Another ForeFlight nit

murphey

murphey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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murphey
Just got the email that per-leg graphic profiles are now in the Pro version.

Oh wow. Goody. Peachy.

The very old and no longer available or supported Jepp (windows only) FliteStar had that. FliteStar was pre-Boeing. A great feature. As of 2020, Jepp discontinued FS and pushed people to FF - except FF didn't have this feature.

So I need to pay more if I want per-leg graphic profile. As I mentioned before, I was grandfather'd on the earlier version of FF that had the simple profile. When I was forced to Basic, I lost the profile, hence I'm paying more for fewer features. Once again, Boeing demonstrates its focus is the military & commercial international market, with GA is an afterthought. Which is funny because without the GA market making FF so popular, Boeing wouldn't have been interested in it.

Disclaimer: I've worked for Boeing and Jepp in two different worlds.
 
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The good old days of Foreflight are long gone. Pretty soon the Basic, Pro and Performance pricing will go from $120, $240 and $360 to $200, $400 and $600. And some of the standard features in the Basic package will become add-ons for additional costs. Weather for example will cost an additional $10 per month. Traffic will be an additional $10 per month. And you'll have to use their ADS-B receiver.

It was nice while it lasted.
 
As someone who has a company provided performance plus, per leg graphics?
 
donjohnston said:
The good old days of Foreflight are long gone. Pretty soon the Basic, Pro and Performance pricing will go from $120, $240 and $360 to $200, $400 and $600. And some of the standard features in the Basic package will become add-ons for additional costs. Weather for example will cost an additional $10 per month. Traffic will be an additional $10 per month. And you'll have to use their ADS-B receiver.

It was nice while it lasted.
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Of course it will. All the Garmin transponder buyers didn’t understand ForeFlight and Garmin were locking them into a service contract for FIS-B and TIS-B to be displayed on there tablet from the hardware they purchased.
 
Salty said:
I don’t get the hate about a product improvement.
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It’s an improvement I can’t use unless I buy a new iPad.

Imagine requiring me to pay more for high octane gas that my car doesn’t need and that gives me no benefit unless I buy a new car with a high compression engine.
 
Half Fast said:
It’s an improvement I can’t use unless I buy a new iPad.

Imagine requiring me to pay more for high octane gas that my car doesn’t need and that gives me no benefit unless I buy a new car with a high compression engine.
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Now I’m even more confused. You hate an improvement to something you don’t even use?
 
Kind of like Google's 'Play' music on phones, first it just worked you could play a playlist your screen goes off and music plays, life is grand. Then they 'upgrade' rename it to youtube music and now, if you don't pay, your screen stays on, runs your battery down, if you turn the screen off, the music stops. Great feature. They even have commercials for the 'feature' of being able to turn your screen off: upgrade to music premium to listen to music "with your screen off!" like they invented a new feature or something.

Upgrade to youtube music premium if you want to be able to listen to music without running off the road because a stupid ad popped up that wants you to click the X. (or just sit in silence thinking happy thoughts about the app, like I do)

greed is good? idk
 
I am liking I Fly app the more I use it. In the air it's better than F Flight. F Flight is still great for planning on the ground.
 
WDD said:
I am liking I Fly app the more I use it. In the air it's better than F Flight. F Flight is still great for planning on the ground.
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What does it do better in the air?
 
Jackk said:
What does it do better in the air?
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It runs on a bright display, it has large buttons, it has “nearest” and “direct” buttons, it can display more parameters and in larger fonts than FF, the “nearest” function can run a filter to omit unsuitable airports (like seaplane bases), etc.

But FF does provide a better briefing and better airport info.
 
Half Fast said:
It runs on a bright display, it has large buttons, it has “nearest” and “direct” buttons, it can display more parameters and in larger fonts than FF, the “nearest” function can run a filter to omit unsuitable airports (like seaplane bases), etc.

But FF does provide a better briefing and better airport info.
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What better airport info does FF give? When I have the airport as my final destination. I just hit it on my screen, and I can get wx, and everything else with 2 finger presses. One finger press to pull the pop up summary, and airport info to get me everything else.
 
EdFred said:
What better airport info does FF give? When I have the airport as my final destination. I just hit it on my screen, and I can get wx, and everything else with 2 finger presses. One finger press to pull the pop up summary, and airport info to get me everything else.
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IFly is missing airport diagrams for many smaller, non-towered airports that are included in FF. It also lacks the info about car rentals, restaurants, etc.
 
Having spent much of my career in product development and marketing roles in a software company I can empathize with Foreflight. Making feature bundling and pricing decisions are much more complex and difficult than most people can imagine. You can’t please everyone. I’ve been a Foreflight user for eleven years now and continue to be happy and sometimes amazed with what it does for me.

