Ipad Apps for New Pilot

Kate Logan

Kate Logan

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Kate in Colorado
Good Morning! I started my private pilot training a few months ago. Can anyone provide me with some suggestions on Apple iPad Apps that a pilot should have (ones related to Weather, Radar, Airports, etc.) I have ForeFlight but not familiar with it yet. I wasn't sure if there are other Apps that are recommended. thanks!
 
Well foreflight

The FAR

I'd not really be bringing any of that into the cockpit at this stage though
 
foreflight, sportys e6b, asa prepware for the written test.
 
Storm (by Weather Underground) is the best weather app I have found on the iPad and iPhone for initial planning

MyRadar is also useful to get an idea of weather patterns, with the wind flow lines turned on so you can see circulation

MyFlightbook is a great free logbook that I use to input all my flights and generate the numbers I need for filling out FAA paperwork and checking on my progress toward the prerequisites for my next rating, and I really wish I had used it from Day 1. I transcribe everything to my paper logbook, which I consider the official record and in which I have instructor sign-offs and endorsements, but my initial entry is in the app

FAR/AIM is great because it updates every year for free, so you pay the cost of the book once and get a lifetime subscription for free. Plus you don't have to carry around or throw away a 20-pound book every year.

AeroWeather is better on the iPhone than the iPad and is how I check METARs, mostly to make a go/no-go decision for local flights but also for longer distance planning since I save the airports I go to most often in it.

I have the Sporty's Instrument rating program on my iPad and liked it. I haven't used their Private Pilot ground school but suspect it's just as good, and the test practice mode is useful to keep sharp until you take the test. I did use their Studdy Buddy app on my iPhone as an aid to preparing for the private pilot written test. It's useful as a flashcard deck in your pocket, so you can practice a few questions when you're at a long red light or waiting in line at the bank or something.

Don't use ForeFlight too much early on. You will actually benefit from getting proficient with a sectional, plotter, and manual E-6B. But it's not a bad idea to get proficient with ForeFlight as well. Don't cheat and have a GPS hooked up to it. But anyone who has tried to refold a sectional while in flight in a typical trainer aircraft without an autopilot and with a CFI or DPE in the front seat knows that it's safer to scroll a map than fold one.
 
Garmin Pilot, a Socata weight and balance app, a few weather apps. Have a checklist app, only use it occasionally. Fun little app called NRST that finds the nearest airport.

CloudAhoy on the iPhone, probably use it more than all the others combined
 
I'm a big fan of FltPlanGo for my in-flight and planning application. It's perfect for VFR flying and it's free and VERY well supported on the iPad.

ASA Prepware is an excellent study guide.
 
iPad apps for a new pilot?

NONE.

Learn to fly the plane without the gadgets. Then, bring them in gradually if desired. AFTER solo, and only with the instructor monitoring.

Even outside the airplane, the value of an iPad over other forms is questionable at best. Inside the airplane, it's a distinct hazard for a presolo pilot.

Focus. The airplane doesn't care what kind of gadgets you have. In the pattern, you don't need anything more than a radio, and sometimes not even that.

Sometimes I wonder. The airplane is 100 years older than the iPad. Training has gotten longer, not shorter, since everything had to have an Apple logo on it to be valid.
 
Foreflight
Weather App of your choice
Zulu time app is nice...

The iPad is simply a resource...nothing wrong with using it to update yourself on weather, etc. Some will say don't use Foreflight for your training...whatever floats your boat...I don't think its going to make or break you either way. I used it during my training and became proficient with it, which I think was a plus versus trying to learn it after training.

I did learn the old way and had to do old school planning for ALL my cross countries, including hand nav log, paper chart, etc...
 
