Alternative EFBs: FlyQ vs WingX vs FltPlanGo

Scrabo said:
I lot of people, including myself prefer the simple/basis approach, must features are not buried 3 levels down in some menu
Click to expand...
How many menus is user specific, not app specific. In flight with ForeFlight, as with WingX, everything I use is accessible from the map page, although I prefer the full screen airport information page as opposed to the pop up window to brief my destination. And even that is accessible without leaving the map. That's pretty much true with most of the EFBs I'm familiar with.
 
midlifeflyer said:
@denverpilot, about cross platform. You and I have a similar attitude. If I replace Ff entirely, it will be with a cross-platform app. If WingX fulfilled its promise, I’d probably have been using it for a few years already.

Have you looked at IFlyGPS at all? Its main downside is kind of its upside. It has an old looking interface and it seems to sit on top of the OS rather than being integrated into it (no copy and paste, for example), but i think that is mostly because it’s definitely multi platform. It’s own dedicated hardware (which competed with Garmin in the pre-tablet handheld markets), iOS, Android, and a very stable Windows beta, all of which seem to have the same features.

Hardly perfect. You know this - you get used to some bells and whistles you once thought unimportant - and some of those are missing. But it is the closest I’ve come to getting weaned away from ForeFlight, the main reason I got rid of my Stratus for a Stratux, and the only other EFB I use regularly, usually the Android one.
Click to expand...

Not yet. Like I said, trying to cash flow the in-panel stuff, so every single dollar counts right at the moment. Ha. There’s money in savings for it, but I’m living like I’m broke for the next couple of months to finish off building a separate pile of cash for the avionics shop. The trucks breaking wasn’t in the plan, but no plan ever survives contact with the enemy. LOL. I stopped shopping for Android tablets and got my butt to work. ;-)

Scrabo said:
>> WingX has a pretty awful UI but most of the features are there, just not quite as intuitive as ForeFlight. Very basic UI and a little too basic.

Sure it's not eye candy but it works, doesn't require the latest and greatest iOS version, performance is still very good on older iDevices and uses the least amount of "disk space" on the iDevice. This allows older devices to still have some useful life.

I lot of people, including myself prefer the simple/basis approach, must features are not buried 3 levels down in some menu
Click to expand...

I can’t decide if I like “simple” or “horribly cluttered but all available”. Usually simple works for me, but like @midlifeflyer said, once you get used to how to get to anything from the map screen, you miss it a little on other simpler interfaces. That said, FF on iOS 11 and a Mini 2 is starting to become painful. It’s getting bloated and the hardware isn’t getting any faster.
 
I have used pretty much everything on the market and my current favorite is AeroVie. It is the "up and coming app" I believe that does weather better than any other. I really like it and use it most often (and have most of the apps loaded on my iPad).
 
KLRDMD said:
I have used pretty much everything on the market and my current favorite is AeroVie. It is the "up and coming app" I believe that does weather better than any other. I really like it and use it most often (and have most of the apps loaded on my iPad).
Click to expand...
I almost always use Aerovie for IFR preplanning if the weather us at all iffy. I'd definitely put it in my shortlist if I was starting out or still relatively new in the iPad EFB world.
 
This thread has convinced me to continue using fltplngo instead of shelling out money for Foreflight.. just can’t justify the huge price tag of Foreflight. Love FltPlan.com too.. got my weight and balance figured out perfectly. Just wish the nav logs it produces were a little more visually appealing..
 
Ben said:
This thread has convinced me to continue using fltplngo instead of shelling out money for Foreflight.. just can’t justify the huge price tag of Foreflight. Love FltPlan.com too.. got my weight and balance figured out perfectly. Just wish the nav logs it produces were a little more visually appealing..
Click to expand...
Just as others will be equally happy shelling out the cost of a little more than an hour of flight to get the features and flow they want.
 
Fltplan Go just released Garmin FlightStream support.

Game changer in my book.

If you have not used the app you don't know what you are missing. And the app is FREE.
 
denverpilot said:
Whoever figures out first that pilots with in panel GPS want a package deal on chart updates for both their in panel and EFB and sets a reasonable price, is going to have a huge leg up on the competition...
[snip]
Partner with Jeppesen for their charts out of the blue? Seems desperate to meet some contract bid for an airline or something. Team licensing stuff also reeks of that. Not that it’s bad they’re chasing those big accounts, but it’s got them off focus a bit for the average Joe pilot now.
Click to expand...

Two reasons - first, the Jepp EFB software stinks (as did its futile attempt at VFR charts a few years ago...remember that one?). Second is the one you cited - corporate accounts. When you think about it, these are really a single reason. I've flown commercially (in cabin) next to charter & company pilots, all of us with our iPads out. They're required to use Jepp and hate it. Most of them have WingX and/or FF installed along with Jepp (if allowed).
 
midlifeflyer said:
@denverpilot, about cross platform. You and I have a similar attitude. If I replace Ff entirely, it will be with a cross-platform app. If WingX fulfilled its promise, I’d probably have been using it for a few years already.

Have you looked at IFlyGPS at all? Its main downside is kind of its upside. It has an old looking interface and it seems to sit on top of the OS rather than being integrated into it (no copy and paste, for example), but i think that is mostly because it’s definitely multi platform. It’s own dedicated hardware (which competed with Garmin in the pre-tablet handheld markets), iOS, Android, and a very stable Windows beta, all of which seem to have the same features.

Hardly perfect. You know this - you get used to some bells and whistles you once thought unimportant - and some of those are missing. But it is the closest I’ve come to getting weaned away from ForeFlight, the main reason I got rid of my Stratus for a Stratux, and the only other EFB I use regularly, usually the Android one.
Click to expand...
Which is the basic premise for the concept of MVC for cross-platform development. The front-end doesn't change and doesn't care about the back-end. I've written far too much software that is required to be cross-platform and the #1 requirement is don't get locked into the OS. There are definite performance advantages to integrate into the OS, but if you need that type of performance (sorry, I don't consider any EFB for GA to need that type of performance) then you go with a dedicated system (e.g. satellite systems). Can't even remember anymore how many DALs (data access layers) I've written (and two of 'em while I was at Jeppesen) so that the user interface didn't care what the back-end OS and database systems were (mix & match to your heart's content).

I was delighted to see the first step with WingX a few years ago at OSH, but it's still struggling to match the iPad version. Part, if not all, of this is the closed nature of iOS and the free-for-all concept of Android. [sidebar - anyone notice that the MS Surface is pretty much left out of the loop on just about everything aviation?] Oddly enough, I think it's easier to write for Android (Java) than anything Mac (Swift or the next absurdity Apple invents). But then I have a couple decades of Java development. Looked at Swift then deleted it. When someone pays me to develop in Swift, then I'll go learn it.
 
IFlyGPS 740b tablet - anyone know what the underlying technology is? A variation of linux or did they invent their own? I'm thinking of the Stratux approach - software app but you can still get into the Linux command line if you need to. I took my old RPi2 from the original Stratux release and turned it into a teaching tool.

Some of my students can't afford $500 or more for a laptop, but $50 for the Pi (includes case & power supply), $15 for a usb keyboard and mouse, and the HDMI cable, they can plug it into a TV and have a perfectly good computer (don't forget the $15 for a decent sized SD card).
 
denverpilot said:
Not yet. Like I said, trying to cash flow the in-panel stuff, so every single dollar counts right at the moment. Ha. There’s money in savings for it, but I’m living like I’m broke for the next couple of months to finish off building a separate pile of cash for the avionics shop. The trucks breaking wasn’t in the plan, but no plan ever survives contact with the enemy. LOL. I stopped shopping for Android tablets and got my butt to work. ;-)



I can’t decide if I like “simple” or “horribly cluttered but all available”. Usually simple works for me, but like @midlifeflyer said, once you get used to how to get to anything from the map screen, you miss it a little on other simpler interfaces. That said, FF on iOS 11 and a Mini 2 is starting to become painful. It’s getting bloated and the hardware isn’t getting any faster.
Click to expand...
I refuse to go iOS 11 on the mini, still on 9.x. Works just fine for me.
 
exncsurfer said:
@denverpilot I thought most EFB charts were free, no? Must be the fancy charts?

Does foreflight charge you for these?: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/vfr/
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/ifr/
Click to expand...
If you're willing to go the PDF route, charts are free. What Jepp, FF, and every EFB does is adapt them for specific use within the application for your convenience and added features of the software. Consider Jepp's IFR charts - same data as on the NACO charts but in a different format. I've never understood why some commercial aviation companies require pilots to use Jepp charts (US) vs NACO. Outside the US, of course Jepp is often the only option.
 
murphey said:
If you're willing to go the PDF route, charts are free. What Jepp, FF, and every EFB does is adapt them for specific use within the application for your convenience and added features of the software. Consider Jepp's IFR charts - same data as on the NACO charts but in a different format. I've never understood why some commercial aviation companies require pilots to use Jepp charts (US) vs NACO. Outside the US, of course Jepp is often the only option.
Click to expand...
And that's at least a significant part of why. Even "local" carriers like Cape Air (primarily Boston to the Cape and Islands) venture internationally. Uniform training, uniform systems, uniform procedures, is a mainstay of commercial operators.
 
murphey said:
IFlyGPS 740b tablet - anyone know what the underlying technology is? A variation of linux or did they invent their own?
Click to expand...
You got me curious enough to ask. Believe it or not, the 7-series iFly GPS runs on Windows CE. I guess that might partly explain that they have a Windows beta which runs well.
 
murphey said:
Two reasons - first, the Jepp EFB software stinks (as did its futile attempt at VFR charts a few years ago...remember that one?).
Click to expand...

Guess what you get from Jeppesen if you add the Jepp charts to ForeFlight?

Those awful VFR charts they did, are still around... and worse... they vectorized it, so things disappear as you zoom out.

Got to see it on someone else’s iPad today and went “ewwww.”
 
SeattleAvionics "Voyager" is still for sale, but no longer supported. My past experience over years with Voyager is that performance is glitchy, and support is spotty. Recently, I got an automated response to my question, saying everyone was out at the 2018 fly-in, and would reply after that. I finally did get a reply, after two more requests and another month passing. Having a lifetime subscription, I cringed every time one of the frequent problems popped up. Now, they tell me they're devoting all their resources to the iPad version, FlyQ. A deep discount lured me to sign up for the FlyQ lifetime version, based on hope, though I'm 100% confident this will be a disappointment. I will update this if I'm pleasantly surprised. The migration to FlyQ is not only the software investment, but FlyQ only runs on an iPad, which I now have to buy. I'm feeling very much like a sucker, based on my experience with SeattleAvionics, and am hoping/praying things will get better. My brother got WingX, following his flight instructor's example, and is completely happy with it. Even WingX has features Voyager did not have, the ability to update weather radar images real-time in-flight, important if you fly IFR, which I do. Why did I go FlyQ? The company owner/manager promised greatly improved performance, and the cost was cheaper than any of the alternatives. More to come ...
 
After close to 3 year hiatus I am getting back into flying. I used Foreflight in the past, but like others, I wanted to see what's changed in the last 3 years. I looked around and decided to give FlyQ a try since it had the already assembled Stratux (Merlin) and a year of FlyQ for $250 shipped. While there were some nice things about FlyQ, I just couldn't make the switch from Foreflight. I must have spent too much time with it initially and gotten to used to how things are in ForeFlight. Foreflight feels a little more polished, especially the online flight planner. While I like the polish and am willing to pay a premium for ForeFlight, I'm completely happy with MyFlightBook for my digital log book, so go figure.

The Stratux/Merlin works fine with Foreflight. I even got the AHARS data once I upgraded to the latest version of the Stratux firmware. The instructions that come with the Merlin had a strongly worded warning against upgrading as the version with Foreflight AHARS support was still in beta at the time of printing the manual. But that is no longer the case. I tried the "easy" update and ended up killing the Stratux functionality, so I ended up re-flashing the SD card which was pretty painless except that I had to redo some of my settings (enable and change the Wifi password and root login password). Oh, and if you do the full SD card flash, you loose the Merlin branding which I'm fine with.

So in the end I have a year left on FlyQ, a fully functional Stratux, and paid to go back to ForeFlight.
 
My primary is FLYQ and backup is FltPlan Go. Several years ago, I tried WingX in a trial and didn't like the user interface. At that time FltPlan was buggy also. I was looking for simple to use interface and jumped at the lifetime offer from FLYQ. It offers easy interrogation from your moving map by simple taps on the map. Got everything for IFR/VFR, and it was open source for the all the ADSB stuff. Only drawback is updating the database, which is one button push, but takes 3x longer than FltPlan's full US/Canada/Caribbean. FltPlan itself has come a long way and now is very stable, just a little clunky as an interface. But, because of its free and complete charts and data for Canada, it worked flawlessly for my trek to Alaska.
 
Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to.

But sometimes, you just want the fried okra.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top