Foreflight Hacked ?

P

Painter1

Pre-Flight
Joined
Oct 8, 2013
Messages
43
Location
Saint Louis
Display Name
Display name:
Mike K
I have an Angel Flight Mission mission tomorrow and with the assistance of a second leg pilot we hope to get a patient with brain cancer to the Mayo Clinic. He is scheduled for an operation early Dec 26. METAR, TAF & MOS has been hacked with “cute” messages about Santa, etc. where conditions should be.

I am not amused - what should I tell the person depending on me? I can’t pick you up and help deliver you for a potentially life-saving procedure because some twit in his mother’s basement thinks this is funny?

Checking other sources for weather now and hoping they are safe & accurate.
 
FF does that every year. No weather data is changed or omitted. I don’t mind the added line, “Dsnt shining star,” or the like.

Prayers for your passenger. Merry Christmas.
 
Yeah, they do this every year for as long as I can remember. Joke is a bit old now, but I wouldn’t go full Scrooge over it either. As far as what to tell your passenger...I don’t ask them to read METARs and TAFs so there’s probably not anything to tell them.
 
FF gets data from DUATS. Login to DUATS and get a briefing.

Last time I checked my aircraft flew just fine without FF.
 
Clark1961 said:
FF gets data from DUATS. Login to DUATS and get a briefing.

Last time I checked my aircraft flew just fine without FF.
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Sure it’s not Leidos, the successor of LockMart?
 
Painter1 said:
I have an Angel Flight Mission mission tomorrow and with the assistance of a second leg pilot we hope to get a patient with brain cancer to the Mayo Clinic. He is scheduled for an operation early Dec 26. METAR, TAF & MOS has been hacked with “cute” messages about Santa, etc. where conditions should be.

I am not amused - what should I tell the person depending on me? I can’t pick you up and help deliver you for a potentially life-saving procedure because some twit in his mother’s basement thinks this is funny?

Checking other sources for weather now and hoping they are safe & accurate.
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Please articulate how the saftey of the flight was in question?

Take a deep breath..and carry on
 
Rgbeard said:
Yes, Scrooge. Tell them exactly this. Sigh......
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Let's not get carried away. Likeky a new ForeFlight user who actually thought their annual Christmas fun was a hacker.

When I read the post, I laughed, but Scrooge never crossed my mind. Perhaps a bit of a silly overreaction but I'd be concerned too if I thought my charts and Chart Supplement were subject to being hacked in flight.
 
Do to the limited number of people flying,FF thought they might try to interject some humor. I guess you can’t please everyone. ‘‘Tis the season.
 
I've seen comments on a few other forums - not concern but surprise. I think it a gauge of how many new subscribers ForeFlight got this past year.
 
I just checked and...maybe I missed it...but I don't see any "cutesy" comments in the actual briefings. I only found them in the weather when looking at individual airports.
 
timwinters said:
I just checked and...maybe I missed it...but I don't see any "cutesy" comments in the actual briefings. I only found them in the weather when looking at individual airports.
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And it's just the METARS, not the TAF's. Reminds me of an ATIS a guy I worked with at SBA cut one New Years morning. It was "Information Bromo Seltzer"
 
‘Tis the problem with over reliance on electronic planning / maps. It you cancel an Angel Flight due to FF problems, there’s something wrong there.
 
AWACSEng said:
If I were the patient awaiting transport, I'd be more concerned putting my life in the hands of a pilot who thinks FF is the only source of weather data.
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What’s sad is, some of us in EMS will be paperless soon. God help us if FF fails! :(
 
Calling for possible smoke/chestnuts roasting....at my local home drone...you know NORAD is tracking Santa as well...wonder if he is ADSB complient.
 
Painter1 said:
I have an Angel Flight Mission mission tomorrow and with the assistance of a second leg pilot we hope to get a patient with brain cancer to the Mayo Clinic. He is scheduled for an operation early Dec 26. METAR, TAF & MOS has been hacked with “cute” messages about Santa, etc. where conditions should be.

I am not amused - what should I tell the person depending on me? I can’t pick you up and help deliver you for a potentially life-saving procedure because some twit in his mother’s basement thinks this is funny?

Checking other sources for weather now and hoping they are safe & accurate.
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Hope you have a safe flight.
Merry Christmas!
 
New ones from last year, such as Jungle Bell Noise Abatement..be funnier if that one was at airprots that really had noise abatement rules. Little icons this year, too.

caution heavy santa sleigh wake
caution grinch activity invof arpt

and more...
 
I know it sucks, every Christmas Eve the damn news channel gives Santa reports on the 11pm news. I have a panic attack because I don’t know what news is real. I don’t appreciate it either.
 
TommyG said:
I know it sucks, every Christmas Eve the damn news channel gives Santa reports on the 11pm news. I have a panic attack because I don’t know what news is real. I don’t appreciate it either.
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Wait until the Tooth Fairy hears about this!
 
Hank S said:
Because nobody has a cell phone, and tbere are no other sources for weather briefings available online . . . .
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I could be wrong, but I don't think "going paperless" has anything to do with briefings.
 
timwinters said:
I could be wrong, but I don't think "going paperless" has anything to do with briefings.
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Rather than paying FF, my electronic charts and plates are in Avare, free and android. There are multiple other options, too, besides FF, some of which run iOs, some android, some both.
 
Guess what. I don't use Fore Flight but I agree with @Painter1.

Perhaps they hired that controller with the Captain Kirk doll last month and he felt the urge to be "funny" again.

It's about as funny and needed as the flight attendants singing safety announcements as if every day is an audition for AFHV.
 
Hank S said:
Because nobody has a cell phone, and tbere are no other sources for weather briefings available online . . . .
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Couldn’t care less about using FF for weather, since we don’t. The primary purpose of going to the EFB is to replace paper publications. I suppose the odds of not being able to open FF on 2 seperate ipads is slim but there is something to be said about the reliability of paper.
 
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Velocity173 said:
What’s sad is, some of us in EMS will be paperless soon. God help us if FF fails! :(
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We (my USAF Unit) have been paperless for a few years. We do, however, have our eggs in multiple baskets. Jepp FD Pro is primary, Jepp FD secondary, and ARINC Direct tertiary. With multiple crew members all sporting iPads and SOP being updating one database at a time (to ensure a good download) we haven't run into any issues "yet". If the feces hits the fan, we will have more issues to contend with than trying to find the magenta line!
 
Hank S said:
Because nobody has a cell phone, and tbere are no other sources for weather briefings available online . . . .
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When the EFB replaces paper, more than just briefings are affected. I fly (VFR only at the moment) completely paperless. I use FltPlan Go on my iPad, with my iPhone as a backup. As I head into Instrument Training, I haven't decided if I'll stay with this configuration, or cary some archaic paper devices. Time will tell...
 
MtnMarcus said:
I had no idea FF did this. Awesome....love it!
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Lots of new ones from last year.

Ah, too many grinches around here. Just another example of the Point & Click generation who never experienced the MOTD announcements.
 
I guess the OP won't be too happy when ATC wishes them a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or other such sentiment. Such a waste of bandwidth. :biggrin:
 
Yet I can’t seem to find the METAR and TAF for the Island of Misfit Toys....
 
Flying shouldn't be fun. No fun at all.
Nobody has any business trying Make it fun.

 
Plus I'd be far more concerned about being a passenger of someone who didn't feel they could safely make a flight without the aid of foreflight
 
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