Foreflight on iPad - operator error?

[gkainz]

Something I've been pondering ... Foreflight (currently v6.5, but had it 2 years now so whatever version I started with?) ... supposed to be "moving map" right? Which I assume would keep the airplane icon centered in the map as one flies?

My current settings related to this are Auto Center Mode: North Up, and Auto Center Deactivate: Manual.

My airplane flies off the map (or maybe the map moves away from the airplane?) ... but since I'm usually dinking, clicking, etc on the screen, maybe I'm inadvertently disabling something? I know about the little gear wheel in the upper right to recenter ....

What am I doing wrong? Missing the "Press Any Key to Continue" prompt somewhere?

 

[Sac Arrow]

You are probably manually moving the map taking it out of auto center.

 

[AggieMike88]

You are probably manually moving the map taking it out of auto center.

This. If you skew the map around with your finger, the "____ up" moving map feature gets de-selected.

To re-engage, tap the little compass icon in the upper right corner.

See Page 70-72 of the ForeFlight Pilot Guide

 

[midlifeflyer]

Something I've been pondering ... Foreflight (currently v6.5, but had it 2 years now so whatever version I started with?) ... supposed to be "moving map" right? Which I assume would keep the airplane icon centered in the map as one flies?

My current settings related to this are Auto Center Mode: North Up, and Auto Center Deactivate: Manual.

My airplane flies off the map (or maybe the map moves away from the airplane?) ... but since I'm usually dinking, clicking, etc on the screen, maybe I'm inadvertently disabling something? I know about the little gear wheel in the upper right to recenter ....

What am I doing wrong? Missing the "Press Any Key to Continue" prompt somewhere?

There's your answer, Greg. You are manually deeactivating the auto-centering it with your dinking, clicking, etc.

 

[flyingron]

It would be extremely annoying if the map kept recentering on the plane if you were manually moving around. As soon as you moved it (and the airplane position updated) it would immediately snap back. As pointed out, FF disables that once you move the map by hand (or finger I guess) until you click that crosshair icon thing.

 

[gkainz]

and that makes sense - thanks! I need to add a mental note "click the recenter icon" after playing with the map.

And Ron - you're right - that would be very annoying!

 

[silver-eagle]

and that makes sense - thanks! I need to add a mental note "click the recenter icon" after playing with the map.

And Ron - you're right - that would be very annoying!

Electronic s are supposed to be annoying. That's in their union contract. How else are we ever expected to buy new ones if the little terds didn't annoy us and end their miserable life smashed to pieces!?!?!

 

[Stewartb]

Can somebody comment on Foreflight's terrain map mode? I've downloaded the high-res terrain maps for Alaska and the contiguous states and still the view blurs if I zoom into a scale that's useful. If I keep it at less than about 1 inch/50 miles it looks okay but at that scale there's little advantage to a terrain map. The aerial view is much more detailed but it requires a cell connection. This is my biggest disappointment in Foreflight. Am I missing something in settings or elsewhere that'll clear up the terrain map when zoomed to a useful scale?

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Can somebody comment on Foreflight's terrain map mode? I've downloaded the high-res terrain maps for Alaska and the contiguous states and still the view blurs if I zoom into a scale that's useful. If I keep it at less than about 1 inch/50 miles it looks okay but at that scale there's little advantage to a terrain map. The aerial view is much more detailed but it requires a cell connection. This is my biggest disappointment in Foreflight. Am I missing something in settings or elsewhere that'll clear up the terrain map when zoomed to a useful scale?

1 inch/50 miles? Are you sure you have the hi-res terrain downloads enabled? On my iPad (mini/retina), it's pretty sharp when I zoom into about where PAIL is near the left edge of the screen and PATO is near the right edge. That's about 1 inch/25-30 miles.

Higher res than that most likely would drastically increase the size of the download, which is already pretty big... But maybe Tyson will chime in, he does tend to at least lurk in the ForeFlight threads here.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

1 inch/50 miles? Are you sure you have the hi-res terrain downloads enabled? On my iPad (mini/retina), it's pretty sharp when I zoom into about where PAIL is near the left edge of the screen and PATO is near the right edge. That's about 1 inch/25-30 miles.

Here's a screen grab from my iPad - I put my fingers down to try to approximate an inch on my screen, but I have fat fingers and couldn't quite get the ruler down to an inch!

