ForeFlight vs. Garmin Pilot

Jamie Kirk said:
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I don’t need ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot but my wife likes playing with the demos.

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This part of the OP's original question is what struck me. If there's no need for either other than to involve a wife or other passenger in the flight, why purchase either product? I fly using FltPlan Go (free) and a self-built dual-band Stratux w/ GPS and AHRS (about $135 all in) on a Samsung Tab S2 (less than half the cost of an iAnything), and it works great. Inflight ADSb-in weather and traffic, split screen displays (even though FltPlan Go has yet to support AHRS display on Android, you can open the Stratux interface in a split screen and FltPlanGo still works fine on the other side), geo-referenced approach plates, flightplanning and filing, certified weather... everything I can think of is all there, and your wife or other passenger would most likely never use 90% of it anyway. Free app that works great.. why bother with anything else at least for your intended purpose?
 
I've been a GP on Android guy for years. Just 20 minutes ago ordered an iPad to try GP on the Apple side to compare to FF. My wife is a FF girl so we've been flying with one of each on the yokes for a couple years...my GP always Android. If GP is not significantly better on the Apple platform, will be switching to FF.

As always....YMMV.

Jim
 
Jim Rosenow said:
I've been a GP on Android guy for years. Just 20 minutes ago ordered an iPad to try GP on the Apple side to compare to FF. My wife is a FF girl so we've been flying with one of each on the yokes for a couple years...my GP always Android. If GP is not significantly better on the Apple platform, will be switching to FF.

As always....YMMV.

Jim
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I have had a couple of friends go the other direction. They see GP on my phone, and dumped FF because they can use a tablet and phone with everything synced for a lot less cash. They felt Apple has priced themselves out of the market (I use GP on a $200 two year old phone, and was using a $300 tablet till I broke it; this is much cheaper than any Apple).

Tim
 
MuseChaser said:
Free app that works great.. why bother with anything else at least for your intended purpose?
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It works (I have it installed and use it as backup), but GP and I assume FF don’t just work, they excel, more functionality, more usefulness.


Tom
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
It works (I have it installed and use it as backup), but GP and I assume FF don’t just work, they excel, more functionality, more usefulness.


Tom
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Perhaps, but again, if the original poster is looking for something for his wife (non-pilot) to play with during a flight, I don't see how paying for whatever extra features and perceived "excelling" GP or FF may offer is even remotely worth it. So far, as a VFR pilot working towards IR, I haven't found anything lacking in FltPlan Go. If I do, then the cost for ff/gp would be justified and I'll make the jump. Right now, for me, it's not. FPG would seem more than adequate for the OP's mission.
 
Can someone tell me if you can have a split screen between an approach plate and the moving map on GP? I did some approaches yesterday for the first time using Foreflight, and I don't like how it overlays the plate on the map, it is just too cluttered for me, but I don't like the fact that you lose traffic and other data when you just have an approach plate displayed
 
Yes, you can!

499e40ddbb0417aeebc89ff4aa283763.jpg



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Other optional screens for split view:
bfbb0d9866cfa7a2027cdb1f445f87f3.jpg



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Splitting with the checklist is something I wish FF would do too. Right now getting to the checklist takes 3 clicks
 
Groundpounder said:
Can someone tell me if you can have a split screen between an approach plate and the moving map on GP? I did some approaches yesterday for the first time using Foreflight, and I don't like how it overlays the plate on the map, it is just too cluttered for me, but I don't like the fact that you lose traffic and other data when you just have an approach plate displayed
Click to expand...

Droid EFB will do split screen display, too.
 
Groundpounder said:
Can someone tell me if you can have a split screen between an approach plate and the moving map on GP? I did some approaches yesterday for the first time using Foreflight, and I don't like how it overlays the plate on the map, it is just too cluttered for me, but I don't like the fact that you lose traffic and other data when you just have an approach plate displayed
Click to expand...

Others have answered that you can do the split screen in GP, but I wanted to point out some other options if you want to keep the plate on the map. You can change the opacity of the plate so that some of the base layer shows through. You can also change the layer order to be bottom, top, or default (not sure how the last is used). When bottom is selected, traffic, the magenta line, waypoints, etc. are drawn.

I tend to prefer to have my plate on the bottom with about 50% opacity.



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Fpgsplit.png Just another data point, not to flog an exhausted equine mammal, but FltPlan Go will do split a screen between map and plate, or vary the opacity on a plate overlaid on a map, too. Both sides are pinch-zoomable independently.
 
lucius said:
Why would one ever volunteer to use Android, the ultimate privacy invading spy device.
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Apple's about just as bad. But its all about choice and not about fanboy talk.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk
 
Doug Reid said:
What chart view are you using that is cluttered? I use FF with Aero view most of the time.

If you overlay the map view with the approach plate, you can adjust the transparency of the plate as you desire...still get wx and traffic . If you want to just view the plate and not see the chart underneath, you can do that as well.
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I was on downwind for a VFR practice approach, and there was a satellite airport ahead of me that had skydiving going on. I wanted to see how close I was going to be, and it was hidden by the chart. I fumbled around reducing the opacity of the chart on the chart, got it low enough that I could see the other airport, then tried to keep reading the chart, which was now impossible especially in the really bright sunlight. I had the aeronautical chart up, with the chart overlay on it.
 
I've been flying with FF forever. Now that I have an Aera600 I'm giving GP a try, we'll see how it works out.

tspear said:
I have had a couple of friends go the other direction. They see GP on my phone, and dumped FF because they can use a tablet and phone with everything synced for a lot less cash. They felt Apple has priced themselves out of the market (I use GP on a $200 two year old phone, and was using a $300 tablet till I broke it; this is much cheaper than any Apple).

