Foreflight: Pack for your trip

Let'sgoflying! said:
Is on the ipad.
Where is it, on the iphone?
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On the iPhone, when you enter the route, it should show a line below the flight plan info saying 'You need to pack for trip'

It should appear just below the Route Advisor.

At least it does on my iPhone.
 
Verified what Fearless said... but to get it to show, you need to start with the "Create" button in the Routes section on the main menu.
 
Serious question: people use pack? I could never figure out the use case for it.
 
GeorgeC said:
Serious question: people use pack? I could never figure out the use case for it.
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I do as an easy way to grab the random important items such as NOTAMS and weather data. Remember, this gets it from the net and then stores it on your device so it's accessible during flight.
 
GeorgeC said:
Serious question: people use pack? I could never figure out the use case for it.
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I started using pack when I noticed I wasn't getting all the NOTAMs from Stratus. I also noticed I wasn't getting things like FBO comments in flight.
 
Aren't the relevant NOTAMs and wx data already saved in the briefing, though? It seems that the caching of data when disconnected from the network should be automatic and not require user action.
 
Ditto on the ease of seeing NOTAMS on the airport diagram while in the air...
 
Honestly there are too many steps and a wish-for item of mine is to simplify it by one button prep. Brief would include all this plus put the route on the map, load relevant sids/stars/iaps into a folder, put departure and destination airports into the Airports button.
 
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The only thing better than one button prep is no button prep.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Honestly there are too many steps and a wish for item of mine is to simplify it by one button prep. Brief would include all this plus put the route on the map, load relevant sids/stars/iaps into a folder, put departure and destination airports into the Airports button.
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And create Plates folders with all the plates for your origin, destination, and alternate airports, filtered by preferences (for example, skip the Cat-III and NDB plates and turbine-only SIDs/STARs). Lots of things it could do.
 
Fearless Tower said:
On the iPhone, when you enter the route, it should show a line below the flight plan info saying 'You need to pack for trip'
It should appear just below the Route Advisor.
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I see it there; thanks FT.
Only other question now is, what is the Route Advisor? I have not used it.
I make a flight plan in the Flight Plans header, brief and file there, then send to maps. I get weather and notams on other pages. Did not notice Route Advisor. What is it for?
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Honestly there are too many steps and a wish-for item of mine is to simplify it by one button prep. Brief would include all this plus put the route on the map, load relevant sids/stars/iaps into a folder, put departure and destination airports into the Airports button.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the reason they don't do it, is students and others who are actually downloading from cellular and not wifi... maybe you DON'T want it sucking down all that data...

Or for the "joy" of being at boonies airports where you know "pack" would take a half and hour, and you've already got the information from somewhere else... and don't feel like waiting for Foreflight to download all of it just to get going.
 
iamtheari said:
And create Plates folders with all the plates for your origin, destination, and alternate airports, filtered by preferences (for example, skip the Cat-III and NDB plates and turbine-only SIDs/STARs). Lots of things it could do.
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This would be a great feature. They're pretty receptive to user feedback; I'd drop them a mail. Wouldn't be surprised if they're already working on something like this.
 
denverpilot said:
I'm sure the reason they don't do it, is students and others who are actually downloading from cellular and not wifi... maybe you DON'T want it sucking down all that data...
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There's an easy fix; give users the option.
Include a switch - types like me who always want it downloaded will select 'On' and those who leave it off can avoid the data suck.
 
denverpilot said:
It attempts to guess from recently filed flight plans, what ATC will give you IFR.
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And it does a very poor job of that.

I don't think I've ever used one of the FF suggested routes. It's not like the recommended routes you get on Flightplan.com
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
There's an easy fix; give users the option.
Include a switch - types like me who always want it downloaded will select 'On' and those who leave it off can avoid the data suck.
Click to expand...

I believe that already exists. It's called the "Pack" button. LOL.
 
Fearless Tower said:
And it does a very poor job of that.

I don't think I've ever used one of the FF suggested routes. It's not like the recommended routes you get on Flightplan.com
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Agreed. Wherever they pull their routes from isn't very good. I just file for the route I want and accept whatever I get. No tech needed. LOL.
 
denverpilot said:
Agreed. Wherever they pull their routes from isn't very good.
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It's almost like their flight planner assumes you have only two VOR heads and nothing else (no gps, DME...etc).

The routes it suggests for me are all old school strict airway routing.
 
Fearless Tower said:
It's almost like their flight planner assumes you have only two VOR heads and nothing else (no gps, DME...etc).

The routes it suggests for me are all old school strict airway routing.
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Haha I was going to say the exact opposite, considering my panel is /A at best. :) I get "direct 1,000 miles" back from it out of here going anywhere. LOL.

Of course I get that crap from center controllers too... I've gotten really good at telling them I can't accept direct, but I'm vector-qualified if they'd like to give a vector of about XXX for 300 miles. Haha.
 
