ForeFlight has released Takeoff & Landing Performance, a new integrated capability that allows pilots to calculate runway distances and aircraft speeds before every flight.
The feature is even available offline for better landing preparation, according to company officials.
“ForeFlight takes what can often be error prone interpolation and paper chart reading tasks and performs the computations quickly and accurately, integrating the data lookups seamlessly into the flight planning workflow, so users can plan and fly with more confidence,” company officials said in a prepared release.
“The integrated runway performance feature in ForeFlight is a major safety-enhancing capability that makes it easier for pilots to compute potentially life-saving takeoff and landing distances and speeds before every flight,” said Tyson Weihs, co-founder and CEO of ForeFlight. “This is a step-change in capability for mobile flight planning apps. With ForeFlight, you can effortlessly generate wind-optimized routes with highly accurate time and fuel burn, as well as takeoff and landing distances and speeds, all in one solution.”
Takeoff & Landing Performance incorporates manufacturer-sourced aircraft performance and weather data to calculate flight metrics like ground roll, 50′ speed, total runway distance, climb speed, climb rate, and more, company officials explained.
ForeFlight supports nearly 200 models of popular single- and multi-engine piston and single-engine turboprop aircraft. ForeFlight’s aircraft performance data team uses the official published takeoff and landing data from the aircraft’s Pilot Operating Handbook (POH) to build the models.
Weather data is pre-filled from ground (METAR, TAF, MOS) or inflight (ADS-B, satellite) sources, and the pilot can manually override the prefilled data with the latest information from tower or ATIS, ForeFlight officials note. Other inputs like runway lengths are also customizable.
ForeFlight provides a number of warnings within the Takeoff & Landing Performance feature to alert users to potential issues. If any of the distance values calculated for takeoff or landing exceed the runway’s usable length, a warning banner is shown and the relevant values are highlighted red. Warnings related to engine-out scenarios for multi-engine aircraft are also shown.
Takeoff & Landing Performance is included in ForeFlight’s Performance subscription plans.
Learn more and watch the video at ForeFlight.com/Runway-Performance or below:
Great news to get takeoff and landing data, unfortunately they put this on the most expensive subscription plan. Like anything else it’s about money rather than overall goal of safety for pilots and a safer aviation culture. Anything that improves safety should be available for all subscriptions even the most basic plan for $99 a year.
Agreed. I was excited about the 3D aspect until I saw the it was only available on the highest paid version. Oh well.
That’s absurd. Safety enhancements cost money to produce and expose the producer to additional liability. You wouldn’t expect to get a STOL kit, extended fuel tanks, or angle of attack indicator for no extra charge, so why should enhanced software not cost extra? Foreflight not only deserves to be paid for their efforts, they need to be paid for these things if they are going to be able to continue to enhance the product.