Middle East and South Africa VFR Charts Added to A La Carte Offerings

ForeFlight announced a modest update to their flagship EFB product, with ForeFlight 16.5 adding one moderately useful feature and a pair of pretty niche ones.

Top of mind for the update is an alert for wake turbulence events, a slick little system that draws data from FLARM and ADS-B systems to calculate the prospective wake turbulence caused by traffic ahead of the user. When flying at or above 500 feet AGL, ForeFlight continuously calculates wake effects from nearby aircraft using their position, altitude, speed, weight category, and winds aloft information, then compares these with its current flight path. If the course is set to intersect with the expected pocket of turbulence, ForeFlight can issue a prominent audiovisual alert to notify the pilot. 

They considered the layout on the warning, too, making sure that the warning sits prominently atop the message, with some smaller text indicating the type of aircraft causing the wake, it's N-number, and distance from the turbulence. ForeFlight then renders the wake's estimated 3-dimensional position and renders it as a colored ribbon trailing that aircraft on the map. 

The expected point of intersection is highlighted with a white stripe, and wake above or below the current path colored green. Red portions of the wake ribbon indicate wake turbulence close enough to affect the aircraft. The new feature will, as is often the case, only be available to those with a current ForeFlightPro subscription or greater.

The other additions aren't so exciting to the average pilot, unless they're operating abroad in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, South Africa, and Qatar. Those areas' VFR charts have been added to the ForeFlight catalog, though they are billed as extra add-ons to any ForeFlight subscription. Additional DFS Special Rules Areas 1:250k charts for Johannesburg and Cape Town can be had for African operators, helping to supplement existing government VFR charts covering South Africa and adjacent countries.

FMI: www.ForeFlight.com