ForeFlight market penetration

[SoonerAviator]

Been using the iPad with FF for a few years. My only issue is the iPad turns itself off if it gets too hot, i.e. if the sun hit it. This whole "FF is overpriced" thing is nearly mind boggling. If you can't afford a hundred bucks a year for nearly unparalleled situational awareness how on Earth are you affording an airplane?

I suppose it depends on what you find necessary for flying. You can print off sectional maps for free, or use FltPlnGo (and others) for free and get the same utility for many flight regimes. If you don't fly in situations where you need something like synthetic vision, why pay for it? I think it's less about being able to afford $100, and more about being able to do 95% of the same things for no cost. If you absolutely have to have all of the features, then sure, buy FF. If you're just burning holes in the sky or doing basic XC's, where's the benefit?

 

[exncsurfer]

I am affording an airplane because I am frugal! Okay, some may say cheap. I pump my own fuel to save $30.00 a tank, which if I am doing the math correct covers two months of hanger fees each year.

I would buy ForeFlight and an iPad in two seconds if I found value over the free FltPlan Go and a tablet that costs $300.00 less than the iPad. I need a local pilot to come over, show me the bells and whistles of ForeFlight. I'll buy the beer. I'm near KSRQ!

Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated! Just kidding, i'm with you. (other than the 'show me how cool it is and i'll jump on' part)

 

[exncsurfer]

Been using the iPad with FF for a few years. My only issue is the iPad turns itself off if it gets too hot, i.e. if the sun hit it. This whole "FF is overpriced" thing is nearly mind boggling. If you can't afford a hundred bucks a year for nearly unparalleled situational awareness how on Earth are you affording an airplane?

Yea, they may as well make it $200, no $300, I mean if you can't afford $300 a year for nearly....how on Earth..... heck, make it an even $1000 for the lowest tier 'package'

 

[Jay Honeck]

We've been using Garmin Pilot on an Android tablet since it's inception in 2012.

In that time, it has become our be-all, end-all flight planning, navigation, fuel price, and weather avoidance app. On a Samsung tablet it is simply brilliant and bulletproof.


Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk

 

[SoonerAviator]

We've been using Garmin Pilot on an Android tablet since it's inception in 2012.

In that time, it has become our be-all, end-all flight planning, navigation, fuel price, and weather avoidance app. On a Samsung tablet it is simply brilliant and bulletproof.


Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk

We've been impressed enough with Android OS that my wife is on her 2nd Samsung Galaxy phone S2, S5, and I'm still running my Samsung Galaxy S2 phone on wifi just to forward my personal calls/texts. Wife has a Nexus 7 tablet that is finally refusing to charge the battery after 5 years of constant use. I have my Samsung Galaxy Tab S which has been rock solid, and my wife is getting a Galaxy Tab S2 today for our anniversary (she doesn't know it yet). I can't complain a bit about the Android stuff.

Meanwhile, my iPhone 6 for work is a pain and the latest update forces the bluetooth and wifi to turn on every day, and sometimes just on change of location. I also can't turn off the wifi from the quick access menu, I have to go into settings each time which is ridiculous. If I open google to search something, it takes 10+ seconds to load and be able to type on the keyboard which almost HAS to be intentional on Apple's part.

 

[MBDiagMan]

Ask the airline's IT department.

Probably has something to do with the fact it is not "their" software.
btw, the flight planning software my brother has to use is pretty crude compared to FF or FltPlan. But I am certain it is "highly secure".

Exactly. I spent most of my career in the HMI software industry. Started in its infancy and dealt with an untold number of IT groups along the way. What we called this was Not Invented Here(NIH). They were insulted when someone wanted to bring in a software product that was not of their invention. When they were part of a company with other than technical products, the folks were at the mercy of their IT department. The sad thing was that the company ended up with inadequate homegrown solutions.

 

[MBDiagMan]

FltPlan Go and an android tablet that has a GPS is a perfect and free EFB. You do have to put up with a few ads. But it's free.

I will say that Garmin threw me a curve. I just added ADS B IN and OUT to my plane and Garmin will not work with FltPlan Go so I cannot put traffic and weather on the tablet but then I use FltPlan Go for out of the cockpit work, for a second data source, and for fuel prices!

From my Year’s in the software industry I fully expect that this is because Gatmin being the major player that they are, their ego tells them that they are setting the standards rather than conforming to them. I saw this for years in the PLC/HMI industries. This went on for years until things shook out to a couple of products having the lions share of their respective markets. That is, they became the defacto standard. I believe that we are not too far from this becoming the case with FF. Once this happens, Garmin will have no choice other than coexisting with ForeFlight. It is not out of the question that things could turn and Garmins own offering could take that spot, but I believe at this point that is highly unlikely.

My $0.02

 

[olasek]

And keep in mind ForeFlight is only $100.00 if you fly in one geographical region . . . .

If you mean the whole US a “region” than it’s true. You pay $100 for the whole US (you don’t get geo-referenced charts for that)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[olasek]

and a tablet that costs $300.00 less than the iPad.

