Mind Versus Machine

In my ongoing push against securing a place as a “Child of the Magenta Line” I still, occasionally, do the math and do not just rely on the flight management system to tell me what’s up. Arithmetic done in my head or on paper helps to keep that skill sharp and me rooted to the early days of my flight training and cross-country trip planning. That said, I am an avid user ForeFlight and after a recent upgrade to their Performance Plus plan, I’m curious to know just how much all of the new additions help out with flight planning.

I’ll be doing a flight soon. Fall is here and foliage will soon be in full effect in the New England. It’s the perfect excuse to get up and get out. Whatever this flight ends up being, I’ll do the appropriate calculations the night before. Check points, winds aloft, magnetic course calculations, fuel burn - I’ll get it all on the navigation log. Then, I’ll just take a fraction of that time to plug the information into ForeFlight and see the results. I’ll compare both against the actual flight performance. I think it will be interesting.

Stay tuned!

DMW