Another disappointing ForeFlight change

murphey

murphey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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murphey
Colorado is in the beginning of its annual TStorm period. Previous versions of FF had direction lines with hashmarks that estimated location of the storm in 10, 20 and 30 min. Whether accurate or not it was a great indicator of the travel speed of the storm. Not any more, all we get now is a simple arrow with direction.

Rats.
 
Maybe try to email support and see what they say. They are pretty good about responding.
 
murphey said:
Colorado is in the beginning of its annual TStorm period. Previous versions of FF had direction lines with hashmarks that estimated location of the storm in 10, 20 and 30 min. Whether accurate or not it was a great indicator of the travel speed of the storm. Not any more, all we get now is a simple arrow with direction.

Rats.
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That happened last fall iirc, apparently when their nexrad data source changed. I liked the old 15 minute movement markers too.

Here is a ForeFlight blogpost about it from last year: https://blog.foreflight.com/2022/11/30/atc-sector-boundaries-and-more-in-foreflight-14-10/
 
I also miss the velocity vectors in FF BUT I also have basic Garmin Pilot (so I can update firmware without having to bother a shop for such a petty request) and GP does have hash marks on the directional arrows although I haven't figured out the scale yet. I agree with the OP to e-mail FF about this. Seems like lately there have been more changes that are not good.
 
FF is becoming so bloated with garbage features while taking away features that have been very good.

All the while jacking up their price.
 
TommyG said:
FF is becoming so bloated with garbage features while taking away features that have been very good.

All the while jacking up their price.
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We’re no longer the primary target market for FF…same reason “Jeppesen” was changed to “Boeing Global Services”…outside the US, very few know the relevance of the name Elrey Jeppesen. Entirely marketing to the higher end and the international global market, not low-end GA.
 
Interesting that some seem to think high end users don't want storm direction and velocity predictions.

I have a solution to Foreflight bloat. If it ever stops doing the job for me, I would choose another EFB that does the job better,
 
They used to have radar options for composite or lowest tilt too, now it's just "radar". I found that useful and I'm kind of annoyed it's gone.
 
TommyG said:
FF is becoming so bloated with garbage features while taking away features that have been very good.

All the while jacking up their price.
Click to expand...

Yes!

midlifeflyer said:
Interesting that some seem to think high end users don't want storm direction and velocity predictions.

I have a solution to Foreflight bloat. If it ever stops doing the job for me, I would choose another EFB that does the job better,
Click to expand...

I recently tried to quit FF cold turkey...problem is, there isn't a decent EFB out there yet that can do even 95% of FFs good features. I think the market is ripe for a good EFB to come along and make FF a thing of the past like Google did to Altavista or Ask Jeeves...and I, for one, will dance on FFs grave.
 
Country Flier said:
Yes!



I recently tried to quit FF cold turkey...problem is, there isn't a decent EFB out there yet that can do even 95% of FFs good features. I think the market is ripe for a good EFB to come along and make FF a thing of the past like Google did to Altavista or Ask Jeeves...and I, for one, will dance on FFs grave.
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If FF does the best for you, then you stick with it. I think there are other good candidates out there. Garmin Pilot is excellent and has the advantage of being almost identical to the feel and flow of their modern avionics. IFly EFB is amazing in its functionality and user support. I've thought seriously about switching to each of them. If you are just VFR, it really doesn't matter that much what you use. FlyQ satisfies my one gripe with Foreflight for VFR only; FlyQ doesn't charge extra for its georeferenced airport diagrams for most every airport. Biggest downside to all except FF, Pilot, and the free FlitePlan Go! Is inability to communicate with Garmin avionics, if that's what you fly with. And Foreflight communicates only because of it's market share.

But right now, like you, FF does the best job for me. Even though I've used most every EFB out there for iOS and Android, I've been using Foreflight for a dozen years, so it's flow is like second nature to me. I don't see switching away so long as I fly IFR, even if it targets many of it's later features to corporate and 135 operators. I really don't see the "bloat." And their customer service is incredibly responsive for a "bad guy."

And I don't whine about or wish them I'll just because they are owned by a gorilla,
 
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TommyG said:
FF is becoming so bloated with garbage features while taking away features that have been very good.

All the while I am accepting Foreflight’s price increases and renewing.
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FIFY.
 
I think it's a real, real subjective thing - Personally I'm no fan of Garmin screen navigation, panel mount or otherwise. Garmin Pilot definitley not. . .but I have friends who rate GP highly. FF "bloat" is, to my mind, more or less invisible - you don't have to wade through features you don't use. I find FF intuitive to navigate and the price is reasonable. The support has been solid, too. I assume GP is well supported, too. Probably good we have multiple alternatives.
 
