No, we’re not gluttons for punishment; however, the turbulence Imagery in ForeFlight Mobile has just gotten way better! Forecasts now go out beyond 12 hours to include lead times of 15 and 18 hours. This is a significant improvement to NOAA’s Graphical Turbulence Guidance (GTG-3) product that now includes an analysis and forecast for clear air turbulence as well as turbulence from mountain wave activity with a new forecast updated every hour. Whereas the lowest altitude in the earlier version of GTG originated at 10,000 feet, the new GTG product includes low-level turbulence beginning at 1,000 feet MSL with a vertical resolution of 2,000 feet that extends to FL450. If that isn’t enough, forecasts now have a higher resolution of turbulence intensities that includes the full range of classifications from light to extreme as shown below making the product even more useful to evaluate the risk of dangerous turbulence along your proposed route.

Turbulence intensities now include light (blue to green), moderate (green to orange), severe (orange to red) and extreme (red to dark red).

Eddy Dissipation Rate (EDR)

On the older GTG version, the legacy terminology such as light or moderate turbulence is somewhat arbitrary and based typically on the response of the aircraft to the turbulence, not the atmospheric conditions themselves. Shown in the scale above, Eddy Dissipation Rate, or EDR, is an objective, aircraft-independent, universal measure of turbulence based on the rate at which energy dissipates in the atmosphere. In other words, it is a measure of the turbulent state of the atmosphere. According to turbulence researcher, Dr. Robert Sharman, “When the atmosphere is dissipating energy quickly (i.e the EDR is large), atmospheric turbulence levels are high.” Pilots should be keenly aware that a safe turbulence penetration airspeed varies with the aircraft’s weight which Dr. Sharman quickly points out, “The implication for aircraft bumpiness depends on the size (weight) of the aircraft.”

At the basic level EDR is really an in situ calculation. That is, it is a value determined by an aircraft while in flight. However, it is not directly measured by the aircraft like outside air temperature, for example. Instead it’s determined by using a variety of data from aircraft avionics which means aircraft can (and do) automatically report EDR in flight. Since EDR is an aircraft-independent calculation, a single engine Cessna 152 and a Boeing 747 should determine the same EDR value when flying through the same atmosphere at the same time.

It’s one thing to calculate the EDR in flight, but totally another challenge to provide a forecast for this field. That’s the job of GTG-3. Dr. Sharman points out, “From the forecasting point-of-view we cannot provide a separate forecast for every type of aircraft that is out there.” So depending on the class of aircraft you are flying, there’s a need to evaluate the EDR values properly. Below shows the EDR values that correspond to light-, medium- and heavy-weighted aircraft as they loosely relate to the vertical acceleration/deceleration (turbulence) response in that class of aircraft.

Eddy Dissipation Rate (EDR) scale for light-weight aircraft.

Eddy Dissipation Rate (EDR) scale for medium-weight aircraft.

Eddy Dissipation Rate (EDR) scale for heavy-weight aircraft.

The new version of GTG includes a forecast for clear-air turbulence often referred to as CAT. Even more exciting, turbulence that is a direct result of mountain wave activity, or MTW, is also forecast separately. While these forecasts are not meant to predict turbulence associated with deep, moist convection, they will provide guidance of low-level terrain and thermally-induced turbulence sources.

To that end, in the ForeFlight Imagery view you’ll find three different forecasts that include clear-air turbulence (CAT), mountain wave turbulence (MTW) and one that combines the two (All). Each one of these is organized into low (1,000 ft – 13,000 ft), middle (15,000 ft -FL290) and high (FL310 – FL450) level collections as shown below.

Turbulence forecasts in the ForeFlight Mobile Imagery view are organized by clear air turbulence (CAT), mountain wave turbulence (MTW), and forecasts that combine the two (All). Each type provides low, medium and high altitude collections beginning at 1,000 ft MSL up to and including FL450.

“GTG is generated operationally at NOAA/NCEP which is supported 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Its use is unrestricted (meteorologists, dispatchers, GA and commercial pilots, ATC, etc).”

Data updates are now available to download for the November 12, 2015 – December 10, 2015 period:

• Airport and Navigation Database
• Documents
• VFR Charts and Terminal Area Charts
• Taxi Diagrams
• Terminal Procedures
• Airport/Facility Diagrams
• ForeFlight Airport Diagrams, including new diagrams for the following airports:

Data updates are also available for our Military Flight Bag customers:

• Global airport, navigation, and airway coverage from the Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File
• Georeferenced worldwide D-FLIP Terminal Procedures
• Georeferenced worldwide D-FLIP Airport Diagrams
• AFR High Enroutes, Area Charts
• EEA High Enroutes, Area Charts
• ENAME High and Low Enroutes, Area Charts
• Airfield Qualification Program (AQP) diagrams
• Airfield Suitability and Restrictions Report (Giant Report)
• Airport/Facility Directory
• Documents, including new VFR Routes Europe and VFR Routes Korea

All customers will be prompted to download these updates inside of ForeFlight Mobile.

VFR Arrival/Departure Routes for Europe and Korea are now available to our Military Flight Bag customers. These documents include general and regional information as well as detailed procedures for many airports and heliports. Specific airport information was previously available in the Airport and Plates views, but now regional and supplemental information is available inside our Documents Catalog.

To download these new documents, tap the Catalog button inside the Documents view of ForeFlight Mobile. Select the DOD catalog and scroll to the Supplements section.

With ForeFlight Mobile 7.4, SIGMETs issued beyond the U.S. border can now be displayed. These International SIGMETs are advisories that cover a wide range of hazards including convection (thunderstorms), severe turbulence, severe icing, tropical cyclone and volcanic ash just to name a few. In most cases these are displayed on the ForeFlight Map view as polygons similar to the way domestic AIRMETs, SIGMETs and convective SIGMETs are depicted. To help with all of these new advisories, we’ve also added the ability to filter this layer by the type of hazard.

