SkyDemon iPad released

[flybymike]

I am a little averse to using a GPS on my knee since once suffering a bad case of the leans whilst flying on instruments and continually moving my head up and down.

[Lefty]

1) you can buy a standalone gps receiver for about £20 on eBay. I'd rather not use my phone as I wouldn't want to arrive and find my phone battery dead because I've been using it as a gps for the past 2-3 hours in the plane.
2) I think you are making an incorrect assumption that you need to have the iPad in constant view. I treat mine line a chart. Leaving on my knee - on the dash or even down between the seats - and then only picking it up when I actually want to look at somethng. (or when it beeps to alert me of approaching airspace). I occassionally use mine in the cub with no problem. In the cruise it sits on my knee - no problem. during takeoff and landing -it sits on the dash - or down beside my right knee. All it takes is thedesire to make it work - and it works.

[stevelup]

1) you can buy a standalone gps receiver for about £20 on eBay. I'd rather not use my phone as I wouldn't want to arrive and find my phone battery dead because I've been using it as a gps for the past 2-3 hours in the plane.

You sure? I'm not aware of any £20 devices that work with iOS. The three that do (Dual XGPS150, GNS5870 and Bad Elf) are all £70 ish.

2) I think you are making an incorrect assumption that you need to have the iPad in constant view. I treat mine line a chart. Leaving on my knee - on the dash or even down between the seats - and then only picking it up when I actually want to look at somethng. (or when it beeps to alert me of approaching airspace). I occassionally use mine in the cub with no problem. In the cruise it sits on my knee - no problem. during takeoff and landing -it sits on the dash - or down beside my right knee. All it takes is thedesire to make it work - and it works.

Absolutely, I quickly transitioned from having the GPS in constant view to using it more like a chart on my lap. Let's face it, we didn't used to mount our paper charts on the windscreen

The only time the joystick gets in the way is during take off for me (taildragger), but I don't need SD to take off so not a big problem

[Aussie Andy]

1) you can buy a standalone gps receiver for about £20 on eBay. I'd rather not use my phone as I wouldn't want to arrive and find my phone battery dead because I've been using it as a gps for the past 2-3 hours in the plane.
2) I think you are making an incorrect assumption that you need to have the iPad in constant view. I treat mine line a chart. Leaving on my knee - on the dash or even down between the seats - and then only picking it up when I actually want to look at somethng. (or when it beeps to alert me of approaching airspace). I occassionally use mine in the cub with no problem. In the cruise it sits on my knee - no problem. during takeoff and landing -it sits on the dash - or down beside my right knee. All it takes is thedesire to make it work - and it works.

Agree totally on both points ... I bought the excellent XGPS150 Bluetooth GPS receiver online from Sportys ref. http://bit.ly/HCtdb8 and it is tremendous, fast, reliable and long battery life - and works with Apple iPad (it uses a different protocol apparently so not all Bluetooth GPS work with iPad).

And also agree that I now pick up / put down the iPad running SD exactly as I would a chart. Means more time head out of the cockpit in fact. I put my iPad inside an excellent product that protects it from bumps and scratches, and provides a non-slip rubberised back that does not slip from my knee called "Otterbox" which I would also highly recommend, plus an anti-glare stick-on as well to make it a bit better in sunny conditions. See http://bit.ly/gNxyQ1 for Otterbox Defender.

Andy

[Lefty]

Hurrah - After several weeks of failure I've finally seen the SD psuedo ILS working this afternoon on approach to Sywell's runway 03. Mind you I did estabilsh on final at about 10 miles out.

However it didn't work on my return to Waltham. Seems it doesn't like it unless you get line up miles away - so flying anything like a circuit doesn't work.

Question for Tim - how does it know the runway in use? ATC could easily give you a different runway. Surely you need some way of telling SD which runway you want to land on?

[Aussie Andy]

I too would like to know how it really works... from what I've deduced so far:

a) i seem to be far above the default glideslope so am going to change setting next time out;

b) the GS indiactor seems to disappear when 1NM to run? Or maybe when you're below a certain GPS ALT?

