ForeFlight vs. Garmin Pilot

Given the amount of traffic the comparison of the Garmin GLO and the Dual XGPS150 is getting, it seems like comparative reviews are what people are looking for.  Following that example, I'll be putting ForeFlight up against Garmin Pilot in this post, to give people an idea of what each app is capable of.

Before I dive too deeply into either app, the overview is that they're both capable applications with their own strong points and quirks.  Overall, I tested ease of use from a general aviation, single pilot operation perspective.  That's not to say they can't be used for aviation of a more professional order, but when you're flying a smaller aircraft on your own, the easier things are to accomplish, the better.  In order to avoid taking up extra space tagging the pictures from ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot, I'll use the convention of placing ForeFlight images on the left, and Garmin Pilot images on the right.

General Interface Points

My first reaction to the Garmin Pilot interface was that it was slightly less organized and slightly more casual-looking than ForeFlight.  After digging around, though, you get the hang of where they put things and why they put them there.  The "more casual-looking" comment comes from the fact that Garmin Pilot's buttons are huge, but when you're bouncing around in turbulence, or trying to otherwise fly the plane, the last thing you need to worry about is fat-fingering a button.  Each button is clearly labeled, both textually and graphically.  In the end, I can't fault them for that.  They're just different approaches.

The Maps Interface

The maps interface for both apps gets all kinds of information in front of you.  In the display arena, I give Garmin Pilot the edge, as it offers the same information as ForeFlight and slightly more.  You can see ForeFlight's information displayed in the picture, but Garmin Pilot's is not (you can access navigation information under Menu > Show Navigation Info).  Additionally, Garmin Pilot offers widgets, which are larger and give you more data in each widget.  As an example, the Garmin Pilot navigation widget gives you (by default) altitude, bearing, course, cross track error, distance to destination, distance to next, ETA to destination, ETA to next, ETE to destination, ETE to next, ground speed, horizontal accuracy, latitude, and longitude.  While that information is great to have, without filters you'll have to do some glancing around to find the data you want, and it takes up half of your screen area while you're at it.  The widget area can also be converted to somewhat of an avionics suite through Menu > Split Screen > Panel.  While it's a neat tool, it also eats half of your map display.  Such a feature would be a great backup in the case of an emergency, however.

Both apps are equally capable with maps and overlays, but in the functionality arena, I give ForeFlight the edge.  While Garmin Pilot displays a prominent direct-to button, it lacks the route capabilities that ForeFlight has from this screen.  ForeFlight has a route and nav log right from this interface, whereas with the exception of the direct-to button, Garmin Pilot's route planning is textually accomplished on a separate page.  You can, however, graphically plan using Tools > Graphically Edit Route, and just tap on the airports and VORs that you want, though fixes can be tougher, and you don't have the ability to specify airways.

The Flight Planning Interface

The flight planning interface allows you to add your flight plan into the app in order to display it on the map, or file it using the filing features.  Both applications allow you to type in your route, or create your route by tapping on the individual waypoints on the map, however ForeFlight is the only one that allows you to do it on the same page.  Both apps will also parse V and J airways, which helps immensely in entering longer routes.  As ForeFlight allows you to manage this all from the same page, along with providing the user guidance on altitude with wind data, my vote is for ForeFlight here.

The Airports Interface

The airports interface for both apps gets you all the information you'll need for any airport in the database.  As they both generally have the same information, and the same amount of information, I'll call it even data-wise.  You can see in the pictures, though, each app has its own approach to data display.  ForeFlight offers more of a filtered view, while Garmin Pilot gives you all of the data on larger screens.  Despite the very logically-organized and filtered view offered by ForeFlight, I'll give the interface edge to Garmin Pilot.  While you can see all of the frequency information is dumped into one page, it doesn't require me to click around the various frequency types to get the data I need.  It's just a matter of scrolling.  The buttons for this information are also larger, making them easier to hit.