The whole FIR and nothing but the FIR

Unlike advisories issued by forecasters in the U.S., International SIGMETs are not always well defined by the source. Occasionally the origin country may not provide the points that define the advisory area. For those situations, the entire Flight Information Region (FIR) is displayed on the Map as is shown below for a hazard within the Mexican FIR.

When the source of the SIGMET isn’t specific about the exact location of the hazard, the entire FIR may be outlined in red.

Unspecified conditions

Similarly, when tapping on a SIGMET polygon, you may see “Unspecified Conditions” displayed in the title of the popover as shown below. This means the source of the advisory did not specify the details of the type of hazard. While ForeFlight will make an attempt to determine the hazard by parsing the raw text, there’s no guarantee we will be able to make that determination in every case. In these situations it’s strongly encouraged to review the raw text of the SIGMET for the details.

In some cases the type of adverse conditions are not specifically provided by the source government. For those situations, Unspecified Conditions will be shown. You are encouraged to read the raw text for those details.

No more clutter

Another feature added to ForeFlight Mobile 7.4 is the ability to filter the AIR/SIGMET/CWAs layer by hazard type. When this layer is displayed, you’ll notice four buttons at the bottom of the Map view labeled Ice, Turb, IFR and TS representing hazards associated with airframe icing, turbulence, IFR conditions and convection, respectively. Tapping on any of these buttons will add or remove advisories for that hazard type from the Map. For example, the Turb, IFR and TS hazards have been filtered with only the Ice hazard displayed as shown below. Please note that these selections are preserved. Therefore, if you’ve removed the layer from the Map or closed the app, the next time you view the AIR/SIGMET/CWAs layer on your device, the hazard selections you made earlier will be restored.

When the AIR/SIGMET/CWA layer is active, use the buttons at the bottom to hide or display the advisories by hazard type.

The only hazards that are never filtered are those SIGMETs issued for tropical cyclones, radioactive cloud or volcanic ash like the one shown below. These SIGMETs often persist for days or even weeks at a time once they are issued.

Not all hazards can be filtered. These include volcanic ash, radioactive cloud and tropical cyclone advisories.

If you surveyed a group of general aviation pilots, it would probably not surprise you to learn that Center Weather Advisories are not a weather source that pilots use very frequently when planning a flight. They have always been included within the ForeFlight Mobile app by tapping the Brief button under File & Brief. But this standard briefing only provides the advisory in raw text form—unless of course you are using the new and improved ForeFlight Briefing where it is also displayed graphically. In ForeFlight Mobile 7.4, Center Weather Advisories are now depicted graphically within the existing AIR/SIGMET layer on the Map view making them even more useful.

In-flight advisory

Center Weather Advisories, or CWAs, are the “front lines” of aviation weather in the U.S. for adverse weather such as low IFR conditions, thunderstorms, icing, and turbulence. While they smell a lot like AIRMETs and SIGMETs, they are more of an in-flight advisory about current conditions than they are a planning tool or forecast. Therefore, it’s critical to look for these while en route to your destination and just before you close the door to depart. Now is a good time to mention that CWAs are not part of the ADS-B broadcast so you will not receive them while connected to a Stratus.

Center centric

CWAs are issued by highly trained meteorologists at the Center Weather Service Units (CWSUs) located at the various Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs) pictured below.

A map of the Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) boundaries in the U.S. Each ARTCC has a Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU) staffed by meteorologists that are responsible for issuing Center Weather Advisories (CWAs) for their respective ARTCC area.

CWAs are issued to warn pilots of the following in-flight weather hazards:

• Conditions meeting or expecting to meet convective SIGMET criteria
• Moderate or greater airframe icing
• Moderate or greater turbulence
• Heavy precipitation
• Freezing precipitation
• Conditions at or approaching Low IFR
• Sustained surface winds/gusts > 30 knots
• Non-convective low level wind shear below 2,000 feet AGL
• Volcanic ash, dust storms, or sandstorms

Short lead time

Unlike their AIRMET counterpart, CWAs are not routinely issued and have no defined schedule. Moreover, they have a very short lead time since they are issued on an as-needed basis. So it’s not unusual to see a CWA issued at 20 minutes past the hour to describe adverse weather that has evolved very rapidly. Once issued, CWAs are valid for two hours or less. If conditions are anticipated to persist beyond two hours, it will be indicated in the last line of the CWA text. As mentioned earlier, CWAs are not as valuable of a preflight planning tool because of its short lead time and duration. They tend to pop up as adverse weather evolves or develops throughout the U.S. and along its coastal waters.

Complementary guidance to other advisories

Forecasters at the CWSUs have a fair amount of latitude when issuing a CWA. Conditions do not have to meet national in-flight advisory criteria in terms of intensity or areal coverage. For example, unlike convective SIGMETs, CWAs for convection can be issued before thunderstorms have formed. That is, they can describe a broad area of towering cumulus or showery precipitation that is trending toward an aviation hazard within the next two hours especially in regions that may affect flow into or out of busy airspace. Convective SIGMETs issued by forecasters at the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) are more of a NOWcast that warn pilots about active areas of thunderstorms that have already met specific hazard criteria.

A good example of its complementary nature is a CWA for low IFR conditions. An AIRMET for IFR conditions is primarily directed at pilots flying under visual flight rules (VFR). It describes an area that may experience a ceiling and/or visibility below VFR minimums. However, what if a portion of the AIRMET region is also plagued with persistent low IFR conditions? This would be critical information for all pilots including those flying under instrument flight rules (IFR). As shown below, given the number of stations reporting low IFR conditions (magenta markers) within the AIRMET region, the Denver CWSU issued a CWA for ceilings at or below 500 feet and visibility at or below 1/2 statute miles.

