Free Flight App for the iPhone

[flav8r]

I recently downloaded the Voyager FreeFlight app by Seattle Avionics for the iPhone with my usual skepticism
only to find that I was indeed impressed with it's functionality.

It places the zulu time next to your iPhone time at the top of the screen and so far it seems to have many of
the same features as my other aviation related apps but less glitchy.

Has anyone else test driven this app and if so, what did you think of it?

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with this app just impressed by it.

 

[Lawreston]

I downloaded it the first day it was announced; however, I've not flown with it yet. Playing with it on the ground, it seems to be very good(for the price). Not having iPad/Foreflight, yet, I often found myself wondering, "Who's plane is that which just flew in/out? Now I can just crank the tail # into FreeFlight and get the identity.

HR

EDIT: Unrelated, specifically, to the thread; but when I use FreeFlight and it brings up the local airports I see NHZ and KBMX. ???? NHZ is the old NAS Brunswick which became KBXM on April 02, 2011. Why is NHZ still "there," and how long does it take before FAA(or the chart makers) remove it from the data listings?

 

[pcorman]

Nice app for the money, but if you select (best wind/altitude), it does so, but without regard to terrain. Best wind altitude for my flight over the Sierra was 7500' MSL. Might have been the best wind altitude, but not the best "airplane stays in one piece" altitude.

 

[Lawreston]

) Those of us here on the coast, used to 70 msl to 200-300 msl, can look past that small problem with the app.

HR

 

[flyingcheesehead]

EDIT: Unrelated, specifically, to the thread; but when I use FreeFlight and it brings up the local airports I see NHZ and KBMX. ???? NHZ is the old NAS Brunswick which became KBXM on April 02, 2011. Why is NHZ still "there," and how long does it take before FAA(or the chart makers) remove it from the data listings?

The FAA data (latest issuance, 12/15/2011) lists only KBXM, Brunswick Executive, in Brunswick, ME. Chances are that Seattle Avionics is rolling their own database and somehow included both.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Interesting... I'm downloading it right now. Seattle Avionics makes some really nice products, it'll be interesting to see if they "get" the iOS look and feel right. If so, looks like a nice companion to ForeFlight... In fact, my biggest question right now is "Can I sent a FreeFlight-generated flight plan to ForeFlight?"

It places the zulu time next to your iPhone time at the top of the screen and so far it seems to have many of the same features as my other aviation related apps but less glitchy.

They do say this on their site: "Seattle Avionics provides our ChartData to all the major iPad applications such as ForeFlight and WingX as well as aviation's elite avionics makers like Honeywell and Aspen. Therefore, FreeFlight does not include a moving map or approach plates. Rather, FreeFlight is the perfect "Do I want to fly today? How's the weather out there?" companion to these powerful apps."

 

[Badger]

Looks more iPhone compatible than iPad, but I'll give it a shot.

 

[Lawreston]

Thanks, Kent. I tried to contact Seattle Avionics(before your post, above) to advise them of my concern; however, the recorded announcement indicated that "because of an ice storm we are with reduced personnel; please leave a telephone # and your call will be returned." Still waiting for the call.

HR
EDIT: Speaking of KBXM, below are photos I took from the third plane to land after the 1:00 p.m. official opening of Brunswick Executive Airport. It was April 02, 2011 and the wind was howling, up to 40 knots. There had been a somewhat wild snow storm on April 01.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Okay, so here's my initial impressions:

1) On first launch, it said "installing" for a while before I got anything. But, I'm OK with that.

2) The data that comes with it from the store is expired (not too surprising) but they want you to register for an account. Cool - Except that it already had pre-filled an e-mail address for me that I haven't used in nearly 10 years! Scary! Where'd they get that?

3) After putting in lots of account information (Voyager, DUAT, and an aircraft) the Downloads screen still didn't say that I could download anything until I switched to another screen and back. Also, the "Next" buttons and "Previous" button when doing data entry didn't appear to work.

4) Touch scrolling doesn't always appear to work for some reason, and when it does, it appears to be restricted to one axis at a time.

5) It fetches a DUAT weather briefing, apparently for a local flight, right off the bat. So, you can get an Area Forecast quicker than you can with ForeFlight (which requires you to enter a route and then ask it to grab a briefing before you get the FA).

6) For some reason, the "Recent" tab on the Weather page doesn't seem to work. I've tried both searching for airports on the Weather page, and tapping them from the Airports page, and nothing has shown up at all.

7) They put a LOT of info on a really long page, for the most part. So, rather than selecting what you want to look at, you have to scroll until you find it.

8) Getting a victor airway flight plan from KMSN to KCAD took about 15 seconds. Not too shabby. But boy, they need new icons for VOR's in the flight plan, they're pretty twisted.

9) Oh my... That flight plan is really off. They have it going MSN V228 OBK V84 JYBEE V215 HIC KCAD - That last leg ending outside the service volume of HIC. In addition, the distance MSN->MKG via the given route is 197nm, while the distance from MSN->MKG along V2 is only 146nm. Finally, there's NO way you'd ever get cleared on that route even if you asked for it, as OBK is smack in the middle of Chicago Approach's airspace - So I'm not sure why it didn't take the short route.

I hate to sound so critical - It is a decent app and I'll keep it, but it's also obviously a first effort for Seattle Avionics on iOS and could use quite a bit of refinement.