We are thrilled to announce this exciting addition to ForeFlight. JetFuelX is a free web-based fuel card management service that makes it easy for owners and operators of turbine aircraft to save money by quickly finding the lowest prices available from their multiple jet fuel discount program memberships.

JetFuelX is designed to help everyone from individual pilots to large flight departments, including charter operators, quickly pinpoint the best jet fuel prices and eliminate the frustrating and time-consuming task of managing and comparing multiple fuel card and FBO discount programs. Customers can manage unlimited fuel card memberships and aircraft profiles, view all prices available at the planned destination, compare prices in real-time with nearby airports, and submit fuel releases in a matter of seconds. The simple search function returns discount pricing information at the planned destination, as well as the nearest airports, in a neatly organized list or interactive map view.

In addition, JetFuelX provides a solution for fuel providers and FBOs to efficiently distribute pricing data to their members. FBOs and fuel providers who are interested in integrating with JetFuelX, please contact info@jetfuelx.com.

Existing JetFuelX customers can continue to enjoy the benefits of this free service. If you are a ForeFlight customer, you can also login with your existing ForeFlight credentials and use the JetFuelX platform at no additional charge. New customers are encouraged to sign up for a free account at www.jetfuelx.com.

Be sure to check out our helpful videos to get you up and running:

As always, we are on frequency at team@foreflight.com if you have any questions.

As ForeFlight Directory Manager, I communicate daily with FBOs and other businesses of interest to pilots. I love to help businesses get the most out of their presence in the ForeFlight Business Directory, and to help ForeFlight subscribers know where to find that information. Here are some Pro Tips on ForeFlight Directory features that everyone can use:

Finding Fuel Prices
Fuel prices can be viewed as an interactive Map layer as well as within an FBO directory listing.

ForeFlight Directory List view shown on the Maps view. Turn on the “Fuel: 100LL” layer and tap on a marker to view FBO details.

The price that is shown on the Fuel: 100LL layer in the Maps view and on the FBO List view (found by tapping the FBOs button in the Airport view or by tapping on a marker in the Maps view) is a summary of the lowest price options. An FBO that sells both full-service and self-serve 100LL will likely have two different prices. Tap on the business listing to reveal more information and ensure you are viewing all available 100LL fuel prices.

In this example, tap directly on the ACI Jet listing to reveal more FBO details and all available retail fuel prices they offer.

We actively partner with FBOs to help them keep their listing information and fuel prices up-to-date. However, if you find the price you pay at the pump is different from our last update, you can help update the price right through the app. To submit fuel price updates, from the Airport view, tap FBOs, then tap on the FBO of choice. On the lower right corner, tap Update Fuel Prices. Enter the current price and tap Submit.

The ACI Jet detail view is shown here in the Airports view. The airport Comment and FBOs buttons are highlighted in the upper right. The Add Comment and Update Fuel Prices buttons specifically for ACI Jet are highlighted at the bottom of the listing window.

Many businesses add a custom description, tappable links to their website and social media, photos, affiliate service badges, and company logo. The Business Directory is rich with data and images to help pilots and trip planners make more informed decisions.

Sharing Your Experience With Comments
ForeFlight customers can submit two kinds of comments: feedback on the airport in general and feedback on the specific business they visited.

We hope you have a great experience to share with fellow pilots, however if there is an issue we encourage you to contact the FBO or other business directly first to resolve the situation. Comments are published unedited (with the exception of gate codes and special fuel prices) and identify you as the commenter using the part of your email address that is before the “@” sign.

Notice there are two areas within the Airport Comments section: Remarks and Comments. Remarks are official Airport Remarks published by the airport manager or sponsor through the FAA. Comments are submitted by ForeFlight subscribers and are based on the subscriber’s personal experience at that airport.

FBOs on Taxi Charts
We have received lots of positive feedback on our FBOs on Taxi Charts feature. Fuel seller locations are mapped with an interactive marker right on the taxi chart. Tap on the FBO button in the upper left area of the taxi chart to turn the markers on and off. Tap the marker to see information about the FBO without leaving the chart view.

