Value Added: ForeFlight Introduces Next-Gen Performance Flight Planning

Value Added: ForeFlight Introduces Next-Gen Performance Flight Planning

ForeFlight, the creator of the most widely used flight planning and electronic flight bag app for Apple iPad and iPhone, announced the launch of its next-generation flight planning features, which provide fast and accurate time, fuel, route, and altitude computations for high-performance pistons, turboprops, and jets. The market-leading features are part of the new Performance Plus and Business Performance subscription plans available for purchase on ForeFlight.com.

At the core of ForeFlight’s new performance planning capabilities is a sophisticated global routing and flight optimization engine powered by ForeFlight’s AviationCloud technology, an extensive library of aircraft with detailed performance profiles sourced and verified by the ForeFlight aircraft performance team, and enhanced map and form-based flight planning user interfaces.

ForeFlight’s in-house performance team built the aircraft performance profiles from the manufacturer’s climb, cruise, and descent performance data. The performance models are defined for multiple altitudes, weights, and temperatures, allowing the planning engine to produce highly accurate speed and fuel flow data for all conditions. ForeFlight’s library includes hundreds of profiles for popular piston and turbine aircraft from Beechcraft, Bombardier, Cessna, Cirrus, Daher-Socata, Dassault, Eclipse, Embraer, Hawker, Gulfstream, Pilatus, Piper, and more.

Setting up an aircraft in ForeFlight with performance profiles can now be done in less than a minute. Customers simply search for and select their aircraft model, confirm the basic weight and fuel data, and add a tail number. All of the performance data and multiple cruise profiles automatically load with a click on the web or a tap on the iPad.

Customers will also see a newly designed ​Flights​ view that replaces the ​File & Brief ​ view. ​Flights simplifies and consolidates the planning workflow into a single form-based view. In addition to route information, the new planning form has neatly-organized sections for payload and fuel planning. ForeFlight automatically runs structural weight limit checks with every adjustment to the plan and provides visual alerts when an issue is detected, helping to eliminate an overweight takeoff or landing scenario.

ForeFlight Performance gives users the ability to select from multiple fuel policies, allowing the flexibility to calculate block fuel using a desired fuel strategy. The form-based workflow of the Flights view integrates Route Advisor and Altitude Advisor, two powerful decision-making tools previously accessed only on the ​Maps view.

Powered by the AviationCloud advanced flight planning engine, Route Advisor analyzes current and forecasted wind and temperature data, aircraft performance cap­abilities, and recently cleared routes to generate a comprehensive list of valid wind-optimized route options for any two airports in the world, even for airports without previously flown or preferred routes. ForeFlight calculates performance results for each route and displays the estimated flight time, distance, and fuel burn alongside each route string allowing for quick comparisons between different routes.

The user-friendly interface extends from ForeFlight Mobile to the web where the ​Flights tab on the web not only mirrors the functionality and workflow of the mobile app, but also displays an adjacent map of the route that stays in perfect sync with any changes made to the form. ForeFlight Sync ensures that all planning activity automatically syncs between mobile devices and the web.

The new high-performance planning features are part of ForeFlight’s two new subscription plans: Performance Plus for individuals and Business Performance for multi-pilot flight departments. The single user Performance Plus Plan is priced at $299.99 USD per year and the multi-user Business Performance Plan starts at $300 per year, per license. For plan comparisons, visit foreflight.com/pricing.

Videos and additional content for ForeFlight Performance planning are available at foreflight.com/9-1.

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