We’ve all been either pleasantly surprised or severely rattled when the forecasted turbulence reports turn out to be wrong. But ForeFlight has added another tool in the belt with a live automated turbulence reporting utility that gathers recorded data from airborne Sentry portable ADS-B receivers. It’s the latest feature that was rolled out in the ForeFlight Mobile Pro Plus and Performance Plus app subscription plans.
Dots on the map
The Reported Turbulence map layer in the latest version (16.4, April 2024) of ForeFlight Mobile displays the measured intensity of turbulence at multiple altitudes using interactive colored dots on the map. You simply activate the feature from the layer selector.
As you’d expect, the intensity of the turbulence is color-coded based on severity, although what may be considered moderate in one aircraft might be severe in another. Gray dots depict smooth air, yellow is light turbulence, orange is moderate turbulence and red (or dark orange) is severe turbulence.
We like that you can expand the dots (tap on them) to see the reporting flight’s aircraft type (that’s important in judging the severity of the turbulence), the altitude, age of the turbulence report (up to six hours) as well as the reporting aircraft’s airspeed. You can also filter these reports with an altitude slider to eliminate the dots at altitudes you don’t care about.
Speaking of altitudes, what we really like is the profile map view for a better at-a-glance-visual of what the reported turbulence looks like along a planned route. This profile view, however, is only available with ForeFlight Performance Plus (and above) subscription tiers.
Worth mentioning is that the ForeFlight Mobile app uploads the turbulence reports as soon as it connects to the internet after the flight, or immediately if an inflight connection is available. So it’s possible to get a refresh at lower altitudes if you have decent cellular coverage, but there could be a delay in getting the reports unless you have inflight Wi-Fi.
Which sentry receiver?
Because the Reported Turbulence feature relies entirely on the AHARS sensors (actually, the internal altitude sensors) inside of the Sentry ADS-B receiver, it only works with AHARS-equipped Sentry and Sentry Plus models—the Sentry Mini won’t work.
ForeFlight said that all vintages of the Sentry and Sentry Plus will work. You don’t actually need a Sentry receiver to see these turbulence reports. But, the Reported Turbulence Low utility (it works up to 14,000 feet) is free for users running ForeFlight Pro Plus and Performance Plus subscription plans who register a Sentry device on the company’s website. You get a 50 percent discount on the Reported Turbulence “All” utility (good up to 60,000 feet) when registering a compatible device.
A quick review of the two Sentry devices is in order. The AHARS-equipped Sentry ($599) and Sentry Plus ($799) receivers are equipped with a built-in CO detector, and the Sentry Plus adds a G-meter and a built-in flight data recorder that automatically captures track, altitude, attitude, groundspeed and G-load data. The Sentry Plus has a FLARM traffic receiver, but its frequency doesn’t work in the U.S.
A solid selling feature on both models (in addition to providing good ADS-B weather and traffic performance in multiple Aviation Consumer trials) is the CO detector. If you want to keep an eye on CO levels rather than relying on audible alarms in the Sentry, the Sentry Plus has a CO status feature on the OLED display that depicts carbon monoxide concentration.
As for battery endurance, both are quite good—12 hours for the Sentry and all of 18 hours for the Sentry Plus. Both receivers connect via WiFi that requires no user input.
For more on the devices and the app’s new turbulence feature, visit www.foreflight.com.
