How long have you been using an iOS or Android EFB?

How long have you been using an iOS or Android EFB?

  • Less than 1 year. I'm brand new to this.

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • 1-2 years.

    Votes: 8 7.8%

  • 3-4 years.

    Votes: 7 6.8%

  • 5-6 years.

    Votes: 13 12.6%

  • 7-8 years.

    Votes: 14 13.6%

  • 9-10 years.

    Votes: 13 12.6%

  • 10-11 years.

    Votes: 14 13.6%

  • 12-13 years.

    Votes: 17 16.5%

  • 14-15 years.

    Votes: 10 9.7%

  • More than 15 years.

    Votes: 6 5.8%
  • Total voters
    103
midlifeflyer

midlifeflyer

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A discussion elsewhere made me curious about how long people have been using an iOS or Android EFB.
I'm leaving out some dedicated units like the Garmin handhelds, Anywhere Map, and pre iPhone software like CoPilot for the Palm Pilot. Foreflight Mobile was introduced for the iPhone back in 2008; as of 2025, that would be 17 years ago, so my breakdown reflects that.
 
Since the day I started flying xc for training, a bit over 5 years ago. I've owned three paper charts...one for initial training on reading charts, one for the PPL checkride, and a Low IFR chart for the instrument checkride.
 
I used a very early version of ForeFlight on an iPad about 15 years ago - in an Ercoupe that I owned for six years. I just recently (last June) bought another Ercoupe and I have Foreflight on an iPad Mini and my iPhone. Now I'm just waiting for the Coupe to get finished with an extensive Annual - so I can fly again and actually make use of Foreflight.
 
Is there an EFB for VFR only pilots that doesn’t cost an arm and two legs? Does FF have a VFR version?

I was an early user of FF but dropped it when we moved to Guam. And we used EFBs at my airline job but for the life of me I can’t remember what platform it was.
 
I got my FF Sub the day after my first solo.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Is there an EFB for VFR only pilots that doesn’t cost an arm and two legs? Does FF have a VFR version?

I was an early user of FF but dropped it when we moved to Guam. And we used EFBs at my airline job but for the life of me I can’t remember what platform it was.
Click to expand...
Good question. I guess it depends on your definition of "arm and two legs." The bottom Foreflight tier is $120, less than the cost of a single flight lesson in most places. FlyQ is $99. iFlyEFB, which will work on both platforms, (and Windows) is $95 and rock solid. And Avare, which has been free for Android users since about 2012, recently spun off the free AvareX which also operates on iOS and Windows, and has more than enough features and capability for VFR use.
 
I can’t tell from the web sight but does FF Basic Plus have geo- referenced VFR charts (sectionals)?
 
Great question. I had to think back to when I started using my iPhone as an EFB. Based on my kiddos age, it’s been longer than I thought.
 
Whatever year ForeFlight v1 came out. I believe they were, for the most part, first mover for iOS along with WingX.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
I can’t tell from the web sight but does FF Basic Plus have geo- referenced VFR charts (sectionals)?
Click to expand...
Georeferenced sectionals, yes. Georeferenced airport diagrams, no. That's been my main complaint about Foreflight. Even VFR pilots go into complex airports. But it does include the Aeronautical Layer, which can be zoomed in to a level where the taxiways are displayed, which many will find sufficient. This is zoomed in on the maim map page without the airport diagram.

BTW, the airport diagram is one of the reasons I like FlyQ for VFR use. You probably remember them - the little brown Airport Guide diagrams? When they went belly-up, Seattle purchased the diagrams, georeferenced them, and incorporated them into FlyQ at all subscription levels.
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dans2992 said:
Whatever year ForeFlight v1 came out. I believe they were, for the most part, first mover for iOS along with WingX.
Click to expand...
Foreflight Mobile for the iPhone came out July 2008; the iPad came along in January 2010. Since I have never had an iPhone, I needed to wait for the iPad. (Actually, I was waiting for an Android tablet and got impatient :D).

And yes, once upon a time it was Foreflight and WingX.
 
At least 7 years probably longer. Started with Garmin Pilot on an Android device, then Garmin Pilot on iOS (Not the same but close). After a few years went to ForeFlight only on iOS (only choice there). Different features on all the products that I liked better than others, all in all they were ALL really good.

Least liked feature on ForeFlight is the need to PACK. Garmin Pilot never had the need to PACK.
 
I created the EFB program for my organization and we finally got it into A061 back in 2017. The process to get it conformed and incorporated took almost a year.

Foreflight with iOS.
 
Started with GarminPilot on an Android tablet back in 2012ish timeframe IIRC. Switched to an iPad with GarminPilot a couple of years later and haven’t looked back. I run a second copy of GarminPilot on my iPhone as a backup.
 
Last edited:
If FalconView, TACP-CASS, Black Diamond, or ATAK counts, then I’ve been using digital charts or an EFB since about 1998.
 
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TCABM said:
If FalconView, TACP-CASS, Black Diamond, or ATAK counts, then I’ve been using digital charts or an EFB since about 1998.
Click to expand...
Falcon View! Started using that in 2002. Basically the military version of FF. We used a military EFB with Blue Force Tracker but had Falcon View strip maps as a backup.
 
Started with Motion tablet running a now long-gone Jepps PC program. Physical hard drives really will crash if taken about 18,000'. Ask me how I know. Then same on Samsung SSD based tablet, and thence to iPad upon launch and ever since. Mini my personal preference for FF. Not sure why there are other apps for IFR use.
 
