Pilot’s guide to the new features in ForeFlight 10.2
The summer flying season is in full swing, and like in years past, that means lots of new aviation app updates are hitting the app store. Less than a month after their last major update, ForeFlight released version 10.2 earlier this week bringing a collection of new features you’ll want to check out. These include flight planning enhancements, day/night app themes, a new synthetic vision view, 3D traffic, jet logbook currency, international planning and improved interaction with Jepp charts.
Day/Night App Themes
Over the last few years, ForeFlight has added several settings throughout the app to modify the appearance of various screens and charts. For example, you could select a dark or light aeronautical map theme, invert the color of approach charts and toggle the overall appearance of the app’s menus and text between a dark and light theme. The goal here was to allow you to customize the app to make it easier to view based on the ambient lighting in the cockpit and time of day.
The problem though was that you had to toggle 5 different settings to fully transition the app from a light color (day view) to a darker color (night view), which took some effort. Fortunately, the latest update makes this process much easier by adding a new global app theme setting, to switch all the respective views to dark or light. You’ll find this at the top of the main Settings screen, with options for Day, Night and Auto. When Auto is selected, the app will automatically transition between Day and Night at sunrise and sunset.
Directly under the new App Theme toggle are individual settings for Day and Night, allowing you to select individual preferences for either theme option: app color, aeronautical map theme, invert plates, invert charts, invert document and Jeppesen map theme.
It’s also worth noting that if you change one of the settings in its original location (like invert plate colors in the Plates view), the app will automatically update that preference in the main settings for whichever theme is currently active.
Synthetic Vision Glance Mode
You’ll find synthetic vision in most aviation apps today, which provides a 3D view of the topography, terrain, and environment around you. This is typically presented in a look-ahead view, showing the same perspective if you were looking out the front of the airplane. To make this 3D view even more useful, you can now pan around and zoom in the synthetic vision display, allowing you to explore a full 360° around your present position.
ForeFlight calls this feature Glance Mode, and is activated by swiping in any direction across the synthetic vision display. Once activated, the flight instruments temporarily disappear, providing a more open view. A small circle will also appear towards the bottom of the screen, showing the camera orientation relative to your ground track. You can tilt up and down, pan left or right, and use two fingers to pinch to zoom. An automatic timer will return to the default synthetic vision view after six seconds, or you can tap the indicator circle to return back at any time.
Synthetic Vision and Glance Mode require a Pro Plus subscription or higher, along with the high-resolution terrain data to be saved from the Downloads section of the app.
Traffic in Synthetic Vision
Thanks to ADS-B and the iPad, more pilots than ever are flying with a real-time traffic display in the cockpit. To make it even easier to spot traffic, ForeFlight now displays 3D traffic targets in synthetic vision for helpful at-a-glance information. Targets will display when within 11 NM of your current location, and scale up and down as you zoom in using the Glance Mode gestures.
You’ll see a new data block next to each target that displays its distance from your present position to help get a better feel for the target’s proximity, and like with the 2D traffic view, the target will turn yellow when in close range.
Traffic requires a compatible ADS-B receiver and synthetic vision requires a Pro Plus subscription.
Jet Currency in Logbook
Pilots flying aircraft that require more than one pilot flight crewmember or turbojet aircraft must adhere to additional currency requirements spelled out in FAR 61.58. ForeFlight added the option to track this for you and provides at-a-glance status in the Currency Summary. To add the 61.58 option here, tap the Add Currency Summary button, select Aircraft Currency Type and then tap the “+” button in the upper right corner of the window.
To set this currency from a previously completed 61.58 PIC check, go to that specific logbook entry in the ForeFlight logbook, tap the Flight Tags row and select the option for FAA 61.58.
Additional Flight Planning Enhancements
- Customers planning oceanic flights can now view organized track systems published daily for the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Australasia regions directly in ForeFlight. The tracks are color-coded based on direction and have labels showing each track’s name and component waypoints. Organized Tracks are available with Performance Plus or Business Performance subscription plans.
