ForeFlight, Honda Aircraft team up to rollout runway analysis product for HondaJet

ForeFlight and Honda Aircraft Company announced Thursday that all HondaJet HA-420 models are now supported by ForeFlight's Runway Analysis system, helping HondaJet pilots to efficiently plan for takeoff and landing by using its integrated obstacle analysis capability. ForeFlight, a Boeing company, supports en route performance planning and weight and balance calculations for the HondaJet, making it a single source for HondaJet flight planning, with the enhanced capabilities of the Runway Analysis providing extra safety and efficiency benefits for pilots. ForeFlight Runway Analysis models are now available for the HondaJet HA-420 models and individual pilots can purchase a license for their respective models as part of their ForeFlight subscription plan. Pilots can also contact ForeFlight to demo and purchase the Runway Analysis. ForeFlight Runway Analysis can transform the task of calculating takeoff and landing performance into a simple part of a jet pilot's preflight routine. The system is built directly into ForeFlight Mobile and the planning can be completed before the pilot boards the aircraft. The Runway Analysis incorporates pertinent flight plan data like departure and destination airports, planned route, forecast weather, fuel at takeoff and landing, weight and balance outputs based on passenger, payload and fuel details to streamline and automate the process. Pilots can simply select their departure runway and the Foreflight program will perform an obstacle analysis to produce results in seconds, automatically re-running a calculation with any of the following changes to the flight plan. "We are thrilled to be collaborating with Honda Aircraft Company to provide safer and more integrated flight planning solutions to our joint customers," ForeFlight CEO Tim Schuetze said. "The team at Honda has gone above and beyond by providing digital aircraft performance data to help our engineers ensure the utmost quality and reliability of our Runway Analysis product. We look forward to continued collaboration to elevate the experience of HondaJet pilots everywhere." After the two companies signed a data license agreement in May to develop the Runway Analysis models for the HondaJet, collaborative work began to verify the quality and accuracy of the completed models. Honda Aircraft provided digitized high-resolution performance data for its aircraft rather than scanned AFM pages to allow ForeFlight's aircraft performance engineers to circumvent the tedious digitization process and begin building the Runway Analysis models immediately. Submitting the digitized performance data rather than AFM pages ensures the highest degree of accuracy from the start, avoiding any potential associated errors with manual digitation, poor quality scans and AFM print errors.RELATED STORIES:Details emerge of most-recent HondaJet runway incident in new NTSB preliminary reportHonda Aircraft provides former Jet It fractional owners supportExamining the flurry of runway incidents involving the HondaJet and Jet It's decision to ground its planesJet It reportedly grounds HondaJet fleet after privately owned aircraft hydroplanes, catches fire Honda Aircraft Company and Jet It reach confidential settlement, dismiss lawsuitThis collaboration began the month after Honda and fractional operator Jet It reached a confidential settlement resulting in the dismissal of a lawsuit over an alleged fleet purchase agreement violation. Honda and Jet It had been dealing with friction since Jet It CEO Glenn Gonzales sent a letter to customers slamming Honda's reliability and support network, claiming it cost the company over $20 million in off-fleet expenses. In May, Jet It reportedly grounded its fleet in a "safety stand down" after a series of mishaps involving HondaJet aircraft. A HondaJet slid off a rainy runway in South Carolina and caught fire, leading to the stand down. After 10 incidents in 15 months, five of them this year, groups including the HondaJet Owner andamp; Pilots Association announced plans to ensure safe operation. Days after grounding its fleet and reports of furlough, Jet It sent its employees a letter stating that their jobs were terminated and the company was closing. In the wake of its closure, Honda offered customer support to fractional owners, supplying the use of a dedicated Honda team to provide an easier transition to an alternative aircraft management solution. After the speculation over the runway incidents, Honda said in a statement to GlobalAir.com that there has not been any push to ground the plane, nor is an airworthiness directive expected. In the closed investigations over the incursions, there were no causal factors from the aircraft design or system malfunction detected. Many of the incidents involved the place overshooting the runway, often with contributing factors like weather, most often wind. The announcement of a new runway analysis system had no mention of any relation to the previous runway incidents.ForeFlight is proud to support Honda Aircraft Company's Flight Operations department pilots with Dispatch flight planning, ForeFlight Mobile EFB and Runway Analysis solutions to modernize company flight operations and to show Honda aircraft performance to customers quickly and with ease."We are excited to work with ForeFlight to create new values in business aviation," Honda Aircraft Company President and CEO Hideto Yamasaki said. "Building on Honda's longstanding approach of ‘Safety for Everyone', Honda Aircraft Company will consistently put resources to evolve and set new industry standards for safety and operational excellence."