Originally published at: ForeFlight Adds Emergency Glide Mode
Emergency Glide Mode helps pilots identify reachable airports or off-airport landing sites during an engine failure.
Garmin Pilot has had glide range rings and an Emergency mode for many, many years. One enters the glide speed and glide ratio for the aircraft and has a slider to adjust . Airports in the area are highlighted with distance and relative direction listed. Choosing an airport to glide to then sets up direct navigation to it and lists the heading and distance on the map. One also sets up a minimum runway length to be displayed on the map in case of emergency. The Emergency mode also pulls up the emergency checklists in a separate panel.
Glad to see that ForeFlight added their emergency glide mode for all subscription levels. I’m a subscriber to FF as well as GP. Watched the video about it with upgrading to the newest version. FF’s version also shows “best bet” off-airport landing areas using USGS data and takes into account weather in highlighting possible airports. It is nice in FF that after selecting the airport it shows you the field height and radio frequencies, though GP does so when you tap one of the airports that that are listed in order of distance. The airport information pop up defaults to winds, best runway for the wind, airport elevation, and weather with frequencies just a tap away.
Foreflight has had that for years too. This apparently adds in finding off airport areas that are usable as well as some other intelligence. That’s massive at night in wooded areas or IFR/low visibility to get guidance where you at least have a chance of not ending up in the trees.