Eric Rush is the Director of the AOPA Project Management Office and also serves as the Team Lead for AOPA Flight Planning Products. He is a 1,000-hour instrument rated private pilot and aircraft owner.
To quote Albert Einstein: “Out of clutter, find simplicity”. That phrase resonates when we are reading a text-based version of a pilot briefing. Even the shortest routes can generate a massive amount of information that we, as pilots, are to be familiar with before each flight. This month’s article looks at the new graphical briefing we are developing in the AOPA Flight Planner. This is powered by 1800-Wx-Brief and will provide an interactive interface to help disseminate the mass of information and hopefully, find simplicity. We also take a sneak-peek at the progress on the number one requested feature: Intermediate Stops. Both of these features will be available to members in the first half of the year.
Green doesn’t always mean go. The latest version of AOPA GO (v1.4) focuses on improvements to the Weather module. Some of these enhancements include color-coded adverse weather conditions, a separate weather station favorite list and a new radar and satellite map carousel. All of these new features work in concert to improve the Go/No-Go decision process and, make the big picture easier to see. This month’s article examines some of the new enhancements in AOPA GO 1.4.
The list is growing! Sending routes from the AOPA Flight Planner to various EFB apps got a new addition in November. Garmin Pilot was added to the list of EFB apps that can receive or download a flight plan created in the AOPA Flight Planner. This feature has proved to be a very popular one with users of the AOPA Flight Planner. In this month’s Feature Spotlight, we explore this functionality in detail.
Integration with my EFB app and included with my AOPA Membership? That was the number one question from members at this year’s AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI.