ForeFlight has launched Trip Assistant, a planning tool for anyone involved in mission planning that quickly computes door-to-door trip time.
Trip Assistant computes total trip time, factoring in drive time, flight times using historical and forecast winds, and fuel stops to create a detailed itinerary showing exactly when to leave in order to arrive on time at the final destination, company officials explain.
“Trip Assistant started as an internal project to help our flight department and executive assistants more quickly answer a question we ask on every flight: When do we need to leave our homes or offices to get somewhere on time,” said Tyson Weihs, co-founder and CEO of ForeFlight. “Powered by our best-in-class flight planning engine, Trip Assistant is a tool that any aircraft user — assistants, flight support staff, passengers, and pilots — can use to quickly compute total trip time, even when fuel stops are required.”
Trip Assistant allows for forward and backward planning by setting a desired departure time or arrival time. Customers can enter the departure and destination location using business names, place names, or street addresses, and Trip Assistant searches for and displays the nearest suitable airports.
Trip Assistant also features a built-in Fuel Stop Advisor that factors in the aircraft’s performance and automatically suggests a number of proposed stopovers to help minimize trip time and fuel costs, company officials noted.
Fuel Stop Advisor allows the flight planner to select the criteria for determining the best stops, such as maximum aircraft range, maximum leg time, or maximum leg distance.
With a configured account, pilots can also view their personal contract jet fuel prices at each stop, officials add.
ForeFlight customers who subscribe to Performance Flight Planning services can access Trip Assistant by logging in to the ForeFlight website using their ForeFlight credentials.
Trip Assistant is included — at no additional charge — in ForeFlight’s Performance Plus and Business Performance plans.