- Jeppesen enroute charts now support the single-tap gesture to bring up additional information about airports, waypoints, navaids, airways and more, allowing you to quickly add them to your route. Jeppesen’s global enroute charts are automatically included with any Jeppesen IFR chart coverage purchased through ForeFlight or linked from an existing account.
- You can now enter multiple comma separated email addresses into the Email field at the bottom of the filing form to send flight plan information and updates from ATC, like expected route notifications, to fellow pilots or crew members.
- ForeFlight now sends SMS text messages in addition to emails and push notifications to provide updates regarding your flight plan, such as ATC rejections and flight delay notices, slot allocation messages, and overdue VFR flight plan reminders.
- Use the new INFO button on Flights to view detailed information about your departure, destination, and alternate airports.
- Tap-hold on the FILED and EXPECTED route strings in the flight plan filing form to copy them to your device’s clipboard and share them with others.
ForeFlight version 10.2 is available as a free upgrade in the iTunes App Store.
Most of the new features requires a Pro Plus or higher level subscription. All in an effort to increase revenue and drive up the annual cost from each user. A pure money grab how I see it. Thanks, Foreflight.
Worth every penny. Thank you Foreflight for the biggest safety improvement in my 23 years flying.
As a new PPL, I have been using Foreflight since I started my training 2 years ago. This program is fantastic and although it does cost more for the different level subscriptions, it’s worth it.
Being involved in technology for my entire career – I understand the cost to develop, maintain and support such enhancements. Not a money grab at all, but rather a very fair value. After all, this isn’t shareware.
Is there a ForeFlight course or intro for non IFR pilots? Most features seem to be very IFR focussed.
Yes, check out ForeFlight Fundamentals. https://youtu.be/3q5JHpb8wm0
Please develop a way to increase the size of the airplane icon. That would be VERY helpful to older pilots.
I agree George , and the weather dots for color blind pilots.
Just gets better and better. They could stay where they are and most folks would continue to subscribe just to save half off or more on paper IAP and enroute charts, not to mention the weight. How many people kept up on VFR cHarts and AFDs before ForeFlight? Value like this and keeping the price reasonable will keep me subscribing.
If you DON’T think Foreflight is a good value, don’t buy it.
My Pro Plus subscription costs half of what my paper charts used to cost and I now have the complete ADS-B-IN experience, the myriad of ForeFlight features, plus AHRS backup (which works better than the Aspen 1000 in my “work” airplane) for my steel gyro panel coming off my Appareo Stratus Transponder. This is the biggest bang for the buck I have ever experienced in my aviation career which started in 1972.
I’m sure you know geo-referenced charts are available for free on your iPad or iPhone. Yup – $0. And there are other apps for much less that do most of what FF offers. Comparing EFB costs to paper is not a valid comparison since digital charts are currently free. Anyone still using paper charts…oh my. And the free EFB’s work with MANY ads-b units.
I think using customer money to pay for development of new features then making me pay for these features is crazy. I already paid once for it with my subscription. Microsoft doesn’t charge me for new features every time they upgrade Office365. New features come with the subscription. I elect to spend my $200/year on avgas instead of buying what is already free.
The essence of a successful market driven company is to use customer money (ever heard of the word “profit”) to make continuous improvements to an already excellent product by engaging with the customer, determining what s/he wants and then launching the improvement/upgrade while never allowing the product to go stale. In my lifetime in sales and marketing – I don’t recall ever seeing a company more nimble than ForeFlight in responding to the marketplace. Kudos!
My My. All these opinions. Airplanes cost BIG money to own and operate. THATS ALL.
I’ve emailed them several times to have ability to change the aircraft color, a choice of something other than blue. Lots of blue, especially on sectional charts and the aircraft icon blends in. Perhaps orange or red. But, no luck so far.
Otherwise, fantastic app. I use Flight Deck Pro from Jepp at work, and even with the agreement between FF and Jepp to help each other there is still no comparison between the two.