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Noticed a market movement re Fly-Q EFB

jeffw@sc47

Well Known Member
I have been using Fly-Q EFB by Seattle Avionics (sold via AOPA initially) since around 2008. I had TRIAL'ED both Wing-X and Foreflight back then too. Finally settling on Fly-Q. All were good and I couldn't really find anything bad with any of them; can't recall exactly why I settled on Fly-Q, the overall touch and feel. Have been very pleased with it using it on iPads with data coming in from a Clarity SV. I took advantage of a life-time subscription offer a year after I bought the initial subscription, which was two years for the cost of one. My life time subscription expires in 2098 (great news, if I take that literally).

At KOSG 2018 last week I attended three of Garmin's seminars about the G3X system; I have invested around $30K in G3X for the RV14A I am assembling. One presentation touched on Garmin's Connext interface to allow other tablet nav apps to wi-fi share nav data with the G3X system. Of course it works with Garmin Pilot and two others - Foreflight and a recently added app which (can't recall). I asked the presenter if they had any knowledge or info about whether Garmin might include allowing Fly-Q to be included in being able to connect with Connext. I got an immediate curt response that they were not aware of any information about that issue. At the end of the session I had a direct contact with the presenter and was referred to "Jan" in the main Garmin tent. Tracked down Jan and had a short conversation where she told me that she was not aware of any conversations with Seattle Avionics about that in the past two years.

I stopped by the Seattle Avionics booth and was told by a rep that there have be talks with Garmin recently but they were under NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) and that was about all they could tell me.

Another insight into this tight market, presumably cloak and dagger, app flight nav issue > I just received a nice 48 page magazine issue from Sporty's; iPad PILOT NEWS. What I found interesting is that the two page section entitled TOP 15 APPS FOR PILOTS did not include FLy-Q EFB. I am surprised that Fly-Q doesn't make the top 15 apps (according to SPORTY'S) for navigation/ADSB apps for the iPad. They should have entitled it "The top 15 apps, ACCORDING to SPORTY'S, LEAVING AT LEAST ONE REALLY GOOD ONE OUT".

Of course the marketing chief exec's at Garmin and Sporty's or other 'reporting' entities, in a free market, can try to squash the competition (it is a free market).

My point is that for Garmin's experimental equipment customers I would expect that they would do most anything to accommodate all apps deserving (by market share and capability), and with the appropriate/negotiated fees, to connect with Connext. The minor peek I got under the edge of the 'tent' left me with the impression that Garmin Pilot app management realizes that Fly-Q is more of a threat to Garmin Pilot that the BS reasons I heard about the supposed overwhelming technical issues that need to be solved (what I know about the interface issues, I don't think it is a big technical hurdle). And, I would felt a little better about Garmin's stance, and Jan's response, if Jan had told me it was being discussed but was at a point where they had a NDA, I would have understood that and it would be more customer friendly.
 
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I attended a FlyQ presentation at AirVenture this year and was quite impressed with what I saw. Thinking seriously about the 30 day free trial offer through iTunes. At about half the price of ForeFlight it?s certainly worth a serious look.
 
I've been using FlyQ for a number of years. ForeFlight has many more features and is a bit more polished particularly flight planning but FlyQ works fine, even when in the soup. I don't need most of the features of ForeFlight. $20/year for CFI's and new students. Can't beat that price.
 
Another Fly-Q user here. I have found it more intuitive than Foreflight (admittedly, I didn't try a lot with Foreflight) and am very happy with their lifetime subscription as well as the service. Emails are answered directly and courteously, which is different from my experience with FF (several years ago). Would be nice if they could all play together, but I suspect Garmin is trying (still) to corner the market and be the 900-pound gorilla.

Greg
 
I used FlyQ this year for the OSH trip and really like it. Previously used FF. I also found FlyQ more intuitive and like the larger text for old eyes. Syncs with the online planner, etc.
 
Another happy FlyQ user, have lifetime subscription. Have garmin 650, gtx 345, and area 660 in current plane, which are all good but garmin doesn?t appear to want to play with FlyQ. For this reason the 10 I?m building is getting the afs system with the IFD 540, so will be able to transfer flight plans from FlyQ to avidyne, should all work great together.
 
