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Can you use Foreflight winds aloft for flight planning?

Asked by: 3447 views General Aviation, Student Pilot, Weather

I once failed a stage check because I used Foreflight's winds aloft data for my navlog calculations instead of the winds aloft on aviationweather.gov. The reasoning was foreflight's data is based on an algorithm and isn't "official data." 

I'm now working with a different instructor part 61, and he teaches to use the foreflight winds. Is there any truth to what I was originally told at the 141 school?

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1 Answers



  1. John D Collins on Aug 24, 2020

    A 141 school can develop its own policies and require their students to follow them. It is not a legal question, you can brief the winds aloft from either source. Regardless, the winds aloft are a forecast and apply to a time and location. The ForeFlight winds aloft are presented graphically at every degree of latitude and longitude and are interpolated for each airport location on the globe. The AWC product only selects a relative few specific airports for its forecast and leaves it to the pilot to perform any interpolation for the airports not served by the product. The AWC product has lower precision than the product used by ForeFlight, meaning that there are fewer points where the AWC forecast applies and the wind direction is to the nearest 10 degrees vs ForeFlight supplier is to the nearest degree.

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