Moving Map and in Cockpit weather

Not sure if this is the correct forum but........................................


I am struggling with the decision of what is the best in cockpit downloadable weather, moving map and charting/approach plate system,devices, software.


I have eliminated Jepp due to expense and papercharts and plates due to inconvenience, weight, and lack of space.

My typical trip is 2-4000NM over 12 days and as such I really need plates for the entire US.

I have been running (variously) Flitesoft/Vista, Truemap, Chartcase( All have Wx Works, aproach plates and enroute IFR and VFR charts) on a tablet with a holux GPS and Wx Worksreceiver.


By far the weather works software offers the best ability to view their aviator package products. Truemap is a close second. Weather products viewable on Vista and chartcase suck.

Trumap has great enroute and approach graphics and is easy to use. Flightplanning sucks.

ChartsCase offers great raster sectionals and IFR charts as well as plates and on precision approaches (some ) you can use the plate on the moving map. Their weather viewing selection is fair to poor and flight planning sucks.

FliteSoft/Vista are awsome in flight planning and pulling up approach plates and in flight info but their viewable weather selection sucks.

All three are relatively cheap annual updates for the lower 48 and all run well on most tablet PCs.

Data selection with a stylus is somewhat problematic especially in turbulence but is less problematic than finding stuff on paper charts. The best solution I have found for this is a mouse that you wear as a ring.

Another problem that has arisen recently is that I now realize hard drives do not like thin air and I am frying a hard drive every 6 months.

I am currently looking at building a PC into the plane with either a solid state hard drive or a hard drive in a pressurized container.

A simpler solution is to sell all the stuff including my 296 and get a 396 for weather and backup, use the moving map in the efis for nav and carying just my flight planning software and plates on a tablet but never turn it on above 10,000 feet. With enroutes and VFR up to date in the EFIS One I will be legal and shouldn't have to update the 396 at $300/year. But I really like the versatility and information from the software packages.

Anybody have any thoughts or preferences in what they do?

Milt

Take a look at Mountainscope, by PC avaionics-----------Google can find it for you----------click on the "power users" button, and take a good look at the last one "John Snapp".

Mike

Mike,

Real Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is the unit pressurized? Any trouble with the wireless?

Milt, I dont know about the pressurization of the unit, I was just looking into what I am going to put into my -10----------and while searching around on the web, I bumped my head (really hard) into the old "cant see the forrest fro the trees" thing----------turns out that the maker of the "Mountaainscope" program is a member of our local EAA chapter, and then to add insult to injury (mine), he was the guest speaker at the last chapter meeting. The program he has developed is amazing, I am planning on using it in my plane.

You should give him a call---------Todd, at 877-444-4722, with any technical questions.

Good luck,
Mike Starkey

Still struggling with decision

Below are some photos taken while on the ground using either Flitesoft/Vist, Truemap, or Chartcase displayed on an HP110 tablet or an 8" touchscreen driven by the HP tablet. Have recently done a good bit of flying with a 396 and while I really like it I am leaning towards permanently mounting the touchscreen and using one of the software products. Using my 296 to drive the GPS input to the software.
Hardcosts are about the same annual updates for the software programs are less and include approach plates as well as charts.

Flitesoft/Vista
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Chartcase
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Truemap VFR Mode
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more below

Truemap IFR Mode
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Flitesoft/Vista
[url=http://imageshack.us][img=http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/2740/8inchtouchscreenflitesoftvista.jpg][/url][img/]

also go here>>>[url]http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=3957&page=3[/url]



Flitesoft Vista
[img][URL=http://img387.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hp1100tabletflitesoftvista0on.jpg][IMG]http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/1348/hp1100tabletflitesoftvista0on.th.jpg[/URL][img/]

Thanks for the pictures, I have also been considering a tablet PC with software for my moving map display.

Do all of these software products use WxWorx for weather? Do you know if any of them can take an XM Weather feed from the 396?

I've heard that WxWorx is not as good as XM, can anyone comment on this?

The Mountain Scope software also looks very nice, they even have a desktop simulator you can use to check out the features but also uses WxWorx.

wx Works and XM are one and the same.

Nope cant feed from the 396 for weather only GPS.

N395V said:

wx Works and XM are one and the same.

Nope cant feed from the 396 for weather only GPS.

Click to expand...

Whoops, guess I should have checked out their website before asking. I must be thinking of another product.

Thanks for the info!

I'm also trying to sort through the ever increasing number of tablet pc based programs offering flight and nav data. Here are my two front runners, neither of which seem to be on your list: True Flight http://www.aviationsafety.com/products.htm

and

Mercury Computer Systems, http://www.mc.com/vistanav/index.cfm

I'd be curious to hear if you already knew of these guys and possibly rejected them for a particular reason.

Also, screen intensity (measured in NITs) and sunlight readability are big issues with tablet PCs. One of the things that attracted me to True Flight is their FL 210 product. They OEM a 1000 NIT screen that is very bright. Note too they have an option for a 2 Gb solid state hard drive.

Ray
N858JK reserved

Choices Choices

Interesting thread, for those of us who are low time and mainly fly VFR it seems there are many cost effective choices for in cockpit situational awareness and GPS navigation. I had planned to put a 296/396 in my -7 (about a year away from the wiring/panel work) as I have read great reviews here and know someone who loves the 296, but I have also been reading up on Anywhere Map (I have 2 Pocket PC's) and now just read up on Mountainscope based on this thead.
The pocket PC approach seems attractive as I have one and it has of course many other uses, also in most cases the software providers allow feature upgrades at minimum or no cost, how does one sort the wheat from the Chaff?