FBOs on Taxi Charts makes FBOs easy to find after the pilot lands. All of the Directory listing details are available right on the taxi chart view.

Questions about ForeFlight Directory? I’d love to hear from you! I’m on frequency at directory@foreflight.com.

Team ForeFlight will be on hand at the 2016 NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference this week—stop by and visit with Jamie and Linda in Booth #100. Products on demonstration include ForeFlight’s FBO Directory, ForeFlight Web (our web-based flight planning platform), and JetFuelX (a planning tool that helps operators manage contract fuel memberships).

More than 2700 FBO locations are mapped on ForeFlight Taxi Charts. Featured listings are highlighted in yellow and pilots can access listing details right from the taxi chart view.

Corporate, fractional, and charter operators use ForeFlight everyday for fuel stop and destination planning, and they are thrilled with our new FBOs on Taxi Charts feature. FBOs on Taxi Charts allow pilots to see exactly where your business is located on the field and to access FBO Directory listings right from the taxi chart view.

As an FBO, you have the opportunity to enhance your listing in the most widely used aviation app so that your business stands out above the rest. At the exhibit, we can show you a live demo of what your business listing looks like and what our customers see in real-time. In addition, check out this article from Linda Street-Ely, our ForeFlight Directory Manager, for pro tips on the features of Directory.

We also recently announced the acquisition of JetFuelX—a free web–based fuel card management service that makes it easy for owners and operators of turbine aircraft to save money by quickly finding the lowest prices available from their multiple jet fuel discount program memberships. FBOs and fuel providers benefit, too, as you can build your fuel discount program membership and efficiently distribute pricing data to customers. If you are interested in integrating your fuel discount program, contact info@jetfuelx.com to learn more.

See you in Tampa!

Our first release of 2016, ForeFlight 7.5.2, brings refinements to Logbook and improved PIREP markers on the Maps view.

Access & Print Logbook Experience Reports From the App

You can now view, print, or email your flight experience summaries right from the app. From the Logbook view, select the desired period of time from the Entries section (last 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 6 months, or 12 months) and then tap the Send To button in the upper-right corner.

Tap the Send To button in the upper right corner to view the selected report summary.

Tap Send To again to AirPrint the report or email it as a PDF attachment. Also added is a flight time summary for the last 90 days, giving you another option in viewing or sharing your flight totals with others.

In case you missed it, you can also export your logbook data to a spreadsheet file from
ForeFlight Web. Log in to plan.foreflight.com/logbook and click the Export tab.

At-A-Glance Pilot Reports

The Pilot Weather Report (PIREP) layer on the ForeFlight Maps view received a facelift, and the newly styled markers can now convey important information even before you tap on them. Icons representing icing, turbulence, and general sky and weather reports change their appearances based on the severity of the hazard, and also indicate the altitude at which the report was made, if available. The icons you see when viewing AIR/SIGMET summaries have also been updated to match the new PIREP markers. Check out Scott Dennstaedt’s article for an in-depth look at the marker enhancements.

Select PIREPs from the Map layer selector to view the newly styled PIREP markers.

Pilot weather reports are the eyes of the skies. They are not only consumed by pilots, but they are critical data for meteorologists as discussed in this earlier blog post.  For example, SIGMETs for turbulence and icing often live and die by pilot reports. It’s rare to see a SIGMET issued for severe or extreme turbulence until pilots begin to report those conditions. As such they are an important part of any preflight briefing and are even more valuable as they trickle in over ADS-B while en route. That’s why we’ve given pilot report symbols used in ForeFlight a much needed facelift.

The new ForeFlight pilot weather report symbols help to quickly identify adverse weather along your proposed route of flight.

