ForeFlight data updates

[Kurt Zierhut]

I have a new problem with ForeFlight and I am wondering if anybody else has seen this.
I have used ForeFlight in Citations Cj2, CJ3, and CJ4 as a backup to paper (years ago) and to electronic charts built into ProLine.
Only one day ago (Sunday 22-April-2024 from KHOU to KCMA), I had a new problem where charts were not working in flight.
This has otherwise worked great for me for close to a 12 years and prior to departure there was no flag that an update was required.
But, in flight, sectionals were "fuzzy" over most of the USA and IFR high charts had large grey wedges covering some areas.
The folks at ForeFLight were not much help as they sent a page of "reset this" instructions.
What I need is a way to assure this cannot happen.
Does anyone have suggestions?
An image is attached.
Thanks,
Kurt

 

[robin ardoin]

Were you certain that you had "packed" completely and successfully before leaving a wifi environment? I've seen something similar on a second Ipad on a flight where that I pad sis not have the flight 'packed'. Maybe???

 

[Kurt Zierhut]

I have a new problem with ForeFlight and I am wondering if anybody else has seen this.
I have used ForeFlight in Citations Cj2, CJ3, and CJ4 as a backup to paper (years ago) and to electronic charts built into ProLine.
Only one day ago (Sunday 22-April-2024 from KHOU to KCMA), I had a new problem where charts were not working in flight.
This has otherwise worked great for me for close to a 12 years and prior to departure there was no flag that an update was required.
But, in flight, sectionals were "fuzzy" over most of the USA and IFR high charts had large grey wedges covering some areas.
The folks at ForeFLight were not much help as they sent a page of "reset this" instructions.
What I need is a way to assure this cannot happen.
Does anyone have suggestions?
An image is attached.
Thanks,
Kurt

We found that some of the USA states had been turned off - not sure why.
Somebody else though that “buying all of USA” meant “all of USA”.
So, yes, it is working now.

But… that concept of “packing for a flight” has never made sense to our operations.
We are always planning and juggling flights and routes.
The iPads were offered and sold as “replacements to paper” and we have used them that way successfully for many years.

Thanks,
Kurt

 

[RussR]

We found that some of the USA states had been turned off - not sure why.
Somebody else though that “buying all of USA” meant “all of USA”.
So, yes, it is working now.

But… that concept of “packing for a flight” has never made sense to our operations.
We are always planning and juggling flights and routes.
The iPads were offered and sold as “replacements to paper” and we have used them that way successfully for many years.

Thanks,
Kurt

"Packing" is not necessary to have the current charts, IF you already have identified the appropriate states and type of charts you want to download every 28 days.

It does download some weather products, TFRs, NOTAMs, fuel prices, etc., which you may or may not care about (and may already receive "live" through ADS-B In).

I never use "pack". This is because I have FF download the entire U.S. charts every cycle. For my kind of flying this makes the most sense. Since, for whatever reason, you had some US States unselected, and did not Pack, those charts were not available in flight because they were not downloaded.

 

[Salty]

"Packing" is not necessary to have the current charts, IF you already have identified the appropriate states and type of charts you want to download every 28 days.

It does download some weather products, TFRs, NOTAMs, fuel prices, etc., which you may or may not care about (and may already receive "live" through ADS-B In).

I never use "pack". This is because I have FF download the entire U.S. charts every cycle. For my kind of flying this makes the most sense. Since, for whatever reason, you had some US States unselected, and did not Pack, those charts were not available in flight because they were not downloaded.

I believe packing also brings down tfrs and weather data that may not be available while enroute, so it’s a good idea to do it anyway.

 

[Anthem]

you dont need to "pack" for your flight to get the charts if you have them all set to download. If you have states turned off, then yes "packing" will download those states that are not current on your ipad.

 

[RussR]

I believe packing also brings down tfrs and weather data that may not be available while enroute, so it’s a good idea to do it anyway.

FIS-B keeps adding more stuff to the ADS-B stream, and now includes TFRs and a whole lot of weather data, so I'm not sure what packing includes that isn't available over ADS-B.

I'm not saying it's not a good idea to pack, I just don't think it's necessary anymore. I would welcome a website or something that shows the things that packing includes that aren't available over ADS-B. I started using Foreflight before packing was available, and so I never got in the habit of doing it. I used to notice some data not being available, but that was before I was flying full time. Now that I'm flying all the time, with the increases in the amount of data available over ADS-B, I have yet to find a time where I wish I packed. So I "think" it's been overcome by improvements in ADS-B, but would be happy to be shown wrong.

(Of course, packing also helps make sure you have all the correct charts for your flight, so it's useful there. But if you download everything like me, that's not a concern.)

 

[Salty]

FIS-B keeps adding more stuff to the ADS-B stream, and now includes TFRs and a whole lot of weather data, so I'm not sure what packing includes that isn't available over ADS-B.

I'm not saying it's not a good idea to pack, I just don't think it's necessary anymore. I would welcome a website or something that shows the things that packing includes that aren't available over ADS-B. I started using Foreflight before packing was available, and so I never got in the habit of doing it. I used to notice some data not being available, but that was before I was flying full time. Now that I'm flying all the time, with the increases in the amount of data available over ADS-B, I have yet to find a time where I wish I packed. So I "think" it's been overcome by improvements in ADS-B, but would be happy to be shown wrong.

(Of course, packing also helps make sure you have all the correct charts for your flight, so it's useful there. But if you download everything like me, that's not a concern.)

I did say *may* not be available. I prefer to know I have at least what was available before I departed. Because sometimes adsb is slow to get what you might need.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I try to open and confirm viewability of every chart & iap, sid, star that I might be using, including alternates before every flight now.
It would give me the shivers to open a ‘failed chart’ in flight.