ForeFlight update

murphey

murphey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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murphey
Oct 21, 2011
Version 4.2 just released on iTunes, 20.3 MB.

Inflight Sirius XM weather
Global Winds
Interactive TFRs, Airmets, Signets, PIREPs
Print navlog
improved performance
 
And I was able to finally download maps properly. TFR map looks awesome too.
 
There's also a new global map in cache that at least gives you coastlines, major cities and political borders in areas not covered by US and Canadian charts. I would have liked to have had that just last week when I took my Foreflight-equipped iPad on a cruise ship to Mexico.
 
In previous versions, the map view could diplay only one type of overlay (VFR/IFR charts, radar, weather conditions) at a time. With the upgrade, you can display some overlays simultaneously: radar and VFR/IFR chart, AIRMETs and satellite, etc.)
 
The new overlay feature is a nice upgrade. Lots of utility with this.
 
I love that app. I bought my iPad just for that. So far, have no regrets.
 
Also be careful if you have iOS 4.1 or 4.2 running on an iPad and try to update your Foreflight to v4.2, which was just released yesteday: it WILL crash Foreflight. (don't ask me how I know) The Foreflight tech team and I have become friends (sic) since yesterday and the last email I got was that yup, there's a problem with FF v4.2 and iOS 4.1 and 4.2, but a workaround and fix is on the way. Maybe sometime this weekend or early next week. Oh, FF said I could upgrade the iPad to 3.0 or 5.0, but nope, I'm done with screwing around with the thing, ( I already wiped out and rebooted the iOS and other unsuccessful suggestions from the FF tech team to no avail) and am gonna leave the iOS 4.2 right where it is and wait for the FF fix. Sheesh
 
How do you know what iOS you have on your iPad?
 
It says 4.2.1 and I downloaded the new fore flight thing so I guess I'm screwed and waiting it for to crash, arghhhhh
 
Went KAPA - KPUB today with another pilot who hasn't upgraded yet.

Three in-flight (cruise, playing with the map zoom) crashes of latest Foreflight on mine, none on his.

I think we're both on iOS 5. But I'll check if anyone cares.

Hmm. Not good.
 
I'm still on iOS 4.3.3 and FF 4.2 - absolutely no problems other than my polarized sun glasses don't do well with the iPad.
 
ForeFlight 4.2.1 update posted today (10/22) with the fix for iOS 4.2 and below. These folks work FAST!
 
Last edited:
murphey said:
ForeFlight 4.2.1 update posted today (10/22) with the fix for iOS 4.2 and below. These buys work FAST!
Click to expand...

And fortunately, the Apple store managers listened to FF's request to quickly approve the update and publish it.
 
So it should be listed in the app store as an update for free? I don't see it
 
Well I'm not finding it, maybe the version I downloaded to begin with was already fixed. I'll see how it goes
 
Jeanie said:
Well I'm not finding it, maybe the version I downloaded to begin with was already fixed. I'll see how it goes
Click to expand...

Run ForeFlight and do an About. Then hit the apps store. Worked for me.
 
Yup....fixed fast, downloaded and working fine! Thanks ForeFlight for good work done quickly. I think I am gonna stick with iOS 4.2 and stay away from iOS 5.0
 
The new FF 4.2 update is awesome. I've only had it a few days but have found the imagery overlay capability (radar, TFRs, AIRMETs/SIGMETs, etc) is really really handy now that you can use it on any chart (world map, sectional, IFR enroute, etc).
 
murphey said:
I'm still on iOS 4.3.3 and FF 4.2 - absolutely no problems other than my polarized sun glasses don't do well with the iPad.
Click to expand...

Prescription Scheyden's fix that problem. Best optics I've ever had. I want to know who their lab is.
 
Is it true that if you delete a program which you have paid for, you may then log on to the app store and reinstall it?
 
And v 4.2.2 just got posted to iTunes, Friday, Oct 28, 2011
 
iTunes. Does that mean you can dl it for use on your laptop (flt planning etc?)
Or you are using iTunes to then transfer it to the ipad?
I don't think I am using iTunes in any way right now.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
iTunes. Does that mean you can dl it for use on your laptop (flt planning etc?)
Or you are using iTunes to then transfer it to the ipad?
I don't think I am using iTunes in any way right now.
Click to expand...

