ForeFlight Releases New AI Connect

In the latest release to ForeFlight’s Premium subscription customers, they added something called ForeFlight Connect.  This allows you to connect your ForeFlight app to ChatGPT and use that service to refine flight planning, give considerations, analyze the weather better, and more.

I watched a live demonstration of it in action on the CFI Study Group’s Facebook Zoom meeting.  By the way, those are free meetings and are mostly open mic to ask questions, etc., to aspiring and seasoned CFIs.  You can join the group here.  Again, there is nothing to join, etc.

The landscape of flying is changing with the growth and use of AI.  Some people don’t like the way it’s going, but I’m not one of them.  I look at all of this as additional training opportunities.  Someone has to show people how to use tools properly.

For those of you still using paper charts, time is running out.  FAA will not be publishing them anymore in a few years.  Also, where are you going to get them if you are on a cross-country?

I’ll give you some examples of where I think the logic of not progressing with this and other aviation changes leaves the argument a bit flat.

Let’s take the example of a warbird that is still flying.  That airplane had no VOR and no GPS.  It probably had drift meters, radio direction finders, and a compass.  At the time, that was pretty advanced.  In addition, most of the general aviation airplanes in that era had no shoulder harnesses and maybe not even a seat belt.

So, now fast forward to Airventure that happened last week in late July 2026.  There sure were a lot of warbirds and vintage airplanes there.  How many do you think flew to OSH without today’s navigation equipment like GPS and ADS-B?  Why wouldn’t you want to improve your level of safety by using this equipment?  

Does it somehow destroy the purity of everything, and do we worry so much about various failures of technology that we just stay stuck in what is old but reliable?

Let’s take someone you might know.  Someone who is fascinated with and owns a lot of very old and exotic cars.  That is Jay Leno.  He started as a purist and would only replace parts, etc., with the exact original parts that the car came with.  After a while, he started thinking about that and asking questions like, well, why wouldn’t I want to put seatbelts in here?  What about other safety devices that make me driving this car safer?  In the end, his thinking changed, and now these cars are modified with newer parts, and yes, they are safer.  They still are cut from the stock that they were originally made with, but driving them around just got a lot safer and maybe even more comfortable.

If you go to your Doctor with a problem, why wouldn’t you expect your Doctor to use AI as a tool to see if there are other explanations, treatments, new medicines, and so on?  

The issues are in training people to use these tools correctly and ethically.  That is where we come in.  As much as you may insist that the student does this or that, I’m telling you that they are using AI tools no matter what.  They are just not telling you.

So, in the Foreflight example, it’s in its infancy, and no, it can’t make a Go/No Go decision for you…. YET.  It’s because there are too many things to consider that it doesn’t have access to.  Like your health, fatigue status, experience in type, experience flying in this type of environment/terrain, and so on.  So, yes, you do need to decide for yourself if you go or you don’t.  But look at all of the information it can distill and the notams it can translate and parse.  I think you will find this a very good companion, and if you manage its use correctly, it can improve the safety of your flights and reduce your flight planning time considerably.

I have been modifying our curricula at CFI Bootcamp to reflect these changes and how to use AI as a teacher and student.  The entire first day of our 7-day class is all about just that.  As this technology moves ever faster and gets implemented at a rate that has never been seen before, you need to get up to speed and begin using this new technology in the classroom, cockpit, and other places.  ForeFlight has made a significant push forward in adopting a generic AI tool instead of developing one of their own.  Is this a band-aid until they do?  No idea.  It may be that they believe the generality of ChatGPT is well suited, and it would take too long and too much money to try something tailored just to ForeFlight.  

As the months go on, I’ll be reporting on advances in what ForeFlight is doing among others, including ourselves and the efforts we are putting toward that.

Check out ForeFlight Connector here.

CFI Bootcamp Changes 7-day Initial CFI Class to Include How to Use AI Tools for Teachers and Students

I have just completed the changes to our first day of the 7-day Initial CFI class to teach people how to use specific AI tools.

The reason for the change is to begin to show people how to use this technology in the classroom and cockpit.  It teaches specific AI tools for really engaging and fun learning.  We do things like generate quizzes, write summaries, create Podcasts from summaries student can listen to on their drive to and from the airport, and more.

We teach you to use AI tools to help you track a student on a syllabus and trim down lesson plans into preflight briefings custom to each learner.

For learners, we show you how to record lectures and in-flight communications, then summarize those lectures and provide key points, to-do items, flashcards, podcasts, and more.

Beginning August 10th, the first day of our 7-day class, the first day will be all about using this technology.  All you really need to know to understand any of this is how to use a computer, how to install an app on your phone, how to read a PDF, and how to use email.  That’s enough for anyone to be able to do everything I just said above.

This also sets our CFI students ahead of the pack.  They hit the street with ways of teaching, evaluating, and learning that weren’t possible until now.  

I’m truly excited to kick this off on August 10th.  For those of you who think you’d like to learn this, we are offering a single-day pass that allows you to attend just this first day.  You can stop there or buy additional passes for different days where we cover all of the hard things in CFI training, like using a syllabus, endorsing for different categories and classes, student pilot training, and endorsements.  We use a lot of scenarios.  

Anyway, if you’re interested in this, click to get started.

CFI Gaps Course Bundle — $300 Instead of $1,400

I want to mention something for those of you working toward your initial CFI. When I was examining, the rides that came apart almost never came apart on the flying. They came apart on the knowledge underneath it. A systems question that went one layer deeper than the applicant expected. A regulation they half-remembered. An aerodynamics explanation that held up fine until I asked why.

That's what the Aeronautical Knowledge Gaps Course is for. It finds the soft spots before an examiner does. We bundle it with the Smart Study Pro audio series so that once you know where you're weak, you have something to run in the car on the way to the airport that keeps hammering it in. That's really the whole idea — structure instead of a pile of videos and forum threads you found at midnight.

The bundle is normally $1,400. Right now it's $300. I'll be honest about why that matters beyond the money: every month you're not signed off is a month you're not instructing, and for most people that's somewhere between $2,500 and $5,000 in income you didn't earn. The course is not the expensive part of that equation.

If you want it, click here to get the discounted offering.

New airplanes enter the training market

Pipistrel and Techron (Cessna's owner) announce the Voyager training airplane. This will feature a Rotax 912 engine and is designed to complement the Cessna Skyhawk fleet. 

This plane will have a Special Airworthiness Certificate and will be using the new MOSIAC aircraft certification standards.   This is a two-place airplane. 

It will be both VFR and IFR. The price will be around $300K. They are expected to hit the market in 2027. 

Airventure 2026 Video Showing the Voyager

Cirrus also announced a new training airplane with a Rotax engine and Garmin flight deck. The TRAC10 will be a three-seat airplane with a ballistic parachute and Electronic stability platform equipment. It will also be able to transmit real-time data for fleet management and maintenance. 

It’s expected to ship in 2027 using the MOSIAC standards and will be around $500K. 

Cirrus TRACK10 Video

ProTips

1. Being on time always means being early. Adopt the Air Force technique. “If you’re not 30 minutes early, you are late”.  No one will notice if you are early, but everyone will notice if you are two minutes late. 

2. Schedule three-hour blocks for a lesson to the practice area. You will run out of time or be late for the next lesson if you settle on two-hour blocks. Three hours allows for things like bathroom breaks, drinks, checking in and it the airplane and a little time before the next lesson. 

3. Take the lesson plans you created for CFI, if you did that, and make 5-minute versions of the ones for a maneuver. These become the preflight briefings that you use when the student is taking a ground course or has completed one.