IPad for EFB? (poll)

[Fly Boomer]

26 minutes ago, EricJ said:

I can't recall ever having an issue with an app not working on the Galaxies (over about ten years or so).

Things may have changed, but my recollection was that the issue was less "not work" vs more about the hoops you had to jump through to get it to work.

[Skates97]

I've been running iFly EFB on Android for I think about 6 years now, no issues. Also never had an issue with any of the Samsung Galaxy tablets ever overheating like has been a frequent complaint about iPads.

[McMooney]

7 hours ago, midlifeflyer said:

These days, it's far more than a smidge. Maybe more like a gob. Maybe even a dollop. But it's enough for the basics. 

It really isn't, i still run it on my android phone, downloads actually work better

[Schllc]

I use ForeFlight and an iPad for planning and briefings, but once I am in the plane I only use my panel mount equipment and the iPad and IPhone are just backups. 

[IvanP]

Garmin Aera 760 works well for me. Rugged and purpose-built unit that does not appear to suffer with overheating as the popular i-products do. Of course, the Aera is not good for anything else but flying, whereas i-Pad or other tablets are much more vesatile. 

Decade or so ago I used a Windows based tablet sold by AnywhereMap. It was the same size as the Aera, which I think is the perfet size for Mooney cockpit, and it had a great screen viewable in bright sun. Loved the unit, but I have outlived the "lifetime subscruption" to software updates and had to switch (company went belly up few years ago). 

[toto]

7 hours ago, EricJ said:

There's a weird thing going on right now in that some of the software development tools have (supposedly) gotten good enough to make multi-platform migration much less of an issue now than it used to be.    We'll see how it plays out, but it may be becoming easier for developers to support multiple platforms.

This is directly affecting Avare, which I used and liked a lot for many years, and has historically been an Android-only app.    The developer of Avare decided to jump on the multi-platform bandwagon and has now deprecated Avare in favor of a brand-new, multi-platform product called AvareX.   They've also taken the opportunity to redesign the look and operation of most of the user interfaces, and, imho, they've got a long way to go to make it as usable as the original Avare app was.   It is running on Android, iOS, and Windows, and they're still making changes to "improve" things, but I find it unusable in its current form.   Maybe they'll get there and there will be a genuinely good free multi-platform EFB, but from my perspective it ain't there yet and has a long way to go.    Whether it really works well or creates more headaches for the support of the various hardware platforms also remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, I switched to iFly since a buddy I fly with a lot has been using it for years and loves it.   It is subscription based but is very good and is currently multi-platform and supports Android (yay), iOS, and Windows.    Some of the user interface is clunkier than the old Avare was, some of it is better, overall I would have preferred to just continue using Avare.    I think once my iFly subscription is up I'll try Garmin Pilot on Android and see if there's a personal preference between them.

I retired early partially thanks to Apple stock, so all you Android haters please do continue to purchase many Apple products and update them frequently.    Meanwhile, I remain an Android-only tablet and phone user guy.   

 

I do like Avare, but I ended up using FltPlan Go on Android - it had more features than Avare, and has a desktop web app that’s useful. FltPlan Go has a very dated interface that looks like it hasn’t been significantly updated in many years, but it’s functional. And it’s cross-compatible with Android and iOS. And it’s owned by Garmin, so it’s compatible with Garmin panel mount avionics etc. 

Anyway, I used FltPlan Go on Android and iOS until I switched to Garmin Pilot. FltPlan Go is a fantastic app for zero dollars. 

[toto]

7 hours ago, wombat said:

I've used ForeFlight and WingX both extensively. There are also other offerings (Garmin Pilot, etc)  Most are absolutely amazing products that raise situational awareness in the cockpit by huge amounts.  

There are differences between them in requirements, cost, and capabilities.

ForeFlight seems to be more popular than WingX and Garmin and others, but they all have their place.   There is even a place for "I only use paper charts and VORs & ILSs"

I really wanted to like WingX, and I kept renewing my free CFI subscription for years, but I always struggled with the interface. I could never seem to find what I was looking for. 

[toto]

7 hours ago, wombat said:

There is even a place for "I only use paper charts and VORs & ILSs"

Before there were iPads and Android tablets, I actually used an app for a few years called Reader Plates that was brilliant. It ran on a Sony e-reader (an e-ink display) and replaced several giant leather binders of paper charts. And since it was e-ink, I could use the charts in direct sunlight and the battery lasted for days. Reader Plates was better for approach plates than any general-purpose EFB. 

