ForeFlight’s Portfolio Gains New Features

ForeFlight has added a variety of improvements to its core ForeFlight Mobile app and Dispatch web platform that bring new safety benefits for pilots and improved efficiency for flight departments and dispatchers. Simpler processes for multi-license purchases and easier self-help for adding and removing users are among the changes, along with new Dispatch diversion planning features and live fleet tracking.

For ForeFlight users, the runway analysis service continues to grow, with an expanded list of airplane models now able to use the ForeFlight engine-out procedures (EOPs). “We have passed the 80 percent mark and now support a large percentage of the models currently active in the business aviation fleet,” said content marketing manager Sam Taylor. More airplanes are added every month, and ForeFlight now has more than 10,500 EOPs at airports worldwide. Runway analysis allows pilots to fly with the maximum payload possible while meeting terrain- and obstacle-clearance requirements in case of loss of one engine during the takeoff phase of flight. Airlines have long used runway analysis EOPs to allow dispatchers to calculate the highest possible maximum takeoff weight for specific runways while meeting minimum climb, available runway length, obstacle clearance, and other requirements.

Earlier this year, ForeFlight began providing EOPs in the app’s interactive 3D view, which allows users to preview the EOP from a “bird’s eye” and movable vantage point instead of just on a flat 2D map. “It’s a great way to visualize what the procedure requires you to do,” he said. While not yet supported, ForeFlight is working on adding EOPs to the moving map, which will help pilots monitor the progress of the maneuver in a real engine-out situation. 

The new fleet-tracking solution will allow Dispatch users to view aircraft with non-blocked ADS-B information or to track blocked aircraft that are part of the user’s own fleet. This feature is in partnership with RadarBox developer AirNav Systems, and it should be available soon after BACE. 

Some of the fleet tracking capabilities include overlay of weather and other information on the map, flight status information, and linking to Dispatch when tracking the user's own aircraft. 

ForeFlight is adding oceanic plotting to ForeFlight as an optional feature for the active navlog that is available for Performance Plus subscribers. Users can plan the flight, select diversion airports and equal time points, and—once entering non-radar airspace—note information for each fix and perform gross navigational error checks. After the flight, pilots can sign the plot and save it, archive it, and email it as a PDF. 

“It integrates with the flight plan flow,” said Taylor. “This has been a long time in the making. [Plotting] has been a hugely requested feature, it’s the last piece of paper our pilots have in the cockpit and eliminates the need for charts in the cockpit. Dispatch has had oceanic planning capabilities for a while, but then dispatchers would have to give the flight plan to pilots and they bust out the paper chart. Now they can do this on their iPads.”

ForeFlight has also added contingency planning for Dispatch, allowing users to add adequate diversion airports that they can specify for the entire flight, configured for a particular aircraft. “This helps operators select which airports they could divert to that meet certain runway, procedures, and weather requirements,” said Kelsey Pittman, director of product. “It helps them narrow down potential solutions when they’re going to be outside the range of closer airports.”

Before this feature was available, users had to research airports that met the required criteria as diversion airports. “The workflow was more cumbersome,” she said. “Now we help them make those selections. We help narrow it down based on ETOPS rings and where the route has to stay, to make sure those diversion airports are going to be within your aircraft’s capabilities.”

Another new Dispatch feature is a reserve fuel policy builder. Instead of having to use one of ForeFlight’s 12 built-in fuel reserve policies, users can define their own in great detail and then use those for their flights. Or users can modify any of the available fields on a per-flight basis.

To make managing ForeFlight licenses easier for multiple users, the company has added a self-serve capability, eliminating the need to contact a salesperson to buy licenses for Dispatch, runway analysis, fuel advisor, and other products. “It works for aircraft-specific licenses and app-specific licenses,” Taylor said. “You can buy directly on the web and assign to the aircraft, and it’s prorated to the end of the subscription. This covers a huge chunk of our support requests. Any business account administrator can access those.”