No, I think he meant it was just posted to the app store. It supposedly resolves the compatibility issues for those who chose not to upgrade to iOS5 on their device.
 
Downloaded the new version. The additional functionality is terrific, but it seems to take quite a bit longer to load up. No crashes yet.
iPad 1 32gb 3g iOs 4.2.1
 
Received a 1-week update "Oct 29 update" for the Airport database while in between legs today. Inadequate bandwidth to dl the entire thing during lunch so stopped the program. FF continued to work find the rest of the day despite this. Finished dl at home and it still works fine.
Wondering if the update out of cycle like this is unusual or expected.
Logging all updates on this thread for future reference.
 
Out of cycle updates happen regularly.

Way better than a book that's wrong and a pile of printed out NOTAMs to sift through to see if they apply.
 
They do need to start using the built in badge notification system though, so you know right when an update is released....
 
Yup. As a sysadmin I can see why they wouldn't. Massive downloads all at once by a majority of FF users is hard on file servers. :)
 
I would love to see the ability to save route profiles buy an airlines route name and number. Also Would love to see a backup feature that will save our favorites and other user settings to email in the event we have to restore the phone.
 
denverpilot said:
Yup. As a sysadmin I can see why they wouldn't. Massive downloads all at once by a majority of FF users is hard on file servers. :)
Click to expand...
Same reason as we've discussed before. The app isn't running. It can't check for new updates. They'd have to push the badge notification to the device and the number that they'd need to push would depend on what charts that device does and doesn't have downloaded. They'd need a big database to track all that and there could be plenty of bugs.
 
jesse said:
Same reason as we've discussed before. The app isn't running. It can't check for new updates. They'd have to push the badge notification to the device and the number that they'd need to push would depend on what charts that device does and doesn't have downloaded. They'd need a big database to track all that and there could be plenty of bugs.
Click to expand...

I dunno. Let me guess at a quick number of records here... There's what, um... Guessing here... Let's use round numbers... 300 charts including Canada, VFR, IFR, etc. Call it 500... (I'd go count but I'm being lazy.)

The next is an even bigger guess but I'll go high... 100,000 ChartCase users? (Probably way high.)

Tagging each chart with a, say... Ten character unique hash (also a guess as to how many uniques you'd need before you could re-use one... 'cause I don't want to do the math while I'm eating lunch), that's 5000 characters to transmit from the mobile device to know what charts it has installed at first, and need only transmit changes after that if the DB says it has the list.

Add some overhead since it'd probably be wise these days to stuff that into XML to make the coder's lives easier. Go crazy, call it 6000 characters to send.

As for the DB, a 100,000 by 500 record table is tiny. There'd obviously be some overhead there too, but they already have a DB of subscribers, so this is an addition of a table with 500 booleans to the existing DB. Could just stash the incoming string and post-process it later, into the booleans, too.

So 500 booleans in a referenced table against "customerID"... From a DBA perspective, that's tiny.

The challenge is the code to send the update, something to parse it on the receiving end, on the inbound side. That's cake. Much of the code stricture is already there. If you launch the App it sets a badge and knows what needs to be updated.

Just need to move that code from iOS to a central server.

All depends on how they implemented that piece as to how portable it is from iOS to say, C or Perl, or ... shudder... Python. :)

The heavy-hitter code would be the SQL query to compare each user against a master "current release" table, and build the badge notifications and send them. I think a modern RDBMS could easily handle the queries for that in a reasonable amount of time, the CPU burnt by the program/script could be throttled since it doesn't need to be done in near-real-time. A few hours after chart release is great. Up to a day is tolerable. And the fallback is the already existing code on the iOS side if the notification system barfs.

I don't think it's as insurmountable as it might seem on the surface. But I do understand if it's not a priority. I definitely don't think it's a "huge" database. They're storing almost as much data against my userID just to have my address info, contact info, etc. And booleans are wicked fast in any good RDBMS. Way faster than retrieving a VARCHAR with my e-mail address.

Just thoughts. I'm not complaining. It isn't *that* hard. Not quite "low-hanging fruit" either, though.
 
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