Something about ForeFlight that I did not know about any you probably do not know it either at 9,500

This is something that I did not realize with ForeFlight. When you are on a cross country Flight and not connected to the internet, The FBO comment section is not available in flight.

There appears to be a software glitch or maybe it just needs to be incorporated with the next update, but when FF is not connected to the internet, The FBO comments are not available.

I did not have access to the comments section about the FBOs. It just said “no comments”
Even after I have Packed all the information for the flight, the comment sections do not save and you need to have an active internet connection to read the comments, which is difficult at 9500.


This occurred during a cross country flight and it looked liked I might have had to divert to an alternate Fbo.

I really did not want to land and find out that there is no Working bathroom or the runway is in poor condition, or if they charge a ramp fee even with a fill up.

Anyway, none of the pilots comments were available about the FBO’s, like if the FBO is a good place to divert to or if a crew car was available, Or if they have self service gas after hours, or if the pumps even work, or if a hotel is close by, or if there is a restaurant close by to eat or if someone had a poor experience. All important pieces of information that is unavailable in flight when trying to make an unplanned in flight decision on where to land in the middle of your flight.

I did speak to FF about it, and he said that some FBO information might be available for a short time in flight, but not all and not for long. He was going to make a suggestion about it with the FF team i.e. make Fbo comment data available when you pack for a trip so that it is available off line (in flight). We shall see

Anyway, I thought it was interesting and I have used FF a lot, but did not notice this 21st century problem. I do use FF for gas prices and other pilots FBO experience on my choice on where to land.

Plan Accordingly.

Did you know about this problem?

 

Living your life based entirely upon the opinions of strangers? Sad...

Oh... and get off my lawn!

 

If you fly within 3-4 thousand AGL, you're phone will work for internet.

 

You should have all that figured out before you're wheels up.

 

Snap a screenshot of what you need, and save it.

 

You look up FBO information for all the airports you might possibly end up diverting to?

 

Whoa.. since when do pilots need to plan ahead?


...punch it, Chewie

 

Thanks for the post, tbh I've never used that section.. usually before flight I'll place a call to the FBO to get the scoop, and despite paying for FF still do most of my planning through airnav

A few thoughts:
(1) diverting due to lack of fbo comments?
(2) this should all take place before you take to the skies
(3) I'm sure you can find a bathroom, or at the very minimum pick a tree

 

Or a taxiway light (ok, not on it, but near by).... BTDT

 

His thoughts are very reasonable. He's not talking about an alternate planned in advance, but a diversion. It is wise to not show up at an FBO which wants to collect a landing fee, ramp fee, parking fee and charge a lot for gas. Comments on Foreflight and other apps and web sites give this information.

I've noticed this problem too, and it is a minor inconvenience.

As an aside, I wish when people are motivated to comment on an airport or an FBO, they give specific useful information. "Nice folks" is better than nothing, but "Ramp fee $20 waived with 10 gallon fuel purchase, parking $10 per night, crew car available" is a lot more helpful,and doesn't take much longer.

Jon

 

But wouldn't you check that (fees, gas prices, comments, etc) before you fly?

 

For what it's worth, the comment are not available on the web version of Foreflight at all. I wrote them about this a long time ago, but it hasn't changed.
Jon

 

Agree here

 

It's a diversion. I do flights from NM to FL and NJ every year. I make a plan with intended stops, and a few alternates, but sometimes things come up. You can't plan for hundreds of airports. It's useful to have all the information I would use at home to make that change. It doesn't make sense to me why it isn't included with the airport data.

 

I just tested this by packing a trip, then going onto airplane mode and disconnecting from the internet. I can still see user comments about the FBOs.

 

The guys at FF said “If you viewed the FBO's comments while connected to a data source, the comments will display while in-flight for a short period of time. We appreciate the feature request. I will pass your request on to our Product Management team for their consideration”

It is true, it is for a very short period of time in flight.

I agree with 4CornerFlyer,

It was more of an annoyance than a real problem. I was flying from OKC to Connecticut, I had several planned stops as well as several alternates and alternates to the alternates. I was 2 hours behind schedule due to headwinds and weather delays. There was a possibility that my final destination FBO might be closed and my prearranged rental car would be unavailable. Also I never like landing at night, at an unfamiliar airport, with a passenger when I am not night current. So I had 3 hours to plan for a suitable diversion airport in the air, when I was looking at FF I was quite surprised to find that all the airports on my planned route had no comments. I equate a lack of any comments, to a closed desolate airport with no FBO.
Really, I just wanted to know if Uber or taxi was available, or a hotel was close by etc in case I stopped for the night. Anyway I made it to my destination airport KBDR in Bridgeport with 30 minutes to spare, a rental car ready and a Happy wife. She was so happy after we landed (with hotel reservations already in place) that she let me have the guys Wash and Wax the plane! When I emailed customer support at ForeFlight they said that might consider adding the FBO data in with the packet request (implied, if there was any interest). It can not be all that much data, with all the incomplete sentences and lack of punctuation, it can be like reading a metar, but it is very insightful and valuable data.
I do try to are commentS frequently about my Fbo experience, good and bad, you can always review your own personal comments on the FF website to help remind you which airports that you have personally visited and your experience.

 

My other complaint about the comments on Foreflight is that they remain forever. I mean there are comments from 7+ years ago, which are not really useful at all. I did ask them to think about deleting some ancient ones, but no action on this point either. Airnav deletes after three years, which seems reasonable.

For the highly motivated few out there, you can delete your own obsolete comments. I forget exactly how, but it can be done.
Jon

 

When I flew the RV home after purchase a few years ago, I did use Foreflight to PACK as much as possible ... even then, flying in August across most of the USA was interesting to say the least ... I had a very active weekend with a lot of forecasts that weren't accurate. I did land one of my alternates on the first fuel stop and had to create an alternate on the second fuel stop as winds aloft were no where near predicted.

 

Didn’t notice this about the comments section but it doesn’t impact my use of ForeFlight. What I did notice the other day, now that I’m back into GA flying, was that my iPhone could get messages in the air when it was using the Stratus receiver for ForeFlight, even though cellular service was off. I’m almost certain I reconfirmed it was off after this happened. I do remember getting messages on airline flights when connected to their WiFi.