This Center Weather Advisory (CWA) was issued for ceilings at or below 500 feet and visibilities at or below 1/2 statute mile that were occurring within an existing AIRMET for IFR conditions.

While CWAs can be issued at any time, they are generally coordinated with other agencies within NOAA to ensure meteorological consistency between products. This includes meteorologists at the AWC who are responsible for issuing the area forecast, AIRMETs, SIGMETs and convective SIGMETs. It’s pretty typical for the meteorologist at the CWSU to have a brief phone conversation with the appropriate meteorologist at the AWC before issuing a new CWA.

Finding CWAs in ForeFlight

The CWA layer can be displayed from the Map view in ForeFlight Mobile 7.4. Simply tap the Map mode button in the upper left and select AIR/SIGMET/CWAs from the menu as shown below:

Center Weather Advisories (CWAs) can be selected from tapping the mode button and selecting AIR/SIGMET/CWAs from that menu.

Once the layer has been selected you will see CWAs depicted on the ForeFlight map view as cyan-colored polygons regardless of the hazard type. In most cases, these areas will be smaller in size than an AIRMET or SIGMET because of their complementary nature and short duration. To see the associated uncoded text of the CWA, simply tap on the polygon in the same way that you view the uncoded text for AIRMETs and SIGMETs. Be sure to always read the text of the CWA since it will have additional details about the flight conditions such as the altitudes affected and an indication of whether or not conditions are expected to improve or persist beyond the valid time.

When AIR/SIGMET/CWAs are selected, the four buttons at the bottom of the Map allow you to filter advisories according to hazard type.

Lastly, given that CWAs are a complementary product to AIRMETs, SIGMETs and convective SIGMETs, with ForeFlight Mobile 7.4 you can overlay them with other advisories. Tapping on the buttons at the bottom labeled Ice, Turb, IFR and TS, will permit you to add or remove CWAs from the Map based on hazard type. In this example above, only IFR hazards are selected which includes AIRMETs for IFR conditions and mountain obscuration as well as a single CWA for low IFR conditions captured by the cyan-colored polygon. Any advisories for icing, turbulence and convection (if any) have been filtered from the Map.

For years, pilots have endured a cryptic, wall-of-text preflight briefing. With ForeFlight Mobile 7.4, we are thrilled to introduce ForeFlight Briefing—a graphical, translated, interactive briefing that helps you better visualize weather and related flight information along your proposed route. This release also delivers an enhanced AIR/SIGMETs map layer and new Track Log capabilities that allow you to automatically record your flights.

You Can Brief Clearly Now With ForeFlight Briefing

ForeFlight Briefing is a standard briefing with content derived from approved government sources. It includes all the elements of a standard preflight briefing prescribed by the FAA—adverse conditions, synopsis, current conditions, enroute and destination forecasts, NOTAMs, and more—delivered in a visually elegant design for enhanced readability. With this next generation briefing format, we believe you will enjoy and get more from the preflight briefing.

ForeFlight Briefing is seamlessly integrated into the ForeFlight Mobile app and is presented in clearly organized sections, making it simple to tap through each element of the briefing in a logical sequence. Translated and raw text options are available, as well as full-color graphics, which help you better understand and consume briefing information.

Some helpful aspects of the new briefing include color-coding and notations to indicate if an advisory will be active or inactive during or near your passing time:

Also, colored dots used in conjunction with METARs and TAFs give you an at-a-glance view of current and forecast weather. In the screen shot above, green represents VFR, blue is marginal VFR, red is IFR, and magenta is low IFR.

In the TAF view, color-coding is again used to indicate the forecast flight category. Based on your planned departure time and aircraft profile, your passing time at each station is automatically calculated and plotted on the TAF:

The briefing is mobile and portable—once the briefing is retrieved, you do not need an Internet connection to access it again on the go. In addition, after you file your flight plan you can click the link in your confirmation email to view the briefing on any web browser.

In addition, ForeFlight Briefings are timestamped and stored on your iPad and iPhone, and in the ForeFlight cloud, to record that you obtained weather and pertinent NOTAMs in compliant manner with 14 CFR 91.103(a) preflight action.

ForeFlight Briefing is available to all customers with ForeFlight Mobile version 7.4 on both the iPad and iPhone. Customers with 7.4 installed will be automatically given the opportunity to use the new format the next time they brief a planned flight.

For more information visit foreflight.com/briefing/.

Global SIGMETs, New Graphical Center Weather Advisories

The refreshed AIR/SIGMET/CWAs Map layer now includes graphical Center Weather Advisories (CWAs) alongside AIRMETs and SIGMETs, giving you a better picture of current conditions. SIGMETs are also expanded to include global coverage.

A new interactive filter on this layer helps you single out adverse condition advisories based on type (icing, turbulence, IFR conditions, and thunderstorms), allowing you to declutter and get straight to the information you want to know:

Scott Dennstaedt, our in-house Weather Scientist, has written this blog post and this one to provide more insight on how to use these helpful weather resources in your everyday flight planning.

Capture Every Flight—Automatically

Have you ever been half-an-hour into a flight and realized you forgot to tap the Track Log record button? Now you don’t have to remember! With 7.4, we’ve made it easier than ever to record your flights.

Track Log shown in Google Earth.

Track Logs can automatically start recording when you take off and, after touchdown, automatically stop recording—ensuring that every flight is captured for your post-flight debrief. When you get back to Wi-Fi, Track Logs are also automatically uploaded to the ForeFlight cloud for safekeeping and for easy access from your other devices.

The Track Log includes your taxi time so you can have a complete record of your time in the cockpit — on and off the ground.

You can control the auto-record function in the app settings:

(Please note that Stratus Track Logs do not currently auto-upload.)

