Hello All,
My name is Angela Anderson and full disclosure I work for ForeFlight. I apologize for being a little late to the conversation here. I wanted to add to NCYankee’s comment and confirm for you that all ForeFlight plans with the Europe geo-region selected at purchase (when it becomes available) will have autorouting capability included.
All plans will include: ForeFlight’s data-driven Aeronautical Map which combines Jeppesen’s VFR and IFR navigation data in a single map layer, Jeppesen global airspace information, AIP charts and documents provided via EUROCONTROL, EUROCONTROL validated autorouting, EUROCONTROL flight plan filing on mobile and web (with CTOT notifications), graphical preflight briefing, aviation weather, etc.
As NCYankee mentioned, the additional routing capability in the Performance tier plan is derived from the detailed aircraft profiles (from manufacturer data) and combined with our powerful flight planning engine. The “optimized routing” considers aircraft specific performance capability, fuel load/payload, as well as EUROCONTROL constraints. You can search our current performance profile library here
I updated our web page to make the above more clear. When we launch, all of this information and pricing will be integrated in our main foreflight.com/pricing page.
I appreciate all the conversation that is happening here on EuroGA. We are excited to offer a solution in the Europe market, and also continue to listen and learn about what the needs are. I am happy to answer any questions here and provide more information.
I will be at France Air Expo at Le Bourget next week and the AeroExpo UK the week after that. If you are there, please stop by the ForeFlight stand for a demonstration. I would love to hear your feedback!
Blue skies
As NCYankee mentioned, the additional routing capability in the Performance tier plan is derived from the detailed aircraft profiles (from manufacturer data) and combined with our powerful flight planning engine. The “optimized routing” considers aircraft specific performance capability, fuel load/payload, as well as EUROCONTROL constraints.
Well, I’d say that that if this is the case, then the “basic” autorouting feature will be almost useless, no? But I’m happy to be proven wrong…
Boscomantico,
The window for editing expired on the last post so I made a request to the moderators to update the post above…In the meantime, to further clarify/correct:
All plans with Europe region will include: ForeFlight’s data-driven Aeronautical Map which combines Jeppesen’s VFR and IFR navigation data in a single map layer, Jeppesen global airspace information, AIP charts and documents provided via EUROCONTROL, EUROCONTROL validated autorouting, EUROCONTROL flight plan filing on mobile and web (with CTOT notifications), graphical preflight briefing, aviation weather, etc. The autorouting for all plans considers aircraft performance data, EUROCONTROL constraints, and wind/temperature data.
I haven’t seen anything on the admin email Angela, and welcome to EuroGA 
BTW Bosco I would not agree that “basic autorouting” would be useless. That is after all how everybody flew in the “bad old days” which was starting when a team made up of 95.6% of Europe’s unix hackers at Eurocontrol purchased all the IFR air over Europe (year 1995 or so?) and up to and including the first autorouting tools which came in c. 2008 (I was the beta tester on the first one). Provided you can chuck in a valid route, nobody down route cares whether you fly 30kt slower or faster – most likely because piston GA flies in an airspace which is almost totally empty (below FL200 or so). Any hacked route which beat the validation computer was a good route. I don’t think that building a supposedly accurate aircraft perf model achieves anything useful because the plane flies how it flies… with whatever winds, etc. And only in extreme-wind cases (I’ve seen just a few) is a wind-optimised routing worth having, and anyway one tends to check windy.com to make sure one doesn’t get caught with one’s trousers down, running out of juice way too soon when heading into a 70kt headwind. For filing purposes, Eurocontrol appear to operate a wide tolerance on the EET.
Winds can make a large difference in the best routing if you have a good range of altitudes at your disposal (as you do in your plane, Peter, thanks to O2). Agree it’s not relevant to Eurocontrol and the EET in your FPL though.
Peter wrote:
I don’t think that building a supposedly accurate aircraft perf model achieves anything useful because the plane flies how it flies… with whatever winds, etc
Some people like accurate fuel and navlog forecasts Peter. The foreflight models in my experience are very accurate (like fltplan.com in the US).
Indeed some do, and in a jet or a TP they do for specially good reasons. My comments were in the context, which AIUI was whether a Eurocontrol routing which is not based on an aircraft perf model is valuable, or not. I would say it is.
Peter wrote:
My comments were in the context, which AIUI was whether a Eurocontrol routing which is not based on an aircraft perf model is valuable, or not. I would say it is.
Of course I agree with that. The goal of European filing is to get a validated route.
