ForeFlight Dynamic Procedures Released – AVweb

App developer ForeFlight announced the release of its next-generation procedural charts called Dynamic Procedures. The announcement comes just weeks after Garmin released its own reinvented procedural charts called Smart Charts for the Garmin Pilot cockpit app. However, ForeFlight says the vision for the new procedural charts isn’t an answer to Garmin’s solution.

The new feature was envisioned as far back as 2018 with the development of the app’s Procedure Advisor, and Dynamic Procedures is the next step.

JEPPESEN GLOBAL AVIATION DATA

ForeFlight says its Dynamic Procedures (powered by Jeppesen’s global aviation data) are an interactive and streamlined solution for viewing instrument procedures and is a major step forward in its mission to deliver a fully data-driven experience for instrument pilots. The new procedural charts are integrated directly into the Foreflight app’s Maps view, and the key in the redesign was removing nonrelevant details to create a highly filtered and clutter-free presentation. ForeFlight said that instead of redrawing the familiar traditional chart, the new depiction filters the procedure to what is relevant.

FOREFLIGHT’s CHART-LESS INTERFACE

The Dynamic Procedures are designed to be the next step in what the company is calling a chart-less flight experience inside the ForeFlight app because it keeps the user on the app’s Map layer. The Map was the first core innovation that built ForeFlight, and that is still where users spend most of their time. Being able to dynamically provide detailed procedural information in the context of the primary map was the number-one priority.

With Dynamic Procedures integrated into the Maps view, the user can quickly reference vital and relevant procedure information in the context of weather, traffic, terrain and obstacles. Moreover, the new procedures build on what already exists in the app’s Procedure Advisor, which allows the user to load important aspects of the instrument approach to the map layer and flight plan drawer within ForeFlight. The Procedural Advisor allows path selection on SIDs, STARs and Approaches, plus crossing altitudes and speed restrictions clearly detailed for at-a-glance viewing.

The new Dynamic Procedures sidebar can be used with or without a precomposed approach plate, and you can hide the plate for a clean and decluttered view or show it to maximize the information that’s available.  There’s also Embedded 3D, which is intended as an aid to visualize both the approach lighting and the short-final environment while flying the final stage of the procedure.

DYNAMIC PROCEDURES: NOT A CHART REPLACEMENT

ForeFlight says it does not believe users are ready to completely abandon charts because workflow, training and muscle memory for using charts are long established in the community. Instead, the new feature gives users the option to use a chart (or not) by automatically loading the appropriate chart when a Dynamic Procedure is activated and then allowing them to hide the chart if they prefer with one tap.

There are also no SIDs and STARs because these procedures have been supported with path selection, waypoint altitudes and speed restrictions in the app’s Procedure Advisor for some time now, and pilots are used to choosing and loading departure and arrival procedures through the procedure advisor since its launch. However, given how infrequently these are used by the GA population, ForeFlight prioritized refining the user experience around the sidebar before adding SIDs/STARs. Missed approach depiction will also be added to the map in future revisions, and the company said it already features the textual missed approach description, which in natural language best fits how pilots will brief the missed approach and most quickly understand it.

DYNAMIC PROCEDURES AVAILABILITY

The new feature is available for U.S. and Canada only, and other regions will be added soon. Dynamic Procedures will be available in all versions of ForeFlight in the July release of ForeFlight, anticipated to begin release on July 28.  It will be available for ForeFlight Premium, Essential and Starter customers during the preview period, and afterward will be available with ForeFlight Essential and above subscription tiers.

For a short video overview of Dynamic Procedures, visit https://foreflight.com/spotlight/summer25