Flying an airplane: There's an app for that

Mobile apps for pilots are replacing flight bags full of maps and related navigational material in the Western Michigan University College of Aviation.

Using the Foreflight app, pilots can access weather maps, instrument procedures and other navigation and flight-planning information on an iPad. The flight bag full of information often weigh up to 40 pounds.

"The iPad can hold a library of reference material used in the process of learning how to fly, but the ForeFlight app is arguably the cornerstone of iPad utility as an electronic flight bag, or EFB," says Capt. Steve Jones, WMU executive director of flight operations. "The app presents all the approach plates, departure procedures and route maps in a way that is extremely powerful."

The ForeFlight App can gather preflight weather information, plan flights, conduct preflight research, file flight plans, keep charts and terminal procedures up-to-date, and manage iPad deployments.

The Federal Aviation Administration is in the process of approving the use of tablet computers as flight bags in an increasingly large number of corporate and commercial flight organizations, and they are quickly gaining acceptance in the industry.

The use of the new app is in keeping with the college of aviation's push to provide the latest in avionic systems on which to train its students. College officials say that their technical equipment is four to five years more advanced than that used by any other collegiate flight program in the world.

"The ForeFlight Mobile product provides a very wide variety of flight publications electronically that a pilot can reference for information and navigation purposes," says Capt. Steve Jones, WMU executive director of flight operations.

Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave Media
Source: Paula Davis, Western Michigan University