Apple iOS 9 Spotlight Search

ForeFlight Mobile 7.4 supports Spotlight Search, Apple’s smart search feature, which now displays relevant airport results from inside ForeFlight Mobile right on your device’s Home page.

To access Spotlight Search, swipe from left to right on the Home page of your iPad or iPhone. Begin typing an airport name, identifier, or city name and results from ForeFlight Mobile populate the search results list. Tap the desired airport search result and ForeFlight Mobile opens directly to that location in the Airports view. To continue searching, tap “Back to Search” in the upper left corner of the screen to return to the Spotlight Search view. Spotlight Search is available on iPhone 5 and up, all iPad Air models, and iPad Mini 2 and up.

ForeFlight Mobile 7.4 is a free update available on the App Store.

We are excited to announce our partnership with Gogo to make ForeFlight Mobile available to customers using Gogo’s ATG 1000 inflight connectivity system beginning in December 2015.

ForeFlight customers on aircraft equipped with the ATG 1000 can take advantage of the app’s full range of real-time information inflight, including up to the minute weather, Flight Notifications, NOTAMs and TFRs, as well as Cockpit Sharing – a feature pilots can use to wirelessly share route information with one another and with passengers’ iPads and iPhones.

Tyson Weihs, ForeFlight co-founder and CEO, shared: “Internet connectivity with the ATG 1000 is yet another example of our commitment to give our customers every possibility to enhance their in-flight experience with ForeFlight Mobile. In addition, many business passengers are also pilots or they may have an active interest in aviation. ForeFlight Mobile allows them to see the weather and route information that the pilots up front are seeing.”

Apple shipped the new iPad Pro this week and our dev team is already logging time with it in the cockpit. So far we are impressed with its performance. We also released ForeFlight 7.4 this week which is compatible with the new hardware.

We designed the 7.4 release to take advantage of the expanded screen real estate and display more information at once, including two more instruments in the Instrument Panel and expanded sections in the Weight & Balance view. Apple’s new A9X chip also provides incredible processing speed and graphics performance, making your flight planning more immersive than ever.

Flight testing with the iPad Pro!

If you can find room for it in your cockpit, you can view more of a chart at once, and going split-screen with Synthetic Vision still provides the same amount of chart space as an iPad Air. The Pro in landscape orientation is equivalent in screen size to two iPad Airs side-by-side! And despite the large screen, we’ve seen great battery performance out of it so far. We are looking forward to all the new possibilities on this platform.

ForeFlight Web is now in open Beta, meaning that anyone with an active ForeFlight subscription can access it. Just go to plan.foreflight.com and sign in using your ForeFlight username and password.

Plan a flight or view weather and airport information all from your web browser. Routes are synced to ForeFlight Mobile on all your devices, allowing you to pick up at the airport right where you left off at home.

As a Beta program, we’re continually refining and adding new features to ForeFlight Web, and we welcome any feedback you have about how it can be improved.

Learn more at foreflight.com/web.

Appareo recently released a new firmware update for Stratus 2 devices, adding some features that were first introduced with the Stratus 2S. To update your Stratus 2:

1. Connect to the Stratus Wi-Fi network.
2. Navigate to More > Devices > Stratus inside ForeFlight.
3. Tap the “Tap to Update” button next to the current firmware version.

This update adds a new item to the Settings section of the Devices > Stratus view: Wi-Fi Settings. Tap on the item to see the new settings.

Disabling SSID Broadcast hides your network’s name from devices trying to connect to it, so the only way someone can access the network is if they already know its name. Another new setting is the option to enable WPA2 Security, which allows you to set a passcode on the network.

These settings make it harder for someone else to access your Stratus’ Wi-Fi network, though most pilots will probably not need this level of security. If you set a passcode but then forget it, you can perform a factory reset of the device by holding down the power button for 30 seconds. This will return the Wi-Fi Settings to their default states. Be warned, however, that a factory reset will also delete any Stratus logs saved on the device.

Data updates are now available to download for the December 10, 2015 – January 7, 2016 and December 10, 2015 – February 4, 2016 periods:

• Airport and Navigation Database
• ForeFlight Airport Diagrams, including updates to the following airports:

From the FAA:

• VFR Charts and Terminal Area Charts
• World Area Charts
• High and Low Enroutes, Area Charts
• Caribbean High and Low Enroutes, Area Charts
• Ocean Planning Charts
• Taxi Diagrams
• Terminal Procedures
• Airport/Facility Diagrams
• Documents

For our ForeFlight Mobile Pro Canada customers:

• Taxi Diagrams
• Terminal Procedures
• High and Low Enroutes
• Canada Flight Supplement
• Documents

For our Military Flight Bag customers:

• Georeferenced worldwide D-FLIP Terminal Procedures
• Georeferenced worldwide D-FLIP Airport Diagrams
• CSA High and Low Enroutes, Area Charts
• PAA High and Low Enroutes, Area Charts
• D-FLIP Publications such as Planning Change Notices, Area Planning Documents,
• Chart Supplements, Enroute Change Notices, and Terminal Change Notices.
• Airfield Qualification Program (AQP) diagrams
• Airfield Suitability and Restrictions Report (Giant Report)
• Airport/Facility Directory

All customers will be prompted to download these updates inside of ForeFlight Mobile.

We are thrilled to deliver ForeFlight Logbook in our final release of the year. In addition, insightful Area Forecast Discussions are now built-in to airport weather views.

Simplicity, Utility, and Security with ForeFlight Logbook

Logbook is seamlessly integrated into the ForeFlight app, making it easy for pilots to manually and automatically log flights, track hours, review currency, record certificates and ratings, receive electronic instructor endorsements, and generate experience reports. In addition, your Logbook data is automatically and securely stored in the ForeFlight Cloud. ForeFlight’s servers regularly backup the logbook when changes or additions are made, delivering a new level of security and assurance for digital pilot logbook data. ForeFlight’s Sync platform seamlessly synchronizes your logbook information across all of the devices on your account.

