Garmin Pilot vs. Foreflight Apps

[chemgeek]

Foreflight is the market leader but I'm entrenched in the Google ecosystem for many reasons. There are good choices on Android. Of those, Garmin Pilot was not among my favorites. Maybe it is better now. Two of the simplest, but reasonably full featured EFBs in this space are DroidEFB and iFlyGPS. These are more than sufficient for someone flying IFR. FltPlanGo is the right price (free) but I find it's user interface clumsy to use, and for some reason it doesn't easily serve up every approach to an airport without doing extra digging in the UI. (At my home field, it will only display one of two approaches, and its the one that gets rarely used. The other one is there, but you have to drill down the menu to find it.)

 

[midlifeflyer]

Foreflight is the market leader but I'm entrenched in the Google ecosystem for many reasons. There are good choices on Android. Of those, Garmin Pilot was not among my favorites. Maybe it is better now. Two of the simplest, but reasonably full featured EFBs in this space are DroidEFB and iFlyGPS. These are more than sufficient for someone flying IFR. FltPlanGo is the right price (free) but I find it's user interface clumsy to use, and for some reason it doesn't easily serve up every approach to an airport without doing extra digging in the UI. (At my home field, it will only display one of two approaches, and its the one that gets rarely used. The other one is there, but you have to drill down the menu to find it.)

I agree with you about iFlyEFB (they changed the name a year or so ago) but disagree about DroidEFB. I liked it when it first came out but when I decided to use it as my backup app I found the flow different enough to be difficult. Just personal preference. And It’s been a while since I’ve looked at it.

True story. A friend who is an Apple hater had been using DroidEFB for several years. Last year he joined a buddy on a multi-day trip from the west coast back east in the buddy’s newly purchased 172. The buddy used ForeFlight. When they got back my friend bought an iPad and subscribed.

 

[Brian]

Foreflight was the reason I bought my first iPad when it first came out. It was too big, so I bought my first mini iPad when it first came out, too.

 

[Cap'n Ron]

True story. A friend who is an Apple hater had been using DroidEFB for several years. Last year he joined a buddy on a multi-day trip from the west coast back east in the buddy’s newly purchased 172. The buddy used ForeFlight. When they got back my friend bought an iPad and subscribed.

Sounds like nearly every IR trainee I had who was using anything other than ForeFlight when we began training.

 

[midlifeflyer]

Sounds like nearly every IR trainee I had who was using anything other than ForeFlight when we began training.

Having used ForeFlight for almost 14 years, and having worked with most of the EFBs available for the US market, I’m not going to disagree on its qualities. But with trainees, particularly newer pilots, there are other things going on as well. Their instructor is using it is an enormous factor, especially when all their examples are using it. Since it has the largest market share, there’s peer support and peer pressure too. Hard to be the only one in a group who is not using it.

Balancing pluses and minuses, I’ll say that Garmin Pilot for iOS has overall parity with ForeFlight on both features and usability. But when you are the only one a random group of pilots using it…

 

[Brian]

When I got my license in 2008, I had a Windows phone. I was using an early EFB on it for simple flight planning but I don't recall its name. I do remember that it was considered to be equal in capability with Foreflight for at least a couple of years. It was developed by a small company and I recall that the guy who owned the company would post often on various pilot forums.

I bought my first iPhone in 2008, switched to Foreflight, and bought my first iPad in 2010.

For years, I've been thinking that I started using Foreflight in 2010 but nope: I started using it as soon as I got my first iPhone because the other app didn't support the iPhone.

 

[midlifeflyer]

When I got my license in 2008, I had a Windows phone. I was using an early EFB on it for simple flight planning but I don't recall its name. I do remember that it was considered to be equal in capability with Foreflight for at least a couple of years. It was developed by a small company and I recall that the guy who owned the company would post often on various pilot forums.

I bought my first iPhone in 2008, switched to Foreflight, and bought my first iPad in 2010.

For years, I've been thinking that I started using Foreflight in 2010 but nope: I started using it as soon as I got my first iPhone because the other app didn't support the iPhone.

Speaking of older stuff, anyone remember CoPilot for the Pal Pilot?

 

[Brian]

Nope. I wish I could remember that software that was competing with Foreflight for the first few years.