Your Skyvector replacement.

Funny. I was literally, just now, eating popcorn.
My movie is disappointing. This thread, not so much.

Really sealed the deal there, Dave.
 
How dare they try to update and make better a product they provide FREE to the pilot community! The nerve.
 
EdFred said:
$50 says rokadave is Dave from skyvector. The only posts on the forum previous to the ones in this thread were pimping skyvector.

Gee I wonder why twitter brought you here. Talk about poor taste. At least be honest.

Hey Dave, guess what, the guys at iFlightPlanner don't just ignore their users when they make a suggestion. Maybe you should try doing that sometime rather than completely ignoring them.

iFP has a full version and a "lite" version which is all any of us asked for - two versions. You had the old code, there's no reason both couldn't have existed.

Imagine that, catering to what people want and listening to them, rather than just trashing emails.
Click to expand...

Lol rokadave is also on software development sites and other aviation related forums pimping skyvector with links and signatures. I'm not taking that bet. Coming herE and playing clueless/white knight :nono: Not that I went there anyway after the flightprep debacle.
 
GeorgeC said:
IIRC, skyvector used to show mag headings, would be nice if iflightplanner did the same.
Click to expand...


It shows mag headings once you plan your flight and get your weather brief. It will even print out (or push to your iPad) the heading info for easy reading.

I've used iflightplanner since the beginning. Back when it was free. My Sennheiser sales rep (audio engineer in my spare time) knew I flew and hooked me up when it first came out. It's a really slick interface. The thing that sealed the deal for me was when I wanted to hook it up to a flight sim to practice... It didn't have the feature so Sennheiser figured out how to get Xplane to feed a gps signal to my bad elf gps and they emailed me about it maybe two days after I sent the original email. Now it natively reads xplane "gps" data without the bad elf, but I was super stoked when it first came out.

TJ


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
cowman said:
Looks good to me.



When I do actual flight planning I use foreflight but I've used skyvector in the past quite a bit to just look up where an airport is or how long a flight would be just for general "do I want to go there?" planning while I'm at my PC. When they added onto it, they really took the quick and dirty aspect out of it and I don't really like using it anymore.
Click to expand...


I ditched foreflight for iflightplanner. Now, I never got past the trial of foreflight, so consider me a super newb with it, but I wanted to plan my flight on my computer and then fly it on my iPad. I also wanted weather info.

Until recently, foreflight didn't offer that... Iflightplanner has had it since the beginning!

TJ


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm a new iFlightplanner convert. Whoops on that changing link off of my webpage rokadave!
 
bullwinkle said:
How dare they try to update and make better a product they provide FREE to the pilot community! The nerve.
Click to expand...

I agree w/ you.
complaining about free crap (which we seem to love to do these days) is lame.

I don't like the new format but it is free.

I do have an issue w/ what appears to be a SV rep of some sort coming here and pretending he is joe pilot asking questions and then pretending to learn it has all these new features when he under the same name has tried to sell the site on other forums.

That's lame too.

He could have come here and just laid it out and said I understand, give me some input and we will look into it.
 
Perfect. Since Skyvector turned itself into useless garbage, I've been looking for a replacement. Now I've found it. Thanks Ed!
 
bartmc said:
You're not the customer, you're the product being sold.
Click to expand...


A good point, and a reminder of the superb customer service you can get from a service that you pay for. Foreflight comes to mind. Their management is famous for responsiveness to customer input. And there are many other companies that are excellent at listening to their paying customer and in serving that customer.

Which stands in stark contrast to the management display we've witnessed in this thread.

You indeed are the product being sold, a product that isn't even liked by the seller.
 
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bonus. The satellite feature w/ the aviation chart link is awesome.
When I was a student, I downloaded the sectional plugin for Google Earth so I could see what I would likely be actually seeing on my trip.

I like that I can set my route and then see the aerial view.

good stuff.
 
Why would you want to replace skyvector ?
 
weilke said:
Why would you want to replace skyvector ?
Click to expand...

Same reason you replace a rusted out Ford Pinto with a blown engine.

It was fine when it was new, but now it's a piece of **** that doesn't work like it once did.
 
EdFred said:
Same reason you replace a rusted out Ford Pinto with a blown engine.

It was fine when it was new, but now it's a piece of **** that doesn't work like it once did.
Click to expand...

Maybe time to upgrade your browser from IE6.0 ?

It works for me. Some changes in the UI, but the basic function of plugging in a couple of waypoints hasn't changed.
 
weilke said:
Maybe time to upgrade your browser from IE6.0 ?

It works for me. Some changes in the UI, but the basic function of plugging in a couple of waypoints hasn't changed.
Click to expand...

Is there a navlog in the upper left corner like there used to be? No.
Can I get a quick time and distance between waypoints on the main page? No.
Can I slide the points around like I used to? No.
Do I have to go to another page to view the navlog thereby eliminating the convenience of having it right in front of me? Yes.