Logbook is available as part of our new Basic Plus and Pro Plus plans or as an add-on to your existing plan, as well as an optional add-on to Business Pro multi-pilot plans. Learn more about Logbook at foreflight.com/logbook.

Get the Whole Weather Story with Area Forecast Discussions

As Scott Dennstaedt says in his blog article on the topic, with ForeFlight 7.5 “you’ll have the ability to peer into the minds of forecasters.” Well, close. You can now access Area Forecast Discussions (AFDs) in ForeFlight.

Area Forecast Discussions are now provided for all US airports with their associated TAFs. These are issued by forecasters at the National Weather Service and provide important insights into forecast conditions, acting as a complement and explanation for recently issued TAFs.

The AFDs can be found in ForeFlight by tapping on a station in the Maps view, then tap Forecast in the pop-over. Also in the Airport view, tap the Weather tab then Forecast Discussion.

Check out Scott’s article where he walks through how AFDs can be routinely used in your flight planning. Do you know the size of the terminal area that is considered when a forecaster issues a TAF? Read Getting Into The Forecaster’s Head to find out.

New Subscription Plans Bring Added Features and Value

Coupled with the introduction of Logbook, we are also announcing new subscription plans for individual pilots that are designed to give you even more value from your ForeFlight experience. Logbook is an essential part of your flight bag and so we made it a standard feature in both of the new plans.

The new Basic Plus plan includes everything in the current Basic plan plus Logbook and Weight & Balance for $99.99/year.

The new Pro Plus plan includes everything in the current Pro plan plus Logbook and Synthetic Vision for $199.99/year.

If you are pleased with the plan you have now, simply make sure your account is set to auto-renew and you will continue to renew with your current plan. You can manage these settings by logging into foreflight.com/manage with your ForeFlight app credentials.

For more details about the new plans, visit foreflight.com/pricing.

For Business customers with multi-pilot accounts, the Business Pro plan details can be viewed here.

With ForeFlight 7.5 you’ll have the ability to peer into the minds of forecasters. Yeah, I know… scary thought! No, we haven’t developed a method for mental telepathy within the app; but, we now provide access to the forecaster’s thinking about the latest set of Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAFs) they recently issued. These are referred to as Area Forecast Discussions or AFDs. Let’s take a look at how these can be used in your routine flight planning.

Let’s say you are planning to fly into Charlotte Douglas International Airport (KCLT) arriving in the early afternoon around 1800 UTC and the latest terminal forecast issued at 1140 UTC shows good visibility (P6SM) with showers in the vicinity (VCSH) and a broken ceiling at 7,000 feet (BKN070) at the time of your proposed arrival. Does this worry you even a little bit? After all, high-base rain showers in the vicinity of the airport appears to be fairly harmless even for a pilot flying VFR? Actually, this should concern you – this may just be a forecast for thunder.

The red circle annotated here on the Charlotte TAC represents the 5 statute mile radius of the Charlotte Douglas Airport (KCLT) terminal area. This is the tiny region that forecasters consider when issuing a Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF).

Just because you don’t see a forecast for TS, TSRA or VCTS in a TAF, doesn’t that mean you won’t see thunderstorms arriving or departing that airport. What it could mean is that the forecaster wasn’t confident enough at the time he/she issued the forecast that a thunderstorm would develop within or roll through the region referred to as the terminal area. The terminal area is the region of airspace within a 5 statute mile radius from the center of the airport’s runway complex like the one shown above for the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (KCLT). So it is common for meteorologists to use showers in the vicinity (VCSH) or rain showers (SHRA) as a placeholder for thunder when forecaster confidence is low.

Here’s the problem

The forecaster doesn’t have an obvious way to quantify his/her uncertainty in the actual body of the coded TAF. Quantifying uncertainty is paramount when constructing any forecast (especially one for thunderstorms) and is usually done with a probabilistic approach – you know, a chance of this or a chance of that.

What about the PROB group that you may have seen in a TAF? Sure, that would work, but NWS directives state that a PROB30 group can’t appear within the first nine hours of the terminal forecast. By the way, the NWS only uses PROB30 groups; although you may see PROB40 in TAFs when flying to other countries. So back to the issue – how does a pilot know that showers in the vicinity is a placeholder for thunder in the TAF issued for Charlotte Douglas International Airport?

AFDs to the rescue

First, AFD doesn’t stand for Airport/Facility Directory as you may have thought. It’s called an Area Forecast Discussion. Second, it’s not a discussion about the aviation Area Forecast (FA) issued by meteorologists at the Aviation Weather Center. Are you thoroughly confused yet? The AFD is one of the most commonly accessed products on NWS Web sites, however, very few pilots have even heard of them. Now they are available for you to read beginning to end in the ForeFlight Mobile app!

A map of the County Warning Areas (CWAs) across the United States. There is an Area Forecast Discussion (AFD) generated for each one of these CWAs.

The AFD is a discussion that is written by the same forecasters that issue the TAFs. Every NWS local Weather Forecast Office (WFO) throughout the United States issues terminal forecasts for airports that appear within their County Warning Area (CWA), hence the term Area Forecast Discussion. After TAF issuance, meteorologists are required to update the AFD with a plain english discussion explaining their thoughts behind the forecast which allows them a plethora of ways to quantify their uncertainty. AFDs were originally designed as technical discussions to enhance collaboration among NWS forecast offices and to convey uncertainty to a specialized audience. So the language can be quite technical at times, but still highly useful to pilots. Let’s get back to your flight into Charlotte.