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You can download the far aim,flying handbook and other PDFs into foreflight documents. You can bookmark highlight etc. Really handy
 
I've discussed my opinion on using an iPad during training in a blog found here. This is an excerpt:

"iPads are incredible. Using a program like Foreflight on an iPad can help with weather briefings, filing flight plans, planning routes, referencing airport data quickly, increasing situational awareness, and storing maps and charts in a compact device. Short of spawning tiny super heroes to save you from peril, an iPad can do almost anything. Well, perhaps that is a slight exaggeration, but when used responsibly, they can be a great flight tool. HOWEVER, as a student pilot, I do not recommend using an iPad to start off your training. Learn to read maps on a map. Learn to look up airport data in the Airport/Facility Directory. Learn to plot lines and measure courses with a good old pencil. Get weather briefings by calling a briefer. Make your calculations by spinning your E6B. In other words, learn it the "old fashioned way," and save the iPad for later in your training. How much later? You'll have to make a good decision with your instructor on choosing the right time to integrate, but there is too much going on in the cockpit to be fumbling with an iPad in the early stages of training. Just like a video game, you will get the most out of your experience by leveling up - step by step, bit by bit. Starting out with an iPad is kinda like putting in cheat codes to unlock all the levels and gain invincibility and unlimited coins. So learn it, then earn it."

Once you decide integrating an iPad is right for you, I've also written a blog about aviation iPad apps.
 
Clayviation said:
I've discussed my opinion on using an iPad during training in a blog found here. This is an excerpt:

"iPads are incredible. Using a program like Foreflight on an iPad can help with weather briefings, filing flight plans, planning routes, referencing airport data quickly, increasing situational awareness, and storing maps and charts in a compact device. Short of spawning tiny super heroes to save you from peril, an iPad can do almost anything. Well, perhaps that is a slight exaggeration, but when used responsibly, they can be a great flight tool. HOWEVER, as a student pilot, I do not recommend using an iPad to start off your training. Learn to read maps on a map. Learn to look up airport data in the Airport/Facility Directory. Learn to plot lines and measure courses with a good old pencil. Get weather briefings by calling a briefer. Make your calculations by spinning your E6B. In other words, learn it the "old fashioned way," and save the iPad for later in your training. How much later? You'll have to make a good decision with your instructor on choosing the right time to integrate, but there is too much going on in the cockpit to be fumbling with an iPad in the early stages of training. Just like a video game, you will get the most out of your experience by leveling up - step by step, bit by bit. Starting out with an iPad is kinda like putting in cheat codes to unlock all the levels and gain invincibility and unlimited coins. So learn it, then earn it."

Once you decide integrating an iPad is right for you, I've also written a blog about aviation iPad apps.
Click to expand...

I really wish Gyronimo would come out with an app for the Cherokee 140 :(
 
Go ahead and explore all the apps cited above. I'll also add Nav Trainer to the list to help you understand how VORs work.

But leave the iPad in your bag during flights before solo. Focus on the airplane. Learn the "old school" flight planning ways, which will give you a better understanding of what the iPad is doing for you.

My students go old school through first solo XC. For subsequent XC they can plan and fly with their iPad, which I encourage so I know they're proficient with it and won't be a distraction. I teach them how I like to use it, which I do on very flight.
 
MAKG1 said:
iPad apps for a new pilot?

NONE.

Learn to fly the plane without the gadgets. Then, bring them in gradually if desired. AFTER solo, and only with the instructor monitoring.
Click to expand...
Personally, I'd say "NONE during flight". I've yet to be convinced there is anything wrong with using an app to check weather, learn about an airport, look at sectionals, etc... I don't see a problem in using an app to do all of that. In fact if it makes it easier and more convenient, I'd hope that would encourage the student to play around with it, explore, and learn.

That's all on the ground. I see little value in a pre-solo student trying to use an iPad in flight. I don't do much private pilot training, but the last 2 wanted to bring an iPad along. I simply asked how they were planning to use it to help them accomplish the goals of the flight. When they couldn't come up with any way the iPad was going to help them with slow flight, ground reference manoeuvres, or whatever we were up to, they got the hint.
 
Nope, nothing wrong on the ground, as long as it isn't exclusive. Lack of an iPad (or a dead battery) should never be a no-go, and neither should a sudden change in availability or technology, such as the recent demise of duat.com.

