That last post got some good hits, and then I looked at my tablet, and realized I forgot a whole bunch of apps. I'll include the same categories, and list 10 more titles.
Moving Maps
To get good reliable moving maps in most aircraft will take an external GPS unit. These external GPS receivers can be mounted somewhere with a clear view of the sky. Sometimes the tablets will be used in places where they are unable to get a full view of the sky, making them unreliable. The external GPS receivers may have other capabilities (IE WAAS or ADS/B) as well.
I forgot the biggest of the big names. Garmin has and Android app, Garmin Pilot. The tag line "Plan, File, Fly" is what it seems it can do. There is a 30 day trial with this app, and requires a $9.99 monthly subscription. It includes charts (VFR, low and high IFR, approach plates and airport diagrams. Gets weather from NWS, including METARs TAF, winds aloft, PIREPs and various maps. Allows flight plan filing via DUATs.
Avilution AviationMaps is another application that seems really nice for maps. Allows breifing and filing through DUATS. Advertises that it can get weather including NEXRAD through ADS/B receiver, making it a very handy tool. Can get weather maps, METARs, TAFs, PIREPs and NOTAMs while in flight, or on the ground. Icing, winds and area forecasts are only available on the ground (this is a ADS/B limitation, not the software). All the same maps, VFR, Hi/Lo IFR, approach plates and airport diagrams. The subscription is either $74.95/year or 149.90/yr premium.
AirNavigation Pro includes maps and instruments.The instrument looks like an HSI, which I have always preferred for telling me where to go, or if I am on course or not. The charts they say are free and cover the whole world. The cost is $26.95 to buy, and doesn't really mention any subscriptions. This may be an app to keep an eye on.
E6B/Weather
AirWX Aviation Simple layout, enter an airport, the tabs appear for METAR, TAF, PIREPS, Charts and Plates. A really simple thing to be able to check as you get to an airport, not sure how useful it will be when flying for a couple hours (doesn't say ADS/B receivers are supported). No subscription fee, but will cost you $6.99 to buy it.
Weather Pilot Simple organization, allowing looking at text weather for multiple airports at a time. Very light weight, seems pretty fast and reliable. Still limited to mobile data, and not ADS/B receivers. It is free, and no subscription is required.
Avilution E6B Flight Computer - Real basic conversions, but seems well organized. Enter what you know, and it will figure out the rest. It is $4.95 to purchase it. It is likely you will not be able to use this on a test, since the proctors will confiscate your tablet and phone before going into the testing area.
Misc
Trade-A-Plane I used this weekly for a while on my old phone. Really handy for looking up used plane prices, or avionics or whatever you used to see in the yellow paper. Loved it, but I am not looking to buy things these days, so sadly, I haven't used it in a while. This app is free.
Aviation Exam just had a huge upgrade, it is very pretty now. I most recently used their app to earn my AGI rating. The Flight/Ground instructor review was really helpful, and allowed me to get a good grade the first time. The app is free, but you need to buy the test you want to study from. The tests are mostly $9.99-13.12 for 2 months, and can be had in bundles (IE PPL, IR, CPL). The tests are for EASA and FAA. Hooks into http://aviationexam.com and allows sync'ing tests and results.
GPS Status isn't just for aviation, but if you use GPS for anything, it may give you more insight about the accuracy of your GPS receiver. It shows the receivers in the sky right and their relative position. On the bottom, it shows the relative signal strength in a bar graph. Most Androidn GPS receivers will allow picking up US GPS and Russian GLONASS GNSS satellite signals and use them to give even more accurate position reports. This will show most of the relative position information the device can provide, including error information (DOP/HDOP/VDOP and absolute error in ft).
Ultimate Flight Checklist Mobile is a huge name, and will put it in the bottom of any alphabet list, but it is a great checklist tool. It allows adding any number of checklists for various aircraft. It comes with the three popular training aircraft; Cessna 172, Piper Cherokee 180, and Socata TB-10. You may add your aircraft and customize the checklist for any particular aircraft. Set your checklists in a way that works for you and be safe.
This again is not an exhaustive list of the aviation apps out there for the Android. It is a collection of some that I have used, or thought were interesting. If you have a favorite, let me know, and I'll take a look. Authors, users, doesn't matter to me, I'd love to hear what your favorites are.
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weather. Show all posts
Friday, February 7, 2014
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Aviation Software For Android
There used to be a web site that was dedicated to what aviation software was available for the android platform. That we site has gone somewhat dark. It used to be, there wasn't much to report on for Android use in the cockpit, but recently there has been almost an explosion.
The big tablet software names are not out there saying how wonderful the Android is, but that doesn't mean there is no software for the Android. There have been E6-B type applications for many years, and a couple aviation charting apps. The big guys are seeing the light, and noticing there are customers for their apps using Android tablets and phones.
