This is quite the software isn't it? I was so grateful to find that the manual had only 334 pages. I was fearful in the extreme that it might be a long one. Like, maybe, 335 pages or so. I'm not very high-tech on a good day but today so far I've got it barely functioning without consulting the manual at all. Ain't life grand? I may need to lock myself in my office with a box of Almaden and a case of Spam and see if I can get this thing figured out without resorting to my pistol. I think I'd rather take a ball peen hammer to the patella than learn a new software program; as I imagine some of the older farts here can understand. Still, use it or lose it they say. I've already quit using that nether part of me so I'm experienced with the principle. Here goes.

I'm sure there must be a surface winds overlay in there somewhere.

I'm not giving up on my sectional subscription yet.

I love computer stuff. Foreflight is absolutely amazing. I am confident you will love it. Lots of help on youtube. Surface winds are in the pull down for layers.


Cheers...Rob

You can also get info on a specific airport, and there’s a winds tab associated with from the closest wind measurement stations. Helpful when flight planning.



There’s also a wind-vs-altitude optimizer in the flight plan panel as well. Only on the iPad version, though, not the iPhone version.

Sportys has a Foreflight course for 29 bucks or so. You can down load it to your iPad and it automatically updates when FF changes. Money well spent!

I am not exactly a computer whiz either, but I have been using foreflight since it came out and have never read a manual. Just so user friendly. I may have to do some reading to learn all possible features available, but to use everything a section has to off and more, definatley does not need a manual to learn.

Mister701 wrote:...... I'm not very high-tech on a good day but today so far I've got it barely functioning without consulting the manual at all. Ain't life grand? I may need to lock myself in my office with a box of Almaden and a case of Spam and see if I can get this thing figured out without resorting to my pistol. I think I'd rather take a ball peen hammer to the patella than learn a new software program; as I imagine some of the older farts here can understand.....

I'm not a high-tech guy either.
I've been using Avare for about 2 years now, and am still learning new features as I need them (or when I encounter them accidently).
The thing to remember is that you don't have to have it 100% figured out right from the git-go.
Just start off using it for navigation, and ease into flight planning, overlays, etc.

Such powerful software. Different people tend to use its features differently and for different reasons, so I challenge you to attempt to try out all the features and see how you can make them work for you. It’s surprisingly user friendly for how powerful it is. The FPL (route) and overlay menu will likely be your most used things, but browse through all the buttons and menus and just see what is there, you’ll be amazed.

-asa

G44 wrote:Sportys has a Foreflight course for 29 bucks or so. You can down load it to your iPad and it automatically updates when FF changes. Money well spent!

X2

BTW this is a nice addition to iPad/iPhone and Foreflight. I have upgraded to Garmin GTX 345 ADS-B I don't need the Stratus anymore. I used it for 2 years.


$400 or best offer.

Cheers...Rob

OregonMaule wrote:BTW this is a nice addition to iPad/iPhone and Foreflight. I have upgraded to Garmin GTX 345 ADS-B I don't need the Stratus anymore. I used it for 2 years.


$400 or best offer.

Cheers...Rob

I'll take it if it's the 2S!

Rob, I'll take it. I'll PM for payment details.

Chris

Edit: looks like I just missed it. Let me know if it falls through.

I spent most of last evening just horsing around and got smarter than I thought I would. I'll order that Sporty's DVD too. Funny bit; I turned on various weather overlays to see what they looked like but they wouldn't work. Hmmmmm. Then I realized that there wasn't any weather going on here. CAVU doesn't show on the overlays! I had to move North and they work fine. Ha! ADSB is on the list, after tires, a new tailwheel, and a Whirlwind for the pointy end.

There are lots of good free tutorials as well. Here is a good place to start. Watch them on your PC and follow along on your iPad so you can perform the functions along with the demo. Pause the video as necessary for your own pace.

https://foreflight.com/support/training/

Joe

+1 on the ForeFlight video series. They are great. And FREE!

ForeFlight is simply spectacular! I’m glad it wasn’t available 40 years ago, or I’d never have learned to navigate by looking out the window......

MTV

I am good enough with computers but I do NOT like them.

I make my living studying and learning and test taking so I was able to figure FF out myself. A few years ago when I got it we had a weekend of bad weather so I sat on the couch with my cats in front of the fireplace and became good at it. It was worth the time investment.

If/when I get another iPad I'll spring for the one with maximum memory though.

mtv wrote:ForeFlight is simply spectacular! I’m glad it wasn’t available 40 years ago, or I’d never have learned to navigate by looking out the window......

MTV

I couldn't agree more, but it's all the special use airspace in my home state that makes visual navigating so challenging. Just check out the area east of Reno or west of Las Vegas one of these days. They don't paint those lines on the ground unfortunately.

Mister701 wrote:

mtv wrote:ForeFlight is simply spectacular! I’m glad it wasn’t available 40 years ago, or I’d never have learned to navigate by looking out the window......

MTV

I couldn't agree more, but it's all the special use airspace in my home state that makes visual navigating so challenging. Just check out the area east of Reno or west of Las Vegas one of these days. They don't paint those lines on the ground unfortunately.

Oh, hell, you will note that I didn’t say I was going to leave the IPad at home...

I love ForeFlight. It is comforting to have confidence in my nav skills that if the thing checks out, I can still find an airport.

Of course, I might use the backup GPS III Pilot......

MTV

I definitely recommend pairing Foreflight with some kind of ADS-B In. I use a Stratux receiver (under $200, you can buy them preassembled or do it yourself easily) and get traffic, weather, GPS, and AHRS in a neat little box. It has shown me numerous unseen aircraft in my vicinity, and I've used the in-flight weather feature to navigate around some gross stuff that would have grounded me without that situational awareness.

As a planning and in-flight reference tool FF itself is amazing. It can glitch out occasionally so it's good to think ahead of the tablet, however the information you have and ability to call it up quickly is really incredible. Other apps have caught up or exceeded in some areas, however FF continues to be my go-to as the overall most useful one out there. As you aren't ingrained into one app's flow, I do suggest trying out a couple other ones just to compare and see what makes you happy. Garmin is popular, and there are some other lesser known ones like FlyQ and Avare. FlyQ in particular has some really interesting stuff going on like the augmented reality display which literally superimposes identifiers over a camera view of your surroundings. It's a neat time to be a pilot!

I bought ForeFlight and my first iPad Mini in April 4 years ago, after my camping neighbor at OSH showed me what it could do. A month later I bought a Stratus 2, and the next trip to OSH was my first real opportunity to look at weather in the cockpit--wow, WOW, WOW!!! I was amazed!

But it took me about 8 months of flying with ForeFlight before I was comfortable enough to cancel my chart subscriptions. But after doing that, and utilizing first my iPhone for backup and later both my original Mini and my iPhone as backups to my Mini 4, I can't imagine going back to paper. It is truly a wonderful app, and the customer support is outstanding. I bombarded them with questions for awhile, and each time, they answered within a day, not only telling me the answer, but also telling me where to find it in the manual, too.

Another really nice thing that they're doing is checking out each iPad update to see if it's compatible, and then issuing a go-ahead to update when they've concluded that there's not a problem, or a recommendation not to update until Apple solves a problem that they've discovered.

Cary