Thumbs up for Fly-Q

Another happy FlyQ user, have lifetime subscription. Have garmin 650, gtx 345, and area 660 in current plane, which are all good but garmin doesn?t appear to want to play with FlyQ. For this reason the 10 I?m building is getting the afs system with the IFD 540, so will be able to transfer flight plans from FlyQ to avidyne, should all work great together.

About 4 years ago, I tried FF, Fly-Q and Garmin's Pilot product and ended up with Fly-Q. Garmin was surprisingly clunky. I just found it to be simpler and more intuitive for me. I also didn't like the FF was being highly selective with the ADS-B receivers that they would connect with and seemed to block out stratux (this may have changed). I also purchased the lifetime subscription and have enjoyed the responsiveness of their support for questions and pretty much any help. It works really well with my Dynon Skyview. I create my flight plans on my iPad in Fly-Q, and can instantly upload it to my Skyview touch. The Skyview nicely transmits GPS position and all the ADS-B wx/traffic info to the iPad so I have another map on my lap or one that my passenger can use. What I love about SA and Fly-Q, is that they listen and just keep on innovating. Couldn't be happier, but I'm sure this market is getting more competitive and we may see some consolidation. I always thought that Fly-Q was #1 rated, but #2 in market share. Presumably behind FF.
 
iPad PILOT NEWS exists for one reason, to promote sales of FF and Stratus, they talk about these products as if they were the best thing since sliced bread.

Remember Sportys is part of the partnership that have a financial interest in selling Stratus units
 
Garmin Connext and Fly-Q connection

Went by a friend's house yesterday who is building an RV and is at the stage where he is beginning to think about his panel avionics and weighing Dynon vs. Garmin. Has been using an iPad and Fly-Q when flying rentals. I shared my recent discoveries about Connext, which he thought did connect the iPad with the Garmin G3X system (he had not done much investigation yet).

He did a reset and is going to watch things over the next months and consider this when he finally drops the cash for an avionics package. He really likes Fly-Q and also got the life time Fly-Q subscription about a year ago.

I am going to guess this may be a decision consideration by more than a few builders. I am heavily invested and past the point of no return with the Garmin G3X stuff already purchased. If I was making the decision now between Garmin and Dynon, the Garmin Connext issue, ie. not talking to Fly-Q, might make a difference. It appears to me that Garmin Pilot management will do whatever it takes to avoid allowing the interface. Fly-Q would probably hit the Garmin Pilot app sales hard, and GP is under Garmin's umbrella. They did allow ForeFLight to connect and that was where they likely learned that a better app impacted sales of GP negatively. Allowing FlightPlan Go into Connext says something to me about that app's competitive stance with GP.

I think that both Garmin and Dynon systems are quite capable and close to the same; that's my un-deliberated opinion, not based on comprehensive research. Someone at an upper management level at Garmin ought to look closely at this issue, and think about their G3X customer's satisfaction being as important as their under-whelming in-house GP app.
 
I've had a lifetime subscription VFR/IFR to FlyQ for a few years. I find the app keeps getting improvements that I can use and they are responsive to suggestions and try to solve problems. Seattle Avionics provides data to Dynon, AFS, GRT, Avidyne, BendixKing and a number of other avionics manufacturers. I have a Mac and haven't found their online flight planning app the best in the past, but they are doing major updates to it now and it seems to be improving. More tied in with Leidos and you can download flight plans to your iPad and other devices.

Garmin makes good, although expensive, products and makes a lot of money on their vastly overpriced data updates. If you put in a Garmin panel, you are stuck with buying updates from Garmin forever. If you buy Dynon, AFS, GRT of BendixKing, your FlyQ subscription will work for any of them.

I'm working on my plan to replace my steam gauges with a glass panel. I doubt it will involve Garmin products unless they become more open to playing well with other vendors.
 
I have a lifetime with Seattle for my GRTs as well. Obviously FLYQ comes with that, so thats what I use.

But I dont know how you get around flying IFR without a Garmin (and the Jepp databases)......at least last time I looked GRT isnt IFR and isnt ever gonna be.....
 
I also have a lifetime for Dynon maps and FlyQ. Seattle just seems to be adding all kinds of nice features and upgrades to FlyQ all the time, and now the web interface. Really like the flight planning on the ipad that the wireless/wifi upload to Skyview.
 
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