While iFP doesn't have the slide the waypoints, they will soon because THEY ACTUALLY LISTEN TO THEIR USERS.

It's not a browser issue, it's a design issue.

It's currently trash.
 
EdFred said:
Is there a navlog in the upper left corner like there used to be? No.
Click to expand...

It is one mouseclick away.

Can I get a quick time and distance between waypoints on the main page? No.
Click to expand...

The legs on the map are annotated with the distance.

Can I slide the points around like I used to? No.
Click to expand...

If I grab my courseline and drag it over a navaid or airport and let go of the mouse, a little window pops up and offers me to include the airport/navaid/intersection into the flight plan. Is this different form how it worked before ?

Do I have to go to another page to view the navlog thereby eliminating the convenience of having it right in front of me? Yes.
Click to expand...

I think my browser charges me $5 for every window that I open. Yeah, this could get expensive in a hurry.

While iFP doesn't have the slide the waypoints, they will soon because THEY ACTUALLY LISTEN TO THEIR USERS.
Click to expand...

So future improvements of your new pet software are preferable over existing working features of skyvector. Understood.


It's currently trash.
Click to expand...

It has a slightly different UI from before but does the same thing. I guess change is evil.
 
NOpe....it doesn't do the same things....try adding intermediate waypoints.
 
weilke said:
It is one mouseclick away.



The legs on the map are annotated with the distance.



If I grab my courseline and drag it over a navaid or airport and let go of the mouse, a little window pops up and offers me to include the airport/navaid/intersection into the flight plan. Is this different form how it worked before ?



I think my browser charges me $5 for every window that I open. Yeah, this could get expensive in a hurry.



So future improvements of your new pet software are preferable over existing working features of skyvector. Understood.




It has a slightly different UI from before but does the same thing. I guess change is evil.
Click to expand...

I agree on all points. it's a little different, it was definitely unexpected. if you don't like it, stfu and move on, quit b!tching about it like a big giant pusseh. the changes they made were NOTHING in comparison to the cr@p tapatalk put out, and if you made it past those you can make it past the changes sv made.

not sure about the posing thing tho, that's a little weak.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
NOpe....it doesn't do the same things....try adding intermediate waypoints.
Click to expand...

- click on the place in the chain of waypoints you want to add one, type in the identifier, CR and it re-draws the new course with the new waypoint.
- pick up your courseline drag it over the new navaid/airport/intersection and let go click on 'plan' and insert the waypoint in your trip.
 
I'm with EdFred and most of the people here. Skyvector used to be my primary initial "big picture" tool prior to virtually all flights. I loved its simplicity; it was a poster child for the KISS design.
Now it's devolved into something messy, complex and ugly, essentially useless for my purposes.
I have other tools for the deeper level flight planning, but none at the moment for that simple and easy top level view.
I guess that's progress. :(
 
weilke said:
- click on the place in the chain of waypoints you want to add one, type in the identifier, CR and it re-draws the new course with the new waypoint.
- pick up your courseline drag it over the new navaid/airport/intersection and let go click on 'plan' and insert the waypoint in your trip.
Click to expand...
And if I'm flying more than a few hundred miles....and want to type in the IDs of each?
 
eman1200 said:
I agree on all points. it's a little different, it was definitely unexpected. if you don't like it, stfu and move on, quit b!tching about it like a big giant pusseh. the changes they made were NOTHING in comparison to the cr@p tapatalk put out, and if you made it past those you can make it past the changes sv made.

not sure about the posing thing tho, that's a little weak.
Click to expand...

I wish people wouldn't ***** about people bitching. :D
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
And if I'm flying more than a few hundred miles....and want to type in the IDs of each?
Click to expand...

How many waypoints do you want to put in ?

I just put in 15 waypoints and it dutifully drew a line touching all of them.
 
weilke said:
It is one mouseclick away.
Click to expand...
It wasn't before. I don't want it one mouseclick away. I want it right in front of me like it was before.
The legs on the map are annotated with the distance.
Click to expand...
Not the time. And I have to scroll all around the map to find the time and distance if zoomed in. I didn't before.
If I grab my courseline and drag it over a navaid or airport and let go of the mouse, a little window pops up and offers me to include the airport/navaid/intersection into the flight plan. Is this different form how it worked before ?
Click to expand...
Not what I'm talking about. I said slide them around in the navlog - along with time and distance in the navlog.
I think my browser charges me $5 for every window that I open. Yeah, this could get expensive in a hurry.
Click to expand...
I don't want it in another window. It wasn't that way before. I want to be able to see it as I change the route - like it was before.
So future improvements of your new pet software are preferable over existing working features of skyvector. Understood.
Click to expand...
There is nothing SV has that iFP doesn't currently. Try reading and comprehending.
It has a slightly different UI from before but does the same thing. I guess change is evil.
Click to expand...
It's not 'slightly' different. It is completely different.