 

[Stewartb]

Does the terrain detail blur if you zoom in further? Mine does. It's a common route to fly from your screen marker #15 to #65 through the Alaska Range. I want terrain detail for the valley I'm in, not for a quarter of the state. The aerial views are good when they work (within cell range) but outside of that and since the terrain maps suck, all there is to use is the chart view. And that's why I've preferred Garmin Pilot. I was hoping the shortcomings of Foreflight were in my failure to properly use it's functions.

Here's 3/4"=2 miles screen shot from Garmin Pilot. This is looking at the Rohn strip. Decision corner whether to go through Rainy Pass or up the north fork to Hell's Gate.

 

[Stewartb]

Here's the same scale with Foreflight's terrain view. Not good. I can zoom Garmin to .2 mile scale and while it isn't sharp in detail it's still useful.

 

[Stewartb]

And to finish the comprarison, a chart view from Foreflight.

 

[Stewartb]

A zoomed in aerial view. There's the Rohn strip! That strip ain't big or wide, either.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Does the terrain detail blur if you zoom in further? Mine does.

Yes.

It's a common route to fly from your screen marker #15 to #65 through the Alaska Range. I want terrain detail for the valley I'm in, not for a quarter of the state. The aerial views are good when they work (within cell range) but outside of that and since the terrain maps suck, all there is to use is the chart view. And that's why I've preferred Garmin Pilot. I was hoping the shortcomings of Foreflight were in my failure to properly use it's functions.

My suggestion in your case would be to use the chart view (or whatever other view) with the Hazard Advisor turned on. Have you tried that?

Other than that, I have no suggestions... Hopefully Tyson will pipe up with some info on the Terrain map and whether it might be improved.

 

[Stewartb]

I'll stay with Garmin Pilot for flying and Foreflight for documents. I have a GDL and I've enjoyed synthetic vision. Hopefully both apps continue to improve. As of now neither is good enough for an exclusive relationship with me.

 

[midlifeflyer]

I'll stay with Garmin Pilot for flying and Foreflight for documents. I have a GDL and I've enjoyed synthetic vision. Hopefully both apps continue to improve. As of now neither is good enough for an exclusive relationship with me.

You are not the only one who uses multiple apps for "normal" situations. But I find it difficult to imagine that one doesn't suffice for regular use. Not that any one has everything one might want; there are always going to be some differences due at least to the different UI choices by the developers more than anything else. It's more that these apps have become complex enough and their UI paths different enough it would be difficult to reach the same level of function knowledge and proficiency in more than one. The number of posts we see by some EFB users who don't even know about functions in their apps that some others use all the time supports that thought.

I'm also a bit curious that your post suggests that the only thing you use ForeFlight for is Documents. Seems a bit of overkill.

(BTW, I do use multiple EFB apps and some even on different platforms - Android EFB as a backup to iPad EFB. I have no illusions that I am as proficient with those apps as I am with my primary)

 

[Stewartb]

Simple answer. If Garmin Pilot included the Alaska Supplement I'd let Foreflight go completely. As it is I like access to the Supplement and other charts in one place using Foreflight and use the Garmin app for flight tasks including synthetic vision with a GDL39-3D. As I've said I do like the Foreflight aerial view but their lack of support of that function makes it nearly useless. If it had better support or if the terrain map was better I may let Garmin go and buy a Stratus to supplement Foreflight. As it is I think I already have what's best for me.

 

[Captain]

Curious, what's the price difference between ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot on an annual basis?

 

[CodeMonkey]

Simple answer. If Garmin Pilot included the Alaska Supplement I'd let Foreflight go completely. As it is I like access to the Supplement and other charts in one place using Foreflight and use the Garmin app for flight tasks including synthetic vision with a GDL39-3D. As I've said I do like the Foreflight aerial view but their lack of support of that function makes it nearly useless. If it had better support or if the terrain map was better I may let Garmin go and buy a Stratus to supplement Foreflight. As it is I think I already have what's best for me.

Terrain data and rendering is improving in ForeFlight. First step towards that is Synthetic Vision (launching this week), which has much better terrain in general and greatly improved for north of 59 lat (for our Alaska flyers).

 

[Stewartb]

Thanks for the comments. I'll buy a Sratus 2 and run Foreflight and Garmin Pilot side by side to see which I like better. I have no brand loyalty when it comes to these apps. I want what works best for me and I'm willing to make the modest investment in equipment to make a fair comparison. I'll offer an honest pirep along the way.