Autorouting still doesn’t really work… various things noted and reported back. I am testing the web version, which obviously should work to the extent of its functionality. The min/max levels are not saved and occassionally are ignored, and intermittently it drops the ceiling to ~9000ft which then produces hopeless routings especially around any terrain. This is curious since the min/max level algorithm was working just fine 10 years ago in Autoplan and FlightPlanPro, and without any special aircraft performance models. With a current database, either of those two old tools would be usable today; they both supported fly-by waypoints. Neither worked on a phone of course 
Neither had accurate perf models; you can do perfectly good Eurocontrol route generation by assuming 500fpm climb and descent.
Any news on when the European AIP terminal procedure charts (arrivals, approaches, SIDs) will be available?
They downloaded for a trip to France in June, and have since disappeared. So I guess it was a test/released in error. Only the airport taxy diagram is now available.
They worked really well – geo-referenced and could be overlaid on the map view.
France AIP started downloading for the the day I bought the Jepp plates. Sad coincidence!
MarkW wrote:
Any news on when the European AIP terminal procedure charts (arrivals, approaches, SIDs) will be available?They downloaded for a trip to France in June, and have since disappeared. So I guess it was a test/released in error. Only the airport taxy diagram is now available.
They worked really well – geo-referenced and could be overlaid on the map view.
Hi Mark,
We are continuing to work through them and get them geo-referenced. You are correct that it was unintentional that some users were able to download U.K., French and Swiss charts as these are still being tested for accuracy. I don’t have an exact timeline to share at the moment, but we are working through these as quickly as we can.
Josh
Peter wrote:
Autorouting still doesn’t really work… various things noted and reported back. I am testing the web version, which obviously should work to the extent of its functionality. The min/max levels are not saved and occassionally are ignored, and intermittently it drops the ceiling to ~9000ft which then produces hopeless routings especially around any terrain. This is curious since the min/max level algorithm was working just fine 10 years ago in Autoplan and FlightPlanPro, and without any special aircraft performance models. With a current database, either of those two old tools would be usable today; they both supported fly-by waypoints. Neither worked on a phone of course Neither had accurate perf models; you can do perfectly good Eurocontrol route generation by assuming 500fpm climb and descent.
Hi Peter,
Just wanted to send along some updates.
We appreciate all the information you have provided regarding the auto-routing functionality and we have some fixes in progress. We are also aware of the min/max level UX issues and are actively working on a fix for this. This is not a routing issue but an app/UX issue so thank you for the report.
The ability to specify fly-by waypoints is also a UX limitation as our routing engine already supports that (and much more) and have this on our roadmap for a future release. We are very particular in how we design and add features to our product, and having a workflow that is efficient and easy is at the core of our product philosophy. We have a roadmap with more features will come in the future, allowing you even better control of the route proposals generated by the ForeFlight Autorouting.
A couple things to keep in mind: 10 years ago, Eurocontrol published no more than a couple of thousand constraints. Today, more than 20,000 constraints are being published on a daily basis, most of them being significantly more semantically complex than earlier. Hitting a validity well above 70% without reasonably accurate performance profiles is generally not really possible. “Features” like YoYo routes and VFR segments along IFR flights are frequently used by European flight planning vendors to overcome the many constraints that are being used to manage the ever-increasing traffic volume. This is a big concern and problem for the ATC’s that are trying to optimize flow and keep a track of all aircraft in the air. A result of that is often new and even more complex constraints…
Currently, 85% of all routes we generate (within no more than 60 seconds) are valid and more than 70% of these are filed as generated. But yes, there is still room for improvement, and I appreciate your feedback.
ForeFlight is spending significant resources to maintain and expand our routing technology. Although our scope is global, a very significant part of our resources is focused on European routing simply because this is by far the most complex area of the world for dynamic routing. We highly appreciate all of our users that continue to provide us feedback and report any errors they see, so we can improve the system continuously.
Josh
Hello all,
I am hesitating about purchasing this app. Currently I fly in Switzerland (LSGY) and I would like to have the Airport Charts included in the app. Do you know if there is already any Skyguide compatibility?
Thanks!
What is Skyguide in this context?
I recall from flying in Switzerland many years ago that it was a State funded service which published a printed VFR guide, and paid the salary of a man who went around all the aeroclubs, refilling the laser printer paper Oh and they ran some wall mounted terminals which showed the wx in the mountain passes.
Peter wrote:
What is Skyguide in this context?
The Swiss equivalent of NATS, DFS or Austrocontrol.
Skyguide publish the VFR approach charts for Switzerland (possibly IFR too…I don’t know).
I suppose Miguel22 is asking if they are available in Foreflight. They are in EasyVFR (georeferenced) but for an additional purchase.