The GSP AFD has some clues

For example, the AFD associated with this TAF for the Charlotte Douglas Airport is written by a forecaster located at the Greenville-Spartanburg WFO (GSP) in Greer, South Carolina. Here’s the pertinent part of the discussion that morning:

AVIATION /16Z TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY/…

AT KCLT…LITTLE CHANGE FROM 06 UTC PACKAGE AS A WEST WIND LESS THAN 8 KTS UNDER MOSTLY CLEAR SKIES WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MID-MORNING. EXPECT INCREASING WSW WINDS WITH LOW AMPLITUDE GUST POTENTIAL BY MIDDAY AND PERHAPS PERIODS OF VFR CEILINGS THROUGH THE AFTERNOON. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND A PERHAPS A THUNDERSTORM…ARE EXPECTED ACROSS THE NORTH CAROLINA PIEDMONT FROM THE AFTERNOON UNTIL EARLY EVENING AND WILL CARRY VCSH FOR NOW TO COVER THAT THREAT. DEEP CONVECTIVE ACTIVITY WILL DIMINISH BY MID-EVENING WHEN A WIND SHIFT TO NORTHWEST IS EXPECTED.

As stated in this AFD text that is highlighted above, the forecaster opted to use showers in the vicinity (VCSH) to cover the threat for thunder in the North Carolina Piedmont region where KCLT is located. Most pilots don’t realize or appreciate that showery precipitation is actually a convective process. So forecasters will often use showers as a placeholder when confidence of thunder is low. This is not to say that every forecast for showers is used in this way, but that is a common way the forecaster quantifies his/her uncertainty for convective events such as this.

For whatever reason, the forecaster wasn’t quite confident enough to impart a little meteorological risk and add thunderstorms to the Charlotte TAF. This is in part due to the relatively small size of the terminal area. If the thunderstorms in the area are anticipated to be of a scattered nature (as it was on this day), they will often omit a forecast for thunder until they are more certain thunderstorms will indeed impact the terminal area. In some situations they may use showers to hint that convection will be in the area without adding TSRA or VCTS to the forecast. As the convective weather event evolves and certainty increases, they will issue an amended forecast to add thunder. But these details are not part of the official forecast. For better or for worse, they are buried in the AFD. The AFD is the place where the forecaster can freely quantify his/her uncertainty and provide some background on why the forecast is constructed the way it is.

Moreover, meteorologists at the local weather forecast offices that issue forecasts for high impact terminal areas such as Charlotte Douglas have a fair amount of outside pressure from the airlines to avoid adding thunder to the forecast unless convection is fairly certain. A forecast for thunder at the proposed time of arrival means the airlines must file an alternate and carry extra fuel to get to that alternate.

So what actually occurred at Charlotte Douglas?

Did thunder ever affect the Charlotte terminal area? Yes, at 1813 UTC the observation (METAR) included a report for a thunderstorm at the airport as shown below.

KCLT 271813Z 07003KT 10SM TS SCT040CB BKN090 BKN200 16/09 A2956
RMK AO2 TSB13 OCNL LTGIC TS SE-SW-W MOVG E CB NW-N MOVG E

But, it wasn’t until 1739 UTC (a mere 34 minutes earlier) that the forecaster amended the TAF to include a forecast for light rain and thunder as shown below.  Some pilots might opine that the TAF issued at 1140 UTC was a bad forecast. However, given the scattered nature of the convection on this day (read uncertainty) the placeholder of showers in the vicinity was the method used to indicate the risk of thunder. The AFD was the place the forecaster documented this important piece of information.

KCLT 271739Z 2718/2818 26008G18KT 6SM -TSRA BR BKN045 OVC070CB
TEMPO 2718/2720 25010G20KT 5SM -TSRA BR SCT030 OVC050CB…

The AFD format

The raw AFD doesn’t have a rigid syntactical or semantic format that forecasters must follow. Moreover, that format may differ from one forecast office to the next. That’s both good and bad. At ForeFlight we do make an attempt to visually separate the discussion into sections with a header where it is possible. Although you may find that some WFOs do a better job than others sticking to a common format as described below; so don’t count on perfection with the AFDs.

Most Area Forecast Discussions (AFDs) will contain a synopsis section followed by a near-, short-, and long-term discussion. Simply scroll the window down with your finger or stylus to see the rest.

Each AFD will typically start out with a SYNOPSIS section (as shown above) followed by a NEAR TERM, SHORT TERM and LONG TERM discussion. This is the accepted format for the NWS Eastern Region. In other regions you may just see one big DISCUSSION section. While not specific to aviation, these sections are important to read and often may describe the “big picture” and point out many clues and trends as to what adverse weather might occur over the next several hours or even several days. Of the most interest to pilots, every AFD will also include an AVIATION section like the one shown below. This is the section where the forecaster discusses the TAFs and aviation-specific concerns. Lastly, in some parts of the country you may find a separate section that discusses fire dangers and marine weather.

Every AFD should have an aviation section. The AFD is automatically scrolled to this section when first viewed. Also notice that key words or phrases may be highlighted in red to point out the discussion of various adverse weather elements.

While most of the sections in the AFD are word-wrapped, you may see some tabular sections like the confidence table shown below. In order to preserve the columnar format within this section, you can scroll these sections left and right with your finger or stylus (notice the horizontal scroll bar below this table).

Some sections in the Area Forecast Discussion (AFD) are tabular. In these cases, the section can be scrolled to the right to see the remaining part of the table.

Finding the AFD in ForeFlight

The AFD is available to all ForeFlight subscribers and to locate it in the app is as simple as finding a METAR or TAF. On the Map, bring up any airport-specific layer such as Flight Category and tap on the airport marker. Next, tap the Forecast tab at the bottom of the pop-over window then tap on the new Discussion button at the top to reveal the AFD for that airport’s CWA as shown below. The Discussion button will be located to the right of the MOS button.

The Area Forecast Discussion (AFD) is located under the Forecast tab on the station popover right next to the MOS button.