Foreflight does occasionally fail to file a flight plan, for instance, so a student should know how to do it by phone.
 
iamtheari said:
Storm (by Weather Underground) is the best weather app I have found on the iPad and iPhone for initial planning

MyRadar is also useful to get an idea of weather patterns, with the wind flow lines turned on so you can see circulation

MyFlightbook is a great free logbook that I use to input all my flights and generate the numbers I need for filling out FAA paperwork and checking on my progress toward the prerequisites for my next rating, and I really wish I had used it from Day 1. I transcribe everything to my paper logbook, which I consider the official record and in which I have instructor sign-offs and endorsements, but my initial entry is in the app

FAR/AIM is great because it updates every year for free, so you pay the cost of the book once and get a lifetime subscription for free. Plus you don't have to carry around or throw away a 20-pound book every year.

AeroWeather is better on the iPhone than the iPad and is how I check METARs, mostly to make a go/no-go decision for local flights but also for longer distance planning since I save the airports I go to most often in it.

I have the Sporty's Instrument rating program on my iPad and liked it. I haven't used their Private Pilot ground school but suspect it's just as good, and the test practice mode is useful to keep sharp until you take the test. I did use their Studdy Buddy app on my iPhone as an aid to preparing for the private pilot written test. It's useful as a flashcard deck in your pocket, so you can practice a few questions when you're at a long red light or waiting in line at the bank or something.

Don't use ForeFlight too much early on. You will actually benefit from getting proficient with a sectional, plotter, and manual E-6B. But it's not a bad idea to get proficient with ForeFlight as well. Don't cheat and have a GPS hooked up to it. But anyone who has tried to refold a sectional while in flight in a typical trainer aircraft without an autopilot and with a CFI or DPE in the front seat knows that it's safer to scroll a map than fold one.
Click to expand...

thanks so much for all the great information! Have a good week! Kate
 
I use WingXPro. Its like Foreflight.
If you are a student pilot, I would not recommend using your iPad yet. I know on my check ride I was not allowed to use my iPad except for getting weather for preflight planning. The examiner even wanted my flight plan to be all on paper, so really no use for an iPad. If you don't have a handheld e6b, I would either get one or an app for that. I'm sure they will let you use an e6b app on the check ride.
 
All this being said, does anyone have any experience using the mygoflight iPad Pro 12.9" Universal Kneeboard Folio C? (http://www.mygoflight.com/ipad-pro-12-9-universal-kneeboard-folio-c/)

I don't plan on using a C152, but a 172, and I'm in the market for an iPad, when the new ones come out (in March/April timeframe). I'm 5'10" and have a cardboard cut out of an 12.9in iPad (12 x 8.68 - I actually have the cutout at 13 x 10 inches, to take into account the extra part of the case), and it sits nicely on my leg (in landscape mode) while driving. Yes, I know that the steering wheel doesn't come towards me while driving, but I don't want to buy this twice.

Full disclosure: I am still waiting on my medical, and saving money for my training. However, I do like knowing exactly how to do things, so the manual E6B/Paper Sectionals/walking uphill to school (both ways) in the June snow with 80lbs of books in my backpack doesn't frighten me.
 
A common thread between learning SCUBA, golf, and flying... student temptation to spend money on gadgets they really don't need. And I'm guilty as any.

@Jeffythequick, I suggest waiting until well into training before making purchases such as this.
 
AggieMike88 said:
A common thread between learning SCUBA, golf, and flying... student temptation to spend money on gadgets they really don't need. And I'm guilty as any.

@Jeffythequick, I suggest waiting until well into training before making purchases such as this.
Click to expand...
Thank you. The purchase is being made "for free". My company give promotion points that I turn into Best Buy cards. Unfortunately, Sporty's cards aren't available. It's that the iPad will be for multiple uses, and if someone had experience (good or bad) with that kneeboard, I'd like to know about it.

It's either that or 'the ultimate' kneeboard, and Mrs. Thequick and he will make a custom insert for the 12.9in IPP with the 7 ring one they have.

I'll be flying before I get the IPP, just wondering.
 
Where to place the iPad, shape materials of kneeboard, and more is a bit of a personal choice. And like a SCUBA mask or aviation headset, you should try a few types examples before you fly.

