On another forum one of fellow aviators was commenting that when his iPad is out of cellular service range, and the Aerial Map is selected, he gets a blank screen. The reason for that is the Aerial Maps (and Street Maps) and not stored locally, they require a data connection.

The Terrain Map, which is stored locally, does not have the resolution Aerial Maps do so is not useful in backcountry flying. I decided to send this off to Foreflight.

"Feature request. Would be great to have the option of downloading the Aerial maps (Street Maps too).

I fly a lot in the backcountry (lower 48, Alaska, and Canada) where cell service is unavailable but I need the Aerial Map. The Terrain Map has nowhere near enough resolution."

I sent this from within Foreflight itself: Menu -> About -> and the "Email Pilot Support Team" link.

Within a short time I received this response:

"Hi Phil,

Thank you for the feature request. I will put your vote down for that and we will keep it in mind as we plan future releases.

Let us know if you have any other question or concern -- we're happy to help!

Scott Tidwell
ForeFlight Pilot Support
ForeFlight LLC"

If everyone here that uses Foreflight would also make this request, via Foreflight so they know you are a paying user, we could get this added to a future release.

Thanks

I was just thinking the same thing yesterday so I'll put my vote in.
Great idea!

Good suggestion. I also can't figure out why you can't enlarge certain windows like the airport details page. That get's hard to read on my mini ipad with the vibrations. Another thing I wish I had is a way to write more notes, I've gotten pretty good at writing on the scratch pad with by finger but they only give you one page, being able to swipe through notes like the way they have approach plates set up would be cool.

That's a good idea I wonder how much memory that would take though? I wonder if they could make the downloads for this by state or region so you can choose what you need and not waste memory for the entire aerial map of the United States.

Seems like the World Map should be optional, I honestly don't see it's purpose. That would free up space. I like the idea of expanding on the notes. The other day I was wishing I could put notes on the Nav screen, although now I can't remember why.

Barnstormer wrote:Seems like the World Map should be optional, I honestly don't see it's purpose.

I do.

rw2 wrote:

Barnstormer wrote:Seems like the World Map should be optional, I honestly don't see it's purpose.

I do.

Don't you use the Caribbean, Mexico, Central, South America download? Doesn't that have a better map then the World Map (which as far as I can tell has nothing aviation related)?

So, you're saying that the sectional aeronautical charts don't provide enough resolution for what you're doing?

If so, that begs the question: What ARE you doing that requires that sort of resolution?

The sectional scale seems fine to me, but then I spend most of my time looking out the window while flying

MTV

Barnstormer wrote:

rw2 wrote:

Barnstormer wrote:Seems like the World Map should be optional, I honestly don't see it's purpose.

I do.

Don't you use the Caribbean, Mexico, Central, South America download? Doesn't that have a better map then the World Map (which as far as I can tell has nothing aviation related)?

Actually, yes. That's indeed what I use. Withdrawn.

mtv wrote:So, you're saying that the sectional aeronautical charts don't provide enough resolution for what you're doing?

If so, that begs the question: What ARE you doing that requires that sort of resolution?

The sectional scale seems fine to me, but then I spend most of my time looking out the window while flying

MTV

That's a great question Mike. A good illustration is my upcoming trip to UT-ID. One of the strips I want to land is Poison Spring. I've never been there before.

Using the Aerial Map zoomed in to help me locate it I get this (ignore ID-VINES, that's not this):


Using the identical level of zoom level on the sectional I get this:


Oh, and this helped me remember why I'd like Notes on the Map views, and that's to draw the non-standard patterns into the Idaho backcountry strips. I don't fly Idaho enough to memorize anything. Although I guess if I can't geo-reference save the notes they aren't much use. I can create a "route" that is the pattern for the strips where it's important. Hmmmm.

Okay, but neither one tells me whether or not I'm going to land there. That is a determination made while overhead.

I guess to me, the chart's primary value is to get me there (and back).

Just curious in any case. I suspect that level of resolution is going to plug your memory pretty fast. Then again, I'm sure not a computer person.

MTV

mtv wrote:Okay, but neither one tells me whether or not I'm going to land there. That is a determination made while overhead.

I guess to me, the chart's primary value is to get me there (and back).

Just curious in any case. I suspect that level of resolution is going to plug your memory pretty fast. Then again, I'm sure not a computer person.

MTV

Boy you got me there. No idea if the Aerial Map is/could be available at a level similar to sectionals, or state by state??? You may be right. But Foreflight will know.

You inspired me to layout the upriver pattern I use at Flying B in Foreflight as a route. Currently I have a Google Earth screenshot that I've drawn the pattern on but of course it's not a moving map but certainly way better then nothing. DISCLAIMER. THIS IS THE PATTERN I USE AND IS NO WAY INTENDED TO BE INTERPRETED AS THE CORRECT PATTERN OR USED BY ANYONE ELSE. Phew, now that's out of the way.

For those who are unfamiliar, with most Idaho backcountry strips there are certain landmarks used to determine turns and pattern height. If I could use the Aerial Map without cell service I could just glance at it in relation to my aircraft position to confirm landmarks if I was uncertain.


Flying with the sectional there is no way I could use it for the pattern without killing myself. Again same zoom level.

I should add that's the pattern I fly in the 185. Have no idea how the pattern might change in the SQ-2. Will be fun to see how it flies at Idaho's DA.

If I'm down in those canyons with a bunch of other aircraft (or one other aircraft) the exact pattern I fly is to me a LOT less important than maintaining a constant lookout for other aircraft. And, frankly, patterns are going to adapt to conditions.

But, every time you look inside at a map, is that much time that you're not looking for traffic. I know it doesn't seem like much, but remember, every time you look inside then outside, there's a short period of time your eyes take to accommodate.

No offense intended, but I think this is a classic case of too much focus on gadgets, and not enough on flying. If you really need a GPS to provide guidance on how to get into a strip at the bottom of a canyon, you might want to look at flying in Kansas.

FWIW

MTV

From a practical perspective, you are not going to want to hear this but their ability to implement this feature may be very limited.

As you may be aware, they do not make the aerial maps themselves. They obtain them from a third party, typically google maps or similar. Same thing for the street maps.

The providers of this content typically charge nothing to minimal for this mapping service, but provide restrictions on their use. A big one that has affected multiple app developers is their license agreements typically prevent the offline caching of map content for business reasons.

Applications like "outdoor navigator" (Hiking/biking/ATV) app have this same problem.

There are solutions out there. For example, outdoor navigator offers "openstreetmaps" instead of google maps for offline caching, but the quality is not as good for finding that single track trail. They also offer Bing aerial photos instead of google satellite photos for offline caching, but the same thing applies.

The other practical perspective is the data is very large and not made available from the providers in a single exportable file. Fetching it tile by tile from the provider takes a long time. Idaho is roughly 2-3GB for a zoom level sufficient for Jeeping. I still wouldn't want to hike with that zoom level though.