The hunt is over

In ForeFlight Mobile 7.5.2, we’ve significantly enhanced the way you see pilot weather reports displayed in the Map view. Prior to this release, pilot reports were loosely organized into three types, namely, turbulence, icing and sky & weather – each represented by a single pilot report symbol (chevron, snowflake and eyeball, respectively). However, this required you to tap on each and every PIREP marker to see important details such as altitude and intensity. Moreover, routine (UA) and urgent (UUA) pilot reports looked exactly the same. Now, standard pilot report symbology used in this release makes it clear as to the type of report, intensity, altitude (when known) and whether or not it’s an urgent pilot report without the need to tap on the pilot report symbol. So the hunt is over; with the added glance value, the truly nasty weather conditions reported by pilots jumps right out of the glass.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Pilots can include all sorts of things in a report, like seeing a flock of geese or even critters camping out on the runway. But reports of adverse weather (or lack thereof) of turbulence and icing are typically made through a subjective estimate of intensity. In order to enhance the glance value and minimize taps to get information, ForeFlight now uses standard pilot report symbols for turbulence and icing reports. Reports that do not contain turbulence or icing details are defaulted to use the legacy sky & weather “eyeball” symbol. These may contain reports of precipitation, cloud bases and cloud tops as well as outside air temperature and winds aloft (speed and direction).

Each icing and turbulence pilot weather report is shown in the ForeFlight Map view with one of the symbols above that depict the reported intensity.  From left to right, the top row includes icing intensities of null (negative), light, moderate and severe. Also from left to right, the bottom row includes turbulence intensities of null (negative), light, moderate, severe and extreme.

Some intensity reports are “rounded up” to minimize the overall number of icons to remember. For example, you may notice in the symbols above that ForeFlight doesn’t use the official symbol for trace icing. Consequently, a report of trace icing is rounded up to use the light icing symbol. Similarly, we’re not providing a symbol for reports that straddle two intensities such as “moderate to severe.” Therefore, a “light to moderate” turbulence report will be rounded up to use the moderate turbulence symbol; a report of “moderate to severe” turbulence will be rounded up to use the severe turbulence symbol and so on.

All urgent pilot reports and reports of a severe nature will be tagged with a red badge to add increased glance value to those reports. For example, shown here is an urgent pilot weather report for severe turbulence at 8,000 ft MSL in the Florida Panhandle.

Above and beyond the different turbulence and icing symbols and to further attract your attention, urgent pilot reports in ForeFlight contain a red badge in the upper-right corner like the turbulence report shown above. These badges will typically be included on a turbulence or icing symbol for a report for severe or extreme turbulence and/or severe icing, respectively.

However, you may also see a red badge included with a weather & sky report like the one shown below. This is typically an urgent pilot report for low-level wind shear (LLWS) or mountain wave activity that did not also include any turbulence or icing details. Also, reports of hail, tornadoes, waterspouts or funnel clouds will be classified and tagged as urgent.

A red badge on a sky & weather (eyeball symbol) pilot report means that the report was tagged as urgent even though no icing or turbulence details were provided. Most of the time this means that low-level wind shear or mountain wave activity was reported by the pilot.

Altitude at a glance

If the pilot report contains a flight level (MSL altitude), this flight level is displayed below the symbol using three digits. For example, from the icing pilot report shown below, 057 is added below the symbol which identifies the reported altitude of 5,700 feet MSL.

A light icing pilot weather report at 5,700 feet MSL (FL057).

On the other hand, when the flight level is unknown (FLUNKN) as it is in the icing pilot report below, we will just show the appropriate symbol (turbulence, icing or sky & weather) without an altitude. Even so, there may be specific altitudes reported, but you’ll have to tap on the pilot report marker to examine the raw report for those details. In this case, light rime ice was reported between 6,000 and 4,500 feet MSL, for example.

Flight level in this light icing report is unknown (FLUNKN). Tapping on the report reveals more details.

I see double

If the pilot reported both icing and turbulence in the same report, you will see a pair of symbols side by side like the ones shown below with the center of the symbol pair representing the actual location of the report. This pair of report symbols indicates light icing and light turbulence at 16,000 feet MSL.

A pair of reports means that both icing and turbulence details were provided for the altitude shown in the marker.