As far as the price increases that are expected, is there ANYTHING that we buy that hasn’t gone up in price?

Of course, everyone needs something to complain about, so it might as well be Foreflight.
 
Half Fast said:
IFly is missing airport diagrams for many smaller, non-towered airports that are included in FF. It also lacks the info about car rentals, restaurants, etc.
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I get the diagram or sat view for every airport I've been to with it. The other stuff I already know before flying.
 
I get the sat view but that doesn’t identify the taxiways or identify the FBO. My home drome, KGIF, is a good example. FF will give me a diagram but iFly says “No diagram found.”

And yes, I get the other stuff before flying, but I can’t get it from iFly before flying.
 
The reviews are the one thing FF has that I'm jealous of. Most of the time you don't need it, but if you have to divert it would help make the decision.

My gripe about ff, and to a lesser extent gp, is that it does too much. The buttons then get tiny and hard to touch precisely enough on an 8" screen. FF almost requires the apple pen to use. Ifly is much friendlier to small screens, big fingers, and turbulence.
 
Half Fast said:
It runs on a bright display, it has large buttons, it has “nearest” and “direct” buttons, it can display more parameters and in larger fonts than FF, the “nearest” function can run a filter to omit unsuitable airports (like seaplane bases), etc.

But FF does provide a better briefing and better airport info.
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What he and Jim said.
 
EdFred said:
For one it doesn't *need* to run on an iTurd. But it can if you want. Any other things are just icing on the cake.
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Always like the iPhone for the quality and security, I’m also old enough when google was a young company who pledged not not be creepy, now they are a old rich creeper.
 
And still no TOC/TOD on map view. Not that I need it, since it's calculated manually by me anyway.... but damn really? It's in the NavLog for chrissakes.
 
It is highly suggested to have a backup to your EFB. However, I'm a "hybrid"... meaning I have an iPad (albeit it's the Pro 12.9, which is way too big for a C-172's cramped cockpit), running FF, but I use a Samsung Note 20 phone. I've always preferred Android phones but glad that I kept my iPad. Being my first EFB, FF has a lot of cool features. What free Android EFB do y'all recommend? I say free because Boeing already broke it off in me for 200 bucks (going to $240 next year).
 
A perfect example of a no win product decision. Everyone wants more features, but often they create complexity or screens that are so crowded that they are difficult to use or fonts too small to read while bouncing around.
 
MBDiagMan said:
A perfect example of a no win product decision. Everyone wants more features, but often they create complexity or screens that are so crowded that they are difficult to use or fonts too small to read while bouncing around.
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No, I don't want more features. I want readability and useability. Additional features are nice for flight planning on the ground but they create unnecessary clutter in the air, as you say.
 
The
Half Fast said:
No, I don't want more features. I want readability and useability. Additional features are nice for flight planning on the ground but they create unnecessary clutter in the air, as you say.
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Are you saying that you experience readibility and usability problems with Foreflight. If so I find that quite surprising. I’ve used Foreflight consistently for over 11 years and have experienced no such problems in either area. I am NOT being argumentative, I’m just really surprised and would link to hear more.
 
MBDiagMan said:
The


Are you saying that you experience readibility and usability problems with Foreflight. If so I find that quite surprising. I’ve used Foreflight consistently for over 11 years and have experienced no such problems in either area. I am NOT being argumentative, I’m just really surprised and would link to hear more.
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I find that the iPad display is not bright enough in a sunny cockpit. Also, the buttons are too small to touch accurately in bumpy air.
 
Not sure I would want to run an autopilot off of that box. In fact, is it even legal?

Don’t know what IPad you’re running Foreflight on. In my high wing or even the low wing airplanes I fly, I’ve never had a brightness problem. First off, have you adjusted the brightness, and secondly, how is the brightness of the screen the fault of the software app?
 
MBDiagMan said:
Not sure I would want to run an autopilot off of that box. In fact, is it even legal?

Don’t know what IPad you’re running Foreflight on. In my high wing or even the low wing airplanes I fly, I’ve never had a brightness problem. First off, have you adjusted the brightness, and secondly, how is the brightness of the screen the fault of the software app?
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1) Of course I’ve adjusted the brightness. Good daylight visibility requires at least 1000 nits and none of the iPads exceeds about 600 or so.

2) FF has chosen to offer their app only on the iPad platform rather than Android devices that have brighter screens. I’ll also note that I and others have had problems with the iPads overheating.

Simply put, iPads were not designed for the cockpit. I’ve seen users kludge together sun shades and add cooling to try to make them work.
 
MBDiagMan said:
I guess I’ve been massively fortunate. Of course, I don’t put my iPad in direct sunlight.
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I don’t either, and it worked okay when I was flying Tecnams and Cherokees. My Beech seems to have a brighter cockpit.
 
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