Well,
I just got an email that says Boeing bought Foreflight. Does anyone have any inside information on this? Do we think this is a good thing or a bad thing? SO many questions. SO few answers.

I saw this too. My initial reaction is pessimistic. ForeFlight has had great customer supper and they have been very receptive to suggestions. Barnstormer even got them to entertain a wishlist from us with many suggestions incorporated into the app. I hope things don’t change but it seems like when small companies get swallowed up there are casualties.


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I am not optimistic about this from the standpoint of a Foreflight user.


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Foreflight is currently I believe a 150 person company. Boeing is a massive conglomerate with over 150,000 employees. While I congratulate the founders, I can't think of an example where the product or the employees ended up better for it. Happy to be proven wrong though.

I likewise hope for the best but anticipate that it won't be as good as it's been, unless Boeing allows ForeFlight to continue to operate pretty much autonomously. Huge companies tend to count beans too much vs. provide service, which would be a true disaster for ForeFlight users. FF has a reputation, well deserved, for being very customer-centric, and whether that will continue under Boeing ownership is anybody's guess. My personal experience has been answers to questions within 24 hours always, with both the answer and where that answer could have been found in the "manual" had I only looked a little harder. Good people at FF--I hope that they stay.

Cary

My cynicism is going to surface here:

Boeing bought the intellectual property and the customer base, will most likely integrate FF into an existing parallel platform. Then separate individual features from the FF packages and bill them as add-ons. Expect a rate hike as well.

It's a safe bet that Tyson and his leadership team are gazillionaires now; they may have included some profit sharing with their employee base as well. Some employees will move to wherever Boeing needs them to be; the rest will take there profit share and find new employment.

yeah, got that T-shirt, too...

It was great while it lasted.

One thing that I will bring up (again) is that every time ForeFlight pushed an update, they would lock it behind either the highest paying subscription tier or create a new one to put it in. It feels like you need to pay for the ForeFlight Professional Plus, Performance Plus, Supreme Plus, Extra Edition Plus with Jeppesen charts (plus) to get any of the new features that have been added in the last couple of years. One of my CFI's was very unhappy when they locked away some of the features and created the professional plus tier to stash them in.

I myself think that the acquisition is a good thing for me. Garmin Pilot allows me to update my navigator's database wirelessly and allows you to transfer flight plans between the app and the GPS. I've been looking for a reason to switch, maybe in a year or two when it goes down the drain I will use it as my reason to switch.

Just considered this; I was planning to invest heavily in ForeFlight in my ADSB solution as I really like the app. uAvionics Tailbeacon for ADSB out, Sentry (uAvionics and ForeFlight developed) for ADSB in, and ForeFlight for Synthetic Vision, AHRS, weather and traffic. Now that the app is in limbo, all that hardware is in question as well. Really bad timing in regards to a looming federally mandated equipment mandate.

Like I said, I've been down this road before so I don't hold a lot of optimism for this change. I do hope that I'm wrong.

Likewise I have been running their Logbook software in parallel with Logbook pro, which I’ve used for years. My plan was to stop using Logbook pro since I was already paying for FF. Probably won’t now until the dust settles.


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Grassstrippilot wrote:Likewise I have been running their Logbook software in parallel with Logbook pro, which I’ve used for years. My plan was to stop using Logbook pro since I was already paying for FF. Probably won’t now until the dust settles.

THIS. I've been using it exclusively as my logbook software, and I'm really not looking forward to moving elsewhere if things change too much...

Boeing now has FF and Jeppsen under their roof. I have the feeling that FF will move more to heavier iron and away from folks like us. Unfortunately I just renewed my FF subscription in January.

I got a sweet deal at the Pacific NW Aviation show on iFlyQ and took it for its first test ride today. Not a bad software so far. I have not drilled down into what it will actually do but so far so good. The software has a logbook is included in the standard price and are offering special pricing for those fleeing FF after Boeing.