Spreading the wealth

To keep everything consistent you will also see these standard symbols show up when tapping on the Map with the AIR/SIGMET/CWAs layer displayed. AIRMETs for turbulence and icing are displayed with their respective moderate symbol and SIGMETs for turbulence and icing will be displayed with their respective severe symbol. For example, in the list below, it’s very simple now to see that the last item in the popover is a SIGMET for turbulence.

Standard symbology is also used in the display of AIRMETs and SIGMETs for icing and turbulence.

Even though there’s now more information available at first glance, you will still want to examine the details of any relevant pilot reports by tapping on the specific markers. Like anything new, it may take a little while to get used to the new pilot report icons. But we feel that the use of standard symbology is critical for flight safety and these changes will provide less taps and a much higher glance value for determining the location and altitude of the most nasty weather being reported by pilots. Lastly, keep those pilot weather reports coming; they are important for all stakeholders in aviation safety.

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

• Airport and Navigation Database (Jan 22 Update), including improved airways and corrected Runway Procedure Advisor areas for KMSN and KSGO.
• The Pilot’s Guide to ForeFlight Mobile has been updated in the Documents Catalog.
• For our Military Flight Bag customers, corrections to some CTAF and UNICOM frequencies.

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

The recently released iOS 9.2.1 has been tested with ForeFlight and the results are good! The new iOS version performs well with the app and no issues were found. Feel free to upgrade your iOS device whenever you are ready.

As always, we are on frequency at team@foreflight.com to receive any questions or issues you encounter with the upgrade.

Coupled with the introduction of Logbook, we announced 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 USD/year. (Basic plan options are now available for Canada!)

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

If you are on an existing Basic or Pro plan, you can still renew those plans.

Should you decide to upgrade to Basic Plus or Pro Plus, you will receive a prorated credit from your existing subscription, towards the new purchase, during the checkout process.

Each plan comes with one geo-region (Canada or US). You can now add a second geo-region for $100 USD.

You can also use our Build-Your-Own-Plan tool to add Logbook or other features à la carte.

For more details about the new plans, visit foreflight.com/pricing. Or check out this helpful comparison table of all the plans: ForeFlight Plans and Pricing for Individuals (PDF).

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

You may be familiar with some of the regulations governing how FAA Part 135 aircraft operators prepare for and conduct flights, but did you know that helicopter air ambulance operators have a number of special rules all to themselves under Part 135? One of these requires the pilot of any VFR flight to identify and document the highest obstacle along the planned route (§135.615). This ensures that the pilot briefs this potential hazard and determines the minimum safe altitude for the flight.

While a good safety measure to prevent collisions, the requirement has been a pain point for some operators as the somewhat vague guidance to “identify and document” is left open to interpretation. Not to mention that some methods of complying with the requirement could take up a good chunk of a pilot’s preflight preparation time, which is at a premium with air ambulance operations.

Fortunately for air ambulance operators using ForeFlight, there is a fast and easy method of complying with the highest obstacle requirement in the app itself. This method employs ForeFlight’s Profile view (available with Pro and Pro Plus subscriptions).

Start by entering departure and destination points in the Route Editor, then tap Profile to view the vertical cross-section of the planned route.

Terrain and obstacles are dynamically highlighted based on relative height to your selected altitude. Tap and hold anywhere in the Profile window (other than directly under the altitude box) and a vertical dotted line and box will appear showing that point’s altitude in MSL, the clearance in feet between the point and your planned altitude, and the distance of that point from your departure point. Dragging your finger right or left shows this information for any point along your route. The selected point is also displayed on the “top-down” view of your route below, revealing where the point is along your route.

The profile window also allows for pinch-zooming and dragging so you can unclutter nearby obstacles. You can change the total width of the corridor shown in Profile by tapping the button at the bottom-right of the window and tapping “Corridor Width” at the bottom of the popup.

Using Profile view allows the highest obstacle along a route to be easily identified. As for “documenting” it, simply place the dotted line on the highest point and take a screenshot by pressing the iPad’s home and lock buttons at the same. The screenshot can then be accessed and shared from the iPad’s Photos app, or from a cloud storage app like Dropbox.

