I have a few fairly expensive decisions to make about adopting ForeFlight, so I hope that some of the more experienced folks here can chime in re. the following:
- The aircraft I'll be renting are GPS-equipped but only one of the two C172/Gs has a moving map. My reasoning, therefore, is that an iPad with ForeFlight (and yolk clamp) will be a very desirable piece of kit considering I won't always have access to a moving map.
- I have looked on the ForeFlight site for minimum, and recommended, specs for iPads intended to run their app in-flight but the information available is surprisingly incomplete. My plan is to get an iPad Mini, which the site says will run the app post-second generation. Can anyone please clarify however, whether I need both WiFi and Cellular options for the iPad and what might be the optimal choice re. storage capacity.
- Is ForeFlight's 3-D visualisation app a paid add-on or does it come with the subscription? My instructor showed it to me yesterday and I was really impressed with the capacity it offers to familiarise oneself with visual approaches to unfamiliar airports.
- My instructor tells me to be careful because here in southern California, iPads can overheat in flight in the summer. Does anyone have a strategy to deal with this?
I would appreciate your opinions. As I said, they will be particularly valuable to me as this is a fairly big-dollar decision to make; the "right" iPad is likely to cost $600+. Thanks in anticipation.
Barry Isaacson:Many thanks for this. It appears to me that one advantage of flying aircraft in demanding Los Angeles/SOCAL airspace is that they tend to be very well-equipped as far as transponders are concerned. I have just heard from my (most excellent) CFI that the FBO's planes have Wifi-enabled ADSB in/out so all I have to do is enable WiFi on my device, search for the ADSB and connect. This will apparently enable FF to display weather and traffic.
It may be Bluetooth rather than WiFi in some planes, but either way it will get you for traffic/weather and GPS data without adding an offboard ADS-B-in device like the Sentry/Stratus. But I still think you'll be happier in the long run having spent the extra $100 for the cellular chip so you have GPS in there in other circumstances, and no matter what the folks in the blue shirts tell you when you buy it, you don't have to activate a cellular plan in order to make use of the GPS portion of that chip.
Ronald Levy:
As regards cellular data service, I've been running Foreflight on iPad for nine years without it. Virtually every FBO around the USA has available WiFi for flight planning, weather, and filing purposes on the ground. You can also tether your iPad to your cell phone where there is no WiFi.
The Foreflight Sentry is one of two similar portable devices (the other being the Appareo Stratus) about the size of two cell phones back-to-back which provide an external GPS as well as ADS-B-in (weather and traffic) for display on iPad/Foreflight. It provide "in" service only -- it is NOT a substitute for an installed ADS-B-out device for compliance with 91.225. And yes, Performance Plus is probably more than a VFR-only pilot needs -- the basic service should be sufficient until you start working on your instrument rating.
Live weather information is provided on the ground via your internet connection. In flight, other than something like Sentry/Stratus, you'd need some installed source which feeds your iPad/Foreflight, such as the Garmin GTX345 ADS-B-in/out transponder, which connects to your iPad via Bluetooth to get weather/traffic information.
Many thanks for this. It appears to me that one advantage of flying aircraft in demanding Los Angeles/SOCAL airspace is that they tend to be very well-equipped as far as transponders are concerned. I have just heard from my (most excellent) CFI that the FBO's planes have Wifi-enabled ADSB in/out so all I have to do is enable WiFi on my device, search for the ADSB and connect. This will apparently enable FF to display weather and traffic.
The Foreflight Sentry is one of two similar portable devices (the other being the Appareo Stratus) about the size of two cell phones back-to-back which provide an external GPS as well as ADS-B-in (weather and traffic) for display on iPad/Foreflight. It provide "in" service only -- it is NOT a substitute for an installed ADS-B-out device for compliance with 91.225. And yes, Performance Plus is probably more than a VFR-only pilot needs -- the basic service should be sufficient until you start working on your instrument rating.
Live weather information is provided on the ground via your internet connection. In flight, other than something like Sentry/Stratus, you'd need some installed source which feeds your iPad/Foreflight, such as the Garmin GTX345 ADS-B-in/out transponder, which connects to your iPad via Bluetooth to get weather/traffic information.