All Dave had to do was give users the option to use the old or the new. There was exactly zero work that needed to be done to incorporate that. OK - maybe 2 minutes to move all the old code into a new directory on the server and create a hyperlink. That's all anyone asked for. Instead he just gave everyone a big virtual middle finger and a "**** you" when he ignored (at least) hundreds of requests.

Granted it's free and he can do what he wants, but even so, it's still a dick move.
 
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SixPapaCharlie said:
I agree w/ you.
complaining about free crap (which we seem to love to do these days) is lame.

I don't like the new format but it is free.

I do have an issue w/ what appears to be a SV rep of some sort coming here and pretending he is joe pilot asking questions and then pretending to learn it has all these new features when he under the same name has tried to sell the site on other forums.

That's lame too.

He could have come here and just laid it out and said I understand, give me some input and we will look into it.
Click to expand...

The funniest thing about that, especially on this board, is it's not only unnecessary, it's counter productive. Lots of merchants of aviation products post here, heck there's even a forum specifically for advertising their wares, and when they are upfront and honest about who they are, they not only are welcome, they seem to do pretty well. Representatives of ForeFlight and WingX post here frequently with no issues.
 
weilke said:
How many waypoints do you want to put in ?

I just put in 15 waypoints and it dutifully drew a line touching all of them.
Click to expand...
ok....it works today. They must of released a newer version for FireFox. :rolleyes:
 
First, I like free products.

Second, I hate astroturfing.

Third, most of my "cross countries" involve flights to places I can see from 3000' AGL at my home airport. But I'd like to understand how people are using these tools and what doesn't work.

So I went to SV and in the flight plan box, I typed KDFW, KAUS, KJFK, KSAN. A nice long, crisscrossing magenta line showed up on the map. Obviously, I can't fly those super long legs in my low-and-slow mobile, so I looked for some interesting-looking airports near the magenta line, and dragged it over. A box popped up with nearby waypoints, and I clicked "plan." Did that a few times, and then clicked the navlog button. I can see how it would be nice to have a no-wind navlog, since the winds aloft right now don't really matter.

Considering that when I learned to fly (and I'm probably younger than most here) there was no other option besides sectionals, rulers, protractors, and the E6B, planning the same flight would have taken a few hours.

I don't have an account, so there might be lots of functionality I don't know about. But other than that, what do people wish it did?
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
NOpe....it doesn't do the same things....try adding intermediate waypoints.
Click to expand...
Rubber-band the courseline to them? Right click and select "Plan"? Manually add them into the course box by typing?

Yeah, it's different. And I did like old one better for quick, down and dirty. And once we get used to something, we all become resistant to change. I'd bet if Skyvector started with something like this and switched to something like it use to have we'd hear just as many complaints but they'd be like "They used to let me enter Victor airways and they took that away!"
 
how about reversing the course....to see the tail wind effect on time?
 
midlifeflyer said:
Yeah, it's different. And I did like old one better for quick, down and dirty. And once we get used to something, we all become resistant to change. I'd bet if Skyvector started with something like this and switched to something like it use to have we'd hear just as many complaints but they'd be like "They used to let me enter Victor airways and they took that away!"
Click to expand...

Aviation is the realm of grumpy old men, and most of them aren't even that old.

The only thing Skyvector is missing is a button that automatically emails the string of waypoints to my Garmin530W (actually, what IS missing is a function to dump the waypoints into a simple ascii string that I can cut and paste into an email rather than creating a pdf file for the flight plan).
 
Click to delete was nice in the prior iteration.
Now it seems you have to select the text and delete it.

It's just more steps all around
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
how about reversing the course....to see the tail wind effect on time?
Click to expand...

The Navigation Log on you're seeing on iFlightPlanner.com/AviationCharts is a basic, "no wind" calculation so the reverse function that's there does not change the total time. The effects of current/forecasted winds on that route is available if you use the "Retrieve Wx Brief & File" functionality.

Best,
Andy
 
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meh....if I'm going to go thru all that....I'll just go to the AOPA FlyQ thingy.
 
The Skyvector CEO's email is: dgraves@skyvector.com

We've been emailing back and forth. He seems to have no inclination to revert to the old site. That's why WE ALL must email him and indicate we want the old site back.
 
jimmyjack said:
The Skyvector CEO's email is: dgraves@skyvector.com

We've been emailing back and forth. He seems to have no inclination to revert to the old site. That's why WE ALL must email him and indicate we want the old site back.
Click to expand...

Why would you want the old site back ? It didn't do 1/2 the stuff the new one does. Plan, brief, file, all in one place for the outrageous price of free.
 
weilke said:
Why would you want the old site back ? It didn't do 1/2 the stuff the new one does. Plan, brief, file, all in one place for the outrageous price of free.
Click to expand...

It's not all in one place. That's the issue.
 
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