ForeFlight has released the latest version of its electronic flight bag (EFB) app, adding new features such as integrated checklists, glide advisor, light and dark app color themes, and customizable map shapes.

The new checklists are included in ForeFlight Basic Plus ($99.99/year) and Pro Plus ($199.99/year) packages. Checklists are available in a generic template and preconfigured for a variety of popular aircraft, and all can be customized by the user. Each checklist item can be checked off as completed, which highlights a green checkmark, or marked as skipped in yellow. Once the checklist is completed, the next checklist is highlighted at the bottom of the screen. Checklists are available in three categories: normal, abnormal and emergency, and the emergency checklist is always accessible by touching one button.

The glide advisor feature depicts a “dynamic glide range ring” around the aircraft’s geo-referenced position, reshaping to match terrain contours. The range ring is based on the aircraft’s glide speed and glide ratio, which the user must input into the aircraft information in ForeFlight, and it shows where the aircraft could glide to after loss of power. “Glide advisor can also be combined with a split-screen synthetic-vision view for the ultimate in situational awareness,” according to ForeFlight.

Another new feature in ForeFlight 9 is customizable map shapes. Users can create and display their own map shapes by importing KML geographic files into ForeFlight via iTunes. Once imported, the new map shapes appear as overlay options. One example of a user creating a map shape is a flight school that added training areas to ForeFlight, to show students and instructors the exact outlines of the school’s practice areas. 

ForeFlight 9 added a toggle between light and dark app themes, where the dark theme “converts the background color to dark blue throughout the app while keeping highlight colors and text easily visible,” according to ForeFlight. This theme is designed for night flying but can also be used during the day. The dark theme can also be combined with the color inversion feature, which inverts white and black elements to lower glare on charts, airport diagrams, and documents. 

For pilots flying with SiriusXM’s SXAR1 receiver, ForeFlight 9 can connect Bluetooth headsets or audio devices to the SXAR1 for streaming XM satellite radio content, using ForeFlight as the interface for browsing and selecting radio stations. The SXAR1 also can deliver subscription-based SiriusXM weather to ForeFlight. This includes high-resolution Nexrad with storm cell attributes and tracks, lightning, cloud tops, echo tops, surface wind analysis, winds/temps aloft, Metars, TAFs, Airmets, Sigmets, Pireps, and Notams.