The Charts Interface

The charts interface of both apps allows you to find charts and store them in binders with relative ease and organization.  ForeFlight's search feature seemed easier to use and more organized than Garmin Pilot, as its search feature shows airports you've selected from the airport, maps, and file and brief pages, along with charts from your favorite airports.  The Garmin Pilot search feature simply gives you a search box, though it does have buttons at the top right to filter down by chart type, and a history of what you have searched and viewed before.  In binder view, however, Garmin Pilot automatically adds in temporary binders for your origin and destination airports if you've entered a flight plan.  As they both display the same data, and each have minor strong points, I'll call this one relatively even.

The Imagery Interface

The imagery interface allows you to get access to weather.  Both products have a significant amount of weather data available.  I'd argue ForeFlight did a better job of segmenting the data by country, but that's not to say Garmin Pilot's interface isn't just as capable.  I'll call this one even as well.

The Flight Plan Filing and Briefing Interface

The flight plan filing and briefing interface allows you to brief yourself and file your flight plan through CSC DUATS (and in the case of Garmin Pilot, DTC DUAT as well).  It's tough to compare these two apps in this category, because they both allow you to do the same thing, but they both use the pages slightly differently.  As you can see, ForeFlight is primarily aimed at setting your flight plan up and getting you on your way to a flight brief and file.  Garmin Pilot's interface is slightly more of a review with a flight summary and nav log, with the flight brief and filing option as well.  I will say, though, that the Garmin Pilot interface does have a nifty feature of knowing when to, and when not to offer the SFRA flight plan option, whereas it is always available in ForeFlight.  This page, on both applications, is heavily enhanced through adding your pilot and aircraft information in the settings panels.  While the interfaces are vastly different, I can't say either one is better than the other.

The Scratch Pad

The scratch pad is where you write reminders for yourself.  I used this extensively on my flight a month ago to keep track of how many landings I had done.  There's not much to say other than each one has its own advantages.  With the ForeFlight scratch pad, you can either draw or type.  If you mess up while drawing, however, your only option is to clear the whole sheet.  While you'd otherwise likely writing with pen on paper and just crossing it out anyway, it's worth mentioning.  Garmin Pilot allows you to draw, with no option for typing, though it does have an eraser and a clear option for when you mess up.

The Settings Interface

The settings interface for both applications allows you to set your preferences and store user information about yourself (or other pilots who may be using this application), and the aircraft you fly.  Both are predominantly the same, although the Garmin Pilot app does have a few advantages in showing you pictures of your aircraft icon selection, filter search criteria for map view, and the ability to connect to various Garmin hardware.  While ForeFlight allows you to manage your downloads without having to go to a separate page, Garmin Pilot's download page also shows you the app's memory footprint, as you make you decisions on what to and not to download.  Based on some of the more granular options, and the ability to connect up to all kinds of hardware, I'll hand the win here to Garmin Pilot.

The Larger Differences

One of the main benefits of Garmin Pilot is its ability to tie in nicely with various hardware, to include weather and traffic.  This hardware includes the Garmin GDL 39, which provides both ADS-B traffic and weather, and the Baron Mobile Link, which provides XM satellite weather.  ForeFlight is against the display of traffic in its app, for reasons I can only partially agree with, so no matter what you use it seems weather is the most you'll get.  ForeFlight does, on the other hand, include various publications in its download options, such as the FAR/AIM.  While that's seemingly small, consider the fact that you now have an always-up-to-date version of the FAR/AIM, without having to go buy a new one (about $12) yearly.  If you're ever flying around wondering about cloud clearances or communications requirements, you can easily pull it up to double check.  ForeFlight has also released a new version of the app including terrain data and associated warnings.

Conclusion

Based on the numbers, the Garmin Pilot app takes it based on total categories won, but it's not like you can go wrong with ForeFlight.  I use ForeFlight, and I doubt I'll switch to Garmin Pilot.  Unless I get the equipment to take advantage of some of Garmin Pilot's features, I don't see the advantage for me to give up some of the features I do like about ForeFlight over the Garmin Pilot app.  In the end, your decision may come down to price, as Garmin Pilot is less expensive across the board than ForeFlight, shown below.  Both applications allow you to try the app out for 30 days, so try both of them out and see how you like them.

