Cloud Ahoy to Charge $70/year....

[Cabanaboy]

Via Email:

Cloud Ahoy will transition accounts as follows:

• On December 2nd you will get a free and unlimited use of CloudAhoy, expiring 35 days after your next fight (flown after December 2nd).
• 12-month subscription with unlimited use: introductory price of $45 if bought before May 2014, $70 afterwards.
• 3-month subscription: $20, all of which can be used later towards buying an upgrade to 12-months.
• As an existing user you will receive a special appreciation bonus days equal to 10% of the time since you’ve signed up. It will be awarded when you purchase a 3 or 12 months subscription. Thank you!
• If your free use or the subscription expires, you will still have full debrief access to all your flights (plus flights shared with you) prior to the expiration.  You will also be able to log new flights and have them listed in your flight list, but you will need to renew your subscription in order to debrief them.

 

 

That seems a little high to me.

[carusoam]

Is anyone using it?

I have used it to measure T/O performance to determine if things are working compared to book values.

Got some interesting results by doing standard maneuvers.

Makes a nice training tool. Helps with detailed memory of the flights.

Best regards,

-a-

[orionflt]

I use it all the time, but I won't continue to use it once they start charging.

[BigTex]

I use it all the time, but I won't continue to use it once they start charging.

Same here.... Love the product but not at the price he's asking.  He's asking Foreflight/Garmin Pilot prices for a simple app... I'm out.

[201er]

I didn't want to use it when it was free (because of mandatory sign up and information spying)... no way in heck I'd actually pay for it!

[Jeff_S]

I've used it occasionally but to me it's more of a curiosity than anything. I am in the camp that will not be likely to pay for it. But I can see for flight instructors and students it could be a good way to debrief flights and things. I have to admit I was always amazed at how it can calculate the TAS and wind speed/direction independently. I found that it generally got things pretty close. It can only be using available wind speeds and altitude temps on the 'net to do this, so that part of the coding is pretty cool.

[Jamie]

Yeah, but if it's only using forecast wind / temps, and the occasional pirep, it's not any better than the forecast, which we all know isn't perfect.

 

The guy's trying to monetize his stuff. I wish him luck. OTOH, a gps logger (free) that generates a KML (free) and google earth (free) will do most of what this looks like it does, and since I was actually in the plane I'm pretty sure I know when I tried to do a chandelle.

 

(Not a user, just a programmer looking at the problem and wondering how long it'd take to hack up something that would get me the 80% for the 20%, and the answer appears to be "not very long".)

[jnisley]

After using it on several flights I put it in the "wow, that's neat" category and haven't used it since.

[Oscar Avalle]

I won't pay for it...

[Hank]

Maybe someone should send a link to this page to the developer. He may prefer a smaller fee from a large user base instead of having no paying customers. But isn't Cloud Ahoy an Apple-only app? Won't run on my Droid phone or tablet, so I don't care what he charges.

[wishboneash]

About $12 per year is what I would pay for it. Used it several times on my iPad and it doesn't have an Android version last time I looked (a couple of months ago).

[flyboy0681]

I agree with most here, a really neat piece of software but I certainly wouldn't pay for it.

[carusoam]

Sent him an email a couple days back. Invited him to join our conversation...

Wondering if we are his target audience?

It seems that flight training is more the target.

There were some discounts or extended subscriptions when signing up, I believe.

Just sharing what I think I know,

-a-

[Jamie]

This sort of thing is what keeps me from developing some of my own apps... they'd be cool (as all of my stuff usually is *smirk*), but I'm not sure anyone would actually pay for them.

 

OTOH... apparently the kids that created snapchat just turned down 3 BILLION dollars from facebook.  For an app I could do in a couple of weeks. So... whaddouIknow.

[aviatoreb]

This sort of thing is what keeps me from developing some of my own apps... they'd be cool (as all of my stuff usually is *smirk*), but I'm not sure anyone would actually pay for them.

 

OTOH... apparently the kids that created snapchat just turned down 3 BILLION dollars from facebook.  For an app I could do in a couple of weeks. So... whaddouIknow.

 

Problem with cloudahoy is he should somehow have consulted a market analyst.  I bet he would sell many copies for $10....maybe even $20.  But for $70, I bet he sells very very very few.  As someone said, that is foreflight territory and this is not a foreflight kind of program.  

 

snapchat obviously has much greater appeal - cloudahoy will only appeal to a very small fraction of a very small group.  (The techno-geeks of the pilot world and there are not that many pilots).  Dang - for $3B if I were that kid - I would sell the snapchat and then buy myself a shiny P51 to celebrate.

[Bennett]

I've used it a couple of times just for fun. I'm not cheap, but I don't find acceptable value in paying $70 a year for it. I won't buy the app even with a discount for being an early user.

[carusoam]

What's the name of the app that Jim has on the iPhone?

The one that calculates glide distance from current position, written by the X? Guys?

Speaking of good things that didn't get much acceptance because of perceived cost...

Best regards,

-a-

[aviatoreb]

What's the name of the app that Jim has on the iPhone?

The one that calculates glide distance from current position, written by the X? Guys?

Speaking of good things that didn't get much acceptance because of perceived cost...

Best regards,

-a-

 

That's called XAVION.  It is pretty fabulous.  It shows you a synthetic vision view including beautifully rendered runways.  Its a lot more program that cloud ahoy.

[BrianBest]

I build a Flight Recorder App that does some similar things. One-time charge, no sign-up, no web page - all on the iPad, iPhone or Android.

 

I'm new to this forum and I don't know how you react to advertising so I won't say too much here but I couldn't resist making a post.

 

I'm a flight instructor and I've been building aviation Apps for about 5 years now. I think you are right about Cloud Ahoy, I actually only became aware of it a few weeks ago, I've had versions of the flight recorder for sale for about 5 years. I don't blame the guy for trying to make some money it's a tough market. For me it's more of a hobby I am a 1-man shop and build the Apps for my own use.

 

You can find the flight recorder App and others here: http://www.cfitools.com/html/flight_recorder1.html

 

If you have questions or suggestions don't hesitate to email. The iPad/iPhone version is a recent upgrade, I'll probably now revisit the Android version and make some upgrades.