Is OzRunways or Foreflight a better EFB for recreational use and bush piloting?
 

I am contemplating which EFB to go with as i am in the market for one and was hoping some of you could give me the pros and cons of each what what you would recommend. Thanks

ForeFlight doesn’t have the webcams like OzRunways does.

Neither. Go with AvPlan. (Ok someone had to start the timeless debate!). But in all honesty, either of the two Australian options are good; I just like AvPlan more.

Google earth or Apple Maps. They are free. 🤣

Struth!!! What's wrong with a WAC chart and an ERS?:confused::E

FSO Griffo; Your comments?


Nurse, me pills please!!!:E

I use OzRunways and find it fantastic.

I found AvPlan customer support better than OzRunways.
Both are offering 30 days free trial period, try them both.
Functionality-wise, they both do more or less the same, however, for me AvPlan was/is the way to go.

Hi Mr P., .....Well, 'back in the day'......did'na have no 'fancy gismos' - they were'nt invented yet - just a map, (WAC) ruler, and a sharp pencil.

Learned how to nav at rather 'low levels' and assess drift by observation. Never got 'lost', and keeps yer head outside the window...fer traffic and dem low flyin' eagles etc....

Sometimes, semi trailers yousta flash their headlights at me over the Nullabor, and I would give'em a wave. Dem highway 'milestones' of the day were great fer G/S checks.

'appy 24...........


.

Back in the day ....

Amberley - Lord Howe Island in a Caribou. Had a Drift sight fitted to the emergency escape window to take drift readings looking a the wave tops on the sea surface below, then trundled up to the cockpit and plotted "said" result on chart. Was very thankful, when the NDB needle swung into range.....

A map and a simple gps that gives you yr track and indicates the direction of your destination if you have to do some ducking and weaving.

As one of the old school being able to properly read a WAC is almost a lost art. The paper chart is nice to have if the screen goes blank.
Folk have complained that there’s nothing to see on the Tanami wac or the ground …but there is if you look at both carefully.
aEarly trips there before gps accurate nav and careful map reading was a must.
With gps it became a doddle…providing the battery didn’t go flat.
And Honiara to Nauru, wasn’t it lovely with all that wide blue Pacific to see the ADF needle indicate the destination.

Efb's are not about the Navigation only.
They are also about Weather, Briefs, Taf/Gaf, WnB, Fuel, Notams, Prd, Lsalt, Bod/Eod, Planning, Approach plates, etc...
Regardless, watch-map-ground and 1 in 60 are techniques still taught at flight schools and examined for the licence flight tests.

An instructor at Moorabbin told me a story a few years ago about a bunch of new CPL holders who decided that they would do a trip to Broome (or somewhere remote) after they passed their CPL flight tests.

On the day of departure, the instructor asked them about their paper maps etc, answer was we aren't taking any as we have iPads. Obviously quite legal in this day and age, however to do such a trip with their limited experience without any back up paper maps would have been dangerous and stupid. I think a few $$ may have been spent at the pilot's shop on maps before they left....

EFBs are best thing since sliced bread. Recently started flying again. Use OzRunways haven’t used others. Especially like the smart approach plates. Carry a backup iPad and second backup on my phone.

Surely there’s no luddites left still doing paper updates. That was the worst 😂

I flew from Bundaberg to Melbourne 4 times back in the days of paper maps whilst delivering some new aircraft, and it used to cost $70+ to buy the required maps to make me legal. Makes the EFB subscriptions look like good value!

To me Ozrunways v Avplan is like Ford v Holden. Or is it Holden v Ford. So I am told. Never make up my mind on that.
It seems that as fast as one moves forward with a new feature the opposition plays leap frog and out of the hat produces something the same or better.
Ah I love competition!

As an aside I see some WAC charts are new featuring control airspace boundaries on the previously geographical features only charts.
R

Jesus christ, all the old farts on here piping up, some are tongue in cheek but a few I suspect not as much as they'd like to pretend. I've used OzRunways a lot and it gets my vote as being quite rigorous and lots of great features to take advantage of. But as others said they all usually have a 30 day trial so I'd say give them all a fair crack and see what suits you best. If you've got MS Flight Sim at home then most of them have plugins to use them with it so can simulate some short flights to see how they hold up and get a better idea of what to expect inflight.