Here is the breakdown for pricing:

Yearly Subscription
ForeFlight: $74.99 (includes runway proximity advisories, even without purchase of geo-referenced charts)
Garmin Pilot: $49.99 (add $29.99 for SafeTaxi, which adds geo-referenced ground charts)

Geo-referencing:
ForeFlight: +$75.00 (for a total price of $149.99 per year)
Garmin Pilot: +$49.99 (and +$29.99 if you would like SafeTaxi, for a total of $129.97 per year)



If you'd like to see anything else reviewed here, let me know on the Facebook page, or @TheMintGreenLog on Twitter.

Good luck in your decision making.

ForeFlight - Garmin Pilot

Betraying My Past

N571DS - DA40 - 1.2 hours

If one were to take a look at my logbook, or even the posts here, one would not find very many manufacturers listed.  With one exception - a Piper Cherokee - you won't find anything other than Cessna.  For the longest time I stuck with what I was used to, but recent plans and a nudge from Phil made me reconsider.

I was told that I should look into a Diamond, and more specifically, the DA40.  Since some of my flying has been more destination-based for time building, a faster aircraft would be desirable to make the trips cheaper.  While the DA40 rents for just about $20 more per hour than the C172R I normally fly, it also flies at least 20 knots faster.  For longer flights, that actually saves me a little money.  Since I have a few major cross country flights coming up, the math worked out such that getting checked out in the DA40 made sense, so I went for it.

I had intended to book the flight for today, but somehow ended up booking it for Sunday.  When I showed up at the airport, I was met with "hey - what are you doing here today?"  As it turned out, I made a mistake when booking the flight, and booked it for tomorrow.  Luckily, the plane was available and Tim was able to fit in one more flight before calling it quits for the day.

Since I'd done the written exam portion of the checkout beforehand, I was able to save that time and jump right onto the preflight.  Even though I'd read the checklists several times over, even some of the simpler tasks seemed more difficult as I hadn't worked with the plane directly.  I could run through all of the things that were different, but I'll just say that even finding the pitot tube was somewhat of a challenge at first.  Differences aside, I was able to finish the preflight just as Tim was walking out.

Starting the plane is very similar to C172R models in terms of priming the engine, but taxiing was rather different, as steering is accomplished via differential braking.  The runup was only slightly different as that's where flap operation and the constant speed prop are tested.  Taking off, however, was very different.  Without nosewheel steering, keeping the nose on the centerline was a challenge.  The rudder pedals that power the giant rudder have a much longer throw than the Cessnas I'm used to, and I wasn't adding as much rudder as I could have.

Image from DiamondAircraft.com

The engine rocketed us up to altitude quickly, where I turned out west to maneuver in the practice area.  In the practice area, I put the aircraft through slow flight, power on and power off stalls.  After getting a feel for the aircraft, I took the plane over to Winchester (OKV) to practice landings.  The first landing ended up just being a landing attempt, as I flared too early, heard the stall warning horn go off a little higher than I would've liked, and punched the throttle in to go around and try again.  The second attempt actually ended in a landing, but I would say that it was more of a controlled impact.  Oddly enough, the feedback that I received was that I was flaring a little too early and getting the nose up too high.  Yeah, I got the nose up too high.  That's something I never thought I'd hear someone say.  For the third landing, I flared later and didn't bring the nose up as much, yielding a very smooth landing.

Since we were getting closer to the time we needed to have the aircraft back, I brought the plane back to Leesburg (JYO) for a final landing.  That landing was similarly smooth, ending the flight on a nice high note.

After shutting down and walking inside, Tim and I recounted the flight just to make sure I had the numbers right.  Apparently the way in which I recounted my landings - "first was missed, second sucked, third was nice, and fourth was nice" - drew a laugh out of a lady who was working at a nearby table in the terminal.  The people using the plane next walked up right as we were about to leave, which helped us avoid walking back out to the box to drop it in there.

While I didn't unleash my array of electronics on this flight, I'll have them next time.

That plane is awesome.

Hours:
Pilot in Command Cross Country (PIC XC): 0.0 - 76.2 (of 50)
Actual/Simulated Instrument (Act/Sim): 0.0 - 10.5 (of 40)

Review: CloudAhoy

Any time I have the thought "back in my day," I like to laugh at myself as I'm neither old in age nor in pilot experience.  After having used CloudAhoy on a few flights, however, I can't help the thought.  Reviewing my training flights, or flight performance in general was all manual, based off of what my instructor and I both remembered during the flight.  In some cases, one of us would scratch something down on a piece of paper as a reminder, but the post flight analysis was based off of our recollections of the flight, regardless of how our memories were jogged.

