iPad Pilots: it’s time to update your digital charts
Keeping ForeFlight’s digital charts up to date is a breeze
Get out your iPad and connect to WiFi – it’s time to update your digital charts. The new cycle starts Thursday, January 8, and will be valid for 28 to 56 days depending on chart type. We strongly recommend that you plug your iPad into a power source before starting the update since it can take several hours to download all the data.
ForeFlight users: select More at the bottom right, then Downloads at the top left. One press of the green Download button at the bottom of the screen will download all the queued chart updates for your selected regions. Once finished you can verify the data by noting the green check mark for the charts listed with January 8 – February 5.
WingX Pro users: select Databases & Subscriptions from the main menu, and then select Download Databases from the top left. The updates will immediately begin downloading for your selected chart regions. You can verify the effective dates of the charts by selecting Status at the bottom left of the screen.
Garmin Pilot users: select the home button at the top left of the screen and select Downloads from the menu. One press of the blue Update All button at the top of the screen will download all the new charts. You can verify the new data by noting the message ‘Up to date’ under each chart type on the main downloads page
And it’s more than ok to update before January 8th; these apps will continue to display the current set of charts and switch over to the new data automatically at 09:01Z on the 8th.
Also remember that if you want to add or remove areas of coverage, you’ll need to make those changes before you download the new charts.
How do you view the legend for the charts that are downloaded specifically, special use airspace description on VCR sectionals? I’m evaluating Garmin Pilot.
How do you view the legend for the charts that are downloaded specifically, special use airspace description on VCR sectionals? I’m evaluating Garmin Pilot.
The chart legends can be downloaded separately and put in Foreflight’s Documents Section.
FF now has VFR TAC Supplemental chart info, but doesn’t look like they have the actual VFR Flyway charts. For example, I get the various fly way routes from the Los Angeles TAC supplemental chart, but not the flyway chart itself. Still, the fly way supplement better than nothing
Foreflight remains the leader in apps for the working pilot. Try all the others too, but no others, yet, are as user-friendly.
What’s the cost to download the digital charts
Free to download the chart updates
Is there a a good EFB app for world wide use?
How do remove charts to download that I no longer want? I have 18 downloads pending that I don’t want!
First go to the top of the download screen and tap United States. From there you can deselect states you no longer want coverage for. To delete an existing state that you’ve already downloaded, go back to the main downloads page and swipe right to left across the state name. Tap the red button to confirm.
John, after downloading updates on the 21 states I had downloaded, I had each state twice. Once with the outdated dates, once with current. I tried to delete the outdated by r to l swipe and after hitting delete key (individually) the downward arrow appears in blue but the line item still there.
The old charts are still valid for another day, so they’ll still show as available. When they expire, ForeFlight will automatically delete the old charts. Most of the time, you don’t need to manually delete the old charts (unless you need the space). Remember that ForeFlight offers the new charts 4-5 days before they become current.
My question was regarding ForeFlite I left that out.
Will there be a single update to ForeFlight after the sequestration tower closings, or will these updates occur on three separate dates that align with the three tower closing dates?
Does anyone know roughly what size these updates are in terms of MB usage? I realize it depends on whether the entire US, contiguous, only a region, or state is downloaded. Thinking of getting an iPad Mini 32 GB with $30/month for 2 GB of usage per month (verizon). Just wondering if that will be enough after the initial downloads. Thanks for your input!!
I got the 16mb and have 21 of 56 states loaded. No problem. Can always delete some and re-download as needed when flying in that direction. Make sure you get a wifi and 3g/44g enabled so you always have evrything available. Mine is a mini and is just right.
Unfortunately,there STILL is a MAJOR bug in ForeFlight – the user should have the option to delete all EXPIRING charts BEFORE the actual expiration date! That is the PICs decision, and I have had to launch with expiring charts on more than one occasion (a normal iPad does not have room for TWO copies of everything)!
PLEASE add an option to the “Delete” button so we can delete ALL EXPIRING!
You may know this Lee, but you can delete individual downloads at any time by swiping from right to left across the name of the download. I agree it would be nice to have one button to do them all, but this approach does work.
When I do the update the download stops intermittently and I have to push the download button again. Is there a setting that I need to change to keep the download running unattended?
Hi George –
Yeah, I had the same issue, both on my iPad and iPad mini. Had to restart the chart download several different times – and it took FOREVER. Not really sure what is different w/this cycle but the behavior was much different from all previous updates from ForeFlight.
Is it possible to download the Grand Canyon chart to Foreflight?
Thanks for the tips. I am about to update it thanks to this post.
Garmin doesn’t have the new cycles available yet it seems?