FOREFLIGHT- WINGXPRO THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY

I have flown with an IPad and ForeFlight (FF) or WingXPro (WX) since their inception. I started with FF switched to WX for the past 4 years and I am now flying with FF today.

I feel qualified to tell you today what I think of each program so you can make a qualified decision on your purchase. This is a more important decision than ever as ADS-B In has come into the picture and Stratus 2 does not work with WX, as the several other units that work with WX do not work with FF. You are looking at making a $900 investment and need to be right the first time or it gets expensive. I had a Sky Radar unit for WX and had to purchase a Stratus 2 for FF so I have $1,700 invested in ADS-B IN equipment.

I feel strongly that if you are not flying an airplane with a glass panel, that the IPad with these programs are the most important item you can have in the cockpit. I will go into this below. Even corporate jets are flying now with IPad’s and some sort of aviation app. I call the IPad the poor mans glass cockpit.

WEATHER & TERRAIN

There is a wealth of weather information available to pilots today. In the OLD days before personal computers and IPad’s weather briefings were coded to cut down on information. In the age of computers there is no reason to have coded weather briefings any longer. FF weather briefings are still coded and WX is plain english. 

Winner WX

Airmets and sigmets are outlined on the moving map on FF. Just touch it and all the information comes up on a dialog box. WX does not have this feature. 

Winner FF

Weather radar or NxtRad can be shown on the map page with ADS-B IN in flight. With WX you see both radar and terrain hazardous to flight, and with FF you have to toggle back and forth to terrain hazards to your flight and radar. I want to make sure I am clear of any obstructions when flying. The charts tell me this, but terrain avoidance is much easier on the brain. 

Winner WX

HSI SYNTHETIC VISION

When I purchased FF I paid an extra $25 for synthetic vision (SV). I really wanted the HSI feature more than SV but did not realize I could have had this without an additional charge. I do not think I will purchase SV next year as in my flying I do not need it. One big plus is that SV does give you obstacle terrain hazards. Green if you are not in any conflict, yellow 100 to 1000 foot clearance and red if you are going to fly into something. The graphics are seamless and more professional than WX. Flying mostly VFR I try to keep my eyes out the window. I think SV detracts from this in VFR flight. Flying an older plane the HSI gives me an excellent back up. 

Winner FF

APPROACHES

FF overlays the approach over your IFR chart, you can have just the approach plate displayed or split screen between the HSI and the approach plate. You keep your HUD which gives you airspeed distances and time to waypoints. WX will not let you overlay the approach chart but you can use a full screen for the approach and loose all HUD data or split the screen between IFR chart and the approach plate and still see HUD information.

Both FF and WX offer geo referencing  on the approach plates for an extra charge which I will discuss later. 

Winner FF

MOVING MAP

To my eyes the charts look crisper and more defined on FF. I do not like that I have to toggle between items on FF that are standard on WX. The profile view on FF is excellent and better than WX.

Winner Slightly to FF

Costs

WX clearly gives you more bang for the buck. For $75 for one year you get everything on WX that you would get on FF that would cost $175 a year except geo reference approach plates.

I am paying the extra money to FF for terrain warnings, profile view, SV and height above ground to name a few. If FF offered this on their basic package, as does WX, I would only buy the basic as I can fly an approach that is not geo referenced. 

Winner WX

Quality

Here is the rub. I left WX because of their lack of quality control. Weather did not work when I needed to do a briefing on multiple occasions, taxiway and runway warnings did not work until I was taking off on from a runway and a plethora of other issues.

I really depend on my IPad with an aviation app and could no longer depend on WX. That being said I still use my Garmin 396 as a backup, always on and running.

BIG WINNER FF

Are any of these apps perfect for aviation....NO! However from where we have come with nothing in the cockpit but paper charts, I am thrilled with what we have today. 

Bang for your buck go with WX and hope it works. I am flying with FF now for a reason.

SUPER BOWL 49...MILITARY, FAA, AOPA

SUPER BOWL 49 UPDATE

This is a followup to the column I wrote earlier this week about the problems with the military issuing a NOTAM on GPS degradation of signal during Super Bowl and the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament this week in Phoenix.

Since my last column I called Nellis Air Force Base right outside of Las Vegas where the NOTAM originated.They did not know anything about it. I also talked to the FAA and AOPA. The FAA told me if there were any problems they could shut down the GPS testing and are prepared to do so. AOPA met with their military liaison, and they came to an agreement to not do any testing the day before, the day of and the day after the Super Bowl. I guess something is better than nothing. The military did not take into account the large number of Net Jet flights coming into Scottsdale Monday and Tuesday for the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament this week. We also have a large contingent of corporate jets scheduled to arrive Thursday for the Super Bowl.

I could never find out who wrote the NOTAM to the FAA from the military. This is really stupid to perform these test when there will be over 1000 corporate jets flying into the Valley this week. We have put up with GPS testing by the military for years out of Las Vegas. Don’t you think by now they could get it right. I do not understand why this program goes on in perpetuity.

https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2015/Jan/WSMR_15-02_GPS_Flight_Advisory.pdf 

SUPER BOWL 49

SUPER BOWL 49

In 11 days the Valley of the Sun will be hosting the Super Bowl again.

I served on the Aviation Committee for Super Bowl 42, and even though we thought we had everything covered, ATC turned out to be a disaster. Due to weather, planes at Scottsdale, SDL, had to depart southbound into Phoenix Sky Harbor, PHX, traffic. In addition only one plane was allowed to depart at a time from Phoenix Deer Valley, DVT, and SDL as they both used the same IFR departure. It also did not help that there was a major thunderstorm that closed the airports at noon. Departures the Monday after the Super Bowl were running 6-8 hours wait time. Albuquerque Center would not provide squak codes to those waiting to depart. It was a mess.

This year high five’s go to the FAA. We were able to create new departures so that DVT and SDL now have a different departure. These departure stay out of conflict with PHX. So everything should be great, that is until yesterday.

I received a NOTAM from the FAA issued by the military outside of Las Vegas that they decided to degrade GPS signals during the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament and the Super Bowl. This covers Southern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. We expect over 600 private aircraft for these events, and the airlines have added numerous flights. In todays world these airplanes navigate primarily with GPS. Their signal can go out completely or be so degraded that GPS is not usable.

I emailed AOPA, called the local NBAA rep and have not had a response yet. I then called Senator John McCain’s office who was rude and blew me off. Next call was to Senator Jeff Flake’s office who was receptive, took all the information and will meet with their military liaison.

I do not know what the military was thinking when they issued this NOTAM. I can only hope that someone can get the ball rolling to rescind this test period.

NAVIGATION APPS FOR IPAD

You noticed the topic of this column is for IPAD’s. If you want to fly with one of these apps you are going to have to own an IPad. The stuff that is out there for Android is really bad. 

There are basically around 5 companies in the business with only 2 dominating and 1 that really owns the business. I am writing off Jeppensen and FlyQ, with not that much positive to say about Garmin. Garmin has done an excellent job with panel mounts and portable GPS systems. They came to the IPad market late with their app and while improved, it still leaves a lot to be desired. Their AHARS only shows in a full page and you loose the moving map. This to me is unacceptable.

That brings us to the 2 leaders ForeFlight (FF) and WingXPro (WX). 

WX offers a lot of features and is the best bang for the buck if you are a VFR pilot or IFR pilot. WX offers you everything you will need IFR included for $75 a year. The only thing you would pay extra for is geo referenced IFR approach plates. WX gives you the availability of split screen views in any situation. You could have an approach plate in one screen and a chart on the other. The problem is that if you go full screen with the approach plate you loose all pertinent information on the chart. This means you loose distance to next waypoint and heading. I do not like this approach to IFR flying.

The problem with WX is I cannot rely on it. Two out of the three past trips I have taken the weather has not worked. WX does not seem to monitor the app to see if it is working. I have had numerous other quality problem with WX and therefore cannot recommend it.