Tim
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You can't compare Apple's top of the line to the mid-low level android. I paid $300 for my 128GB iPad Mini 4. It works perfectly. I've had several android devices in the past, and while they are definitely more open source and allow for more flexibility, the hardware/software is never as stable.
 
hamer said:
You can't compare Apple's top of the line to the mid-low level android. I paid $300 for my 128GB iPad Mini 4. It works perfectly. I've had several android devices in the past, and while they are definitely more open source and allow for more flexibility, the hardware/software is never as stable.
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I agree. My point was Apple no longer has a mid-level solution; or no longer markets them well.

Tim
 
King Schools gave me a year if GP with my PPL kit, they hooked me. I got another year free with IFR kit, so I’m probably going to stick with GP. I learned alot of new features once I started riding right seat with another pilot. Get in the air and start clicking around.
 
Garmin Pilot was written by avionics folks to be an iPad app, ForeFlight was written by iOS developers making an aviation app.

ForeFlight is more intuitive and better to use on the ground for flight planning, and Garmin Pilot is better to use in flight. That said, the current versions of either can be used for either pretty well and there's not much in it. Given how much I chair fly, I usually use ForeFlight, but we are overhauling our panel and putting a Mini surface mounted in place of one of our radio stacks and I think we will use Garmin Pilot on that almost all of the time. Part of this is it can update the GTN subscriptions, but also it will show a real time graph of CHTs, etc. from the Garmin EIS we are putting in. We can also send text messages via the InReach and select audio channels from the GDL.

I agree with the above comment about this being a rounding error to annual expenses. Buy an iPad, buy a subscription to each, and don't renew the one you don't use in a year and you will have spent less than the cost of one flight on it ("for the cost of one cup of coffee a day...").
 
I started with a ‘free’ subscription to Garmin Pilot, have since stuck with them. I could likely be content with any of several.
 
sourdough44 said:
I started with a ‘free’ subscription to Garmin Pilot, have since stuck with them. I could likely be content with any of several.
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Same here, free year and I am too comfortable to consider changing. Got another free year with King ifr kit so...
 
Agreed, Garmin Pilot is a beautiful app. (FltPlan Go is an ugly app, but it's free, so it also has a place in my heart.) GP has some nice features:
  1. No hidden charges. The only thing you pay for is data subscriptions. If you read about a cool new feature online, you won't discover that you have to pay extra $$$ to activate it (unlike in a certain other app).
  2. One subscription covers up to three devices on either Android or iOS, so you could use an iPhone as one of your devices and an Android tablet as another.
  3. High-quality vector maps for IFR and VFR that change level of detail as you zoom in and out (it also has the standard raster sectionals, lo charts, etc, if you prefer those).
 
ForeFlight has multiple device support and vector charts as well. Garmin Pilot also charges extra for certain features.

There is no Android version of ForeFlight, probably the biggest difference.
 
John Myers said:
ForeFlight has multiple device support and vector charts as well. Garmin Pilot also charges extra for certain features.

There is no Android version of ForeFlight, probably the biggest difference.
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What feature does Garmin Pilot charge extra for? I have never seen that (I'm using the Android version). The app itself is free and completely unlocked -- it's only the subscriptions you pay for.
 
David Megginson said:
What feature does Garmin Pilot charge extra for? I have never seen that (I'm using the Android version). The app itself is free and completely unlocked -- it's only the subscriptions you pay for.
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There are four possible subscriptions. USA or Europe; and standard versus premium. Premium add Geo-referenced safe-taxi and maybe one or two other items.

Tim
 
tspear said:
There are four possible subscriptions. USA or Europe; and standard versus premium. Premium add Geo-referenced safe-taxi and maybe one or two other items.

Tim
Click to expand...
Those are data subscriptions, not features. There's no feature in GP (e.g. synthetic vision) that costs extra, and whenever Garmin adds a new feature, it's available to all users free.
 
David Megginson said:
Those are data subscriptions, not features. There's no feature in GP (e.g. synthetic vision) that costs extra, and whenever Garmin adds a new feature, it's available to all users free.
Click to expand...

That’s not accurate- Garmin has a Premium subscription that adds several features, such as icing and synthetic vision that is not available in the standard subscription. If you want a Jepp subscription you have to pay extra for that also, same as ForeFlight.
 
If you have any Garmin data subscriptions for your instruments - either the standard or premium (forgot which) is free
 
Hang 4 said:
If you have any Garmin data subscriptions for your instruments - either the standard or premium (forgot which) is free
Click to expand...

I thought it was basic but I can’t find a reference to this on their site.
 
Hang 4 said:
If you have any Garmin data subscriptions for your instruments - either the standard or premium (forgot which) is free
Click to expand...

Yeah, Premium is free, but I still have to spend an extra $75/yr to get Standard first, even though all I do with it is update my databases once a month! :mad::mad3::mad2:
 
My GP subscriptions are worth every penny. Between my G3X and GP the features Garmin provides for about $12.50 a month are amazing. Compare what I have now to what I had in my first airplane GPS, the Garmin 90 about 20 years ago? Really amazing. For GP itself? For my $150 a year I eliminate the need to buy the next new Garmin box. I think they're saving me money in the long run. It's always in my pocket and its always up to date. What's not to like?

For syn vis to be useful you need an ADHRS. Also worth every penny!
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Hey Kent @flyingcheesehead : I have a Garmin nav database subscription; how do I turn on Premium based on that?
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Uhhh... Well, my rollover is in December, so I'm just gonna have to say @Hang 4 is probably right and I'll get back to you in six months. ;)

I started with a free subscription card from a Garmin rep and another from the equipment purchase, and then the premium upgrade from the OnePak... I think maybe I just signed in? Really not sure though.
 
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