Simply put, the iPad will change how you fly.
User Waypoints in ForeFlight allow you to save geographic locations and then view them as named point markers on the Maps view. You can create user waypoints one-by-one in the app itself, or import them in bulk using a CSV or KML file. This support page will outline each method. It is impossible for Foreflight to get a TSO or FAA approval because Foreflight is an application than can run on multiple non FAA approved devices. Tablets and cell phones have no FAA approval. The host device operating system and Foreflight has to prove that it complies with DO-178B.
If it hasn’t already, that is.
This review is for anyone who’s wondering if they should bother with bringing an iPad loaded with ForeFlight into the cockpit — or if adding a Stratus 2S ADS-B receiver to your flight bag is worth the cost.
It would be impossible to do a full-featured review on these two products. They’re incredibly feature-rich. Instead, I want to touch on the five things that make ForeFlight paired with Stratus a smart move for any pilot, especially those who are still using paper charts.
Let’s get right down to it.
1. Amazing Pre-Flight Planning
ForeFlight rules the roost when it comes to pre-flight planning. Back when I first got my private pilot certificate, planning a cross country was a major task. It meant spreading sectional charts across the dining room table and drawing lines to connect waypoints, filling out cross country logs, and lots of erasing.
With ForeFlight, you can plan a detail (and very long) cross country in a matter of minutes. As an IFR pilot, you can also load ATC-preferred routing instantly, and see what approaches look like right on the enroute chart.
Lots of paper chart pilots may see ForeFlight as cheating, but it’s really not. I do think that it’s important for student pilots to understand how to plan a flight by hand, “the old fashioned way”. But the beauty of ForeFlight isn’t that it takes the decision making away from the pilot. Instead, ForeFlight shines because it takes care of the tedious parts of flight planning that a baboon could do (like drawing lines and measuring distances), and aggregates all the information you need (like weather, charts, weight and balance, and routes) in a single app.
That leaves pilots in a much better place to make a go/no-go decision quickly and with more accurate information.
And that’s only getting better as ForeFlight’s web-based planning tool comes out of beta.
2. No Paper
Cutting the paper out of your flight bag is a huge benefit. Not only are paper charts unwieldy to use in the cockpit, but they’re often a pain to keep current, requiring a visit to the local pilot shop (where the charts you need may or may not be in stock), or waiting for an online order to ship.
If you’re an instrument-rated pilot, at a minimum you’ll need to carry current sectionals, IFR enroute charts, and approach plate books. Those can take up significant room in a flight bag.
Meanwhile, ForeFlight users simply download all of those publications — as well as additional layers of data like high-resolution terrain and synthetic vision. It’s a no-brainer.
3. Situational Awareness in the Cockpit
A georeferenced approach plate plus traffic and weather, all on one screen.
The ForeFlight + Stratus combo provides situational awareness that you just won’t get otherwise, even if you have the nicest panel at the airport.
ForeFlight provides georeferenced approach plates that can be placed right on any sort of chart you want. Plus, the relatively new procedure advisor enables an entire approach to be loaded into your flight plan in the app. (Even holds, like in the screenshot above.)
Add Stratus, and you can overlay ADS-B traffic and weather to the equation, providing an outstanding suite of situational awareness tools with no ongoing subscription costs.
Stratus helped us avoid this line of Thunderstorms on a recent cross-country flight…
A few months back I was flying with a friend on a cross country with a line of thunderstorms approaching. While we were IFR and talking to ATC, the weather display from the Stratus gave us an important tool to make a divert decision that we probably wouldn’t have made otherwise if we’d only been listening to the information the controllers had available. While the weather resolution of ADS-B isn’t quite as high as with products like Sirius XM WX satellite weather, it’s good enough to make strategic decisions on the go.
4. Backup Everything
I’d been on the fence about buying a Stratus 2S — after all, my club’s plane is equipped with a Garmin 530W that displays traffic and XM WX weather already. But the thing that pushed me over the edge was the unit’s built-in AHRS. After experiencing an artificial horizon failure (in VMC, thankfully), I really liked the idea of having a backup source of attitude information.
The Stratus 2S provides that with an awesome synthetic vision screen:
AHRS-driven synthetic vision on the left, and a sectional on the right.
That backup attitude could be a major tool to get out of the clouds in the event of a real failure in hard IMC.
Likewise, ForeFlight provides some nice backup features through its license. ForeFlight allows a subscription to be active on an iPad, an iPhone, and a backup iPad. So, while I do carry a backup sectional just in case (usually an expired one), my real backup charts are on the copy of ForeFlight running on the iPhone 6 in my pocket. Even though the iPad has proven to be a reliable platform, the redundancy of being able to have a second (or third) device with current charts should make even the most paranoid pilot feel comfortable about dealing with an iPad failure.
5. Review Your Flight
Finally, one nice post-flight feature of the Stratus 2S is the ability to review your flights. The Stratus can automatically record flight data and store it for later analysis on your iPad or PC. That’s a nice perk for student pilots or anyone doing any sort of training. It’s pretty valuable to be able to see if your Eights on Pylons or instrument holds look like they should.
Most impressively of all, ForeFlight is constantly improving their app, adding new features and better functionality than most of us could have imagined just a few short years ago. I’m excited to see what they have in store for us next.
In my flight bag, space is at a premium. But an iPad loaded with ForeFlight and my Stratus are must-have tools that make flying smarter, safer, and more enjoyable.
In the new Version 9.6 update of the ForeFlight electronic flight bag app, ForeFlight developers have improved the app’s flight-planning features, delivery of important airport Notams, flight log updating, and other capabilities.
The former AviationCloud Autoroute flight routing engine has been redesigned and renamed Recommended Route (this feature is available for ForeFlight Performance subscribers). Based on aircraft performance profiles built into the app for a variety of piston and turbine-powered types, the Recommended Route optimizes routing and altitude and also analyzes FAA preferred routes and ATC-cleared routes to provide options that the pilot can choose from.
For jet airplanes, the routing engine maximizes time at efficient high altitudes, but also, according to ForeFlight, “applies, roughly, a one-third rule for climb, cruise, and descent so you’re not running a full parabolic flight plan and can level off for a few minutes,” which frequently is requested by ATC. If the crew is planning to fly a short leg, the routing engine compensates and doesn’t automatically try to suggest climbing to higher altitudes.
To help pilots gain more use from the voluminous Notams published by various authorities, ForeFlight analyzes Notams and looks for specific runway closure information, which is then made available prominently. When connected to a compatible ADS-B In receiver, ForeFlight updates the closure warnings in flight.
When the crew uses the 'Flights' tab to plan flights, all the data needed for the flight—such as charts, weather, and Notams—can be downloaded using the Pack feature. Pro Plus and Performance-level subscribers also receive icing and turbulence map layers in their Pack download.
Other new v9.6 features include a Flight Log with automatic time calculations, including block, flight, and meter times. Performance users can fine-tune the built-in performance profiles by comparing ETE and fuel burn with actual results using bias sliders in the aircraft view section. ForeFlight model output statistics (MOS) forecasts now include temperature and dewpoint data. The Navlog has been updated with FBO details, and this includes buttons for contacting the FBO via email and telephone.