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, toto said:

I do like Avare, but I ended up using FltPlan Go on Android - it had more features than Avare, and has a desktop web app that’s useful. FltPlan Go has a very dated interface that looks like it hasn’t been significantly updated in many years, but it’s functional. And it’s cross-compatible with Android and iOS. And it’s owned by Garmin, so it’s compatible with Garmin panel mount avionics etc. 

Anyway, I used FltPlan Go on Android and iOS until I switched to Garmin Pilot. FltPlan Go is a fantastic app for zero dollars. 

FltPlan Go was my first EFB and I liked it a lot.   It has a "feature" in Android that if you hit the back button once it exits the program.   Once in a while the tail of my seatbelt would hit it in turbulence and it'd just exit...gone.   That happened once too many times for me and one of the reasons I switched to Avare was that if you selected exit it'd ask "Are you sure?", which rescues you from inadvertent exits.   I did keep FltPlan Go as my backup for a long time.   Now the legacy Avare app is my backup while I use iFly as primary.

I've heard from several people that use various different EFBs that they still use FltPlan Go for filing.   Apparently it makes that pretty easy.    The integration with the web interface for planning is really good.

 

[toto]

3 minutes ago, EricJ said:

I've heard from several people that use various different EFBs that they still use FltPlan Go for filing.   Apparently it makes that pretty easy.    The integration with the web interface for planning is really good.

Yep, I almost always file via FltPlan, and I use the desktop web app for some preflight planning. One of the nice features about ForeFlight that many other EFBs don’t have is the web app, but fltplan.com does just fine. And since it’s integrated with Garmin Pilot on the iPad, I often do preflight on the desktop via fltplan.com and then just activate the plan on Garmin Pilot. 

[midlifeflyer]

11 hours ago, McMooney said:

It really isn't, i still run it on my android phone, downloads actually work better

I run it on my Android phone too.

[midlifeflyer]

9 hours ago, toto said:

I really wanted to like WingX, and I kept renewing my free CFI subscription for years, but I always struggled with the interface. I could never seem to find what I was looking for. 

In the beginning there were only ForeFlight and WingX in the iOS space. They ran neck and neck for several years, leapfrogging each other with new features, with the usual zealous arguments between their users. The two interfaces were different from the beginning; two developers coming at the same issue from different directions.

At some point. ForeFlight pulled way ahead in market share and WingX development  pretty much stagnated. We can speculate on the reasons, but I think you are right about the interface being the general issue. 

[dkkim73]

13 hours ago, toto said:

Before there were iPads and Android tablets, I actually used an app for a few years called Reader Plates that was brilliant. It ran on a Sony e-reader (an e-ink display) and replaced several giant leather binders of paper charts. And since it was e-ink, I could use the charts in direct sunlight and the battery lasted for days. Reader Plates was better for approach plates than any general-purpose EFB. 

*That* is a really great idea. I think about how light and power-efficient some of the eInk readers are. Aside from loss of geo-referencing, that sounds like a very slick solution even if done as a backup. Did you find a convenient source of bulk downloads or find any combined files with table of contents?

[toto]

1 hour ago, dkkim73 said:

*That* is a really great idea. I think about how light and power-efficient some of the eInk readers are. Aside from loss of geo-referencing, that sounds like a very slick solution even if done as a backup. Did you find a convenient source of bulk downloads or find any combined files with table of contents?

The ReaderPlates service actually handled all of that. I paid something like $9.99/month and they would package all of the NOS plates into a single “book” along with a table of contents that was easy to navigate. ReaderPlates no longer exists, and I’m not sure whether anyone has a similar product today. 

It was insanely helpful compared to the painstaking effort of filing paper approach plates manually on a 28-day cycle. 

When the iPad came out in 2010, ReaderPlates actually released an EFB for the iPad that had a lot more features, but the basic approach chart functionality was definitely worse on the iPad than the e-reader. And I totally agree that this would be a great backup today, given the long battery life and bulletproof readability of e-ink. It was amazing how well you could read an approach chart with ReaderPlates in direct sunlight. 
 

ETA: Found an old P&P article about the ReaderPlates product with some screenshots. You can see how fantastic the resolution and readability is. 

https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/pilotplates-and-reader-plates/

[Echo]

I don’t mind others having an opinion, wait for it, but Hank, there is nothing wrong with koolaide man. My ipad mini was very affordable and runs Garmin Pilot great in my yoke mount. Nothing inferior if you like, understand and have a good experience with a product. 

[MikeOH]

8 minutes ago, Echo said:

I don’t mind others having an opinion, wait for it, but Hank, there is nothing wrong with koolaide man. My ipad mini was very affordable and runs Garmin Pilot great in my yoke mount. Nothing inferior if you like, understand and have a good experience with a product. 

Yeah, depends on the flavor, but I like Kool-Aid