Honeywell’s new Flight Preview app allows pilots to “fly” an instrument approach depicted on the Apple iPad to help them become familiar with the procedure and the runway environment before flying the actual approach.

The new app was developed by Honeywell’s flight management system (FMS) engineering team. “It has the same FMS logic in our FMS products applied in this application,” said Kiah Erlich, general manager of Honeywell's Flight Support Services business.

The basic idea behind the app is to allow pilots to select the airport and any of the available instrument procedures at that airport, choose the transition, then preview the entire approach, including, if desired, the missed approach procedure. The approach plays in two panes on the iPad. The left pane shows a 2-D Google Maps-based “movie” of the approach, and the right side shows the approach plate.

“Push ‘play’ and you’re watching a movie about that approach,” Erlich said, “with terrain, the street view, minimums, each transition and the missed approach.” When “flying” a previewed approach, the user can speed up or slow down the action.

Honeywell sees the Flight Preview app as a tool for instrument students as well as experienced pilots. “We’re working with a couple of airlines on getting Flight Preview into their opsspecs [operational specifications] to count toward their airport training,” she said. Pilots might want to preview approaches while planning a flight, or the app can also run standalone without Internet access, allowing pilots to use the app as a briefing tool to preview an approach during low-workload phases of flight or when given a reroute to a different approach procedure.

This is the first version of the Flight Preview app, and Honeywell (Booth U123) plans to add more features, include additional instruments (altitude is the sole instrument on the left-hand pane), 3-D airspace depictions, forecast weather overlays and geo-referenced charts, according to Erlich, “anything that could help situational awareness.”

The Flight Preview App should be available on the Apple App Store in mid- to late May. The app covers nine regions in the U.S., and each region will cost $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year. Honeywell is planning to add international approaches to the app.