Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.

Editor-in-Chief

Matt Thurber

The ForeFlight team has released a major update to the ForeFlight Mobile iPad app–Version 5–featuring a new hazard advisor with terrain and obstacle awareness, new runway advisor features such as a traffic pattern advisor, runway winds and automatic display of taxi diagrams. The terrain map and Hazard Advisor work only on newer iPads (iPad mini, 2 and later) and iPhones (4 and later).


Hazard Advisor highlights terrain and obstacles in yellow (within 1,000 feet of aircraft altitude) and red (within 100 feet), shown on IFR, VFR, terrain, street and world maps. The terrain map is also new and requires downloading a low- or high-resolution terrain database. Hazard Advisor, which requires the high-resolution terrain database, is free for ForeFlight Mobile Pro users, while the terrain map is included for standard Mobile subscribers.


Another new feature in ForeFlight’s Runway Advisor is extended runway centerlines and a new procedure that paints a selected traffic pattern onto the moving map. Pilots can view the best runway for the given wind conditions, using the Runway Winds feature, then select the desired traffic pattern from a procedures list. Runway Winds includes the combined wind effects as well as headwind and tailwind components. Traffic pattern procedures include straight-in, 45-to downwind, cross midfield with teardrop and cross midfield with direct entry for standard and right-hand traffic patterns, according to ForeFlight.


Track up and north up are also now available, including an option for track-up centered or track-up forward. With the new auto-taxi feature, after rollout (below 40 knots) ForeFlight automatically displays the airport diagram. Users can preselect the orientation of the diagram (and approach plates) so that the chart matches the direction of landing (or flight). With the new procedure rotation feature, SID and STAR charts can also now be rotated, and the selected orientation sticks with the chart.


Pilots who want to plan a long-distance world-girdling flight can now use ForeFlight’s worldwide touch planning feature to analyze routes anywhere in the world.

Terrain And Obstacles Added In ForeFlight V5

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