A number of air ambulance operators using ForeFlight have shared with us how this feature helps them comply with the highest obstacle requirement. We hope this helps you, too.

Data updates are now available to download for the February 4, 2016 – March 3, 2016 and February 4, 2016 – March 31, 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
• Heli Gulf VFR Charts
• Taxi Diagrams
• Terminal Procedures
• Airport/Facility Diagrams
• Documents, including the Super Bowl 50 Flight Advisory and NOTAMs.

For Canada region customers:

• Taxi Diagrams
• Terminal Procedures
• Visual Navigation Charts
• 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.

In preparation for the large amount of air traffic expected around San Francisco before and after Super Bowl 50 this Sunday, the FAA has released a set of guidelines for aircraft operating in the area. These include a requirement that pilots obtain ramp reservations at numerous nearby airports, as well as restrictions on what routes can be filed to or from those airports.

For your convenience, the latest data release includes a document detailing these guidelines, which can be found in the FAA section of the ForeFlight Documents Catalog. The document outlines special traffic management procedures, and guidance on the NOTAMs and TFRs that will be in place prior to the event. This information can also be found online at the FAA’s website. We encourage any pilots who plan to fly in or out of Northern California over the next week to review this information before planning a flight.

The FAA recently approved a set of new departure procedures for KATL, and we included these in ForeFlight’s most recent data cycle update. The new SIDs are designed to make use of existing Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) technology, and will fully replace 16 of the current SIDs later this year. For now, however, these new SIDs are only to be assigned by ATC; flights out of Atlanta should continue to be filed with the current SIDs until the implementation is completed. A NOTAM to this effect has been published for KATL.

In addition to these replacement SIDs, a new WIGLE1 SID was published for use during special events, and is also ATC assigned only.

A flight plan using one of the new SIDs may be accepted by ForeFlight, but will likely be rejected once it reaches the ATC computer, and even if accepted, will only cause coordination problems for both ATC and the pilot, so be sure to review the NOTAM before filing so you don’t accidentally use the wrong SID and have your clearance rejected. Of course, if ATC assigns you one of the new SIDs, you can use ForeFlight’s Procedure Advisor to load the route information onto the Maps view.

A new Airport and Navigation Database is available to download for the February 4, 2016 – March 3, 2016 period. This Feb 4 Update removes the cancelled VOR RWY 17 at Kalamazoo (KAZO) and addresses today’s FAA Safety Alert.

All customers will be prompted to download this update inside of ForeFlight Mobile.

With the removal of the FAA domestic flight plan format coming later this year, all pilots currently filing both VFR and IFR domestic flights will need to switch to the ICAO format.

In this article, I recommend some simple tips that make it easy for someone who currently files with the domestic format to switch to the ICAO format. My main suggestion here is that you only file what is actually needed and can affect a clearance or availability of an ATC service in the US. Essentially, this approach allows you to replicate the clearances you would receive when using the domestic format.

If you currently use ForeFlight to file flight plans using the domestic flight plan format, there are just a few simple steps to get you set up to file ICAO. The first is to set up the ICAO specific codes for your aircraft. Navigate to your aircraft’s profile in More > Aircraft and tap the blue ‘i’, and set up at least these three fields:

1.     ICAO equipment
2.     ICAO Surveillance
3.     Wake Turbulence

The Wake Turbulence is the easiest to set up because the default value of ‘L’ fits the majority of GA aircraft. You would only change this if the max gross weight of your aircraft exceeds 15,500 pounds.

Next, let’s look at equipment codes. The three most common FAA/Domestic Equipment codes are:

• /G (GPS and mode C transponder),
• /A (DME and Mode C transponder), and
• /U (No DME and a Mode C transponder).

