
Boeing acquires flight-planning app maker ForeFlight - prostoalex
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Boeing-acquires-Houston-flight-planning-app-maker-13668642.php
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SomeHacker44
As a long time user and a big fan of Foreflight, this announcement chilled me
to my very core. Jeppesen is the very definition of rent seeking, predatory,
lock-in company. I deal with them because there is literally no other source
for the data my airplane’s avionics need to fly legally in our IFR airspace.

Foreflight offers everything Jeppesen offers (other than avionics data
subscriptions) in a vastly cheaper and more usable manner.

Boeing also bought Jeppesen a few decades ago- I was a pre Boeing Jeppesen
customer too. I feel a dreadful surety that new Foreflight will become
predatory like Jeppesen. There were already signs that way, anyway, with each
round of new features requiring a “higher level” of subscription with
Foreflight.

Oh well, technology company startup costs being what they are (almost nil) I
will excitedly await the next entrant if my fears are realized.

PS: Non professional use for me.

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ryandrake
It's super scary, especially because ForeFlight has no realistic competition.

I've had this off-again, on-again plan (more like dream) to write an open-
source ForeFlight clone, as I used to write aviation mapping software for a
living and could probably throw something passable together. But the
application's sheer quantity of high quality features makes the project super-
daunting. It's unrealistic to believe that a group of amateurs without a
budget could even come close to replicating it.

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jacobreg
I've heard Garmin pilot stacks up reasonably well

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zackbloom
For the record, I think ForeFlight is honestly the best app I've ever used. In
terms of depth, reliability, and ease of use it is really unmatched not just
in aviation but in any app I use on a daily basis.

Giving all the information and capabilities a pilot needs is a hard problem.

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poof131
What are the hard parts and what does ForeFlight get right?

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mbrameld
There is just SO MUCH information. Airport diagrams, approach and departure
plates (geo-referenced), all the different charts (sectionals, TACs, IFR hi
and low, etc), checklists, radio frequencies, route planning, airspaces,
weather, NOTAMs, TFRs, etc. I'm sure I'm leaving off tons of stuff. The flight
planning features are fantastic.

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briandear
Synthetic Vision, terrain avoidance.. also flight logs (including
automatically determining currency.)

ForeFlight is amazingly good and fully leveraged the power of the new iPad
pros as well. Literally the best app. They also didn’t compromise by trying to
do some kind of cross-platform attempt. It’s supremely optimized for iOS
hardware. An electronic flight bag app that can perform just as well as the
G1000 glass cockpit. Combined with the Stratus receiver, it’s even better
because it gives you traffic and weather data in flight.

If there was ever a use case for not using some kind of pseudo-native
framework in favor of real-native, this is it. Glass cockpit applications are
the last place you want lowest common denominator code. It works great on even
the iPad mini, but it really flies on the new iPad Pro.

Another cool feature is that you can use it with the X-Plane simulator.
Amazing app and so inexpensive for what it does. The most expensive plan is
$300 per year and the cheap plan is $99/year. I never fly without it.

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cm2187
I presume that it is meant for private pilots, i.e. commercial pilots would be
required to use the airline supplied charts and checklists?

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god_bless_texas
No, it can be and is used by pilots of all flavors. I have a commercial rating
but not an ATP and use it every time I fly.

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sokoloff
I literally bought the first iPad as a platform to run ForeFlight. Two years
of charts and plates were costing me more than the iPad and two years of
ForeFlight would so it was like getting a free iPad and much easier charting
and cockpit management.

Was interesting to see the evolving attitude of instructors to it. Initially
the curmudgeons were dead against it. Now, most of them to seem to use it.

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cm2187
No experience of aviation myself. But my uneducated reaction is what happens
if the ipad falls and breaks or runs out of battery? A paper chart always
works. Do you typically have a spare ipad on board?

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sokoloff
At the time, I was flying an airplane that only had the iPad for charts and
carried one set of expired paper sectional charts and had a handheld aviation
GPS.

I have since upgraded to an airplane with glass avionics and onboard charts
and plates. Now, I have the onboard materials plus my iPhone also has the
charts on it.

For visual flight, it wouldn't be that hard to navigate by looking outside the
window. For instrument flight (or visual flight if needed), it would be easy
enough to ask ATC for the assistance you needed.

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leowoo91
Looking at comments, everyone has their personal jet or im missing something?

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avaika
Probably that's because only people who are related somehow to planes / app /
etc leave comments in here.

It's the same when people share only their bright moments in social media and
you begin to think that you're missing something in your miserable daily
routine. While in reality you just see exclusively bright moments and nothing
behind the scenes.

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leowoo91
Nice example of over-generalization, ty.

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ken
Having worked at Boeing, it's strange to imagine such an acquisition. Boeing
is the polar opposite of a software startup, and ForeFlight's about-page shows
them to be founded by software entrepreneurs. I will be impressed if they can
make this work. What does Boeing hope to get from this that they couldn't get
from them as a partner or supplier?

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briandear
Boeing is a lot more high tech than people give them credit for. In my
opinion, Boeing could only serve to benefit ForeFlight as now the company has
significant backing as well as deeper access into cutting edge flight systems
tech.

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okmokmz
>Boeing is a lot more high tech than people give them credit for

I'm sitting in a Boeing lab right now as a contractor, and I would disagree
with this statement

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joshuamcginnis
Big fan of ForeFlight, as are my favorite pilot YouTubers Matthew
Guthmiller(N367HP) and Stevo1kinevo (N851TB). Hopefully Boeing keeps the wind
in the sails of the ForeFlight team.

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TrueTom
It's weird to read about Stevo1kinevo on HN... :)

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god_bless_texas
I will throw in a flightchops and premier1driver to satisfy the entire query!

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fjni
This is the most reliable, highest utility app I have ever used. It’s worth
every penny.

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joezydeco
My son is a big fan of the Infinite Flight sim, which recently integrated with
ForeFlight. He's really going to be bummed out if Boeing decides to stop
supporting that link.

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anyfoo
How does Infinite Flight compare to the mobile version of X-Plane 10?

I think it's pretty fun that X-Flight 10 mobile has, for example, the full
version of their in-house Boeing 737. It pales in comparison to some of the
3rd party offerings for desktop X-Plane, but for a flight simulator on a
mobile device it has very impressive system depth, with a working FMC and all:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaJuIfqYRPY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaJuIfqYRPY)

However, manipulating all those buttons on an iPad touchscreen is not the most
comfortable and has some quirks (you kind of need to look at the button in the
right angle, for example). Is that better in Infinite Flight?

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davidhyde
Why have cookie banners become so insane? A misunderstanding of gdpr perhaps.
So annoying

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growlist
Here's my approach to this issue in Firefox:

1\. Right click - Inspect Element 2\. Right click on containing node in
Inspector Panel - Delete Node 3\. Read article

