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Joined: 6/7/2021
Posts: 8
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I couldn't find a general topic for this, and perhaps you might consider pinnng one to the top of the forum so people don't bother you over and over with the same requests. . .
I am presently evaluating iFly GPS on an Android tablet. I have compared it to other similar approaches and find it to be the most intuitive and well rounded of the lot. Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I wish you would consider on future versions:
*) As you are flying on a flight plan, it would be nice if you could configure the flight plan to roll out an airport panel as you approach a waypoint. For instance, if you're making a fueling stop, you'll need the frequencies of the airport you're landing at, so having the panel auto-reveal at a configured distance from the airport, with an airport diagram and airport frequecies would be great.
*) This request might require too much rendering horsepower, and maybe that's why it's not included. . . It would be nice if the airspace boundaries appeared on the 3d view. With the advent of ADS-B and the FAA new-found ability to send letters and pull licenses because they can tell you stray 100 foot into class D without talking to the tower, a graphical representation of the airspace boundaries would be awesome. I understand that GPS can't give exact position, so one could incidentally bust airspace and not know it even with your display, but I think there are ways to mitigate that. For instance, inflate the airspace by 1000 feet. People who intend to enter won't mind the inflation, and people who don't intend to enter will proabably appreciate the insurance that 1000 feet gives them at the expense of having to travel an extra 1000 feet (or less). This request came from using Real Plan, which is awesome, BTW, except that when it routes one around airspace, it has you riding right on the edge of that airspace. A simulation may be able to do that, and an auto pilot might be able to hold that course, but people tend to be less precise in their operation of the plane than machiens are.
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Joined: 2/8/2019
Posts: 77
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"I couldn't find a general topic for this, and perhaps you might consider pinnng one to the top of the forum so people don't bother you over and over with the same requests. . . "
Just for future reference, the forum category you want is called "iFly Wishlist" a little further down the page.
As for your first request, I usually have the freqs preloaded long before I can see the airport; however; that might be handy during an emergency diversion.
Best,
John
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While you're waiting for your suggestions to be considered/implemented, here is some info that may help you get the data from your first request, in case you're not familiar with it yet:
If you include the [Name Final] instrument on your moving map layout, then you can tap on that instrument at any time to get the Airport QuickView window to pop up for that airport. That QV window includes some key information right there (including airport elevation, which runway is favored per current winds, CTAF or Tower and Gnd freqs, etc.), which may address much of the data you were looking for. For the rest, tapping the "Airport Info" button on that QV window will bring up a page with essentially the same info you'd find on the Chart Supplement (A/FD) page for that airport (including airport diagrams). So, while it doesn't pop out automatically (not something I would actually want as a user), the data you're looking for is only one or maybe two taps away.
Further, if you have the AutoTaxi feature enabled, the moving map will automatically change to an airport diagram or RealView (Google Maps satellite view) when you land.
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Joined: 6/7/2021
Posts: 8
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I guess everyone's mileage will vary. Real Plan is in beta, so now seems the time to point out the features. My experience with flying started in the 90s, when VORs, ADFs and dead reckoning were the means of travel. I flew with a sectional and a kneeboard. On the kneeboard was my flight plan, including frequencies of airports on my path, and a diagram of the destination airport and an arrow indicating the direction I expected to be travelling upon approach. Now, I have software. And as a career software engineer, I think iFly is a terrific achievement. BUT, if I'm to still have my kneeboard, then this is little more than at best a sectional chart with a 10.1" diagonal viewport.
For me, synthetic vision, in its present state, is little more than a curiosity. I fly a small plane, and it could get pushed around by turbulance and thermals rather easily. Giving me boxes to fly through seems to turn something that is anything but a game into a game. In bygone days, Mooney-flying-doctors were renown for pulling the wings off their planes trying to fight turbulence. If I were to treat the synthetic vision boxes as anything but a suggestion, I could make myself a member of the same club those dead pilots are in. We now live in a time where the FAA seems to be looking for reason to take pilot licenses. ADS-B seems to give them the means to discover any in flight mistake, even if no harm was done. IMO, synthetic vision is useful if it can allow me to avoid busting airspace. As it is, the moving map does a better job of that than the synthetic vision.
Now, couple that with Real Plan's penchant for routing the plane ON the boundary of airspace, with synthetic vision you don't even know that you are flying at a point where you need to be conspicuous about the path you follow. Real Plan even did a great job of avoiding restricted space for me. . . by putting a waypoint on the exact corner of that space. IF as I approached these spots where the FAA has their microscopes out, I had some sort of notification of how I can be certain to avoid writing the FAA a letter, and receiving disciplinary action because I picked the wrong spot to drop my coke on the floor, and as a result wandered 100 feet in the wrong direction, THEN synthetic vision is useful to me. Without some sort of notification, the moving map is better. I'd still use Real Path, and then modify the flight to fix these close calls. But if the airspace were apparent in sythetic vision, then I have everything I need to avoid busting airspace by accident, and it becomes a useful tool withut modifying it's derived path.
In a 172, on a long flight with a passenger, one could find themselves spending more time with eyes outside and in idle conversation with a passenger then looking at any iFly gps. If my flight path is off by 3 degrees, yes, I'll take an extra 15 minutes on a long flight. So what? The winds won't be as predicted anyway, so how much of that 15 minutes is due to that? One can only fight the wind so much before they harm themselves.
What I'm looking for in an EFB is a co-pilot to interrupt me and let me know it's time to descend, or ascend, or change frequency to a different airport, or turn. . . and to help me from running afoul of FAA regulations.
* Terrain alerts are great.
* I'm having a hard time understand the use case where I care that I just left an airport. There's an old saying, there's nothing more useless that fuel left on the fuel truck, air above you, and runway behind you. Isn't telling me I jsut left the airport telling me about runway behind me?
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Joined: 6/7/2021
Posts: 8
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In the old days I wore a kneeboard and wrote the frequencies by the waypoint. Nowadays they ARE preloaded. . . in iFly gps, and on the sectional. Did I word it poorly? I'm wanting iFly to be a co-pilot and navigator, not something between a sectional map, and a kneeboard. I think I gave constructive criticism, and received a touch of snark and a hint of "I'm a safer pilot than you."
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