You can also view AFDs in the Airports view. With the airport of interest displayed, tap on the Weather tab, then tap on Forecast Discussion as shown below. However, be careful not to confuse this with the Airport/Facility Directory (A/FD) tab.

The Area Forecast Discussion (AFD) can be shown within the Airports view similar to the way METARs, TAFs and MOS are displayed.

The Fine Print

When tapping on the Discussion button in the pop-over window, the AFD is auto-scrolled to the Aviation section. From there you can scroll up or down to read the rest of the forecast discussion. Similarly in the Airports view, the Aviation section is also displayed first by tapping on Forecast Discussion under the Weather tab. Tapping on Forecast Discussion again, will position it to the beginning of the discussion text.

While most of the discussion is in plain english, there will be times where abbreviations and acronyms will rear their ugly head. We’ve made an honest attempt to decode most (but not all) of these within the text. Moreover, you will see some words and phrases highlighted in red. Hopefully these will grab your attention since they sometimes point out discussion that includes more extreme adverse weather.

Mind the limitations

AFDs are only available for airports within the United States (including Hawaii and Alaska). So selecting any airport within the U.S. should result in retrieving the latest AFD based on the CWA that airport is located within. Consequently, airports outside of the U.S. won’t have a Discussion button on the pop-over or under the weather tab on the Airports view. Occasionally, the latest AFD may not be available and you’ll see a “No forecast discussion” response. This is a very rare occurrence, but it may happen from time to time.

While some forecasters put a fair amount of time and detail describing their thoughts, not all AFDs will have details you might be hoping to learn. The AFD isn’t their highest priority; when the weather is busy the AFDs will often get the short end of the stick. That same forecaster may have to help with radar and issuing severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings on a busy convective day, for example.

In the end, expect the AFDs to provide a complementary product to the TAFs. If you are not reading the AFDs, you are only getting half the story.

For those of us with significant flight experience, transitioning from a paper logbook to a digital one can seem like a daunting task. We know total time is not the only stat that requires accuracy. Day, Night, and IFR currency should be considered, as well as the ability to report on aircraft category, class, and model over time periods. How about turbine time? Retract? Let’s look at a few simple steps to “catch up” in ForeFlight Logbook, allowing you to obtain accurate totals for insurance forms, potential employers, or the FAA.

Step 1: Assess your flying.

Are you a career pilot? Weekend warrior? Own and operate a turbine Grumman Goose (if so let’s talk…)? What does your next year in aviation look like? Your style and frequency of flying dictates how much detail you’ll need to get out of your logbook.

Step 2: Choose a resolution.

• Total Time Only—If you’ve only flown one plane, or even just one type, this could be all you need. You know every hour you’ve flown is in your Cessna 182 RG, so there’s no need to break down your flight time further.
• Time by Type (make + model)—This would suffice for most pilots. Aircraft type generally implies other variables we need for currency, such as category and landing gear type.
• Time by Aircraft ID—You may want to track hours in each specific aircraft you’ve flown. Whether for financial reasons, rental requirements, or simply reminiscence, this method provides the most detail without entering every flight.

Step 3: Choose a timeframe.

How far back will you start logging individual flights?

• Today—Start fresh.
• 3 or 6 Months Ago—This will cover General, Night and IFR currency (part 91).
• 12 Months Ago—Your aviation insurance agent will ask for your time in make and model over the last 12 months, so you may want to enter each flight for the last year.
• Other timeframe—You may fly under another authority apart from the FAA, or your employer’s record-keeping requirements may come into play here.

With these decisions made, it’s time to take a trip down memory lane. Sit down with your logbook, calculator, and a notepad. Create a new ForeFlight Logbook entry for each grouping. For example, one each for C172, P28R, and BE58. While you’re at it, take time to remember all the adventures in your flying career, knowing that your history will be stored safely in the ForeFlight cloud for you to access anywhere, anytime.

Login to plan.foreflight.com and tap on the Logbook tab to download the ForeFlight import template.

If you already have your own spreadsheet, you can use our web import tool on ForeFlight Web. Log in to plan.foreflight.com with your ForeFlight app credentials, click the Logbook tab, and then drag/drop your file into the box. You can also download our spreadsheet template if you are starting from scratch.

If you need help creating a spreadsheet from your paper logbook, check out convertmylogbook.com.

Finally, if you have any questions during your transition to ForeFlight Logbook, email us at team@foreflight.com —we’re happy to help!

Updated Terminal Procedure downloads are available for Kentucky for the December 10, 2015 – January 7, 2016 period. This update reverts the RNAV (GPS) RWY 18 and RNAV (GPS) RWY 36 approaches at I39 to previous amendments and addresses an FAA Safety Alert.

Updated Visual Navigation Charts are also available for current Canada region customers:

• Baker Lake
• Bathurst Inlet
• Cumberland Peninsula
• Foxe Basin
• Klondike

All customers will be prompted to download these updates inside of ForeFlight Mobile.

UPDATE:

We have discovered an issue related to Apple Spotlight Search and device battery usage in iOS 9.2.

Spotlight activity in iOS 9.2 may dramatically increase battery usage while you have ForeFlight open or in the background. We are actively working on a resolution to this and, in the meantime, we revise our recommendation to “hold short” on updating to iOS 9.2.

If you have already updated to iOS 9.2, you should not see any app performance issues, although we have had a few reports of the app closing due to this bug.

ORIGINAL BLOG POST:

The ForeFlight quality assurance team has been busy testing ForeFlight on iOS 9.2 since it was released and there are no issues to report. Feel free to upgrade when you are ready and, as always, we are on frequency at team@foreflight.com if you have any questions or experience any issues with the update.

