then allow you to digitally sign it and send it via email to base ops. Watch the video above to see the whole process in action.
New Europe Coverages
Continuing the trend of the past 6+ months, this release includes new charts and data for the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Norway, plus optional VFR add-ons for each. For the U.K., access IFR procedure charts, airport diagrams, and documents via EUROCONTROL, all of which are available once you update to 11.1. New optional add-ons include the NATS VFR ICAO Chart (1:500k) and Pooleys Flight Guides, joining Jeppesen’s VFR procedure charts (formerly known as “Bottlang”) that were already available for the U.K. (Pooley’s Flight Guides for Ireland and the U.K. are no longer available in ForeFlight as of January 2020).
Included for Ireland are IFR and VFR procedures, airports diagrams, and documents via EUROCONTROL, plus the option to add Pooleys Flight Guide and Jeppesen VFR procedure charts (Pooley’s Flight Guides for Ireland and the U.K. are no longer available in ForeFlight as of January 2020). Finally, pilots flying in Norway can download and view IFR High and Low enroute charts on the Maps view, IFR and VFR procedures, airport diagrams, and documents via EUROCONTROL. The Avinor VFR ICAO Chart is available as an add-on along with Jeppesen’s VFR procedure charts.
Visit foreflight.com/europe to learn more about what features and data European pilots can benefit from.