For me, I'm happy with the ASA kneeboard that can hold steno pad size notepads. iPad Mini on the yoke. Bigger iPad stowed nearby. I have looked at kneeboards like you reference, but they aren't for me.
 
ForeFlight and LiveATC. Those two and your set. ForeFlight has your charts, weather, flight plan briefs and filings, log book applications, W&B......it's all there. Use as much or as little as you want.
 
I am a VFR student pilot in training 90% toward my checkride. lots of seasoned pilots on here making IPAD recommendions(Foreflight is great) though some are saying wait until you solo?

respectfully I find the "waiting til you solo" ridiculous. having a Foreflight sectional on screen in ur lap VS having to fold a paper sectional in the cockpit in flight or fold it before takeoff only to have to possibly refold it? there is no comparison. Foreflight sectional on screen is "300x" easier. no contest.you can expand the screen or move it. have a paper sectional as a backup or if you have the $$$, get a smaller Ipad Mini as a backup
 
classicrock said:
I am a VFR student pilot in training 90% toward my checkride. lots of seasoned pilots on here making IPAD recommendions(Foreflight is great) though some are saying wait until you solo?

respectfully I find the "waiting til you solo" ridiculous. having a Foreflight sectional on screen in ur lap VS having to fold a paper sectional in the cockpit in flight or fold it before takeoff only to have to possibly refold it? there is no comparison. Foreflight sectional on screen is "300x" easier. no contest.you can expand the screen or move it. have a paper sectional as a backup or if you have the $$$, get a smaller Ipad Mini as a backup
Click to expand...

While I don't think anyone will argue your point that foreflight and an iPad is easier, that doesn't necessarily make it the best option for training. When the iPad dies, you need to know how to pull out the sectional and fold/unfold it. If you've got your position on the screen it's even more of a crutch. Great tools for when you are out there flying, but it's good to build a foundation with the basics in case you need them.
 
Somedudeintn said:
While I don't think anyone will argue your point that foreflight and an iPad is easier, that doesn't necessarily make it the best option for training. When the iPad dies, you need to know how to pull out the sectional and fold/unfold it. If you've got your position on the screen it's even more of a crutch. Great tools for when you are out there flying, but it's good to build a foundation with the basics in case you need them.
Click to expand...
I agree. Just you can also have another electronic copy on another device as a backup. During my check ride, my examiner didn't let me use anything but my paper flight log and my paper sectional. Learn without a GPS and moving map, and once you feel like you can ace the test and not get lost, then could probably add GPS and moving map back into use again.
 
forseth11 said:
I agree. Just you can also have another electronic copy on another device as a backup. During my check ride, my examiner didn't let me use anything but my paper flight log and my paper sectional. Learn without a GPS and moving map, and once you feel like you can ace the test and not get lost, then could probably add GPS and moving map back into use again.
Click to expand...

I learned with paper and no gps and am glad I did. I think I've gotten too complacent recently with the in-plane GPS and foreflight. One of these days I'm planning on going up with a sectional, turning the gps off, and seeing how well I can still navigate the old fashioned way.
 
forseth11 said:
I agree. Just you can also have another electronic copy on another device as a backup. During my check ride, my examiner didn't let me use anything but my paper flight log and my paper sectional. Learn without a GPS and moving map, and once you feel like you can ace the test and not get lost, then could probably add GPS and moving map back into use again.
Click to expand...
Try actually reading a chart off a smartphone before you adopt it as a "backup."

Then try it in the air at altitude with your instructor at the ready, after clearing the area for the likely unusual attitude. Use the scenario that your iPad just overheated and shut off as you are approaching an airport. Dig out your phone, fire up the app, and get the weather and load the tower frequency.

The skill isn't that different from unfolding a chart, and some apps don't behave well when certain databases are out of date. You have to pinch and zoom to do anything, and the layouts aren't very good in that form factor.

It's something a seasoned pilot could do, but a student will have trouble without misusing an autopilot.
 
MAKG1 said:
Try actually reading a chart off a smartphone before you adopt it as a "backup."