So how much are you willing to pay for a tablet? $40? I paid for my brand new Ipad about $340.
If you don’t have Ipad then you can’t even try FF, if you can’t try it (30 day free trial) then you don’t know what you are missing. To each his own but if you are VFR only - indeed this may be an overkill.

 

[Craig R]

Did you pay $340 for a cellular enabled iPad without a cellular contract? The price in my neighborhood is more like $450. A Samsung Tab A 8" is $159 and it doubles nicely for my DJI Mavic Pro drone controller. I admit the iPad would control the drone just as nicely.

I would love to know what I am missing, and I would love to have something is more sunlight readable!

 

[olasek]

Have a 696 on the yoke. Thinking about dumping it for foreflight...

To use ForeFlight as a navigator you will need geo-referenced charts, that’s $200 s year, if you don’t need its powerful flight planning tools (for me this is where the value is) you might be better off with the 696, anyway, something to consider, it all depends what kind of flying you do.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Adam Weiss]

I paid $56 for the new Fire HD 8 on sale. With FltPlan Go and a Stratux, this is a really great, cheap solution. I paid less than $200 total for complete geo-referenced approaches and airport diagrams, and situational awareness. Yes, it took a little while to get used to the FltPlan interface. But once you get it, you really can't beat it.

 

[denverpilot]

Meanwhile, my iPhone 6 for work is a pain and the latest update forces the bluetooth and wifi to turn on every day, and sometimes just on change of location. I also can't turn off the wifi from the quick access menu, I have to go into settings each time which is ridiculous. If I open google to search something, it takes 10+ seconds to load and be able to type on the keyboard which almost HAS to be intentional on Apple's part.

My 6 (non-S) Plus is also rapidly becoming a paperweight with the new iOS. The delays waiting on things to even accept user input are maddening.

Best as I can guess, the OS has outgrown the available RAM and is essentially “swapping” to flash, one of the stupidest things possible in any device let alone a user intensive mobile one.

They should have named the 8, the iPhone 7S. That’s all it is. It didn’t deserve a new version number.

The X is just, completely silly. It’s still a long ways out and it’s specifications have already been soundly spanked by the flagship Android devices.

It’s time to leave Tim Cook to twiddle with his logistics chain.

I paid $56 for the new Fire HD 8 on sale. With FltPlan Go and a Stratux, this is a really great, cheap solution. I paid less than $200 total for complete geo-referenced approaches and airport diagrams, and situational awareness. Yes, it took a little while to get used to the FltPlan interface. But once you get it, you really can't beat it.

I wish Amazon would do two things to the Fire. Add a freaking GPS chipset and quit making people hack them to add the Google Play Store.

I get it. I get it. They sell them below cost to sell more stuff from Amazon. But it’s really annoying that they don’t fix both of those problems.

I just had the iPhone lock up selecting a word to correct a typo. Took it three or four seconds to select a word. Ridiculous. It’s gone full-stupid multiple times this week.

 

[SoonerAviator]

My 6 (non-S) Plus is also rapidly becoming a paperweight with the new iOS. The delays waiting on things to even accept user input are maddening.

Best as I can guess, the OS has outgrown the available RAM and is essentially “swapping” to flash, one of the stupidest things possible in any device let alone a user intensive mobile one.

They should have named the 8, the iPhone 7S. That’s all it is. It didn’t deserve a new version number.

The X is just, completely silly. It’s still a long ways out and it’s specifications have already been soundly spanked by the flagship Android devices.

It’s time to leave Tim Cook to twiddle with his logistics chain.



I wish Amazon would do two things to the Fire. Add a freaking GPS chipset and quit making people hack them to add the Google Play Store.

I get it. I get it. They sell them below cost to sell more stuff from Amazon. But it’s really annoying that they don’t fix both of those problems.

I just had the iPhone lock up selecting a word to correct a typo. Took it three or four seconds to select a word. Ridiculous. It’s gone full-stupid multiple times this week.

Agreed. My work cell is an 6, and the latest OS update ruined a phone already I don’t particularly like. The delay just to input text after opening an app is maddening, and the battery life has gone to ****. Couple that with the daily Bluetooth and WiFi automatically turning on make me want to smash this damn thing!

 

[denverpilot]

Agreed. My work cell is an 6, and the latest OS update ruined a phone already I don’t particularly like. The delay just to input text after opening an app is maddening, and the battery life has gone to ****. Couple that with the daily Bluetooth and WiFi automatically turning on make me want to smash this damn thing!

It’s getting pretty stupid to keep supporting Apple’s ego. Their product line doesn’t match their opinion of themselves anymore.

 

[GRG55]

It’s getting pretty stupid to keep supporting Apple’s ego. Their product line doesn’t match their opinion of themselves anymore.

Ya, but could you really bring yourself to camp on a sidewalk overnight for the intro of a new Android?

 

[denverpilot]

Ya, but could you really bring yourself to camp on a sidewalk overnight for the intro of a new Android?

LOL. I couldn’t stand that crap under Apple, either. I was like, “You idiots know you can order that crap online and have it delivered to your door, right?”