Tablet for charts

drunkenbeagle

drunkenbeagle

Gang Member
Okay, I'm finally getting out of the stone age. Picked up a 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, I had a Best Buy gift card, it was refurbished, discounted, free shipping. I know the iPad is probably recommended, but I'm cheap, and this cost me next to nothing.

What is the consensus for software to put on it? Garmin Pilot seems like the way to go. Still have a year left on a paper Jepp subscription, so I've got some time to figure out how to use it to best effect.

Also, is there a cheap/recommended ADS-B gizmo that works well with this?
 
Been using Avilution AviationMaps on my Galaxy tablet for a year and love it. Developer responds to emails, bug fixes, feature requests quickly and releases updates regularly. $5/month data (cancel anytime) for Sectional/TAC/Low-High/AFD/Approach Plates... or if you want to upgrade to geo-referenced plates and diagrams its $115/annual.

Garmin Pilot seems good, but I've no desire to pay more for basically the same thing.

Edit: I haven't sprung for an ADS receiver yet so cannot comment on those. I also use the built in GPS receiver on my Galaxy which works about 95% of the time, certain cockpit angles and it will loose signal periodically. I'll eventually buy a bluetooth GPS to toss up on the glareshield which will also save a lot of battery life on the tablet, but I just haven't gotten around to it as it rarely matters.
 
rframe said:
Been using Avilution AviationMaps on my Galaxy tablet for a year and love it. Developer responds to emails, bug fixes, feature requests quickly and releases updates regularly. $5/month data (cancel anytime) for Sectional/TAC/Low-High/AFD/Approach Plates... or if you want to upgrade to geo-referenced plates and diagrams its $115/annual.
Click to expand...


Doesn't seem to be a huge difference in price, so I'm probably leaning towards the Garmin app, as that's I've seen most students seem to using (on an iPad anyway).

But thanks for the tip on Avilution, it looks well supported and has a free trial, I'll give it a shot.
 
Sell the tablet.

Buy an iPad Mini with a knee board... much nicer than the bigger iPad

Buy Flightaware, the app is amazing... and everything else I've tried just cannot match it.
 
Garmin Pilot has some definite advantages, not the least of which is the similarity of the interface with the 650/750 series touchscreen IFR units.

But since all of the good apps have a free trial, you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you don't figure out which one you like best (which for a lot of folks translates to "easiest for me to use") before committing to a full subscription to one.
 
canadian_atc said:
Sell the tablet.

Buy an iPad Mini with a knee board... much nicer than the bigger iPad

Buy Flightaware, the app is amazing... and everything else I've tried just cannot match it.
Click to expand...


It was pretty close to free, so sticking with the Samsung 7 for now. Plus, it has an IR blaster, so will hopefully replace the few dozen remote controls in my house.

What's so good about the Flightaware app (other than what the free one on my iPhone does)?
 
drunkenbeagle said:
It was pretty close to free, so sticking with the Samsung 7 for now. Plus, it has an IR blaster, so will hopefully replace the few dozen remote controls in my house.

What's so good about the Flightaware app (other than what the free one on my iPhone does)?
Click to expand...

See above :S
 
Before you spend any money on Foreflight or similar please give fltplan.com a try. Foreflight got a lot more features but you are not going to use many of those, it's the 80/20 rule in action.

PS. Oh and did I mention fltplan.com is free and no subscription is required?
 
hammerhat said:
Before you spend any money on Foreflight or similar please give fltplan.com a try. Foreflight got a lot more features but you are not going to use many of those, it's the 80/20 rule in action.

PS. Oh and did I mention fltplan.com is free and no subscription is required?
Click to expand...
Yeah but for 75 bucks a YEAR you can't beat the value of foreflight.
 
I personally have used foreflight the last 2 years on my iPad. It has served me well. A friend of mine uses the fltplan.com app, and I have to say it looks almost just as good as foreflight and is completely free. I would definitely check it out.
 
fltplan.com app on the Galaxy Tab2 10" works pretty well..and as stated above it's free!
 
