20 Great Aviation Apps (2023)

FAQs

What software do pilots use on their ipads? ›

Garmin Pilot is the most comprehensive suite of tools for the iPad designed specifically for general aviation and corporate pilots. Flight planning, charts, interactive maps, weather briefing resources and navigation capabilities; it's all included.

Members lauded this app for ease of use for sectionals, flight planning, GPS tracking, weather, and filing VFR plans, among other things. The app is free, but an annual subscription starts at $74.99 a year for one pilot; ForeFlight Pro starts at $149.99 a year.

Garmin offers a free 30-day trial to new users. An annual subscription to the Garmin Pilot app for iOS and Android starts at $79.99.

FAA approves Garmin Autoland to land planes with no pilot | The Kansas City Star.

ForeFlight delivers everything a pilot needs for planning, briefing, filing, and logging flights – all in an elegantly designed app that syncs from the web to mobile.

Each license supports two devices per user, either two iPads or one iPad and one iPhone. Please do not share your username and password with a friend, as your account may be locked out. See our Getting Started Page for instructions on how to install and activate ForeFlight Mobile over Wi-Fi, directly to your device.

Each new download of ForeFlight from the Apple App Store to a new device comes with a free 30-day trial.

While the ForeFlight Mobile app is free to download from the app store, a subscription is required to use the app. You can learn more about plans and pricing on our Subscription Purchase Page.

ForeFlight Mobile, the company's flagship product, is used by individual pilots and professional flight crews to gather weather and destination information efficiently.

How do I get free Garmin pilots? ›

ForeFlight is the perfect gift for any pilot. They can gather preflight weather and destination information, route plan, access and manage electronic charts, organize flight publications, log flight time, reference a moving map, and more – all in an elegantly designed app that syncs from the web to mobile.

The regulations phrasing, “in a manner acceptable to the Administrator” is not followed by a statement or regulation that deems electronic logbooks as being unacceptable for this purpose. Therefore, it is perfectly legal to maintain the required logbook information in the format of your choosing.

File IFR Flight Plans

ForeFlight supports filing IFR flights to and from the US and within Canada, Caribbean, Bahamas, and Mexico, as well as within and between all EUROCONTROL member states and Greenland using the ICAO flight plan format.

ForeFlight's weather comes from the National Weather Service, and when you brief a trip it's time-stamped and ForeFlight keeps a record for 120 days, in case you need to show the FAA that you complied with the requirements of FAR 91.103.

EFB - Electronic Flight Bag 4+

An electronic flight bag (EFB) is an electronic information management app that helps flight crews perform flight management tasks more easily and efficiently with less paper.

No, a laptop is not neccessary for any pilot training in India. Your learning material will be in the form of books provided to you by your institution/flying school or you can buy them yourself.

ForeFlight is designed to run on Apple iOS devices. Boeing's purchase of ForeFlight, which employs 180 people, “aligns with Boeing's growth strategy of complementing organic investments with targeted, strategic investments that position the company for long-term growth,” the company said.

Access your ForeFlight account on up to two iPhones and one iPad or two iPads and one iPhone, plus an unlimited number of logins to ForeFlight Web, allowing you to plan flights anywhere and stay safe with backup devices on every flight.

Which ForeFlight plan do I need? ›

Here are the takeaways: If you're just starting out, Basic Plus is a great plan—much more than just a demo, and more features than any app had five or six years ago. Pro Plus is a slam dunk for instrument pilots, and probably worth serious consideration for VFR pilots who fly cross country a lot.

ForeFlight delivers advanced flight planning capabilities, terminal procedure charts, enroute navigation charts, moving map, synthetic vision, hazard awareness, optional Jeppesen charts, a comprehensive library of market-leading weather information and visualization features, a large library of advanced aircraft ...

No, all customers benefit from having Jeppesen NavData®, terrain, and obstacles in ForeFlight Mobile without any additional cost.

Jeppesen charts are available as an option in all ForeFlight Mobile annual plans.

The ForeFlight Educational Licensing Program (ELP) is a volume licensing program for accredited aviation programs (Part 141 Universities, Colleges, and Community Colleges) which allows institutions to offer ForeFlight services at a discount to their faculty and students.

iPads allow the pilot's paperwork, aeronautical charts, and company memo's to be stored digitally, thus saving the space needed to be carried in the cockpit. Additional apps for weight & balance, weather, flight planning, scheduling, and navigation make the iPad a very compact and powerful tool.

The Wi-Fi + Cellular iPads contain the internal GPS chip that can be used to activate moving map capabilities in ForeFlight. The Wi-Fi only models can be paired with an external GPS like the Bad Elf Pro to provide location fixes in flight.

Internet Traffic in ForeFlight hooks you into FlightAware's global traffic coverage, allowing you to view airborne and ground traffic all over the world any time you have an internet connection on the ground.

NOTE: a Cellular Data plan is not required to use ForeFlight Mobile, or to get a GPS location fix. If you do have a Cellular Data plan, we recommend you turn off Cellular Data while in-flight (for battery savings and to reduce the chance of hearing interference in your headset).

Minimum iOS Version:

The current minimum iOS version supported by ForeFlight Mobile version 14.7 (August 2022) and later is iOS 15. Devices that are running iOS 13 or 14 will be able to update to ForeFlight Mobile version 14.6. Devices that are running iOS 12 will be able to update to ForeFlight Mobile version 12.9. 2.

Which EFB is best? ›

Garmin Pilot is a great EFB app, and it's one of the only options for Android users. Garmin Pilot offers most of the features you can get on ForeFlight. There are some more advanced options that don't make it into Garmin's app.

