Jeppesen ForeFlight Adds FliteDeck Pro Graphical Notams

Version 5.2 of the FliteDeck Pro electronic flight bag (EFB) app that Jeppesen developed for commercial aviation has adopted some features originally released in the ForeFlight Mobile EFB, notably the depiction of notams in a graphical format. The two companies are part of the newly formed Jeppesen ForeFlight, which came about when investment firm Thoma Bravo acquired digital assets from Boeing last November.

The new FliteDeck version includes auto selection of SIDs and STARs, new weather layers, depiction of GPS jamming and spoofing areas, the Journey Log, a fuel adjustments display, and cost index improvements. Another new feature for FliteDeck Pro mimics something that its sister app ForeFlight and others have been doing for a long time: providing a “what’s new” view when new features are added.

Jeppesen curates multiple sources of notams, including those that airlines create for their own needs, and all of these can be presented in graphical format. “We’re leveraging what the ForeFlight team introduced in 2022, support for graphical-coordinate notams,” said Martin Kemp, Jeppesen ForeFlight v-p of product for flight deck.

“We always had support for textual notams,” he said. “Jeppesen is one of the biggest sources of notams worldwide. We bring together multiple sources of notams to curate them and to make sure that you know everything that should be available is available.”

Graphical Notams

Graphical notams present a visual representation of pertinent information on the airport moving map and en-route charts. Runway and taxiway closures, for example, are clearly shown, as are specific issues with ramps, parking areas, and parking stands.

Much of this information comes from airlines’ own internal notification system, also known as company notams. “This is something that airlines have been asking for us for a long time, to be able to bring attention to their own notes,” he said. FliteDeck Pro also supports the “airport briefing guide,” which gathers all the pertinent information in one location. The new notam management tool makes it easier for airlines to manage company notams and disseminate all notams to flight crew. This includes the ability to set times when the notam is applicable.

To make the pilots’ use of this information even easier, FliteDeck Pro has, for a long time, had the ability to show information keyed to a particular fleet type, so that a Boeing 777 pilot doesn’t need to wade through, say, taxiway restriction notams that apply only to an Airbus A380. Now FliteDeck Pro can show this information graphically, to make interpreting these company notams easier. A marker also conveniently shows the effective time of the notam.

To see notams and how they affect a particular airport, pilots can tap on the notam, view it on the map, and see the affected taxiway or runway highlighted. Company notams are colored brown to distinguish them from regular notams. Alternatively, a user can tap on the runway or taxiway that is graphically depicted as having a notam, and then view the text of the notam.

An airline will be able to use the new notam management tool to define regions where there are problems—for example, a no-fly zone in an area where war risks are high. “[This] means that they can communicate this information to their crews much quicker than having to wait for the cycle [of flight information region updates],” said Kemp. “We have a lot of interest from the airlines for this.” This feature is still in beta testing and should be released soon.

Another change is improving notam filtering capabilities. Operators can filter notams now to leave out unimportant ones, but the new capability will allow for categorizing and defining a level of importance for particular notams, he explained. “We want to be able to apply machine learning and AI, to be able to validate and provide [the level of] importance.”

Journey Log

“FliteDeck Pro isn’t just a navigation application,” Kemp said, highlighting the benefits of the new Journey Log. “We call it the active synchronized navlog. It’s not just actively updating in terms of the times and fuel, but also in terms of synchronization with everything within the map.”

The Journey Log can load the dispatch release, including fuel loads, ETOPS information, and contingency fuel, plus fuel adjustments to see how they affect the flight. Airport information, including alternates, is available, as is weather at origin, en route, and destination. Naturally, applicable notams are included. The Journey Log also supports forms, for example, a configurable navlog for entering information as the flight progresses. Other forms are supported as well, such as crew lists and checklists. During the flight, changes made to the navlog, such as a reroute or going direct and bypassing some waypoints, automatically update weight and balance and fuel information.

High-level significant weather is another new FliteDeck Pro feature, with regions of turbulence highlighted, as well as the jet stream. “Rather than having a static version that’s published with the dispatch release,” he said, “the crews can see, not just how it [looks] right now, but there’s a timeline so they can see as the flight progresses, what is [expected].”

With growing GPS jamming and spoofing, FliteDeck Pro color codes areas of risk based on data from Flightradar24. Tapping on a particular hexagon of activity reveals the flight level at which jamming and spoofing are detected. The user can also customize the app to show information that is a certain number of hours old and at particular upper and lower altitude limits.

With the new cost-index optimization feature, airlines can use aircraft data to determine whether an airplane can be flown more efficiently at a different cost index (the balance between the cost of time and the cost of fuel). “What we notice is that frequently the book numbers for a cost index to fly is not necessarily as optimal as it could be,” Kemp explained. “We’re able to demonstrate between 1% and 2% of fuel savings per flight when they use the cost-index optimization.”

The Jeppesen ForeFlight team takes data from each airplane, by tail number, analyzes it, and determines efficiency parameters. FliteDeck Pro can then recommend a cost index for various phases of flight, and it also has a configurable timer to generate a reminder to pilots to recalculate the cost index.

“The actual speed difference doesn’t tend to be very much,” he said. “So it’s not like they’re going to arrive 15 minutes [late or] early.”