FF is the other major app for IPad navigation. If you are a VFR only pilot you do not have a lot of information that is pertinent to flight. The most important thing is that you do not have terrain awareness with the VFR program. I do not think this is in the best interest of safety. You are forced to buy the $150 program to get terrain awareness, safe taxi, height above ground and other features along with geo referenced approach plates. I do like how you can overlay the approach plate on top of the chart so you maintain all pertinent information flying an approach. FF allows you to set the transparency on the plate so it does not block out the chart. FF does have one split screen with the Stratus 2 ADS-B IN unit which is an AHARS, and flying a legacy airplane like mine is an excellent feature. WX also has the same setup with a second generation ADS-B IN unit.
FF has coded weather. Nobody today with a computer or IPad needs coded weather. This needs to be updated to plain english weather briefings.

I have a real gripe with all the apps in that what ADS-B IN unit works with one app will not work with another. If you have the Garmin app you need a Garmin ADS-B. If you have WX there are several ADS-B’s to choose from none of which work with Garmin or FF. FF only works with Stratus ADS-B units. You must be very careful which app you buy and which ADS-B unit as this is a great expense. If you decide you do not like WX and want to switch to FF you will have to buy a new ADS-B unit.

I have a friend that teaches classes approved by the FAA training people on Garmin, FF and WX apps. In the class there are usually 30 with FF, 1 or 2 with Gamin or WX. Take that as you may.

After flying with WX and FF the only app I can recommend is FF, not because of the features but because FF is much more reliable!!! It works and I can depend on it.

One other recommendation I can give is do not perform an update on an app for a coupe of days after it comes out. That way if there is a bug you will usually hear of it before downloading. FF had their first bad update that I recall last month and immediately notified their customer not to download it. It was too late for some.

In closing NEVER update an app if you are going on a trip. Wait until you get home. This way there should not be any problems.

I am recommending FF because of their quality control.

AOPA NEEDS A WIN

AOPA has had some tough battles over the years and until recently had a pretty good record. I know my Congressman and one Senator, but I have no clout when it comes to General Aviation issues. That is why AOPA is so important to me and GA. AOPA used to have around 419,000 members but that number is way down today due to attrition of pilots dying off, losing medicals and fed up with what has happened with AOPA in the past. The estimate of AOPA membership today is around 300,000. Phil Boyer took AOPA to great strides when he was President.  It only takes a short time to destroy someones hard work, and that is what happened when Craig Fuller became President. He alienated the membership. Now Mark Baker is in office and is trying to do everything the right way and doing a good job at it. When I am no longer able to fly I will remain a member of AOPA for all the good they do for GA.

Unfortunately AOPA’s track record has not been the best on issues lately. AOPA has lost several battles on airspace redo, with GA being squeezed out on Class Bravo Airspace. It is so bad in Phoenix that we have a ceiling in the class B that has been lowered to a shelf that is lower than the mountains adjacent to it. 6 people lost their lives because of this.

AOPA just spent, with others, hundreds of thousands of dollars for a vote to keep Santa Monica, CA (SMO) open. AOPA did everything right, but unfortunately only approximately 20% of the population even bothered to vote. AOPA’s referendum was defeated. We are fortunate that the FAA and DOT has final say so on this.

AOPA has 2 major issues on the table. 

The first being elimination of the 3rd class medical. I have always thought that the 3rd class medical is a joke. AOPA petitioned the FAA to change the 3rd class medical to allow VFR flight with one passenger in an airplane of 180HP or less. The FAA blew AOPA off and shelved this. AOPA then went to Congress to change the 3rd class medical rules. Congress came up with a much better offer to fly below 14,000 feet, VFR only, in any piston airplane. It sounded like Congress was ready to move on this. Then came the midterm elections and now the holiday break and nothing went forward. AOPA will have to start over again after the first of the year. Government never moves fast, and I do not know if I will see a result in my lifetime.