Also take into consideration that some have different Android vs Apple versions/features, I specifically had to buy an iPad a long time ago for OzRunways because the features it had there were above and beyond that of Android which still seems to be the case, see this link for comparison, and would recommend checking this for other apps as well to see what you're getting and consider whether you might need to buy an iPad or Android device instead.

You’ll be old one day… sooner than you realise!

I'm a relatively old bastard............the other old bastards on here need to get a grip, so does CASA. Y'all need to concentrate on making EFB's safer, working on increasing situational awareness with the use of these rather than 'carrying paper maps' everywhere. I learn't on paper solely, loved it and got a great sense of satisfaction from it, did my MEIR without GPS, but move on folks, the world and aviation has changed.

My 2 cents worth.
I have used OzRunways, ForeFlight and Jepp FD Pro X.
For domestic use, Oz Runways is best IMHO. It's just better set up for Oz domestic needs. Support is great too, they even respond on weekends.
ForeFlight is also good and would be preferred if doing anything outside Oz or if you need your EFB to communicate with say, Garmin G1000 NXi avionics (wifi connection). App has some similar functions/input method to JEPP FD Pro.
Jepp FD Pro. Jepp prices! for airliners.

The WAC charts now have restricted airspace depicted on them, however the WAC charts are still being updated on a 2-4 year cycle. When airspace changes (and there have been quite a few restricted airspace changes this past November) the airspace on the WAC is not being updated...

(Which is the reason we added airspace overlays into AvPlan EFB many many years ago, so airspace on the WAC was correctly depicted)

Bevan

Any minute now they'll reinvent paper VECs, which were updated with VTCs etc!

I confess to being a bit of a luddite, because I do carry WACs as back up on 'big' trips. Gizmos can and do malfunction. (Out of YNRM during a recent visit to the WGC, both iPads failed just after take-off due overheating. There was no need to revert to paper, as I know NSW pretty well and there was still my iPhone and Garmin watch, but it was a timely reminder.)

And, in any event, you have to know how to use the EFB apps properly. A punter recently lobbed into my local aerodrome and proceeded to remonstrate with the gliding fraternity operating there, about there being no notice of their operations on the punter's EFB. There was and remains a published NOTAM of the gliding operations at the aerodrome, which NOTAM appears against the aerodrome on my EFB. I therefore strongly suspect finger trouble on the part of the punter, rather than a problem with his EFB.

(I continue to love AvPlan. However, for that reason I have not tried OzRunways. I know lots of pilots who continue to love OzR. We're very lucky to have the choice and the competition.)

As a new convert from OzRunways (RWY is brilliant on Android phones) to AvPlan (iPad only until recently), from my recent experience Ozrunways is more intuitive to your Joe Average VFR Pilot straight out-of-the-box whereas AvPlan is a lot more "powerful"/feature rich once you get to know it ..and there's no going back once you do.

Yes, we certainly are spoilt for choice over here, but full marks must go to Bevan and his team for putting together an EFB that really is capable of taking on the world. :ok:

Is OzRunways still refusing to share the traffic data with AvPlan?

I understand there is an alternative app, a 3rd party application which connects to both, but it would be better if two companies could get together and improve safety for both of their customers.

If there is such a 3rd party app simultaneously showing traffic from both OzRunways & Avplan I would love to know what it is.

Avtraffic.

It doesn't share the OzRunways and AvPlan traffic, what it does is arguably much better.

It displays ADSB traffic from whatever public source FlightAware also uses. It doesn't seem to have quite the same depth of coverage as FlightRadar would (due to fewer ground stations) but it is still a very useful tool to aid in traffic awareness.

It is called AvTraffic.

There are still a large number of aircraft flying within Australia that do not have ADS-B but do show on OzRunways. Not familiar but assume same with AvPlan.

Is Ozrunways connected to ADSB?

I wasn't flying with Ozrunways the other day but was using my ADSB. Some other pilot commented they could see me on their "Ozrunways"

That means that they have an ADSB-IN source feeding into their OzRuwnays, such as a SkyEcho or Stratux or similar.

If you’re using a SkyEcho and OzRunways; the OZRuwnays 4G traffic shows in a light blue bubble and the ADSB-IN shows as dark blue.