Tap ‘ICAO Equipment’ to view the list of codes. ICAO equipment codes are more specific and many types of equipment have their own code. Since almost all aircraft have VOR, localizer capability (ILS), and a VHF COM, a standard code of ‘S’ is used to specify the combination of this equipment. Pretty much every aircraft is going to select ‘S’. If for some reason your aircraft does not have one of the standard avionics systems, then you can specify the individual codes for what you do have instead of using S. For example, select ‘O’ if you have a VOR, ‘L’ if you have an ILS or localizer, and ‘V’ if you have a VHF Com radio.

Other codes that are common in GA aircraft are ‘G’ for GPS, ‘D’ for DME, and ‘F’ for an ADF. Some aircraft will have a WAAS GPS and are capable of flying LPV approaches and can also specify ‘B’ for LPV. There are many codes you can specify if you have the equipment, but to keep things simple I only specify something if it makes a difference. In line with that, my advice for an aircraft that is currently filing a domestic flight plan as /G is to specify ICAO equipment codes ‘G,S’. If you currently file /U, then ICAO equipment ‘S’ is all you need. If you currently file with /A, then file ICAO equipment ‘D,S’. Feel free to add the B (LPV), D (DME), or F (ADF) if you have the equipment, but they will not make a difference in terms of your flight plan being accepted or ATC providing a service. Once you have entered the ICAO equipment codes that reflect your aircraft, tap the ‘Aircraft’ back arrow to return to the main Aircraft Profile view.

Next, tap the ICAO Surveillance code to select the transponder type. Assuming you have a transponder with an altitude encoder, you can specify ‘C’. If it is of the mode S variety, you can change that to ‘S’, but it will not make any difference in your ability to file or use the ATC system, so specifying ‘C’ is the simplest way to do it.

And that’s all you have to do to set up your Aircraft profile for ICAO filing. You can make ICAO the default flight plan format by tapping More > Settings, scrolling down to the File & Brief section, tapping ‘New Plan Format’ and selecting ICAO.

Now you can move to the Maps view to set up your route. Enter your route the same way you always have using the Route Editor. When you are done, use the ‘Send To’ File & Brief button to create and review the flight plan form. Before you hit the ‘File’ button, here are a few additional considerations when entering information about your flight using the ICAO format.

In the AIM and other documents, you will read about the need to specify certain information in Field 18 – Other Information. ForeFlight automatically fills out this field for you based on flight plan and aircraft profile data. This ensures the formatting is correct for what ATC expects. Even so, there are some considerations to take into account regarding Field 18 that can ensure your flight plans are filed as efficiently as possible.

The FAA guidance on filing ICAO states that if the airport identifier is not a four character ICAO identifier, then “ZZZZ” needs to be placed in the departure and/or destination airport fields of the flight plan, and the non ICAO identifier must be specified in Field 18 preceded by “DEP/” for the departure airport and “DEST/” for the destination airport. You don’t need to worry about this with ForeFlight as it does all this for you automatically. ICAO identifiers are all 4 alphabetic characters and in the US they start with the letter K, Canada with C, the Bahamas with MY, and Mexico with MM. Examples of non-ICAO identifiers are 60J, 35A, K60J, SFO. Remember SFO is not the ICAO format for San Francisco International, KSFO is the correct code. Either SFO or KSFO will work, but if you use the three letter identifier form, then ForeFlight will place “ZZZZ” in the departure or destination field and DEP/SFO or DEST/SFO into Field 18, although you won’t see these changes in the app itself. This plan will be accepted, but it is wasteful. In other words, specify the destination and departure airport identifier as a four character ICAO value whenever you can.

ICAO flight plans provide an ability to enter primary and secondary alternate airports. In the US, only a single alternate needs to be supplied on IFR flight plans that require one.

If you use the remarks field for domestic flight plans, it will be moved to Field 18 automatically and follow the REM/ keyword. So there is no real difference in how remarks are specified, with one caveat. These special characters may not be used in ICAO remarks: the forward slash “/”, the dash “-“, and left and right parentheses “(” and “)”.

The ICAO format also allows you to add specifications for emergency equipment such as dinghies, their capacity, the color, and if they are covered. Life jackets, portable radios, type of survival equipment and any survival equipment remarks that you would wish search and rescue to be aware of. Again, the remarks can’t include the special characters “/ – ( )”.

