Garmin Pilot Graphical Briefing?

[iamtheari]

The Foreflight vs. Garmin Pilot topic comes up from time to time but both apps are being improved continuously and I couldn't find a recent thread. I switched from Foreflight to Garmin Pilot last month, to give the latter a fair chance at winning my heart and mind. Garmin Pilot has one big advantage compared to Foreflight, which is Database Concierge once I get my G3X Touch panel in the air.

At first, I hated Garmin Pilot because I couldn't figure out how to plan or brief a flight at all. Tip: Do not link your FltPlan.com account. FltPlan.com must be useful for someone out there, but in my experience it is a major hindrance in actually planning and executing a flight. Linking it to Garmin Pilot disables all of Garmin Pilot's built-in flight planning and briefing and replaces them with unusable garbage from FltPlan.com.

Even with that figured out, though, I am struggling to like Garmin Pilot. Here's the reason why: Graphical briefing. Maybe there is a setting or feature I am overlooking, but it is painful to go back to page upon page of all-caps text. This is especially horrid for airmets and sigmets based on distant corner locations that you have to look up by switching back and forth between the briefing and the map view to have a clue what they mean.

I know plenty of people prefer Garmin Pilot over Foreflight. Maybe some of them can step in with some tips and tricks to learn to like it.

 

[Hang 4]

I had the same experience wth FltPlan.com - Sledgehammer to swat a fly. I agree the briefing on GP isn't as easy as it could be. I use 1800wxbrief.com now for the actual briefing, their new interface is actually quite good once you get the hang of it. One thing that is very cool on GP for planning is the profile view. It has upper level winds, icing and clouds. Great for IFR planning. The one other thing is the ability to change a flight plan on one device and move it to another. Easy peasy to change on a GTN and move it to the ipad and vice versa.

I've never used ForeFlight, so it's hard for me to judge a comparison, but I really like GP, I just augment it with some other tools for specific things.

 

[texasclouds]

I like my GP but the text only wx brief sucks. I use 1800wxbrief.com for my wx and like it alot.

also, FF will give you graphical ifr proposed stars on the chart to help you decide with is the cleanest route. I cannot seem to get that to work on GP.

 

[tsts4]

For the most part I use WeatherSpork for my weather planning, file using 1800wxbrief.com, and GarminPilot for charts. Yes, it would be easier to do everything from a single app, but I prefer the apps I use for the products they provide as they are superior IMO.