The following is a sample of apps that I think is significant.
There is are several pretty good moving map package available for the Android.
Naviator is another app that is all charts for everyone. It will show as a PFD, HSI, weather or mapping and can split the screen and show two screens at once. Runs on phones and tablets, and allows you to share one license between two devices. It works with external devices, like the Zaon XRX for traffic.The subscription is $49.
Avare is a great app. Mostly it just shows charts, the FAA ones. You have to manually load them, which puts you in control, so check before you want to leave if you need any new chart updates. It works with WAC, IFR Hi/Lo and sectional charts, and merges them to a smooth display. It only works in the USA and Canada, because of the chart limitations.It supports external GPS devices as well. Best of all, it is free!
GPS Air Navigator is a navigation app for the rest of the world. It seems to be mostly VFR only, and the maps appear to be open street type maps, with airports located on them. This is free.
Fly is Fun, I just found this one. It looks interesting, but I haven't installed it. It says it has terrain, and worldwide navigation database. It says it will do approaches (ILS, VOR, NDB, GPS, DME) and the screen shots show a HSI looking device below the maps. There is a free version, and the pro version is 19.90.
The big name here is Jeppesen. Jeppesen has made terrific charts for decades, and I have used their products. They have some really amazing tools. Their web site is pretty awful, and if you can find anything useful on it, it will be by pure luck. Their Mobile terminal charts (TC) app is available for the Samsung Galaxy line of tablets. As some other sites have noted, their charts are great, too bad they can't find someone to write better software.
There are others, just hit the play store searching for "Aviation Chart".
E6-B's are the aviator tools to rely on. The Wiz Wheel is still needed for taking FAA tests and such, since they don't want you googling your answers. When you aren't taking the test, it is really fine to use a computer!
AvDroid Wow, I have seen this app get better and better over the last few months. It is more than E6-B functionality, since it will get the weather, show airport information and organize it in a way that will make setting up for an approach a simple task. The free version has some limitations, the paid app is $1.59.
Aviation Pocket Knife has some basic conversion tools, gets weather and NOTAMs, and can find approach charts. It does some really handy things (like calculate descent by altitude) in an easy to use format. So many features I won't list them here, but being Free it can be quite handy.
Flighttools E6B is a really basic E6-B calculator. It doesn't try to do anything else. It calculates the time-speed-distance that you may need, cross wind calculations, and does conversions to and from everything. Again, this is free.
There are many more E6B apps for the Android. To find the E6B apps, go to the play store and search for E6B apps.
Getting weather on the tablet can be very useful. It will allow you to make some preliminary plans around a flight. Getting the weather on the tablet is better than nothing, but may not qualify for flight planning purposes. Using DUATs or Flight Service will still be needed.
Aviation Weather is an app that allows quickly getting the weather for specific airports. It comes up with the local airports, and then allows you to search for other airports. It used to be free, but now is $1.85.
Avitation Tools is more than weather, it will fetch charts, and organize alternates. Probably pretty handy if out on a flight, and you have access to data. I have the free app, and it tries to cover the world.
There are so many other aviation related apps that I couldn't categorize. I could put together an exhaustive list, but it would take months. Trying these tools and properly reviewing all of them would be very time consuming.
IATA/ICAO Dictionary this is one of those tools, that if you work for an airline you probably need to have. Airport codes are a mess, since IATA only uses 3 letters and only covers airline operations, where ICAO uses 4 letters and covers GA, helicopter, and airline operations. Knowing that KBBG is Branson Missouri can be handy, when the ticket on the airline say BKG. (Branson is a relatively new airport, and the Butaritari Atoll in Kiribati already used the BBG designator). It can also be handy to know that DAL is the ICAO designation for Delta airlines, and DL is the IATA designation. The tool does so much more (including weather and maps).
In-flight Instruments well this seems to be an attempt at a panel app for the Android. It doesn't quite work on my Samsung Note 10.1, but I have other apps that don't work on the note 10.1 as well. The apps shows the potential of the android platform for a backup panel. There are probably a whole slew of other apps that do it better, using the gyro and GPS fused.To be safe, it would be best to have an external attitude heading reference system bolted into the plane, and the tablet would only display the results.
X-Plane it is a limited version of the full PC simulator. I don't think it is limited because of the hardware, other than memory limitations. The controls are the tilting of the device, which I guess is similar to yoke type actions, or not. I've been able to show people what it is like to land a 777 at SFO on a VFR day, and just have fun with it when I am waiting for the dentist or something.
I could go on and on, but I want to limit this to a few titles that I have used, or thought looked interesting.
The big tablet software names are not out there saying how wonderful the Android is, but that doesn't mean there is no software for the Android. There have been E6-B type applications for many years, and a couple aviation charting apps. The big guys are seeing the light, and noticing there are customers for their apps using Android tablets and phones.
