Helitab Flight Planner vs SimpleFlight
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Helitab Flight Planner
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The Airbus Helicopters Helitab/Flight Planner application is an All-In-One Mission Planning Solution for Electronic Flight Bag. This user-friendly mobile application for tablets is designed to ease pilot workload and help for decisions. Helitab/Flight Planner gathers a large kind of environment and map data for an effective moving map display, available before as well as during the flight. Such data including maps, elevation, navigation database or TAF/METARs/SIGMETs data are available over the entire world through a secured cloud-based web portal. Helitab/Flight Planner enables the creation of navigation routes including detailed instructions such as hover, landing or SAR patterns actions, configuration change, time or speed constraints... Created routes are displayed through the moving map and vertical profile. A weather forecast over the area can be downloaded and applied to the navigation and displayed over the map. Helitab/Flight Planner embeds weight & balance and performance computations models in accordance with Airbus Helicopters Flight Manual. Based on such models, the application displays over the navigation waypoints the planned W&B and available performance. Helitab/Flight Planner allows the planned mission to be shared through various flight documents or to the onboard FMS using a physical or wireless media. Once in flight, Helitab/Flight Planner users can retrieve the actual GPS location from on-board equipment to accurately feed the moving map and record the flight trace. Dedicated in-flight functions allows users to find a nearby landing site, mark a position or display updated navigation data to the next waypoint. Helitab/Flight Planner requires a subscription. Support is available at support.flightplanner.ah@airbus.com
SimpleFlight
This app helps VFR pilots plan flights by providing essential information on distance, duration, fuel, weather, airspace, and destination conditions. It offers wind-corrected headings, decoded weather reports, and airspace details, all designed for simplicity and VFR flight in the United States.
- Route planning with airspace avoidance
- Wind-corrected heading and fuel calculations
- Decoded METARs and TAFs
- Animated winds, radar, and satellite imagery
- Airspace class details with altitude floors/ceilings
- Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) alerts
- Runway diagrams and traffic pattern information
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SimpleFlight answers the questions that matter before a VFR flight: how far, how long, how much fuel, what the weather is doing along the way, what airspace is in the way, and what the destination looks like when you get there. Built by a pilot, for the United States, for VFR. Saying no to everything else is what keeps it simple. PLAN • Pick a departure and destination. Press and hold the route line to bend it around airspace; it snaps to nearby airports, VORs and fixes. • Choose from legal VFR hemispheric altitudes, each with its headwind or tailwind and time en route from current winds aloft. • Get wind-corrected heading, groundspeed, time, fuel burn and reserve for your airplane. WEATHER • Decoded METARs and TAFs for reporting airports along the route, colored by flight category. • Animated winds at your cruise altitude, radar and satellite on the map. • Winds aloft table for 6, 12 and 24 hours. SIGMETs, G-AIRMETs and pilot reports in the corridor. ROUTE PROFILE • A side view of the route: terrain under it, your cruise altitude, Class B, C and D shelves, cloud bases from METARs and the freezing level. • Highest terrain on the route and your clearance at cruise, with a preview of every VFR altitude. • Edit the route from the profile: find the ridge, drop a waypoint there and drag it around, then re-plan in place. MAP RULER • Hold two fingers on the map to measure distance, magnetic course from each end, and no-wind time and fuel. AIRSPACE AND TFRs • Class B, C and D with floors and ceilings. Shelves that apply at your altitude stand out; the rest fade back. • TFRs on or near the route, checked against your planned time and altitude, with the NOTAM text a tap away. DESTINATION • Headwind and crosswind for every runway, with the favored runway marked. • A to-scale runway diagram and the expected traffic pattern, drawn on the map when you zoom in, with left or right traffic from FAA data and pattern altitude. • Frequencies, elevation, fuel, sunrise and sunset. SHARE • Send the route to ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot in one tap, or export a Garmin FPL file, waypoints included. YOUR DATA • No account needed. Without one, nothing you enter leaves your device. • Optional Sign in with Apple syncs your airplanes and plans between iPhone and iPad. Export or delete your account any time in Settings. • No ads. No tracking. IMPORTANT SimpleFlight is a planning aid. It is not an official weather or NOTAM briefing, it is not approved by the FAA, and it is not for navigation. Data can be late, incomplete or wrong. Terrain comes from USGS elevation data and does not include towers or other obstacles. Traffic patterns and runway diagrams are schematics; ATC instructions and published procedures take precedence. The pilot in command is responsible for every decision. Get an official briefing and check current charts before every flight. Data: Aviation Weather Center (NOAA), FAA, USGS, Iowa Environmental Mesonet, Open-Meteo.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: SimpleFlight at weekly against Helitab Flight Planner's every 5 months. Helitab Flight Planner's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Helitab Flight Planner ships an update every 5 months, SimpleFlight weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Helitab Flight Planner | SimpleFlight |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 825 MB | 29 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | AIRBUS HELICOPTERS | Kip Haas |
In-app purchases
Helitab Flight Planner
No in-app purchases
SimpleFlight
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Helitab Flight Planner free?
Is SimpleFlight free?
Do Helitab Flight Planner or SimpleFlight have ads?
Which is updated more often, Helitab Flight Planner or SimpleFlight?
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