The second issue is ADS-B OUT. AOPA appeared before a Congressional committee 2 weeks ago and stated that there are approximately 180,000 airplanes in the fleet. Of these approximately 88,000 are worth $40,000 or less. The minimum cost I have seen to install ADS-B OUT in an airplane that does not have an IFR WAAS GPS and Mode S transponder is $7,500 parts and labor. Do the math and owners of these planes can not afford to purchase ADS-B OUT at current prices. AOPA is asking for portable units to be qualified to handle ADS-B OUT at a much lower cost to the airplane owner. This seems like a no brainer except the FAA has never approved a portable unit for anything in the cockpit.

AOPA is all we have folks. If these two issues do not succeed I am afraid we will loose even more members. I hate to say this but there will be a lot of parked GA airplanes that will not be flying any longer which leads to empty airports. Maybe this is what the FAA wants.

If you are a member of AOPA please renew, and if you are not....please join now.

DO NOT BUY WINGXPRO

Whatever you do , if you are looking for an aviation app, do not buy WingXPro. WingX does one thing good, they allow almost all ADS-B units to work with the program. After that everything is downhill.

WingXPro does not have the reliability one needs when flying. Their quality control is near nonexistent. The previous flight I took the weather was not working. Sent them an email, and it was working 2 days later...not when I needed it.

WingX came out with another update this week. They installed a numerical VSI on the top of the map page. I do not know what these people were thinking. Vertical speed with GPS is determined by ones location not the altimeter. If you are flying in level flight the VSI will give you a notice of how many feet up or down you are going...even though you are level! Unfortunately WingX has not provided a way to turn this nuisance off.

They also did not check their program before updating it. There are 2 weather blocks on the Map page. Underneath them is a notice that says “loading...” This is fine if you are connected to the internet but useless in flight. I do no know if this burns more battery on the IPad constantly searching when there is no internet connection. It worked fine with ADS-B In until this update. It would also be nice to turn off the 2 weather blocks in flight as they are useless, not being able to update weather in flight.

WingXPro has some wonderful features, but it is not reliable enough to bet your life on. I have one more year to go on my subscription and can not wait to switch to ForeFlight. ForeFlight has only had one glitch that I know of, and it was corrected in one day.

BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!!

I CAN NO LONGER FLY PASSENGERS

When I started flying I had $5 million insurance smooth. That is back when $5 million dollars was a lot of money, and the courts were not a lottery system. My insurance decreased over the years down to $2 million smooth, $1 million smooth, to where it is today at $1 million with only $100,000 per seat. 

The court system has changed dramatically over the years. I have always said if you are a plaintiff have a jury trial, if you are a defendant and guilty have a jury trial and if you are a defendant and innocent request that the judge makes the decision. Juries are very easily swayed by a good attorney and computer graphics. 

Recently in Phoenix there was a case involving 2 TV stations whose helicopters lost situational awareness and crashed into each other with multiple deaths. The insurance companies refused to settle with the heirs, and this case went to trial. The attorneys for the plaintiffs were granted their request to introduce a computer generated recreation of the crash. I was able to review this, and from all the facts of the event, I did not feel it was an accurate recreation of the way things happened. I knew right away the defense was in trouble. If this was presented to the jury the amount of jury award would have been unfathomable . The insurance companies settled before this recreation could be presented into evidence.

This brings me to the reason I can no longer fly passengers. My wife and I have worked hard to build an estate for retirement. If I had an accident and was sued by my passenger or their heirs, my estate would be financially depleted. $1 million with $100,000 per passenger would not cover much in a lawsuit. 

Over the years I have enjoyed giving people their first ride in a GA airplane. They always loved flying into Sedona for breakfast with the thrilling views and great airport. I can not do this anymore in good financial conscience.

When I flew for Angel Flight the passenger signed a waiver. Waivers are not worth much any longer and can be easily pierced. It is my understanding that the EAA takes out an insurance policy to protect its pilots for their Young Eagles events. This is a good thing as there was a mid air about a month ago where both pilot and child were killed. The charity I have worked so hard for raising money, came out with a detailed waiver for the pilots to sign 2 nights before the event. In good conscience I could not sign this waiver and refused to fly. This was a big disappointment for me, but I could not put my estate at risk.

I miss flying friends and now only fly with my wife. The world has changed, and I have had to adapt. I am not very happy about it, but I have to be practical.