The screens iFlyQ are sharp and the information readily pops up with very few "clicks". I still have a copy of Garmin Pilot on my iPad but since I don't have a Garmin ADS-B in/out set up it has been relegated to backup. Too bad as I really like the Pilot app.

Other feedback on this app would be great. I will wring it out more as the weather improves.

TD

Like any new software, FlyQ has a learning curve. If you're planning to do their 30-day trial, do yourself a favor and watch a few of their tutorials on their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/FlyQEFB). Once you 'get' their concept, it's a lot easier to use, and to predict where they function you're looking for might be found.

While I agree with many that ForeFlight sets the bar for ease of use, FlyQ is maybe a 1/2-step behind them – albeit with a completely different user interface approach. I like it well enough that I purchased one of their lifetime subscriptions, and use FlyQ as my backup to FF. If Boeing really screws the pooch, I'll just switch to FlyQ full time.

And, that’s what’s okay about this: There is competition, and lots of it.

Whatever Boeing is, it’s not stupid. So they’ll either keep this as a be all solution for everyone, or they’ll screw the pooch, in which case, we’ll all go somewhere else, and likely be happy there.

But, I’ll let Boieng show there hand before I even consider a change. It’s the best software there is right now, and it’ll likely get better.

A “tiered” subscription? Uh, ForeFlight invented that concept.

The difference between a pilot and a jet engine? The jet engine stops whining at the gate.

MTV

mtv wrote:And, that’s what’s okay about this: There is competition, and lots of it.

Whatever Boeing is, it’s not stupid. So they’ll either keep this as a be all solution for everyone, or they’ll screw the pooch, in which case, we’ll all go somewhere else, and likely be happy there.

But, I’ll let Boieng show there hand before I even consider a change. It’s the best software there is right now, and it’ll likely get better.

A “tiered” subscription? Uh, ForeFlight invented that concept.

The difference between a pilot and a jet engine? The jet engine stops whining at the gate.

MTV

*Looking frantically for the "Like" button*

I got into using an Ipad late in the stage of development of the navigating platforms. I used a 696 with an XM subscription for years. When I made the switch about a year and a half ago Garmin Pilot was already a competitor. I got a trial offer for both products and I decided to go with Garmin Pilot. The features are almost the same. At the time the weather forecasting was better on Foreflight but Garmin has updated the features and I would say the weather forecasting now is compatible with Foreflight, but to be fair I haven't used Foreflight in over a year. The split screen feature is awesome and I prefer the graphics on the Garmin Pilot. It is also cheaper. I am updating my avionics in November with a GTX345 ADS-B and I am told using the Garmin Pilot application will be easier than Foreflight. I think the competition between the 2 companies was positive for the industry. They seem to respond to making software changes when one of them made new updates.

mtv wrote:
The difference between a pilot and a jet engine? The jet engine stops whining at the gate.

MTV

I’m pretty certain it’s flight attendant, not pilot. [emoji1]”


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Grassstrippilot wrote:

mtv wrote:
The difference between a pilot and a jet engine? The jet engine stops whining at the gate.

MTV

I’m pretty certain it’s flight attendant, not pilot. [emoji1]”


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Cory's right, it's Flight Attendant, not pilot.

mtv wrote:A “tiered” subscription? Uh, ForeFlight invented that concept.

I suppose if the software industry began in 2011, one could posit such an idea.

Zzz wrote:

mtv wrote:A “tiered” subscription? Uh, ForeFlight invented that concept.

I suppose if the software industry began in 2011, one could posit such an idea.

I thought it was Al Gore, right after he finished inventing his “tubes?”

Zzz wrote:

mtv wrote:A “tiered” subscription? Uh, ForeFlight invented that concept.

I suppose if the software industry began in 2011, one could posit such an idea.

Hardass...... I was limiting my comment to aviation software.

But I do think Cam has it right, it probably was Al.

MTV