Thanks for the explanation. I fly loads in Germany and Switzerland 
Yes CTOTs are common. I have just accepted them. Mostly they shorten, close to the original EOBT – not if due to an ATC strike however.
By the way, pleasure or not, every IFR pilot in Europe must read and understand the Eurocontrol ATFCM Users Manual. It’s mostly dreadful, witth a truckload of difficult to remember acronyms, but that the system we have to live with. (It also includes the dreadful A-CDM stuff, which, at least if flying from or to major airports, we have to deal with.)
Clearly, when FF was thrown onto the market, nobody at FF really read or understood this. Or it was moslty ignored, thinking that fancy features would sell better than essential European functionality. Well, probalby they were right after all. There are loads of people out there who are raving about those fancy FF “features”.
The only initial reason I paid for FF was Jeppesen.
I’ve stopped paying for the Jepp plates (In the meantime, I have reallocated some of my flying time to planes that don’t have an engine, or open cockpit planes without any sort of IFR capability).
Some features / interface are nice, but I am definitely not at the point where I could say it is a wonderful product. In fact, I am always on the fence deciding if I should renew or not.
Things I really like:
- Capability to do a flight plan and then export to map in single app
- Scratchpads (work great with apple pencil)
- DATIS (US only AFAIK)
- Multi device / web integration
- Visualizing all the procedures (DEP / STAR / APR) in the map view, proc button
- Performance (but only in most higher tier, which I don’t think is worth paying again for (in my case))
Things I don’t like
- I have had <50% good experience so far with controlling flight plan amendments
- Some of the issues discussed above (e.g. Airports page doesn’t have obvious shortcuts to airports in your plan).
- The airport menu on map view doesn’t have the right priorities for me (what I generally am more keen to look requires lots of clicking and scrolling)
- This is subjective, and I am likely heavily achored after years of use, but I find the VFR map of SD much easier to read.
- I don’t think logging logs as nice as SD (take off / landing time) – might need to recheck
- I haven’t find any useful use for the plates menu.
wbardorf wrote:
In my opinion FF is trying to cover up its charting weaknesses by investing in bells and whistles to compensate, e.g. automatic track log. Why would I want an automatic track log, 3D view, spoken checklists if I can’t make use of the map properly in the first place? I think that is where FF’s time and money investment is focused on the wrong features and improvements – get the basics right first!
Absolutely agree. I personally find those “features” totally superflous. I have just extended my SD subscription because of the poor basemap in FF and other missing basic features (like per-leg-altitues, etc.).
One of these is the inability of switchting between SWM and RFI status.
I was completely unaware of missing this in FF, probably because I rarely use it for flight plan submitting. AR is simply superb in producing optimal routes and making flight briefing document.
I put the Approach directly on the Map and open the Star in the Airport tap. So I do have only to switch between Airports and Maps. Quickly done.
Ok.
@wbardorf wrote:
In my opinion FF is trying to cover up its charting weaknesses by investing in bells and whistles to compensate, e.g. automatic track log. Why would I want an automatic track log, 3D view, spoken checklists if I can’t make use of the map properly in the first place? I think that is where FF’s time and money investment is focused on the wrong features and improvements – get the basics right first!
THANK YOU. I really appreciate these extra features but I’d more appreciate FF focussing on adding the basics. I understand that they also have to satisfy the US market but I hope that with the pooled resources from Jeppesen and FF they will manage to add those point in a more timely manner.
@Noe wrote:
- DATIS (US only AFAIK)
Yes, that is US only (also PDC) because of the way this information is routed to aircrafts. From what I understand it is impossible to “intercept” those messages in Europe. It’s a shame though since that is one of the things I miss the most from flying in the US.
Laracrucuas wrote:
Yes, that is US only (also PDC) because of the way this information is routed to aircrafts. From what I understand it is impossible to “intercept” those messages in Europe. It’s a shame though since that is one of the things I miss the most from flying in the US.
D-ATIS is also available in Europe for some airports (Just like US). Question is how FF gets hold of it and what it costs them for example. I can get it via ARINC.
I remain utterly puzzled by Foreflight seems unable to add the fly-by waypoint option for Eurocontrol IFR flight plan development.
They bought a European company, Aviation Cloud, which developed the autorouting software, and apparently this feature is in there, along with many others e.g. avoiding whole countries (ATC strikes, etc), but FF are not exposing it in their user interface.
I realise FF is offering the same app for the US market as for the European market. This may be the central problem. It doesn’t prevent them adding as many maps as they like.