Then try it in the air at altitude with your instructor at the ready, after clearing the area for the likely unusual attitude. Use the scenario that your iPad just overheated and shut off as you are approaching an airport. Dig out your phone, fire up the app, and get the weather and load the tower frequency.

The skill isn't that different from unfolding a chart, and some apps don't behave well when certain databases are out of date. You have to pinch and zoom to do anything, and the layouts aren't very good in that form factor.

It's something a seasoned pilot could do, but a student will have trouble without misusing an autopilot.
Click to expand...
I can see a student pilot messing up with it easily, but I have practiced multiple times with just my phone in hand.
 
MAKG1 said:
iPad apps for a new pilot?

NONE.

Learn to fly the plane without the gadgets. Then, bring them in gradually if desired. AFTER solo, and only with the instructor monitoring.

Even outside the airplane, the value of an iPad over other forms is questionable at best. Inside the airplane, it's a distinct hazard for a presolo pilot.

Focus. The airplane doesn't care what kind of gadgets you have. In the pattern, you don't need anything more than a radio, and sometimes not even that.

Sometimes I wonder. The airplane is 100 years older than the iPad. Training has gotten longer, not shorter, since everything had to have an Apple logo on it to be valid.
Click to expand...


I have been a student pilot for a long time and I use them at home and for preflight. I keep the ipad with me as a back up. I would rather the G1000. Lol
 
I have had my ticket for about a year and just now started looking into using software like foreflight, fltplango, etc. I like the paper charts and feel comfortable with planning but, as a renter, not all planes have a gps and not all gps units in the planes where i rent are the same. With that, using one of the available apps would add some consistency/familiarity along with making some useful information more readily available.

Side note, sometimes I have difficulty with understanding the radios in the rentals. Normally, just a two minute discussion with someone but, I like to understand what i am working with. Sometimes it takes me a little longer than I feel it should to get the gps to show me what i want. Do others run into this when renting?
 
classicrock said:
I am a VFR student pilot in training 90% toward my checkride. lots of seasoned pilots on here making IPAD recommendions(Foreflight is great) though some are saying wait until you solo?

respectfully I find the "waiting til you solo" ridiculous. having a Foreflight sectional on screen in ur lap VS having to fold a paper sectional in the cockpit in flight or fold it before takeoff only to have to possibly refold it? there is no comparison. Foreflight sectional on screen is "300x" easier. no contest.you can expand the screen or move it. have a paper sectional as a backup or if you have the $$$, get a smaller Ipad Mini as a backup
Click to expand...

Never thought having a folded sectional was that difficult, nor have any of my students, I mean you're doing what? A buck ten tops? You ain't traversing enough ground that you're going to be constantly re folding, and if you have been driving for a while, hiking, hunting, military, or boating, you should know how to fold a map.

I've never had a VFR student have a iPad in the cockpit, or for a checkride. It's a lot like sending your elementary school kid to math class with a calculator.


Folded in the square position you're looking at 4,900 square nautical miles of realestate, quick fold in half and you still got 35nm short ways and 70nm long ways, and it'll just tuck under your leg, it's always on, has all the freqs, altitudes, runway lengths, who has fuel, controlled vs non controlled, terrain, lights, it never runs out of batteries and even is thinner and can bend!


Folded into a "iPad"
0e81cadff7.jpeg

70x70nm, 4,900sqnn of earth, can be easily flipped and or folded in 1 second or less, once you reach an edge.


0.5 seconds later, folded into "iPhone" size
0e971e01b9.jpeg

70x35nm 2,450nm of earth.


Now as a VFR pilot, if you can't take a quick look outside, knowing your speed and time, and a quick look at that M A P and tell your location and vital info just as fast as a iPad or iPhone, well sorry, you ain't ready for your pilots license.
 