Yes, it is possible to display both weather and traffic while in flight on Garmin Pilot. When connected to a GDL39, FlightStream, or GTX345, Garmin Pilot is capable of receiving TIS-B traffic and FIS-B weather services broadcast over the 978 MHz data link from the FAA ADS-B ground stations.

One account works with up to two devices, including iOS and Android.

Once activated, it records the date, duration, total flight time and route. Upon landing, the information is automatically synced to a digital logbook on Garmin Pilot and flyGarmin.com – our safe and secure web-based cloud service – via a compatible smartphone.

You can manage your account anytime by logging in at https://plan.foreflight.com/account. A toggle is provided on that page to enable/disable auto-renew. You can also send us an email and we can disable auto-renew for you.

DIGITAL-AUTOMATIC TERMINAL INFORMATION SERVICE (D-ATIS)- The service provides text messages to aircraft, airlines, and other users outside the standard reception range of conventional ATIS via landline and data link communications to the cockpit.

Common Problems

The most common logbook problems are unsigned pages, incorrect totals (especially when single and multi-engine times don't match up to total time), totals not matching between separate logbooks, and strange or incriminating comments written next to entries.

Aviation has advanced along with the technologies and every airline will accept a print out from a digital logbook.

No. Any dates that have been altered with correction fluid may automatically make your application unsuccessful.

Can an iPad be used for IFR? ›

Re: The Legalities of IFR Flight with an iPad and ForeFlight

The answer was an unequivocal yes.

ForeFlight Graphical Briefing content is derived from approved government sources. Adverse conditions, synopsis, current conditions, enroute and destination forecasts, NOTAMs, and more are included.

EFBs can now be used in lieu of paper reference material when the information displayed is the functional equivalent of the paper reference material and is current, up-to-date, and valid.

GPS Reception

ForeFlight showed an accuracy of 4 meters, which is very good (for comparison, a Sentry ADS-B receiver typically provides 1-meter accuracy).

Areas of high pressure are usually where weather is calm and sunny. Areas of low pressure can be stormy. Air pressure is indicated on weather maps with a blue "H" at each center of high pressure and a red "L" at each center of low pressure.

AIRMETs are routinely issued for 6 hour periods beginning at 0145 UTC during Central Daylight Time and at 0245 UTC during Central Standard Time. AIRMETS are also amended as necessary due to changing weather conditions or issuance/cancelation of a SIGMET.

The Air is available in several colors, and both feature a 10-inch-class screen. The iPad Mini is especially interesting for pilots since its smaller size is just right for tight cockpits. It features an 8.9-inch screen, a 5G cellular option, and the latest A15 Bionic chip.

Buy the Wi-Fi + Cellular and 256GB model of either the 11-inch iPad Pro, iPad Air 4th generation, or the iPad mini 6th generation (2021). Please note that ForeFlight no longer supports the iPad 1, 2, 3, and 4, iPad Air 1, iPad mini 1, 2, and 3, iPhone 5, 5C, 5s, 6, 6+, and older for new app updates.

iPads allow the pilot's paperwork, aeronautical charts, and company memo's to be stored digitally, thus saving the space needed to be carried in the cockpit. Additional apps for weight & balance, weather, flight planning, scheduling, and navigation make the iPad a very compact and powerful tool.

While the iPad is the most widely-used tablet among pilots, there are a growing number of Android apps that offer similar capabilities for pilots flying with these phones and tablets.

How much storage do I need for ForeFlight? ›

The app requires about 15.5 GB for all of the US instrument procedures, airport diagrams, chart supplements, VFR Sectionals, and IFR Enroute charts, as well as the required basemap, navdata, terrain, and obstacles. Canadian data can total 11 GB.

NOTE: a Cellular Data plan is not required to use ForeFlight Mobile, or to get a GPS location fix. If you do have a Cellular Data plan, we recommend you turn off Cellular Data while in-flight (for battery savings and to reduce the chance of hearing interference in your headset).

Each license supports two devices per user, either two iPads or one iPad and one iPhone. Please do not share your username and password with a friend, as your account may be locked out. See our Getting Started Page for instructions on how to install and activate ForeFlight Mobile over Wi-Fi, directly to your device.

1. Electronics. Any item of value should never be checked into the belly of a plane. Small digital cameras, DSLR cameras, video cameras, laptops, Kindles, iPads, cell phones and even portable hard drives are all included in this category.

With ForeFlight 7.0, planning gets even better with a more advanced Procedure Advisor and a dramatically improved navigation database that enables visual preview of SIDs, STARs, approaches, and pattern entries.

Apple iPad Mini (6th Generation or Higher)

Best For: Student pilots or pilots flying very small aircraft using an iOS-supported EFB. With a 8.3-inch screen, Apple's iPad Mini offers a small size that's less likely to get in the way inside a small cockpit, such as trainers or various types of light, small aircraft.

Required iPad

Cellular is required because it provides the GPS receiver for ForeFlight and improves situational awareness. You do not have to activate a cellular data plan to use the GPS. ATP recommends the small to medium sized ipad, which balance ease of studying with a practical size for use in the airplane.

ForeFlight was founded in 2007 when general aviation pilots Tyson Weihs and Jason Miller developed a weather planning service for the first generation of Apple iPhone.

A 30-day free trial is available when you download iFly GPS (from Apple's iPad App Store or Google Play, respectively for the iPad and Android versions). After that, a data subscription is required—$69.99 per year for VFR only or $109.99 per year for IFR/VFR coverage.

What is the latest version of Avare? ›

There is no iOS version, nor do we currently have plans to create one. As an enthusiastic user of Avare and the other Apps4Av apps, I'd like to suggest you consider buying an Android device to run these remarkable free apps.