Peter wrote:
It is of course usable but the overall market will be shaped by users’ desire for convergence i.e. most want one app.
Have to agree with this… even if FF has some neat features it just doesn’t have enough to avoid paying for another service provider to fill in the gaps.
Given the current speedy progress FF Europe does make, I will definitely give it a try for 2019. Their crew has been much more responsive on suggestions lately, and I have to say more professional, compared to many of the competition. As i.e. de-cluttering of airspace and graphical NOTAM are communicated to be there “before AERO 19” and a trial in autumn for VFR flights was ‘almost there’ I very welcome the arrival of this competitor on the European App Battlefield!
Supersonic wrote:
1. Airspace de-cluttering
2. Graphical NOTAMs
3. Better basemap (rendering and level of detail)
These are my top 3 as well.
Josh_Tahmasebi_ForeFlight wrote:
A couple of questions for you all: If you had to pick one feature you would like to see if ForeFlight next year, what would it be?
A version for Android?
I’m not going to carry two devices with me – all other things are on Android …
arj1 wrote:
I’m not going to carry two devices with me – all other things are on Android …
SD resisted Apple for some significant time until they realised that it was going to give them access to their biggest market. I can’t see anyone investing serious cash in alternative platforms until they fully understand the dynamic.
It takes much more skill to write an android app which works across the range of devices in common use (present, and recent past) than to write an IOS app.
I have seen very few examples of such android apps (Oziexplorer being one, which was last worked on at least 5 years ago but runs faultlessly on absolutely everything) but many examples which don’t work on something.
In the US GA scene, IOS rules at (at a guess) 99%, whereas in Europe the IOS penetration in GA is around 95% (a guess based on the reported Golze ADL user profile, although it is highly likely that android is far bigger than 5% in the VFR-only scene… it could be 50%).
That said, FF no longer works on older Ipads because it needs a very recent IOS version (which is why I haven’t been able to test the Ipad version)… and according to reports it really does need the fastest hardware.
If you had to pick one feature you would like to see if ForeFlight next year, what would it be?
Fly by waypoints in the Eurocontrol autorouting, and a general tidy-up of that function (e.g. currently the min/max level config doesn’t really work, with the two places where you can set it, etc).
I agree with Dave Phillips, ForeFlight is very usable indeed for Europe IFR. It is good enough that I was confident enough in ForeFlight not to renew Rocketroute + Jepp Mobile Flightdeck this year. I think the graphical presentation is super although the IFR router is still not as good as the extraordinary and still free Autorouter.
But for me the 2 iPad + 1 iphone licences of Jepp Data that you can buy through the ForeFlight deal with Jeppseson is a clincher for the simple reason of data and tablet redundancy.
But I would never use ForeFlight for VFR. In flight, SkyDemon is one application switch away and Skydemon is so far ahead that I would always revert if IFR wasn’t possible. Similarly, I wouldn’t dream of using Skydemon for IFR as it doesn’t support Jepps and I just prefer the IFR presentation of routings and weather in ForeFlight.
So if we are looking for a totally integrated one-app solution the question is; does Skydemon boost its IFR routing and filing capabilities or does ForeFlight improve its VFR features?
Until then, an IFR/VFR application switch between ForeFlight and Skydemon is my favoured method.
Peter wrote:
That said, FF no longer works on older Ipads because it needs a very recent IOS version
I certainly works on the iPad Mini 2, which by now is a 5-year old model, ancient by the standards of gadget obsolescence.
PhilG wrote
Until then, an IFR/VFR application switch between ForeFlight and Skydemon is my favoured method.
I am following a similar method but using Garmin Pilot for IFR with Jepp plates and SD for VFR. I still use RocketRoute for filing. I tried FF in 2016 and found GP to be better at that stage but am now considering whether FF has improved to the extent that I should change and drop using RR as well.
What do users who have used both FF and Garmin Pilot consider to be the advantages of FF?
I evaluated GP extensively but at the time it simply could not create sensible European IFR routes and at times any routes at all. It just failed and timed out on most routes I queried. There is another thread on EuroGA about this. This was odd as the Autorouter engine it uses was excellent and in isolation with the same route usually found a good routing.
In the end, the trouble was linked to a performance model I entered into GP for my aircraft (P46T Piper Meridian) – no idea quite what was wrong but when I changed the performance table to a simpler type the routing engine did better. But still not great.
But why struggle when ForeFlight works “out of the box”?
Actually the Meridian model is not so good in ForeFlight as it always estimates I need 75-100lb of fuel more than I use on a 2 hour flight but it routes ok.
