New Features Simplify Complex Planning For Pilots And Flight Departments Who Own, Operate, And Fly High-Performance Aircraft

ForeFlight has 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.

"With the new performance planning capabilities, pilots flying high-performance aircraft will get best-in-class flight planning; an array of route options with on-the-fly computed time, distance and fuel; hundreds of pre-built aircraft profiles; JetFuelX integration for optimal use of contract fuel prices; and a user experience that makes planning and filing a complex flight very fast," said Tyson Weihs, ForeFlight co-founder and CEO.

"Many of the new capabilities are made possible by our large library of aircraft performance data and our state-of-the-art AviationCloud flight planning engine, which provides optimized routes for leading flight planning and trip support providers around the world that support thousands of business and commercial aviation flights daily. Pilots will be amazed with how fast they can create, brief, and file complex flight plans from an iPhone, iPad, or browser. Individual and business customers are going to have more accurate flight planning calculations, save time, and save a lot of money when planning and flying with the new ForeFlight performance planning features."

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 Bombardier, Cessna, Cirrus, Daher-Socata, Dassault, Eclipse, Embraer, Hawker-Beechcraft, Gulfstream, Pilatus, Piper, and more.

Setting up an aircraft in ForeFlight with performance profiles can 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. This saves customers time as all of the complex performance data and multiple cruise profiles from the aircraft manual are pre-built and automatically loaded for them 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 customers the ability to select from multiple fuel policies, allowing the flexibility to calculate block fuel using a desired fuel strategy, a capability especially important for flight departments that have specific fuel policies pilots must follow. For example, if an operator requires that the aircraft complete a flight with 2,000 pounds of fuel, then selecting the Landing Fuel Policy quickly calculates the block fuel amount to load for that desired outcome.

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 AviationCloud autoroute tops the list and typically offers the most optimal route based on the current data. The speed with which calculations for every route and altitude are delivered highlights the power of the AviationCloud flight planning engine, which can perform millions of calculations per second to compute results and find the optimal flight path.

Recently-cleared ATC routes are listed next, showing the departure time of the most recent flight cleared for that route (which will often be in the future for frequently filed routes), the number of times that route was cleared by ATC in the past year, and the type of aircraft and altitude range for which the route was cleared. These details give pilots added confidence in the expectation for a smooth clearance delivery experience.

ForeFlight developers flew dozens of missions in a range of turboprop and jet aircraft as they designed and built the feature set, and they worked with a large team of beta pilots to further enhance and refine the results and accuracy of the product.

Pilots are often confronted with the need to explore the impact of taking more or less fuel, last minute aircraft changes due to maintenance, or a situation where more passengers than expected arrive at the airport. ForeFlight Performance enables pilots to quickly evaluate what-if scenarios with just a few taps. If any adjustments are made in the fuel and payload fields or a different aircraft is selected, ForeFlight automatically recalculates weight, altitude, and fuel requirements in a matter of seconds. In addition, the planning engine works offline, giving pilots the flexibility to recompute a route even without an internet connection.

The Flights interface also features easy access to a detailed printable navlog for inflight reference, a link to a comprehensive briefing, and a tab for messages from ATC and other notifications pertaining to the flight. Once planning is complete, then it’s a single tap to the filing form, which is nearly complete based on the information already provided.

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.

ForeFlight Performance will help save pilots time and fuel not only through higher fidelity performance data and advanced route optimization, but also through the integration of JetFuelX contract fuel prices directly into the app. JetFuelX is a web-based service that helps customers quickly determine which locations on and around their route of flight are offering the best prices based on their personal contracted rates. With JetFuelX prices displayed on the map, subscribers to ForeFlight Performance can easily compare prices from multiple fuel card memberships and pinpoint the best fuel stop location. Anyone can sign up for a free JetFuelX account at jetfuelx.com and immediately start saving on jet fuel purchases.

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.

(Source: ForeFlight media release. Images provided)

FMI: foreflight.com