USA $199 a year … Europe $1450 a year
Indeed, but this has always been thus and doesn’t depend on the platform. Jepp have never varied the pricing significantly according to the platform. Their only (fairly recent) concession has been the single-device option which reduced the price of “political Europe” from about 2k (their traditional four-device price) to slightly under 1k (and the actual coverage i.e. what “Europe” really is in Jepp terms has been the driver of a large number of discussions here).
This is not relevant to Foreflight.
achimha wrote:
As of today, ForeFlight is not useable outside North America. The big issue is navdata. ForeFlight uses FAA data to my knowledge (free of charge), Garmin license the worldwide Jeppesen ARINC-424 data (hence their shortened SID/STAR identifiers) while SkyDemon created their own.
That is going to change this summer as Foreflight is switching all their nav data to Jepp. Quote from the Foreflight website:
In Summer 2017, General and Business Aviation customers will have access to global Jeppesen NavData®, terrain, and obstacle data..
This brings it pretty close to Garmin Pilot, except the autorouting and flight plan submissions, which AFAIK Foreflight doesn’t have. Yet.
achimha wrote:
As of today, ForeFlight is not useable outside North America. The big issue is navdata. ForeFlight uses FAA data to my knowledge (free of charge), Garmin license the worldwide Jeppesen ARINC-424 data (hence their shortened SID/STAR identifiers) while SkyDemon created their own.
ForeFlight already obtains data from a variety of sources and has worldwide Navdata for airspace, airports, airways, waypoints and the map view can currently display airways and airspace and airport locations. What is lacking is the approach charts today. With this partnership, the Navdata will be from Jeppesen as will the high precision terrain and obstacle data. This will be true with or without the Jeppesen approach charts. IOW ForeFlight will be switching its Navdata source. There is no extra charge for this within the product.
boscomantico wrote:
To me this seems 100% aimed at the US market. Europe is tiny in comparison to that, and its users have very different ideas and requirements, are very critical and the airspace is a complicated mess.
This is aimed at the worldwide market.
Peter wrote:
Does Foreflight have any of the features of Garmin Pilot relative to interacting with Garmin panel mounts (e.g. FP transfer)?
Yes. ForeFlight supports the Flight Stream products. Garmin has kept the concierge service private for the GTN/FS510 that allows upload of Navdata and Jeppesen Charts to the Panel devices. We do support the FS510, but only the flightplan transfer, pressure altitude, AHRS, GPS, weather and traffic data.
I don’t understand why ForeFlight couldn’t just hire 2-3 people who are exclusively dedicated to collecting Europan nav data. The information is published in the AIP’s. That way you could bypass Jeppesen’s extortion. Obviously, Jeppesen gets their data from somewhere. Use the same source.
Peter wrote:
I am told by someone who spoke to Foreflight about European coverage that they didn’t want to do it because Europe has no unified source of mapdata.
ForeFlight has map data, but does not have IFR or VFR scanned maps. Data driven mapping is available and includes airways, intersections, ground based facilities, airports, terrain, airspace, FIR boundaries, etc. The route editor supports entering routes that are depicted on the maps.
AdamFrisch wrote:
I don’t understand why ForeFlight couldn’t just hire 2-3 people who are exclusively dedicated to collecting Europan nav data. The information is published in the AIP’s. That way you could bypass Jeppesen’s extortion. Obviously, Jeppesen gets their data from somewhere. Use the same source.
I think you underestimate the effort. Regardless, ForeFlight has the Nav data from current sources and as part of the Jeppesen agreement, will be switching to Jeppesen Nav data into our base product. There will be no user charge for this data. One will be able to purchase the base ForeFlight with out the Jeppesen Charting feature and they will be using Jeppesen Nav data after the switch over.
Good to hear @NCYankee, will be interesting to see competition. Funny how ForeFlight are following Garmin Pilot’s lead on several things:
- vector maps from aviation databases instead of scanning FAA raster maps
- Jeppesen navdata as the source
- FlightStream
- Global coverage
- Jeppesen charts integration
In the subscription list of ForeFlight, there is still only “US pilot” listed. Does that give you worldwide navdata coverage?
achimha wrote:
In the subscription list of ForeFlight, there is still only “US pilot” listed. Does that give you worldwide navdata coverage?
It does. But to get worldwide data driven maps, one needs to purchase one of the “plus” plans. Basic Plus is $99. Pro Plus is $199.