The following is a sample of apps that I think is significant.
Moving Maps
There is are several pretty good moving map package available for the Android.
Naviator is another app that is all charts for everyone. It will show as a PFD, HSI, weather or mapping and can split the screen and show two screens at once. Runs on phones and tablets, and allows you to share one license between two devices. It works with external devices, like the Zaon XRX for traffic.The subscription is $49.
Avare is a great app. Mostly it just shows charts, the FAA ones. You have to manually load them, which puts you in control, so check before you want to leave if you need any new chart updates. It works with WAC, IFR Hi/Lo and sectional charts, and merges them to a smooth display. It only works in the USA and Canada, because of the chart limitations.It supports external GPS devices as well. Best of all, it is free!
GPS Air Navigator is a navigation app for the rest of the world. It seems to be mostly VFR only, and the maps appear to be open street type maps, with airports located on them. This is free.
Fly is Fun, I just found this one. It looks interesting, but I haven't installed it. It says it has terrain, and worldwide navigation database. It says it will do approaches (ILS, VOR, NDB, GPS, DME) and the screen shots show a HSI looking device below the maps. There is a free version, and the pro version is 19.90.
The big name here is Jeppesen. Jeppesen has made terrific charts for decades, and I have used their products. They have some really amazing tools. Their web site is pretty awful, and if you can find anything useful on it, it will be by pure luck. Their Mobile terminal charts (TC) app is available for the Samsung Galaxy line of tablets. As some other sites have noted, their charts are great, too bad they can't find someone to write better software.
There are others, just hit the play store searching for "Aviation Chart".
E6-B apps
E6-B's are the aviator tools to rely on. The Wiz Wheel is still needed for taking FAA tests and such, since they don't want you googling your answers. When you aren't taking the test, it is really fine to use a computer!
AvDroid Wow, I have seen this app get better and better over the last few months. It is more than E6-B functionality, since it will get the weather, show airport information and organize it in a way that will make setting up for an approach a simple task. The free version has some limitations, the paid app is $1.59.
Aviation Pocket Knife has some basic conversion tools, gets weather and NOTAMs, and can find approach charts. It does some really handy things (like calculate descent by altitude) in an easy to use format. So many features I won't list them here, but being Free it can be quite handy.
Flighttools E6B is a really basic E6-B calculator. It doesn't try to do anything else. It calculates the time-speed-distance that you may need, cross wind calculations, and does conversions to and from everything. Again, this is free.
There are many more E6B apps for the Android. To find the E6B apps, go to the play store and search for E6B apps.
Weather
Getting weather on the tablet can be very useful. It will allow you to make some preliminary plans around a flight. Getting the weather on the tablet is better than nothing, but may not qualify for flight planning purposes. Using DUATs or Flight Service will still be needed.
Aviation Weather is an app that allows quickly getting the weather for specific airports. It comes up with the local airports, and then allows you to search for other airports. It used to be free, but now is $1.85.
Avitation Tools is more than weather, it will fetch charts, and organize alternates. Probably pretty handy if out on a flight, and you have access to data. I have the free app, and it tries to cover the world.
Other
There are so many other aviation related apps that I couldn't categorize. I could put together an exhaustive list, but it would take months. Trying these tools and properly reviewing all of them would be very time consuming.
IATA/ICAO Dictionary this is one of those tools, that if you work for an airline you probably need to have. Airport codes are a mess, since IATA only uses 3 letters and only covers airline operations, where ICAO uses 4 letters and covers GA, helicopter, and airline operations. Knowing that KBBG is Branson Missouri can be handy, when the ticket on the airline say BKG. (Branson is a relatively new airport, and the Butaritari Atoll in Kiribati already used the BBG designator). It can also be handy to know that DAL is the ICAO designation for Delta airlines, and DL is the IATA designation. The tool does so much more (including weather and maps).
In-flight Instruments well this seems to be an attempt at a panel app for the Android. It doesn't quite work on my Samsung Note 10.1, but I have other apps that don't work on the note 10.1 as well. The apps shows the potential of the android platform for a backup panel. There are probably a whole slew of other apps that do it better, using the gyro and GPS fused.To be safe, it would be best to have an external attitude heading reference system bolted into the plane, and the tablet would only display the results.
X-Plane it is a limited version of the full PC simulator. I don't think it is limited because of the hardware, other than memory limitations. The controls are the tilting of the device, which I guess is similar to yoke type actions, or not. I've been able to show people what it is like to land a 777 at SFO on a VFR day, and just have fun with it when I am waiting for the dentist or something.
I could go on and on, but I want to limit this to a few titles that I have used, or thought looked interesting.
FMI
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)