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classicrock said:
I am a VFR student pilot in training 90% toward my checkride. lots of seasoned pilots on here making IPAD recommendions(Foreflight is great) though some are saying wait until you solo?

respectfully I find the "waiting til you solo" ridiculous. having a Foreflight sectional on screen in ur lap VS having to fold a paper sectional in the cockpit in flight or fold it before takeoff only to have to possibly refold it? there is no comparison. Foreflight sectional on screen is "300x" easier. no contest.you can expand the screen or move it. have a paper sectional as a backup or if you have the $$$, get a smaller Ipad Mini as a backup
Click to expand...

Many times people want you to do things the "old fashioned" way because they had to do it that way so they assume it is right. This "I used to walk up the hill both ways" crowd does wear on you over time.

However, I believe that on this topic learning the "old fashioned" way makes you a better pilot, with a better understanding of what you doing rather than worrying about your gadgets. I don't think that the experienced pilots on this forum are just curmudgeons, they believe that they got valuable experience from not using the gadgets and believe you would too. I know I did!

When I was in my late teens and twenties I was pretty heavy into playing guitar. I ended up being in a band and used to practice all the time. When I first started I bought all these effects pedals to try to have a better "tone." Once I learned to play better, I realized that the electric guitar often sounds best plugged straight in the amp. The sound is less processed...more pure not going through all my gadgets before reaching the amp.

I can equate that to flying, iPADs help (especially IFR) but every now and then when the weather is good, I LOVE to leave the iPAD at home, shut off my 430 and fly using my 2nd COM and a good map. You feel more in tune with the air and your machine, less processed.
 
I find myself more and more flying basic VFR orientation rides with the CAP cadets, with the iPad in the side pocket and a folded TAC out. Part of that is as an example to discourage the video game effect (there are entirely too many gadgets in these airplanes), and the rest is just to stay in better tune with what the cadet is doing. Now, IFR is something else entirely -- that I do both ways when proficiency flying, but usually with the iPad for real flights. Though honest paper IAPs are harder to look up, but easier to use than an iPad Mini, as you don't have to zoom and pan them while flying a complex nonprecision approach.
 
I went for a fun flight today in the club Cessna 152. Left my iPad on the ground.

It was amazing! I did not get lost, the air plane did not crash, and I made it back to the airport alive. I didn't think that was possible.

Also, I saw things on the ground that I had never seen before even though I had flown over the same real estate many, many times. Like kids playing in the playground at a school. I waved to them. I don't think they saw me. :-(
 
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neilw2 said:
Many times people want you to do things the "old fashioned" way because they had to do it that way so they assume it is right. This "I used to walk up the hill both ways" crowd does wear on you over time.
Click to expand...
The opposite of this is the "better because it's new" crowd that tries to throw technology at every little task. Try to point out that the new way takes longer or, god forbid, is unnecessary, and you get called "old fashioned" or how you "hate change" as their only rebuttal. No, I hate now having to do four steps instead of two in things I do all the time, just so I can look cool and be "hip".

whippersnapper: "You need an complete EFB with moving map GPS and worldwide charts!"
curmudgeon: "How does that help me?"
whippersnapper: "You'll know exactly where you are at all times!"
curmudgeon: "But I do know where I am. I could tell you who owns every cow I fly over."
whippersnapper: "The charts alone will save you over $500 a year!"
curmudgeon: "One chart covers everywhere I fly for ten bucks."
whippersnapper: "It has real time weather!"
curmudgeon: "I look out the window and if it's nice out, I fly. If not, I don't."
whippersnapper: "It'll show you all the traffic!"
curmudgeon: "So I put my glasses on and look down at the little screen and it''ll show all the old cubs and champs like mine with no electrical at 1000ft in class G?"
whippersnapper: "Well, no, you'd still need to look out the window."
curmudgeon: "I look out the window now."
whippersnapper: "It files a flight plan for you."
curmudgeon: "What's a flight plan?"
whippersnapper: "It's only $700 for the iPad plus a hundred a year."
curmudgeon: "But it doesn't do anything I need for the type of the flying I do..."
whippersnapper: "You're just resistant to change."
curmudgeon: "Why would I pay to change something I enjoy doing?
whippersnapper: "You can watch porn on it while in the crapper."
curmudgeon: "Sold! Where can I buy me one of them things?"
 
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