While not rare, it is a pleasant surprise to see a fairly quiet radar mosaic stretching from coast to coast. Unless you are specifically looking for nasty weather, a tranquil radar usually means decent flying weather, outside of cold clouds, in most locations that are not reporting low ceilings and reduced visibility due to a radiation fog event. This also means you may not see some of the other familiar markers you’d normally expect to be displayed on the Map with the radar layer on. One of these markers that is often missing is the echo top heights.

Overall, a fairly benign radar with the most significant returns in southern California.

First, let’s get one thing out of the way; echo tops are not the same as cloud tops. Cloud tops are always higher. Second, echo tops represent the mean sea level (MSL) height of the highest radar echo of 18 dBZ or greater. Third, echo tops heights are added to the NEXRAD mosaic in ForeFlight only when the echo tops consistently exceed 20,000 feet MSL. In other words, you won’t see an echo tops report of 15,000 feet, for example. So it’s understandable for customers to believe echo tops may be “missing” from the radar mosaic when the radar is fairly benign. Moreover, there may be some intense-looking echoes in various locations, even some with storm tracks and mesoscale circulations shown, but no echo top heights anywhere to be found. Let’s take a look at a recent example.

In the image above, notice that most of the U.S. is enjoying an early evening free of any significant weather. A few light echoes in southeast Arizona, some light snow in Montana and Idaho, showery precipitation in western Washington and probably the most intense area of weather in southern California. Zooming in on that area below, there are some areas with reflectivity values greater than 40 dBZ (yellow and orange) indicating moderate precipitation. But there’s not a single echo top height displayed even though there are several storm tracks identified. The storm tracks are there since the cellular structure and the relative high reflectivity of the echoes has triggered the NEXRAD algorithms to generate one. However, this algorithm is completely independent of the echo top height.

Cellular returns indicate showery precipitation. A few cells have storm tracks defined, but despite their intensity, no echo tops are shown.

Despite the intensity of these cells in southern California, the echo top heights are likely below 20,000 feet. Since cloud tops are higher than echo tops, let’s examine the cloud top height in this area. The best way to determine the height of cloud tops is to examine the satellite imagery in ForeFlight like the color-enhanced infrared satellite image shown below. This satellite image shows the cloud top temperature. Notice the pale green colors within the black circle where the most significant returns are located. Using the color bar at the top of the image, these solid pale green colors equate to a cloud top temperature of about -20 degrees Celsius.

The color-enhanced infrared satellite image shows the temperature of the surface of the earth or temperature of the cloud tops. In this case, clouds in southern California have cloud top temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius.

Once the cloud top temperatures are known, it’s a simple process to compare this cloud top temperature against the temperatures aloft using ForeFlight. Below are the Winds and Temperatures aloft for Bakersfield near one of the more intense cells at this same time. This clearly shows at 18,000 feet MSL the temperatures were -6 degrees Fahrenheit or -21 degrees Celsius. So cloud tops in this region were definitely below 20,000 feet.

The ForeFlight Winds and Temperatures aloft show a temperature of -6 degrees Fahrenheit (-21 degrees Celsius) at 18,000 feet MSL over Bakersfield.

If you were paying close attention to the radar loop, you may have noticed that one lone echo top height marker appears (pointed to by the red arrow below) of 201 indicating an echo top height of 20,100 feet in this cell. So when you see a lack of echo tops reported, it just may be that those tops are below 20,000 feet.

A single echo top height of 20,100 feet MSL did pop up on the radar loop bolstering the idea that most echo tops were below 20,000 feet.

ForeFlight 7.5.1 is a minor release to address two bugs that appeared with version 7.5. One fix is for increased battery usage after updating to iOS 9.2 and the other fixes the missing Logbook icon when using the Grid (Classic) menu view on the iPhone.

We strongly encourage anyone who is already on iOS 9.2 to update ForeFlight as soon as practical.

Please let us know if you experience any issues with this release. We are on frequency at team@foreflight.com to assist!

Back in June the FAA announced that it will remove support for World Aeronautical Charts (WACs) over the coming year (official notice here). You won’t miss out on any coverage in this transition as complete CONUS coverage is already provided by VFR sectionals, and the FAA plans to introduce new VFR charts to cover the Caribbean before the WACs that cover it are discontinued. Printing for most of the paper charts was discontinued in September, while the two charts covering the Caribbean will cease being printed in February and March of 2016.

WACs can still be used as a valid flight planning tool until they reach the expiration date, which for most charts is either one or two years after the issue date. You can view a particular chart’s issue and expiration dates in ForeFlight beneath the chart’s name in the Downloads view.

The first three charts will expire January 7, 2016. These are the CD-12, CC-8, and CF-16 charts, covering parts of Alaska and the Northwest. Upon expiration, these charts will no longer be available for download in ForeFlight. If you download them before the expiration date, the charts will remain accessible, but a red “Expired” banner will show in the Maps view when those charts are viewed. At that point they can be removed from ForeFlight by tapping Delete > Delete Expired in the Downloads view.

Data updates are now available to download for the January 7, 2016 – February 4, 2015 period:

• Airport and Navigation Database
• Documents
• VFR Charts and Terminal Area Charts
• Taxi Diagrams
• Terminal Procedures
• Airport/Facility Diagrams
• ForeFlight Airport Diagrams, including new diagrams and updates for the following airports:

Data updates are also available for our Military Flight Bag customers:

• Global airport, navigation, and airway coverage from the Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File
• Georeferenced worldwide D-FLIP Terminal Procedures
• Georeferenced worldwide D-FLIP Airport Diagrams
• AFR High Enroutes, Area Charts
• EEA High Enroutes, Area Charts
• ENAME High and Low Enroutes, Area Charts
• Airfield Qualification Program (AQP) diagrams
• Airfield Suitability and Restrictions Report (Giant Report)
• Airport/Facility Directory
• Documents

All customers will be prompted to download these updates inside of ForeFlight Mobile.