Enter CloudAhoy.

Where I once tried to re-fly the flight in my head and pull out the noteworthy parts through memory, I now have the flight recorded and tracked in its entirety.

When I first downloaded the application and looked at the user interface, I laughed.  There are four boxes to enter your data - tail number, your name, a co-pilot or CFI, and optional remarks - two areas showing your connectivity to data (3G or wireless) and GPS (internal or external), and two large start and stop buttons.  It's as simple as that.  Press start before you start the engine, and press stop when you're done.  It also has an auto-stop feature (enabled/disabled on the settings page), which helped the one time I forgot to press stop, but I couldn't tell you what triggers it.  I'm guessing it was either the GPS getting turned off, or just that it noticed I hadn't moved in so many minutes.  In any case, the initial user interface is extremely simple, which is what drew my laugh initially.  It was only later that I picked my jaw up off of the floor because of the amount of data that hit me post flight.

After the flight is where the magic is shown.  If you think the app looks too simplistic on the flight screen, wait until the flight data is shown on the debrief screen.  Switching from the iPad to a computer yields even better results, like the ability to utilize the Google Earth browser plugin for more features.  Either way, in the app or on a computer, the left panel allows you to view the flight, broken up into segments automatically by default.  If the app detects you are taxiing, or taking off, or flying a turn around a point, or a chandelle, or landing, it will automatically section that data off so that you can analyze that part of the flight on its own.  Automation is never perfect, so it sometimes grabs items that it shouldn't, but that hasn't caused any huge issues for me so far.  As an example, on my last flight it snagged one of my laps around the pattern as a left 360 (the yellow line in the picture).  Various colors help you to see the various maneuvers.  The blue lines are normal flight, with the white and amber being approach and touch-and-go segments, respectively.  All of these segments, again, are recognized automatically.

What about the non-standard, or very specific segments, you ask?

You may remember from the flight up to Harford County that I flew the GPS approach to the airport.  The entire GPS approach was shown as blue (normal flight - pictured above), as the app saw the approach as nothing out of the ordinary.  Trying to keep up with, and set the program up for every single approach out there would be nearly impossible.  Instead, the developer created a CFI tab so that you could add your own maneuvers.  This way, you can add the maneuvers you plan on flying before the flight, and your CFI or co-pilot can simply click on the begin and end buttons for each maneuver.  This allows you to track, color and name each maneuver so that you may analyze them separately.  Additionally, you can also track your hood time by adding that as a custom segment type.

The flight marker option allows you to simply mark a specific point in the flight to remind yourself later on.  While the option isn't as specific as defining a segment, it's a lot faster for situations that happen on the fly.  The note in the program states: "in flight, when you want to mark an event, tap the event marker and optionally write a corresponding comment on a piece of paper.  The tap will result in a number marker shown on the flight path at the current location.  Each tap, increments the number.  You can later discuss these comments with your student during the debrief."  Having this tab back when I was training for my private pilot license would have really helped me out.

The last tab is a settings tab that allows you to select an auto stop feature, disable broadcasting in flight, lock the screen, and set up your CloudAhoy account.

For those of you currently in any level of training, if your instructor does not currently use CloudAhoy, I would recommend talking to him or her about adding it as a tool for your flight training analysis.  It could really have a significant impact on the way that you learn and progress through training.  After all, one of the fundamentals of instructing, and therefore learning, is critique and evaluation, which this tool would only further enhance.

The only potential negative I found with the application was that it doesn't come with a manual.  Granted, we often joke that people rarely ever actually read said manuals, but one would still be helpful for reference.  To the developer's credit, however, there are several locations with information buttons explaining what the feature is meant to do.  The above quote about flight markers came directly from one of those in-app buttons.

Overall, it's a great app and you really can't go wrong with it.  Beyond that, it's free, so you have nothing to lose.  Try it out on your next flight and see how it can help you debrief after a flight.

cloudahoy.com