Finally, if your flight qualifies for special handling, you can optionally specify it on the File & Brief view in the STS Special Handling field. A few that may be of interest are: FFR for firefighting, HOSP for medical flights, HUM for humanitarian flights, and SAR for search and rescue. Any special handling will be included in Field 18 and formatted as required by ICAO.

Although the final switch to ICAO filing is still months away, I recommend you try this now so you can work out any kinks and get a feel for the format. As you become more familiar with ICAO flight plans, you can refine your profile information; but in the meantime, you should have no hassle using the tips outlined here. Happy filing!

Last year the FAA announced plans to remove support for the familiar domestic flight plan form that most pilots use for filing within the US. The move will require all civil aircraft to file both VFR and IFR flight plans using the ICAO format. The transition is currently slated to occur October 1st of this year (see page 2 of the linked newsletter).

Although it’s a few months away, we encourage you to take time now to become familiar with the ICAO format. When October comes, you’ll be ready! ForeFlight makes it easy as the app already supports ICAO. All you need to do is fill in a few additional fields on your aircraft profile. This four-minute video walks you through how to do that.

For a more in-depth view of ICAO codes, Field 18, and other helpful ICAO flight plan fields, dive into Filing ICAO Flight Plans in ForeFlight written by John Collins, ForeFlight consultant and aviation writer.

Our “Filing with ForeFlight Mobile” guide is also available in the ForeFlight app under Documents > Catalog > ForeFlight or on the web here. Official FAA guidance on ICAO filing is available here and here.

Garmin announced today the release of two new options to help you meet the 2020 ADS-B Out mandate. The GTX 345 and GTX 335 all-in-one transponders are compatible with ForeFlight and, depending on the model you choose, wirelessly deliver (via Bluetooth) FIS-B weather, ADS-B traffic, GPS position, and attitude information to your mobile device.

We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Garmin and to offer ForeFlight customers flying with Garmin hardware the opportunity to unlock more value from their avionics investment and gain access to connectivity options that enhance the ForeFlight experience.

Visit foreflight.com/connect to learn about all of the ForeFlight connectivity partnerships.

As part of the NextGen initiative to adopt a Performance Based Navigation (PBN) airway structure supported by GPS, the FAA is moving forward with plans to decommission approximately 30% of currently operating domestic VORs over the next 10 years. The VORs left behind will constitute a minimum operational network, intended to support conventional navigation in the event of a GPS outage, while not tying up resources maintaining unnecessary and underused VORs. The decommission process will take place in two phases, with the first phase lasting from 2016 to 2020, and the second phase lasting from 2021 to 2025.

Although the FAA has not released specific dates for when each VOR will be decommissioned, they have provided a list of the first 35 VORs that have been approved for decommissioning, and in what phase of the project each will be removed.

The removal of these VORs will have a large effect on the domestic airway structure and instrument procedures at many airports, and these changes will be reflected in the charts and data available in ForeFlight. Therefore we will continue to track this process and update you when specific dates are announced for each VOR.

You may have noticed over the last few weeks that the lightning depicted in the ForeFlight Mobile app has really blossomed. No, it’s not a result of the Godzilla El Niño we’ve had this winter creating several severe weather outbreaks in the Deep South. All of those extra lightning symbols are courtesy of a switch to use a much improved lightning source called the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN). This is the world’s largest lightning detection network with over 1200 sensors worldwide. This is the same lightning network that has been used by the NTSB when investigating aircraft accidents. Here are four fun facts about the lightning now depicted in ForeFlight.

The new lightning recently added to the ForeFlight Mobile app has a detection efficiency of 90 percent.

