Ask a room of instructors which electronic flight bag they trust and ForeFlight will often come up first, it has earned that. But the pilots I meet at club level rarely fly one type, they tow on Saturday, take the club Cessna on Sunday, and borrow a friend’s microlight when the weather suits. So this is not a “which app wins” article. It is a look at what a mixed-fleet pilot should ask of an EFB, and where each of two good tools fits.

First, credit where it is due

ForeFlight is a serious piece of engineering, and its breadth is impressive. It is built for a wide professional and general aviation audience: advanced route and altitude planning, full flight plan filing, a document library, trip support and operations tools for flight departments. In the air it offers a catalogue of configurable, spoken alerts, terrain colouring, a Glide Advisor, 3D synthetic vision and, after the flight, Debrief for reviewing approaches and patterns. It has its own hardware (Stratus and Sentry), a Watch app, widgets and a well-organised licensing model.

If you fly one well-equipped aeroplane, mostly in North America, and want a full planning and operations suite, ForeFlight deserves a proper look.

What a mixed-fleet pilot actually needs

From the briefing room, the questions are consistent.

1. Does it understand every aircraft I fly? A glider, a tourer and a club aeroplane do not share a cockpit, and one screen layout rarely suits all three.
2. Is the safety net always on? Terrain, airspace and a mayday button should not depend on which plan you bought this month.
3. Does it work with no signal? Of course it must.
4. Does it know my airspace? The lines, classes and local rules where you actually fly.
5. Does it look after the paperwork? Logbook, currency and the aircraft you share with others.

Where Vela Air puts its effort

Vela Air is built for the pilot who flies more than one kind of aircraft, with the UK and European airspace in mind.

Safety is free and always on. Our Fly Safe plan costs nothing and is never restricted. It includes the offline moving map, airspace overlays with live altitude filtering, forward-looking terrain alerts, a vertical obstruction and low-flying hazard layer, synthetic vision, NOTAMs, weather radar, D-ATIS and a mayday alert that shares your location. Electronic conspicuity from your own hardware (ADS-B, FLARM and OGN via receivers such as SkyEcho and PilotAware) is part of it too.

Airspace alerting you can explain to a student. Alerts use a forward cone, hysteresis and turn suppression, so they warn you early without crying wolf on every wing-drop. UK danger and restricted areas sit in the alert tiers, and the map draws on UK sources such as NATS and the Met Office radar.

The glider cockpit, built in. For the soaring pilot, the Soaring plan adds McCready speed-to-fly and wind estimation, a glider polar library with final glide, task declaration with IGC export, an AAT and MAT task editor, wave soaring awareness, engine-off glide range with the nearest emergency airfield, and remote cross-country SAR notification for trusted contacts. The Fly Lite plan adds a total-energy compensated variometer with thermal centring and ridge soaring probability. Hang glider and paraglider profiles are supported too.

The touring cockpit, built in. The Touring plan adds maintenance scheduling and a snag log, flight and aircraft photos, and live fleet and tracking share alongside the planning tools that every plan includes: route planning, weight and balance, fuel, density altitude, flight plan filing and out-brief and in-brief records.

One logbook, every aircraft. Each aircraft keeps its own profile, checklists and registration. Your logbook fills from your flight track, and your currency and revalidation deadlines are tracked in one place. You can import from SkyDemon, Logbook Pro or CSV.

Built for clubs and instructors. Pro adds instructor and student mode. The Club plan covers aircraft booking, competition management and seat-based billing, with instructor and pilot seats included.

Offline first. Your data lives on your device first. Download your area and the map, airspace and terrain keep working with no connection, then sync quietly when you are back online.

A fair side-by-side

	ForeFlight	Vela Air
Heritage and focus	US-first, serving GA, business aviation, helicopter and military users	Europe-first, serving glider, GA and foot-launched pilots
Strongest at	Planning and operations depth: advanced routing, filing, documents, trip and flight-department tools	Mixed-fleet flying: glider, tourer, club aircraft and free flight in one app
Soaring tools	General aviation focus	McCready, polars, AAT and MAT tasks, IGC export, wave and ridge awareness, XC SAR notification
UK and European airspace	Data is weighted towards North America	UK sources and airspace alert tiers designed around local airspace
Alert catalogue	Wide set of configurable, spoken alerts	Focused set of safety alerts, free on every plan
Hardware	Own Stratus and Sentry range, plus third-party devices	Works with the receivers you already own: ADS-B, FLARM and OGN
Post-flight	Debrief for approaches and patterns	Track review and replay, logbook from your flight track
Club and instructor tools	Training and flight-department tools	Instructor and student mode, booking, competitions and seat-based billing
Cost of core safety	Per-feature licensing	Free Fly Safe plan; other plans from £1.99 a month

Neither column is a scorecard. Each describes a different philosophy.

So which should you choose?

ForeFlight is likely to suit you if:

• you fly mainly in North America, or on long, complex routes
• you want a full operations suite, a document library and flight-department tools
• you already use its hardware and ecosystem
• you fly a single well-equipped aircraft

Vela Air is likely to suit you if:

• you fly more than one type, especially a glider alongside a powered aircraft
• you fly in the UK or Europe and want airspace and weather that reflect it
• you want serious safety tools with no subscription, and add-ons at a modest price
• you instruct, fly with a club, or share aircraft with others
• you want your logbook, currency and aircraft in one place

Many pilots will use both, and that is sensible. A second source is good airmanship, and there is no shame in a trusted tool and a newer one side by side.

How to try a new tool safely

A new EFB deserves the same care as a new aircraft type.

1. Start on the ground. Load a familiar route and compare the numbers with your current setup.
2. Fly it as a second source first. Keep your trusted tool as primary until the new one has earned it.
3. Never change tools on the day of a big trip. Learn the screens when nothing else is happening.
4. Check your inputs. Aircraft performance, fuel and weight data are only as good as what you enter.
5. Test offline. Put the device in flight mode and fly your route on the screen before you rely on it.
6. Plan from official sources. An EFB supports your judgement. It does not replace your briefing, your charts or your airmanship.

Try it on your next flight

Download Vela Air, start on the free Fly Safe plan, and load one familiar route. Add each aircraft you fly, check the performance figures, and see whether the screen tells you what you need, when you need it.

ForeFlight is a trademark of its respective owner. Vela Air is not affiliated with or endorsed by ForeFlight. Descriptions of ForeFlight reflect our own review of the app and its public information. Features and plans described here are correct at the time of writing and may change; please check each product’s own site for current details.