Pack has saved me from flying without the right charts and plates.

I fly often in various states, but I don't always download data for them all. So it can happen, when scanning through the long long download list, that I forget one kind of chart for some state that I need. By just clicking "pack", I avoid that blunder. It makes it easy to assure I've got what I need.
 
denverpilot said:
I believe that already exists. It's called the "Pack" button. LOL.
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Not at all, because I cannot leave it "On".
I must remember to find that button during planning or I discover on climb-out "You must pack for your trip"
 
denverpilot said:
Haha I was going to say the exact opposite, considering my panel is /A at best. :) I get "direct 1,000 miles" back from it out of here going anywhere. LOL.
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That's interesting. I'm always /G, but out here it always suggests convoluted victor airways routes that don't look like anything you see on FltPlan.com
 
Fearless Tower said:
Yes and no. Lately it seems hit and miss. I'm not sure if that is a FF issue or a Stratus issue.
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Stratus only provides NOTAMs and TFR data when received from a ground station. Ground stations only broadcast NOTAM/TFR data within 100 NM of the tower location.
 
John Collins said:
Stratus only provides NOTAMs and TFR data when received from a ground station. Ground stations only broadcast NOTAM/TFR data within 100 NM of the tower location.
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Even within 100nm of a tower it still seems hot and miss
 
AggieMike88 said:
And updates the NOTAMS that appear on the plates view.
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Pack does several additional things. You get the latest weather, winds aloft, NOTAMs, TFR, Fuel Prices, and charts. So if you briefed the flight in the morning, but are departing in the afternoon, packing updates the cached data you take along with you.
 
John Collins said:
Pack does several additional things. You get the latest weather, winds aloft, NOTAMs, TFR, Fuel Prices, and charts. So if you briefed the flight in the morning, but are departing in the afternoon, packing updates the cached data you take along with you.
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Yeah that's what I do. Brief at home and then do a final "pack" right before starting up. It works pretty well and is reasonably respectful of data usage.
 
Fearless Tower said:
It's almost like their flight planner assumes you have only two VOR heads and nothing else (no gps, DME...etc).

The routes it suggests for me are all old school strict airway routing.
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Then you're probably on a route (that is, a departure-destination pair) that is rarely used.

ForeFlight will always give you an airway route as the last option. Where there aren't any previously cleared routes, it'll be the only option.

If someone has been cleared on a particular route, the route and altitude will show up. If you're going between a pair of airports that are frequently used, you'll have several options. If you're going from Bob's Cow Strip to Podunk Muni, you'll probably just get the airway one.

Another limitation is that it only has data for initial clearances, not the frequent re-clearances that you'll get. For example, when going into my home 'drome, Rockford Approach will ALWAYS change my route to direct Badger direct, and then Milwaukee Approach will give me back direct to the field on check-in. Every. Single. Time. But I'm never given the Badger part when I'm first picking up my clearance, it always comes from Rockford, so it'll never show up in the cleared routes.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Then you're probably on a route (that is, a departure-destination pair) that is rarely used.

ForeFlight will always give you an airway route as the last option. Where there aren't any previously cleared routes, it'll be the only option.

If someone has been cleared on a particular route, the route and altitude will show up. If you're going between a pair of airports that are frequently used, you'll have several options. If you're going from Bob's Cow Strip to Podunk Muni, you'll probably just get the airway one.
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Based on my experience comparing ForeFlight with FltPlan.com, I don't buy that at all. ForeFlight will typically only give me one or two suggested routes, all victory airways and often more complicated than necessary. I'll plug the same airports into FltPlan.com and it will give me several user files and ATC cleared routes that look nothing like what FF suggested.

Edit: just tested your theory and again, it is completely hit and miss.

Some routes I have previously done and filed for will show up below the suggested airway routing under 'ATC cleared'. Other routes that I've done within the last year show up in FltPlan.com, but not in FF. Only the suggested airway route is provided.
 
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starglider said:
Yeah that's what I do. Brief at home and then do a final "pack" right before starting up. It works pretty well and is reasonably respectful of data usage.
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I logged into a recent webinar and noted the following on my blog. http://gmflightlog.blogspot.com/2017/03/attended-foreflight-webinar.html

Another feature that has been around for awhile but I never used is the 'pack for the trip'. My thought was that I didn't want to have all the extra files that would eat up memory and slow my iPad down. After last nights explanation it's my understanding that when the next update cycle is due, whatever you previously 'packed' will not automatically update. Neat thought since I update about twenty plus states at all times, maybe I should just pack for the trip I need.

The 'Pack' feature was also explained in greater detail. This feature packs for the area of your trip, to include, a fifty mile radius along your planned route and a one hundred mile radius around your departure and destination airports. Pack will provide NOTAMs, weather, obstacles, FBO info and fuel prices. Once your in the air its nice to have that info available to review if needed.
 
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