Foreflight update

What Chuck is demonstrating here so beautifully is, that it might pay off to show up early for your flight, and even more so, prepared. While this might not happen in a Cessna 172 in exactly an hour (not sure how much gas Chuck had in there to begin with though, you never know) it could happen to you in the Skycranes I used to fly. Those legacy engines sucked as much gas on the ground as they did in the air. Better have a plan of action in those before you push the start button.

Modern technology, although very convenient when it works properly, can also let you down when not maintained and updated. And by using all this new stuff, we extended ourselves slightly past the FAA basic VFR minimums (Pilots, remember “GOOSE A CAT”?) we need to go for a flight.
There is your Foreflight or other nav app to update. There is the iPad or tablet your navigation app is on to update, and possibly even more important, to charge as well. And don’t forget the panel mounted GPS and all of its updates.
The list is long.
But I still prefer it over the old system of receiving IFR plates or airport guide pages in the mail, and having to go through them page by page to remove and replace the expired ones. That could take up a whole afternoon.
But these things I am mostly prepared for. At least more than Chuck is. My pet peeve is always the updates they spring on you out of nowhere and only when you are in a hurry. Every time I want to just send out 2 CW books to customers in the morning before I need to catch my flight, the Windows computer needs an update, the virus scanner decides to do an additional scan that slows everything down, the scale on the postal-shipping system needs to be restarted and the printer suddenly lost its connection with the PC. Not sure how that always works out. 😉

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8 comments on “Foreflight update
  1. Anja says:

    I love electronic gadgets. But there will always be that question nagging in the back of my head, what if it throws a hissy fit when I can afford it least?
    Better to have a backup option that doesn’t require batteries.

  2. Keith says:

    uhg, don’t get me…It’s taken 20 years for me to find abs that almost out brakes me. I’ve yet to have GPS do noticably better at 2d slow/fast. I haven’t used alleged latest/greatest to be honest. But, I’ve used various ones since the late 80’s early 90’s. Got spoiled with gear that had every magnetic deviation recorded. heh, Egypt 1908 still sticks in my head.

  3. Bernd says:

    I still have paper ICAO charts, and for cross-country flights I usually print the approach charts for my destination and alternate airfields, and a paper flight log with waypoints, headings and times, so hopefully I can do good old pilotage when GPS fails. I am no longer very confident about that, though.

  4. Colin says:

    Where was he going that he only had an hour of fuel at idle?

  5. mike says:

    @Colin: We’re talking Chuck here. He’s run out of gas taxiing to the runway before 😉

  6. L says:

    Ah yes, updates, never a good thing.
    I was in charge of updating a nav card for a 530. If you think about how crappy Garmin programming is in their units, you should not be surprised to hear that it took over an hour to update a 5MB data card due to obsoleted drivers, crappy SW that wouldn’t recognize Garmin cards, incredibly slow Garmin servers and other “minor” factors.
    I have never updated a DB on a Garmin before. This was a first. And it was an eye opener. I knew Garmin was a very low-quality product but failed to anticipate the same crap quality from their PC SW and drivers. My own fault. Shame on me.
    I wish I could go back to Bendix-King.
    So yes, I can commiserate with Chuck. LOL

  7. L says:

    Ah yes, updates, the necessary evil.
    Garmin updates are the worst. Always a problem with those. Conflicting instructions online and from the manufacturer. Do you use the supplied memory card or a your own? Slot 1 or 2? Why is it updating to the old DB when I put the newest one on the card? What do you mean “outdated”? That company needs to go out and fly a little with their avionics to gain some perspective not only from the cockpit but on life. They seem to fail to understand basic usability concepts.
    I miss my old KLN. That thing worked like a charm.

  8. Name says:

    A pilot friend of mine likes to get in cockpit and take 1/2 hr installing multiple mobile devices and cameras. Then he would her up, taxi out to the run-up box and start futzing with all the electronics for another 20 minutes. Setting up FF on each one, configuring music for flight, putting the full route in the GPS (on a gorgeous sunny VMC day). When I mention that he can put the route in in the air and that he knows which general direction we’re heading, I always get weird excuses. So a 20-minute BBQ run turns into a 1.5 hr ordeal.
    I guess he likes to be prepared but there is no need to waste AvGas while preparing these toys. When we were young, we flew without any gadgets and found our way. The BBQ place is behind the lake, in the clearing in the trees. Can’t really miss it. I can see it with my own eyes.
    Old guy rant over. LOL

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