Just noticed with the last upgrade using the procedure selection in the flight plan to setup the traffic pattern into an airport has errors. For example for KFWN both runways 03 and 21 allow you to select left or right 45 degree patterns for both runways. Both runways are left pattern. Seems allowing the user to select a right pattern is dangerous. This is just one airport example. Before I contact ForeFlight has anyone notice this change?
ForeFlight 12.9.1: Traffic procedure incorrect
- Thread starter RonP
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Peter Anderson
Pre-takeoff checklist
It gives you the option of both sides all the time. At my home airport the tower instructs me to enter both right and left down winds all the time depending on certain factors. So I’m glad ForeFlight gives you both options.
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Would the pattern be different if someone were flying a helicopter?
See: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_pol...helicopter_flying_handbook/media/hfh_ch09.pdf
Page 9-18
How does this help the original poster or contribute useful information to the thread?
This is the OP again with some more information regarding my question. First the question is regarding a possible inconsistency with Foreflight. Some airport procedures do not show both left and right patterns and some do. A previous poster pointed out helicopter traffic. At N14 helicopter traffic uses for example Left and airplanes right for the same runway. Maybe I am missing a setting to specify airplane only.
woodchucker
Pattern Altitude
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woodchucker
Just out of curiosity I looked at a local airport (BTF) that sits just to the side of Bravo airspace. Sure enough, FF offers up a midfield cross from the Bravo side. Something that just isn’t gonna happen.
I think the bottom line is that FF is a nice tool to have but you still gotta do that pilot shiz at the same time. I’m not sure it’s worth contacting their CS over it.
I think the bottom line is that FF is a nice tool to have but you still gotta do that pilot shiz at the same time. I’m not sure it’s worth contacting their CS over it.
bflynn
Final Approach
I think I hear the concern is that Foreflight allows you to select a pattern that is not IAW the chart supplement and doesn’t warn you if you choose to fly the wrong traffic pattern. Is that accurate?
Should this matter? Surely you are informed of all available knowledge about an airport before you fly there or you invoke emergency authority if you have an unplanned divert to somewhere else...right?
Should this matter? Surely you are informed of all available knowledge about an airport before you fly there or you invoke emergency authority if you have an unplanned divert to somewhere else...right?
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Of course I get familiar with airports along my path and destination. I list frequencies along the way, FF, etc. including contingency plans. Pilotage is not the concern of my post. The concern is if anyone else noticed if there is a bug with the latest version of Foreflight. Given it is a navigational aid there is a concern the aid has a flaw that could be hazardous when used by less diligent pilots.
Ravioli
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FTFY
It's not a "navigational aid", it is a "situational awareness aid." And one that some would argue is used improperly often.
But sure, go ahead ahead and tell them to fix their stuff. See how far that goes. I'd expect a response that includes "our product is not to be used for primary navigation" within the first two paragraphs.
I agree with @Ravioli that feature isn't a navigational aid. It is helpful, but, like most computer programs, needs some thought about whether something suggested by the machine is appropriate or makes sense. I do suggest contacting the company, if enough people express confusion about how a feature works, they'll probably change how how the user interacts with that feature.
Tantalum
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San_Diego_Pilot
I noticed that too.. and some places with non standard pattern procedures, like Santa Paula for example, are ignored. I have a feeling it was coded up as a cool shiny object but has limited real world use.. in other words, it doesn't alleviate your responsibility to check the AFD (or whatever it's called now) and follow the correct local pattern rules
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Bro do you even lift
I mean it does point out how crazy it is 1) that foreflight spent one second coding how to enter a pattern into their software and 2) that anyone on the planet (obviously garmin pilot users know how to enter a pattern) relies on this.
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Bro do you even lift
also.........the advancement of a metal landing calculator?????
Fair enough, but only half the message came out. A ranter should fully explain why they are ranting. A bit of funny sarcasm helps, too.
The programmer probably spent as much time in the code as it took to make the tooling and artwork for this, not to mention the time to assemble it by someone in some prison-factory someplace:
https://www.sportys.com/landing-pattern-computer.html
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NoHeat
Final Approach
You can specify airplane in Procedure Advisor. It’s in the altitude advisor section. This is shown in the (very short) video in the link below.
https://foreflight.com/support/vide...s-and-traffic-pattern-altitude&list=whats-new
I haven’t checked to see what all this choice affects, and in particular I haven’t checked whether it affects the right vs left options that are offered.
Thanks to the OP — until today I didn’t even know Foreflight offered a way to portray a pattern entry into the map and flight plan.
woodchucker
Pattern Altitude
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woodchucker
It is an interesting tool. But not something I would rely on. I do not use it. VFR pilots need to know how to enter a pattern in a sensible way. If you are VFR and relying on FF to guide you to the airport you better contact a cfi and work on that. IFR pilots need to know how to fly approach plates. I’m still in training on that but in my experience FF is fine for general situational awareness but not for flying approaches.
RussR
En-Route
This is one of the functions in Foreflight that I really wish wasn't there, for one because it's not implemented properly, and for two, it can lead people down the wrong path.
The other is being able to load the fixes in a procedure, though admittedly most of the reason there is that it seems to put the hold-in-lieu in there if one is depicted, not asking if you're going to do it or not (and therefore possibly leading someone to believe they have to do it).
The other is being able to load the fixes in a procedure, though admittedly most of the reason there is that it seems to put the hold-in-lieu in there if one is depicted, not asking if you're going to do it or not (and therefore possibly leading someone to believe they have to do it).
This is the OP with an update but first a public service announcement. My post is only about a bug observed in ForeFlight not what a pilot should do or not do, proper flight planning, use of ForeFlight, not using ForeFlight, etc. Just about an observed bug in a software app.
I did send an email to ForeFlight support tonight and will see what transpires. I also had an additional observation. If a runway is specifically a right hand pattern then right hand will be the only allowable selection the user can make. If a runway is not right hand, I.E. left by default, then the user can select either left or right.
I did send an email to ForeFlight support tonight and will see what transpires. I also had an additional observation. If a runway is specifically a right hand pattern then right hand will be the only allowable selection the user can make. If a runway is not right hand, I.E. left by default, then the user can select either left or right.
you saved the lives of many pilots that can’t fly without Foreflight.