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View Poll Results: ForeFlight or GarminPilot, what do you use?
ForeFlight 7 46.67%
GarminPilot 5 33.33%
Neither 3 20.00%
Voters: 15. You may not vote on this poll

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  #1  
Unread 11-20-19, 07:21 AM
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patrolpilot patrolpilot is offline
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GarminPilot or ForeFlight?

Anyone have any experience with both. I'm a FF user but have been considering GarminPilot since I purchased my 337. ForeFlight has served my needs well in the patrol plane, doing a great job of keeping the complex patrol at my fingertips (image).

What I did like during the GP trial period, was the ability to use my Samsung (Android) phone with the app, which is not available with FF. I'm adding a Garmin Flight Stream 210 to end the knob turning with the 430s, and with GP, both my phone and iPad could communicate with the 430s through the FS210. As a note, the Android-based phone is needed; it is feeding a lot of data into google based applications while on patrol.

A majority of my 337 flying will be on an IFR flight plan, so the need to manipulate the 430s seems is a primary consideration. I did not use GP on my patrol during the trial period — an oversight on my part.

What are you guys and gals using? Any thoughts?
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  #2  
Unread 11-21-19, 07:57 PM
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I like iFly. The only thing it lacks is real flight planning (no wind correction columns, which is very strange). But it is cross platform-- even windows-- and can share all data across 5 different devices. Very full featured (except planning).
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  #3  
Unread 11-22-19, 12:37 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by YankeeClipper View Post
I like iFly. The only thing it lacks is real flight planning (no wind correction columns, which is very strange). But it is cross platform-- even windows-- and can share all data across 5 different devices. Very full featured (except planning).
Thanks for the info, YC. Yeah, the flight planning is a must (and subsequent transfer to the 430s). My four reoccurring flights are from 822 to 1222 nm. That's a lot of planning and waypoints.

The work on my airplane is finishing up. Today, I found a coupon for a 3-month subscription to GarminPilot in the Flight Stream 210 material. I will run them both and see what fits best. More than likely, I suspect that I will stick with ForeFlight as the patrol flying and the environment it takes place in has made me very comfortable with it.

My first trip since purchasing the airplane and coming out of maintenance will be taking me to the western part of my State for a mule deer hunt!
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  #4  
Unread 11-29-19, 06:50 AM
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Does anyone subscribe to ForeFlight Performance Plus? If so, what do you think of the C337 cruise performance that is included with it?
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  #5  
Unread 12-01-19, 12:50 PM
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ForeFlight Perf + = It's spot on guys

These platforms for EFB's are all pretty good, Garmin and ForeFlight are tops but some of the other platforms provide the same info. It's just personal preference and what you get used to. It's hard to change after using one of these apps for a while. Price is probably the best deciding factor but when I make a living flying clients I want the best option out there as the cost difference in the end is a really small part of the overall picture. If you don't have to take flying so seriously then FlightPlan.com is free, why would you not use this for free?
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  #6  
Unread 12-21-19, 12:25 PM
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I have Tremap, FlyQ, Foreflight performance, WingX, and IflyGPS

As my wife has many shoes, I have many flying apps. Its a race!

I use an Ipad Mini. Just right in the cockpit on a yoke mounted dispplay. I 4 of them. Well, ...one for the office/airplane. One for upstairs home, reading, news. One for downstairs, reading, news, flightplanning. ...And the old mini-2 that has a cell account for backup on overseas travel, should my phone die in some remote area, and was getting overwhelmed by foreflight.

I bought a lifetime fly-Q years ago, and found it very user friendly. Their philosophy is/was no more than two clicks from the 'next thing.' And their display friendly on eyes over over 20 years old. My major complaint is, they haven't yet figured out vector maps, so you are still using a computer to look at North up enhanced printed docs.

Sort of like using a UH Def display to read badly-cluttered roman scrolls.

In the airplane, Aviation-safety / Truemap is hard to beat, as its data presentation is well-boiled down to cleanly presenting just the essentials. ...But it runs on Windows hardware.

I have a Helmnav 650 display in airplane which beats everything for brightness and clarity, and touchscreen, including downloaded XM weather. In theory it should prt from a Stratus 3s as well, on the open format. Need to check.