[Timothy]

i seem to be far abive the default glideslope so okan to vhangethe settingbnext time out;

That's clear then.

You can change the glideslope angle in the settings.

It disappears at 500', which probably explains why it doesn't come on in the circuit.

I have now used it a number of times and it seems more reliable in real life than in the simulator.

[Aussie Andy]

Edited to orrect fat finger typing!

Thx - so it goes off at 500' that explains.

[Iceman]

Has anyone any experience of flying with an iPad and the thing shutting down after half an hour of flight due overheating (it stuck out a message saying so) ? On a flight from Guernsey to Cannes last weekend, the iPad shut down half an hour out of Guernsey despite the ground temperature at Guernsey being only +18C, and that in the cabin being somewhat less at altitude. Apart from this iPad problem, my first experiences of SkyDemon are very positive.

Iceman

[Timothy]

Edited to orrect fat finger typing!

[Lefty]

Just like all the other handheld GPS's - they stop displaying glideslope as you descend through 500ft GPS computed altitude (above threshold elevation). GPS derived altitude is reckoned to be quite inaccurate - at around +/- 250 ft therefore no where near accurate enough to use when close to the ground - hence they stop at 500 aal.

However when approaching the circuit I was at 2000 aal - but it never gave me any indication at all to fly left or right to intercept a centreline (any centreline?) nor did it even hint at whether the descent path was above / below me. I would expect it to have some way for you to set up the active runway - or at least set up a desired inbound track (OBS).

[grayswan]

Has anyone any experience of flying with an iPad and the thing shutting down after half an hour of flight due overheating (it stuck out a message saying so) ? On a flight from Guernsey to Cannes last weekend, the iPad shut down half an hour out of Guernsey despite the ground temperature at Guernsey being only +18C, and that in the cabin being somewhat less at altitude. Apart from this iPad problem, my first experiences of SkyDemon are very positive.

Iceman

I had a similar experience with an iPad 3. I had left the iPad on the top of the dash in a tb10 on the ground on a sunny day. I then connected it to the charger, switched it on, started running SD and took off. It was mounted in a plastic knee pad with little chance to lose heat and It overtemped after about 20 mins. Not specifically an SD issue but something to watch out for when using the iPad in sunny conditions

[mrfusion]

Has anyone any experience of flying with an iPad and the thing shutting down after half an hour of flight due overheating (it stuck out a message saying so) ? On a flight from Guernsey to Cannes last weekend, the iPad shut down half an hour out of Guernsey despite the ground temperature at Guernsey being only +18C, and that in the cabin being somewhat less at altitude. Apart from this iPad problem, my first experiences of SkyDemon are very positive.

Iceman

I had a similar experience with an iPad 3. I had left the iPad on the top of the dash in a tb10 on the ground on a sunny day. I then connected it to the charger, switched it on, started running SD and took off. It was mounted in a plastic knee pad with little chance to lose heat and It overtemped after about 20 mins. Not specifically an SD issue but something to watch out for when using the iPad in sunny conditions

I've had this a couple of times as well when the iPad 3 is on my knee. The sun coming through the windscreen heats it up so it's red hot to touch. I try and keep it out of the sun now if possible. Prehaps a white version wouldn't heat up so much.

[Tim Dawson]

Unfortunately we can't really do public betas of the iPad product, but we've just pushed out a beta of our PC product which shows off some of the features in the forthcoming iPad version too. These include Europe-wide airfield plates, our new GlideSafe technology, and some other goodies. More to come too, before the simultaneous release of PC/Mobile/iPad version 2.4 in a couple of weeks.

[Tony]

Hi Tim.

Ive downloaded the Beta version. Im not sure how I pull up the airfield plates. In plan view on the right hand side I have plates. I click on this and it pulls up the departure/arrival airfields. When I click on the Aerodrome Chart National AIP I get "The document “242.pdf” couldn’t be opened".?

Thanks
Tony

OK I figured it. Downloaded a PDF reader. Simple