TCABM said:
If FalconView, TACP-CASS, Black Diamond, or ATAK counts, then I’ve been using digital charts or an EFB since about 1998.
Click to expand...
Well, since none runs on an iOS or Android device, sorry. Now, if we want to talk about electronic logbooks…
 
Three iPads ago…and prior to that was a 3 digit customer # for Jeppview….and b4 that, the Jeppesen binders…
 
Thanks to @k9medic I’ve been using an iPad with FF at work since 2017. Started using an iPad mini with FF the following year for personal travel. Honestly, unless it’s XC, I don’t use anything on local flights.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Well, since none runs on an iOS or Android device, sorry. Now, if we want to talk about electronic logbooks…
Click to expand...

BD and ATAK ran on android. I think I first used Black Diamond at Atlantic Strike in 2011 and ATAK in 2015. FV and TACP-CASS which really just integrated two way data link with FV ran on some version of Windows.
 
Back in 2014 I arrived at my PPL checkride with paper charts and a navlog fully fulled out in paper... and my first iPad mini loaded up with ForeFlight fully prepared to use whatever the examiner wanted. The examiner was fine with me using the iPad and that was the last time I ever really did any real flight planning or navigating with paper charts. I used to carry a sectional for any area I was flying through as a backup but the only thing I ever used them for was a sunshield after I parked the airplane. After getting my IR I can't imagine having to deal with carrying paper approach plates- sounds like a royal pain.
 
An employer of mine had Panasonic Tough Books running JeppView on them for their first gen EFB. What a pain those were. But less of a pain than updating jepp binders.
 
I’ll add my own story…

I was visiting my brother-in-law in the summer of 2010 and had lunch with an online friend who had an iPad with ForeFlight. For those who don’t know, that’s iPad Year One. I was impressed but being an Android user, I was gonna wait.

In January, 2011, I went to a seminar at a local flight school. The presentation was about ForeFlight and WingX.

I ordered an iPad the next day. Sold my GPSMap 396. I already owned the last paper charts I would ever use.
 
Ever since seeing Foreflight at their booth at Oshkosh 2010. What a game-changer. I wanted nothing to do with paper after that point, and bought an iPad 1 and FF upon returning home.
 
Velocity173 said:
Thanks to @k9medic I’ve been using an iPad with FF at work since 2017. Started using an iPad mini with FF the following year for personal travel. Honestly, unless it’s XC, I don’t use anything on local flights.
Click to expand...

The hardest part of the process was getting folks to realize that many of them never even used a paper chart unless it was to shade themselves.

The learning curve can be steep for folks who were rooted in paper but not having to mess with the "flips" on an approach is certainly a bonus.
 
k9medic said:
The learning curve can be steep for folks who were rooted in paper
Click to expand...
Except for those who have difficulty with any tech, I really haven’t seen that. Bigger problem seems to be people who thought there would be no learning curve at all.
 
k9medic said:
The hardest part of the process was getting folks to realize that many of them never even used a paper chart unless it was to shade themselves.

The learning curve can be steep for folks who were rooted in paper but not having to mess with the "flips" on an approach is certainly a bonus.
Click to expand...
Yeah we had an old guy at the base who wasn’t tech savvy. New hire and I had to re teach him the iPad. I remember I had to buy a new printer because ours broke and he had no idea how to hook one up. His wife always did that stuff for him. Had 20 yr old flip phone as well. Only lasted about a month before a medical issue.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Except for those who have difficulty with any tech, I really haven’t seen that. Bigger problem seems to be people who thought there would be no learning curve at all.
Click to expand...
I spend 3 months travelling the country teaching our folks how to use the ipad and the EFB. Saw all sorts of things. One guy was shaking it and I asked him what was wrong. He said he made a mistake when he was putting something in and was trying to fix it. I reminded him though there is a "shake to undo" function, that it was turned off and this was not an Etch a Sketch.

I would come across one of three type of users -
1. the one who refused to accept that this was the way we were going.
2. the everyday pilot who was excited that we didn't have to carry 20 different charts.
3. the guy who took a bite out of Apple and knew far too much about how FF and the EFB worked. (These guys were great to learn stuff from as well but I had to remind them them that at the time, FF was just a replacement for paper.)
 
k9medic said:
I spend 3 months travelling the country teaching our folks how to use the ipad and the EFB. Saw all sorts of things. One guy was shaking it and I asked him what was wrong. He said he made a mistake when he was putting something in and was trying to fix it. I reminded him though there is a "shake to undo" function, that it was turned off and this was not an Etch a Sketch.

I would come across one of three type of users -
1. the one who refused to accept that this was the way we were going.
2. the everyday pilot who was excited that we didn't have to carry 20 different charts.
3. the guy who took a bite out of Apple and knew far too much about how FF and the EFB worked. (These guys were great to learn stuff from as well but I had to remind them them that at the time, FF was just a replacement for paper.)
Click to expand...
I gotta tell my favorite EFB story.

We were doing a flying club trip to Charlotte to visit the aviation museum. My wife and I shared a club airplane with, let's call him Joe. Joe had been away from flying for a number of years and was in the process of getting back in the saddle. He asked me if he could go under the hood and treat it as a practice IFR flight. Sure.

Joe was still using paper charts. Figured (wisely, I think) that he wanted something familiar while he got his wigs wet again. As we flew, he had to fold and unfold and spread them out a number of times to keep track of position and determine what was coming next. If we've flown with paper, we've all done it.

When we left the airplane, my wife said, "Now I know why you love your iPad!"

PS. Joe now flies with Foreflight in a GTN/G3X Touch equipped airplane.
 
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