Foreflight was funded w $10m VC money, I think Silver Lake partners. It has the most elaborate functionality, ...but was recently bought by Boeing. The thing that struck me most was Foreflight having so many programmers. Near 200 as I recall. Making wild guesses about number of subscribers would suggest revenue per employee seems too low to remain sustainable. Maybe that's why it was sold? And, ..will Boeing keep feeding all those programmers, or just start milking the foreflight cow?

I recently added IFlygps and find its display and user interface clean and intuitive.

I currently have a Strtaus 2s w proprietary interface, and am thinking of getting 3S so it will talk to all of these apps.

And my wife wants more shoes.... And has started riding a horse.

So, like any self-respecting corrupt government, I have to start rethinking resource allocation...
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  #7  
Unread 12-22-19, 09:42 AM
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Thanks for the info, David! I, too, wonder what changes Boeing will bring to ForeFlight. Having flown their products, I always found them way behind the avionics technology curve vs. the corporate jets I flew. Time will tell, and I will remain optimistic. For my patrol work, I don't think you can beat FF.

I'm up and flying with Garmin 210 interfacing with the 430W and FF. "Oh My!" is all I can say. There is no more knob twisting on the NAV side. It is making short work of IFR clearances change. I live and fly in a non-radar environment, so there is a lot of NAV work immediately after take-off and with approaches. I would say that the FF-210-430W interface reduces the workload by 90%.

My 337 uses a GTX330/GDL-82 as the out. It would have been nice if a GTX-335 or 345 had been installed to meet the requirement, but I, sure enough, understand funding the changes the previous owner needed to consider. That will all work out in the wash as I would like a second transponder as well and would keep what exists.

I use the Stratus 2S on the patrol plane. My 337 came with a Stratux by Merlin, and I didn't think much of it and planned to change it out with a current Stratus. However, after using the Stratux, I like it better than the Stratus. What I like best is the user interface through the IP and the ability to perform updates. Mine was near a decade behind, but it was easy to bring up to speed at no expense. With the ability to access the Stratux through the IP address in flight, it adds a second AHRS display via the iPads browser or even your phone.

I took a heck of a hit on patrol last Monday as I crossed a frontal line. It would have been helpful to look at the Stratux's G-meter to see how bad it was. That's not possible with the Stratus 2S.

When I bought the airplane, the Stratux was on the glare shield, up against the windscreen with the antennas flat against the glare shield. Very much a poor setup for reception and heat, especially from the defroster.

I found a 3D Printed suction mounted case (pictured) on eBay which has been outstanding. It pairs the EasyACC6000mah battery that came with the Stratus in separate, but joined boxes with cutouts for the cooling fan and any cables. I do run the Stratux off the battery and battery is always connected to USB power. I've run the battery and Stratux on Patrol, it does offer a full 4 hours of power and the four indicator lights sequence down with the remaining power. So, if the Skymaster power goes off line, the battery delivers power for four hours.

I did want to get the Stratux box off the window and ran into to some products from Open Flight Solutions. I purchase the remote GPS and Antenna Mounts along with the High Gain Antennas. My plan is to mount the 3D box on the side of the center pedestal. All the cables will be behind trim and panel overlays.

The latter part of this might have been better in an ADS-B In topic, but it seems timely here. I will post a picture of the OFS products once installed.
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  #8  
Unread 02-16-20, 05:57 PM
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WingX

I have used Foreflight but keep a subscription to WingX.
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  #9  
Unread 02-17-20, 08:07 AM
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Hey Learjetter! I flew a 25B-CIII and 55 for 17 years!

To update my posts above, I'm sticking with FF and upgraded from the Performance to the Performance Plus. I'm also keeping the Stratux for now. I looked at several options but will keep it for now as I'm sinking enough into the airplane with this maintenance cycle.

I've been a bit "aggressive" asking support questions, by aggressive I mean constantly via email, as the documentation leaves out the details of a lot of features. The FF responses typically come within minutes, an individual answering my question. They always will point out more features, kind of an "if you like this, you will really like this" type of thing. That and getting ready to move into the C414A spurred on to the Performance Plus subscription.

I'm working on my CFII-ME add-on and having the performance of most ME aircraft available from FF is a plus.
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