I'm worried the desktop Web version may be on the chopping block. Did anyone else get that same impression based on the short survey FF rolled out a couple months ago?

I use the desktop Web version to start my planning days in advance of my flight, then save my Mapped flight to Flights and bring it up on the iPad on the day of the flight.
 
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FPK1 said:
I'm worried the desktop Web version may be on the chopping block. Did FF get the same impression based on a short survey they rolled out a couple months ago?

I use the desktop Web version to start my planning days in advance of my flight, then save my Mapped flight to Flights and bring it up on the iPad on the day of the flight.
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I do use FF web on ocasion but it is frustratingly slow/choppy. If I want to do anything involved I often reach for my tablet. Minor stuff can be done on my phone. So the web version sits in this weird place where it lacks convenience or functionality. The only time it's really useful is when I'm on my computer anyway.
 
murphey said:
Colorado is in the beginning of its annual TStorm period. Previous versions of FF had direction lines with hashmarks that estimated location of the storm in 10, 20 and 30 min. Whether accurate or not it was a great indicator of the travel speed of the storm. Not any more, all we get now is a simple arrow with direction.
Click to expand...
cowman said:
They used to have radar options for composite or lowest tilt too, now it's just "radar". I found that useful and I'm kind of annoyed it's gone.
Click to expand...

I did use both occasionally, more so the Lowest Tilt radar, but those both went away when ForeFlight's radar source went away and they had to change to a different one. :(

I'm sure they're looking to get those features back, but they weren't an in-house thing.

murphey said:
We’re no longer the primary target market for FF…same reason “Jeppesen” was changed to “Boeing Global Services”…outside the US, very few know the relevance of the name Elrey Jeppesen. Entirely marketing to the higher end and the international global market, not low-end GA.
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Not at all true. ForeFlight has a VP, a product manager, and their entire team who are dedicated to GA. The same things also exist for Business Aviation and for Military Aviation. All three have equal footing within the organization.

I think the perception that ForeFlight has left GA behind comes from the fact that ForeFlight already does such a good job for the needs of GA pilots, so most of the big new marquee features end up being BizAv stuff. That's not because they've forgotten GA, it's because there's a lot more stuff the other markets need that haven't been met yet. I use ForeFlight in both GA and BizAv contexts, and I don't want for new features on the GA side. There are plenty of things I still want on the BizAv side... And some of the stuff they do for that side of things will also be useful for GA.

FPK1 said:
I'm worried the desktop Web version may be on the chopping block. Did FF get the same impression based on a short survey they rolled out a couple months ago?
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I highly doubt it. Their entire ForeFlight Dispatch product for the BizAv market is only on FFWeb and they've been putting a lot of effort in the past year or two to have the web version catch up to the mobile version.
 
There was a period in the early 2010s when every new version release of FF was like Christmas morning: lots of cool new features. I first started using FF in 2010 and was blown away. And then it just kept getting better. There's a practical limit to how many cool new features you can add that benefits GA pilots.

It may no longer be $75/year, but it's still by far the best value in aviation for me.
 
Someone should beg Austin Meyer and laminar research to make a competing product…

Maybe give it a funky name, like Xavion…
 
Brad Z said:
There was a period in the early 2010s when every new version release of FF was like Christmas morning: lots of cool new features. I first started using FF in 2010 and was blown away. And then it just kept getting better. There's a practical limit to how many cool new features you can add that benefits GA pilots.

It may no longer be $75/year, but it's still by far the best value in aviation for me.
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Kind of like when new smartphones were released. Now it’s mostly who cares because the screen is 1% brighter and 0.5% bigger with a better camera
 
I use FF Web a lot for flight planning. Much easier planning on a pair of 27" monitors.
 
Pinecone said:
I use FF Web a lot for flight planning. Much easier planning on a pair of 27" monitors.
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Same. And I found their support for desktop to be really responsive and receptive. Just last week they had an issue that I emailed them on, later that night they already had a fix in and emailed me asking me to test it out.

TommyG said:
FF is becoming so bloated with garbage features while taking away features that have been very good. All the while jacking up their price.
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Which features? The newer ones, like airspace alerts, I personally love! And in my view $240/yr is an incredible value for everything it has. Not that I want Boeing to change the price of it, but even if it doubled in price it'd still be a no brainer for the value it provides.
 
4RNB said:
Someone should beg Austin Meyer and laminar research to make a competing product…

Maybe give it a funky name, like Xavion…
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Definitely not since he burned bridges with many of us early adopters. He reneged on the terms for those folks and created enemies instead of supporters. I will not give another penny…. Rant over.
 
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