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.
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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