It's funny, I've had the fltplan.com app for a good year and used it often to quickly grab weather products, but when you guys mentioned it as an EFB I'm thinking "WTF are they talking about, there's no charts in that?"... launched it, confirmed nothing is there. So I deleted and reinstalled it and walla: charts!

Downloading maps now, will test it out and try to do a comparison with AviationMaps after I get a little experience with it.
 
Well, just sitting here playing with FltPlan.com app at my desk and here's a few observations:

1. It's free - great! If nothing else get it for that. It's worth the price for sure.

Downloading maps failed several times for me. I do not know if this is always a manual process or if it reminds you when data is about to expire... maybe someone who uses it can explain this aspect.

Overall, it's pretty clunky. It shows a chart, which really is 90% of what you want/need. If you go complete a fltplan.com flight plan, then you can go back into the map, select that plan and it will show the highlighted path. However there's no way that I see to build a flight log from the map. The map is not clickable at all to add waypoints, new legs, etc. I do not see how you can edit a planned route at all if you have a re-route or just change your mind. Whereas in AviationMaps, if I click and hold any spot on the map I can add a waypoint, go direct, insert or append it to my current flight log.

Image quality is pretty poor. It's noticeably fuzzy/grainy at all zoom levels.

Here's a shot of my local area in FltPlan:
Screenshot_2013-07-19-09-21-46.jpg


Here's a shot in AviationMaps
Screenshot_2013-07-19-09-21-56.jpg


It gets a lot worse when you zoom out in FltPlan's app.
Screenshot_2013-07-19-09-25-55.jpg



There's no leg info that I can see, ETE/ETA to next fix, etc.

In AviationMaps you can toggle METAR indicators as a layer on the map. TFR's are overlaid (like this one that just popped up on my route to Missoula). You can also see the extended runway centerline indicators at my destination showing up.

Screenshot_2013-07-19-09-27-28.jpg


If you want airport info in FltPlan's app you exit the map and go pull it up in the AFD PDF manually. In AviationMaps, you touch the airport and basic info pops up in a dialog and if you want extended AFD info, airport diagrams, or approach plates, they are right there. The quick click airport info box in AviationMaps, with links to pull up extended info, full weather, plates, etc.

Screenshot_2013-07-19-09-27-57.jpg



I'll try to test out the FltPlan.com in flight, but just from the basics I've seen so far I'd gladly spend the $4.95/month for AviationMaps. If you have nothing else, by all means get FltPlan.com's app.


Edit: with more playing I see more layer options to add TFR's and weather to FltPlan.com app, so that's great...also it does seem you can edit a route, you have to enable editing from a menu, choose the fix, choose what you want to do (edit/delete) and then you can click the map and it seems to search for fixes... I'm having troubles getting it to work, slow and lots of clicking, but it does seem that the functionality is there.
 
I think it's not properly configured on your device. I does look crisp on mine, below is a screenshot with a comparable zoom level. In fact the chart on your AviationMaps screenshot appears to be distorted horizontally (or maybe its just me). Also notice the panel on the bottom, when you have a route loaded it displays the next fix, ETA, distance etc. Click Layers button to add a TFR, SUA, WX and other overlays, those can be transparent. Also it does allow you to edit current route as well as tap and hold to find a fix nearby and add it to your route (see the second screenshot). So you don't have to go to the edit fixes menu, although that's another option where you have more control, e.g. rearrange order. But I rarely have to use it because fltplan.com automatically loads flight plans I file anyways. Finally remember that data you get in Fltplan's is QICP approved, so is Foreflight. I almost sure AviationMaps is not.

Screenshot_2013-07-19-23-09-28.png


Screenshot_2013-07-19-23-26-45.png
 
Am trying to do similar on the Blackberry tablet, though apps are less available. Still good for learning materials and FAA PDFs though - IAPs etc.
 
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