Greetings, ForeFlight Pilot!

The iPad mini has arrived, and we wanted to share with you our first impressions, photos, and links to learn more. We've been flight testing ForeFlight Mobile on a 16 GB iPad mini WiFi paired with a Bad Elf GPS Pro, a new bluetooth receiver from the fine folks at Bad Elf. (The 4G iPad minis with a GPS chip will be shipping next week.)

Our take on the iPad mini? We are fans. ForeFlight Mobile runs beautifully on the mini. It runs cooler and has a great feeling "slate" anodized aluminium case. Pilots in smaller cockpits - like an RV or even an F/A-18 - will find the mini easier to wield, easier to mount, and much less of a space invader.

We strongly recommend getting the 32GB "WiFi + Cellular" iPad mini, which includes an internal GPS receiver (with GLONASS support) and the option of LTE cellular data. For the budget conscious, the iPad mini is 35% less expensive than the 10" iPad, which is welcomed news for every pocketbook.

Paul Bertorelli of AvWeb interviewed ForeFlight CEO Tyson Weihs about the iPad mini a couple weeks back at the RedBird Migration Conference. Listen here.

We also released ForeFlight Mobile 4.7.3 yesterday, which includes a new Imagery view, plus a few bug fixes and performance improvements. The update is available for download from App Store. Instructions for updating are on our website. ForeFlight is now also integrated with X-Plane. A short how to video is available on Vimeo.

Lastly: are you using ForeFlight Pro yet? If not, it's worth the upgrade and maximizes the utility of iPad. View upgrade options on our website.

Blue Skies!

- Team ForeFlight

The mini expands mounting options. Here are some photos of yoke, suction, glare shield / dash, and x-grip mounts. The Mini obscures much less of the panel and forward or side views when mounted. We expect to see custom enclosures for panels in the very near future.

Yoke mount kit.
Yoke and header image courtesy iPad Pilot News.

Suction mount kit.

Dash mount kit.

X-Grip tablet holder.
Image courtesy Aviation Mentor.

Will my subscription support my old iPad and an iPad mini?

Your personal / single-pilot subscription will permit the use of both your 10" iPad and your iPad mini simultaneously. We want to encourage pilots to fly with a backup iPad if the budget permits, no additional charge.

ForeFlight Mobile Pro

If you are flying into larger airports or IFR, ForeFlight Mobile Pro with ForeFlight's own geo-referenced plates and airport diagrams is a must have.

ForeFlight Pro covers more than 13,000 airport diagrams and instrument procedures, making our coverage the most comprehensive in the industry.

Upgrading from the standard package? We pro-rate the cost. Upgrade online any time.

iPad Pilot News published the first iPad mini flight review last week. John Ewing, publisher of the Aviation Mentor Blog, posted his thoughts as well.

John Gruber, author of the Daring Fireball blog, penned a long, insightful blog post available here. John's blog posts are always interesting reads.

Mini is smaller, but pleasantly so.
Image courtesy Aviation Mentor.

ForeFlight Mobile version 4.7.3 is available for download from iTunes App Store. Here are some of the new features and enahancements:

• New Imagery view with support for swiping between images.
• Share screenshots of your route to Facebook (requires iOS 6).
• Fixed iOS 6 bug where documents could not be deleted.
• Fixed iOS 6 bug where sending email from inside ForeFlight could sometimes freeze the app.
• Fixed bug where am/pm would show on Zulu time date picker.
• Fixed bug where iPad keyboard would show row of numbers if external keyboard connected.
• Fixed iPhone 5 bug where dimming the screen brightness in ForeFlight settings didn't dim the entire screen.
• Fixed bug with numeric keyboard where cursor jumps to end of line when typing into the search box.
• Other bug fixes and performance improvements.

ForeFlight Mobile 4.7.3 is a free update for current subscribers. Click here for instructions on updating to the latest version. This release also includes important bug fixes, and we recommend that all users update.

If you are an X-Plane fan, you can now use the two together. Here's a video demonstrating how: