airdale
Pattern Altitude
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2007
- Messages
- 1,840
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Display name:
airdale
After a $100 hamburger flight today, I am impressed!
(Background: I started beta testing EFBs for one of the major vendors in about 2004, using first a Compaq TC1100 and then a series of Fujitsu tablet convertibles. So I have seen a lot of this software come and go. More recently I have a Nexus 7 and have been running Garmin Pilot.)
IMHO one of the issues with EFBs has always been readability of the numbers, button labels, etc. The programmers typically provide eye candy -- subtle colors, translucent backgrounds, cute icons, etc. This stuff looks great in the armchair and, I guess, sells product. But it seriously compromises usability in the air, especially in bright light. iFly understands this!
Major Thing#1 that I like about iFly is that the critical information like speed, TRK, etc. is available as clear white-on-black text. Similarly, unlike Garmin's cute pie, the information choices for an airport are presented as a crisp white-on-black list. In fact the flight data blocks are highly user-configurable as to background color, position (touch and drag), and size. Even the smallest sizes are fairly easy to read. You want the little bar chart of GPS signal quality smack in the middle of the screen? No problem! Don't want it at all? Again, no problem. There are multiple standard instrument layouts, all configurable, plus the option for saving custom layouts. There are 15(!) airplane icons to choose from. Messing with all these choices is an armchair exercise for sure, but the capability completely blows GP away.
Major thing #2 that I like is the way sectionals are handled. Instead of stitching them together like GP and others, they are presented as individual images, north and south halves together. This means that you have to select the next sectional by tapping on white space adjacent to your current sectional, but it also means -- very important -- that all the edge notes for symbology, MOAs, frequencies, etc. are right there. Just zoom and read.
Major Thing #3 is the terrain display. There is a fairly small Vertical Profile graph on the screen, showing both terrain and airspace. Fairly conventional, but when you tap it with your finger it pops to almost full screen width and also offers controls for setting a terrain overlay on the map. You have the choice of having the terrain overly be off, on, or flashing when there's something to warn about.
Major Thing #4 is that flights can be automatically recorded. "Load Past Flight" is kind of buried under "Map Settings" in Setup but click it and you are rewarded with a track superimposed on the map or on an approach plate. iFly will also display your current flight trail if you like. CFIIs take note!
There is other nice stuff, too, like easily-selected runway centerline displays, "Real View" satellite photos of airports with your airplane displayed, and of course all the usual charts, plates, wx, airport info and frequencies. Most, maybe all, of the airport info displays (WX, Obstruction List, etc.) have "Bigger" and "Smaller" buttons that let you manage the text size to suit your preferences. The size selection does not appear to be "sticky" from screen to screen but that is a very minor complaint.
Like all user interfaces, it is intuitive mainly to the guy who designed it. But as a 1-day newbie I would rate it as pretty good. There is no "wasted step" like the GP Menu button and I think with a little practice I will become comfortable with the UI.
I have not really figured out all the flight planning options yet.
The weather display is kind of ho-hum. Color coded METARs, recent and animated NEXRAD. One of the features I like in Foreflight is the page where I can get all kinds of NOAA weather map products. I'd sure like to see that on Android, too.
I'm sure as I use it I will find warts and shortcomings, but today's experience was pretty impressive. This product is currently labeled as a Beta. I have seen no beta-ish characteristics or problems.
I have no patience for the poor quality of Apple software and their walled-garden approach to user imprisonment, so I am irretrievably Android for the time being. I bought GP with the expectation that Garmin would move quickly to solidify its Android dominance by bringing the feature set up to the level of the GP iThings product. That has not happened, however. In the past year GP/Android has given me nothing new of significance.
iFLy claims to have been designed by pilots. I read somewhere that the GP programmers are learning to fly. Maybe that is the difference.
My GP subscription expires in a month or so. iFly is looking like a much better choice than renewal. In fact, I think it may be positioned to take over from GP as the Android share leader.
(Background: I started beta testing EFBs for one of the major vendors in about 2004, using first a Compaq TC1100 and then a series of Fujitsu tablet convertibles. So I have seen a lot of this software come and go. More recently I have a Nexus 7 and have been running Garmin Pilot.)
IMHO one of the issues with EFBs has always been readability of the numbers, button labels, etc. The programmers typically provide eye candy -- subtle colors, translucent backgrounds, cute icons, etc. This stuff looks great in the armchair and, I guess, sells product. But it seriously compromises usability in the air, especially in bright light. iFly understands this!
Major Thing#1 that I like about iFly is that the critical information like speed, TRK, etc. is available as clear white-on-black text. Similarly, unlike Garmin's cute pie, the information choices for an airport are presented as a crisp white-on-black list. In fact the flight data blocks are highly user-configurable as to background color, position (touch and drag), and size. Even the smallest sizes are fairly easy to read. You want the little bar chart of GPS signal quality smack in the middle of the screen? No problem! Don't want it at all? Again, no problem. There are multiple standard instrument layouts, all configurable, plus the option for saving custom layouts. There are 15(!) airplane icons to choose from. Messing with all these choices is an armchair exercise for sure, but the capability completely blows GP away.
Major thing #2 that I like is the way sectionals are handled. Instead of stitching them together like GP and others, they are presented as individual images, north and south halves together. This means that you have to select the next sectional by tapping on white space adjacent to your current sectional, but it also means -- very important -- that all the edge notes for symbology, MOAs, frequencies, etc. are right there. Just zoom and read.
Major Thing #3 is the terrain display. There is a fairly small Vertical Profile graph on the screen, showing both terrain and airspace. Fairly conventional, but when you tap it with your finger it pops to almost full screen width and also offers controls for setting a terrain overlay on the map. You have the choice of having the terrain overly be off, on, or flashing when there's something to warn about.
Major Thing #4 is that flights can be automatically recorded. "Load Past Flight" is kind of buried under "Map Settings" in Setup but click it and you are rewarded with a track superimposed on the map or on an approach plate. iFly will also display your current flight trail if you like. CFIIs take note!
There is other nice stuff, too, like easily-selected runway centerline displays, "Real View" satellite photos of airports with your airplane displayed, and of course all the usual charts, plates, wx, airport info and frequencies. Most, maybe all, of the airport info displays (WX, Obstruction List, etc.) have "Bigger" and "Smaller" buttons that let you manage the text size to suit your preferences. The size selection does not appear to be "sticky" from screen to screen but that is a very minor complaint.
Like all user interfaces, it is intuitive mainly to the guy who designed it. But as a 1-day newbie I would rate it as pretty good. There is no "wasted step" like the GP Menu button and I think with a little practice I will become comfortable with the UI.
I have not really figured out all the flight planning options yet.
The weather display is kind of ho-hum. Color coded METARs, recent and animated NEXRAD. One of the features I like in Foreflight is the page where I can get all kinds of NOAA weather map products. I'd sure like to see that on Android, too.
I'm sure as I use it I will find warts and shortcomings, but today's experience was pretty impressive. This product is currently labeled as a Beta. I have seen no beta-ish characteristics or problems.
I have no patience for the poor quality of Apple software and their walled-garden approach to user imprisonment, so I am irretrievably Android for the time being. I bought GP with the expectation that Garmin would move quickly to solidify its Android dominance by bringing the feature set up to the level of the GP iThings product. That has not happened, however. In the past year GP/Android has given me nothing new of significance.
iFLy claims to have been designed by pilots. I read somewhere that the GP programmers are learning to fly. Maybe that is the difference.
My GP subscription expires in a month or so. iFly is looking like a much better choice than renewal. In fact, I think it may be positioned to take over from GP as the Android share leader.
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