#1 – The lightning depicted in ForeFlight is worldwide

It is estimated by research meteorologists that at any given moment in time, there are nearly 2,000 thunderstorms occurring around the world. This includes about 100 strikes for every second that passes. This is important since the presence of lightning is indicative of dangerous convective turbulence and the potential for low-level wind shear. Ground-based radar such as NEXRAD has a limited range and only covers a small portion of the earth. Lightning detectors, on the other hand, can sense strikes from a thunderstorm that is a thousand miles away providing coverage in regions where ground-based radar does not reach.

It may be tempting to penetrate between the gap in radar coverage for this line of storms off the Southeast coast, but the lightning aids to fill in that gap keeping you alert for dangerous convective turbulence.

#2 – All forms of lightning are included

The Earth Networks lightning sensor is a wideband system. This enables the sensor to not only detect strong cloud-to-ground strikes, but detect weak in-cloud pulses as well. With a detection efficiency of nearly 95 percent, the lightning depicted in ForeFlight includes just about all of the natural lightning that is occurring around the world.

Just about every lightning strike that occurs will be shown in the app. This includes both cloud-to-ground and in-cloud lightning strikes.

#3 – Radar layer includes lightning

While connected to the Internet, there are two ways to display lightning in the ForeFlight Mobile app. By default, lightning is included as part of the radar layer. So tapping on the radar layer in the dropdown menu will also overlay the latest lightning. However, there’s no way to remove the lightning from this layer. Keep in mind that this includes lightning that may be in locations outside of ground-based radar coverage. So it will be pretty common to see clusters or pools of strikes far beyond the U.S. and Canadian borders where no radar imagery is displayed.

You can also add the latest lightning to any other layer on the Map view. Simply tap on the Map mode button and select Lightning from the dropdown menu as shown above. The lightning in this layer is nearly an exact duplicate of the lightning displayed in the radar layer discussed above. This unique lightning layer is useful when also displaying the color-enhanced satellite layer. Areas of thunderstorms typically have very cold (high) cloud tops. Blue, yellow, orange and red colors on the satellite layer depict regions with cold cloud tops. However, not all cold cloud tops indicate an area of deep, moist convection (thunderstorms). So the lightning layer as an overlay is a good way to confirm where the truly nasty convection is occurring. Keep in mind that the satellite image could be more than 30 minutes old at times.

#4 – Latest 10 minutes of lightning is depicted

Regardless if you are viewing the lightning overlaid on the radar layer or the separate lightning layer, the age of the strikes depicted typically ranges from 3 to 10 minutes. Then, this lightning continues to age as it is cached in the app for the next five minutes. After this five minute period, the app automatically refreshes the lightning to include the latest strikes over the last 10 minutes and removes strikes older than 10 minutes. This is optimized to match the radar depiction.

Tapping on any strike symbol from the unique radar layer will reveal its age within the popup.

ForeFlight Graphical Briefing is a comprehensive 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.

The Graphical 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 first screenshot, 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. You can also view the briefing on any web browser by clicking the link in your confirmation email after you file your flight plan.

In addition, Graphical 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.

Graphical Briefing is available to all customers with ForeFlight Mobile 7.4 and beyond on both the iPad and iPhone. You can enable the briefing at any time by going to More > Settings > File & Brief, and tapping the ForeFlight Briefing slider so that it turns blue.

For more information visit foreflight.com/briefing/.

The ForeFlight Graphical Briefing has a new section under the Forecasts heading: Winds Aloft. This section was added to provide pilots with information about the forecasted winds aloft along their route of flight, an important component of any preflight weather briefing.

The section includes forecasts for winds at 6 hour, 12 hour, and 24 hour periods, each contained in its own neatly organized table showing weather stations IDs along your route on the left, and altitudes along the top. Forecasts are provided for altitudes ranging from 3,000 to 53,000 feet, and a toggle switch at the top of the page allows you to restrict the altitudes shown to only those within 4,000 feet of your filed altitude, giving you quick access to the most relevant forecasts for your particular flight. In addition, the column showing winds aloft at your filed altitude is highlighted blue in each table.

You can enable ForeFlight Graphical Briefing at any time by navigating to More > Settings, scrolling down the File & Brief section, and tapping ForeFlight Briefing so the slider turns blue.