Flight Training - August 2019 - 18

PREFLIGHT WEATHER

New!

TOP OFF YOUR PLANE

& YOUR WALLET
with the AOPA World Mastercard®,
the best card for pilots.

WHETHER OR NOT
TWO PILOTS, TWO OPINIONS

THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO CHECK THE WEATHER-HEY, STICK YOUR HEAD OUT THE

door-but the advent of electronic helpers such as Garmin and ForeFlight have certainly
made a pilot's life easier. We asked two of our pilot/editors to chose between these two
most-popular devices. Here's what they have to say:

FOREFLIGHT FOREVER
B Y J I L L W. TA L L M A N

CASH BACK1
Select AOPA purchases
* AOPA Membership
* AOPA Pilot Protection Services
* AOPA Pilot Gear store purchases
* AOPA Event Registration
* AOPA Flight Instructor Refresher
Clinics (in-person and online)

Visit

AOPA.org/creditcard
to learn more

*Certain points and purchases restrictions apply, see full Rewards
Terms and Conditions for full details at AOPA.org/creditcard.
1 Rewards points can be redeemed for Cash Back or other items provided through AOPA Pilot Rewards. A Cash Back redemption is applied
as a statement credit. The statement credit will reduce your balance
but you are still required to make at least your minimum payment. A
minimum of 2,500 points is needed to redeem for Cash Back. Values
for non-cash back redemption items such as merchandise, gift cards,
and travel may vary.

IN THE 1990S, MADISON AVENUE WANTED TO KNOW IF YOU WERE A

Mac or a PC. I've been a Mac person since Macs were little gray
boxes, and that's why I like ForeFlight. It appeals to my rightbrain, visual nature in the same intuitive way that Macs do. You
almost-almost-don't even have to read the ForeFlight manual to
get a quick and workable familiarity with this incredibly versatile
flight planning program. Jump in, start pinching and zooming, and
you'll pick it up almost immediately.
This is a weather column, so I'll stick to the weather functionality. And ForeFlight has
loads-as much or as little as you want. What's the weather like at your home airport? Tap
it, choose METAR from the bottom menu, and now you know. If you're like me, you're
usually tempted to check the forecast while you're at it, and ForeFlight gives you a choice
of two: terminal area forecast and model output statistics (MOS). MOS relates such factors
as near-surface air temperature, visibility, and wind direction to one or more predictors,
and it produces sometimes startlingly accurate forecasts for up
to three days out, which helps
VFR pilots know what they're
going to be dealing with beyond
"partly cloudy" or "chance of
thunderstorms."
Once it's time to brief a trip,
ForeFlight does that. Create a
flight plan, choose Brief, and
the program takes you step
by step through all the charts,
showing your route of flight
superimposed on each. Take as
much time as you need to study
everything. You don't have to interpret what the flight briefer is saying versus what
you're seeing. 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.
I've never had an issue pairing ForeFlight with any Garmin product. ForeFlight
running on an iPad received weather and traffic advisories from a Garmin 345 ADS-B
without issues and brought a dazzling new level of functionality to my flying. So don't
waste energy worrying that Garmin and ForeFlight will not talk to each other-the
companies are smarter than that.
And I'm not at all worried about Boeing's recent acquisition of ForeFlight. In fact,
I think it's nice that the little guys are showing commercial aviation what all the fuss
is about.
jill.tallman@aopa.org
18 FLIGHT TRAINING AUGUST 2019

http://www.AOPA.org/creditcard http://www.AOPA.org/creditcard

Flight Training - August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - August 2019