Smart Watch Interface

[RichLanning]

One of my students uses Foreflight. He showed me how he gets weather and other data on his Smart Watch from Foreflight.

Personally I’m not sure how desirable this feature would be to the general Pilot population. Many people don’t even wear watches anymore.

Value would be another feature that makes IFly all the more comparable to Foreflight. I also get the impression he really likes this feature and would be reluctant to shift to a different EFB that doesn’t support it.

 

[Cobra]

I'm trying to understand the use case here. Does your student use this feature all the time, or just when flying?

I wear a Samsung smartwatch. The watch face includes a local map with weather radar. It is driven by a weather app, not an EFB. With some manipulation, I can get other weather data on my watch...but from weather apps, not from EFBs.

When I am flying, my EFB is running on a tablet mounted to the yoke right in front of me. With a ~10" screen just a glance down from my primary field of view, with weather radar just right there, it would never occur to me to move my arm to look at my ~1" watch face.

So...how is your student's situation an improvement over mine?

 

[RichLanning]

He is a new student so I have only flown with him once. He was just using this to check the winds prior to and after our flight.

I am a little puzzled what this interface is with Foreflight. I don’t recall him bringing an iPad with him so not sure where the watch was getting its information

I only mentioned it because Foreflight is the biggest competitor to Ifly anything we can do to make Ifly Have as many features as foreflight the better. I’ve never used ForeFlight I have had students that use it and have seen how they struggled with it My boss at the flight school uses Foreflight so I’ll see if he knows anything about this smart watch interface.

I do recall he didn’t have to touch the watch. He just looked at it and the weather was there. Personally, I would rather see development effort on the Ifly interface with the SayWeather system.

 

[Cobra]

I'm all for great features that keep iFly at the top of the heap. That's why I asked what I was missing. Still don't know.

FWIW, there are plenty of things on my personal list of desired iFly improvements that would rank way higher than smart watch integration.

 

[RichLanning]

Did some research on this interface. It basically integrates an iwatch with the Foreflight app on an iPhone.

It provides access to weather and airport data normally available on the ForeFlight Mobile Airports view, as well as local hourly and daily weather forecasts (up to ten days) for your current location. The app can display up to 10 favorite and recent airports. The list of airports displayed in the watch app mirror ForeFlight Mobile on the iPhone. Displays frequencies, wx, runways and NOTAMS. Nearby Airports section lists the three nearest public or military airports that have weather reporting stations.

It does provide MOS forecasts. I am not sure iFly supports MOS forecasts. That would certainly be a nice feature in iFly. MOS is available for more than 2,100 civilian and military airports throughout the U.S. and its territories. At the moment, the National Weather Service (NWS) only issues a terminal aerodrome forecast (TAF) for 700 airports in this same region.

If you have the Foreflight app on your phone and you have your phone then it seems a little superfluous to have it on your watch as well. I agree, bigger fish to fry.

Another major item on my wish list is a list of recommended IFR routes. I know in Foreflight and some other EFBs you can put in your departure and destination and the app will provide a list of the most recently approved ATC routings between those two points. Takes the guesswork out of trying to figure out what route ATC will approve with minimal changes.

Anyway, you guys are doing a great job with development. Quick feature updates with minimal bugs. Very responsive to the user community. Thanks for all you do to support the pilot community.

 

[Cobra]

It does provide MOS forecasts. I am not sure iFly supports MOS forecasts. That would certainly be a nice feature in iFly. MOS is available for more than 2,100 civilian and military airports throughout the U.S. and its territories. At the moment, the National Weather Service (NWS) only issues a terminal aerodrome forecast (TAF) for 700 airports in this same region.

This has been requested before, here: https://adventurepilot.community.forum/threads/add-mos-weather-forecasts.313/ . You can go to that post and cast your vote (click the up arrow on the original post in the thread) to show your desire for that feature.

If you have the Foreflight app on your phone and you have your phone then it seems a little superfluous to have it on your watch as well. I agree, bigger fish to fry.

Another major item on my wish list is a list of recommended IFR routes. I know in Foreflight and some other EFBs you can put in your departure and destination and the app will provide a list of the most recently approved ATC routings between those two points. Takes the guesswork out of trying to figure out what route ATC will approve with minimal changes.

Yes, I have long thought that iFly's flight planning capabilities are generally lacking, and this detail is one I would also like to see if/when the flight planning side of things gets overhauled. (Personally, I file my flight plans via https://www.fltplan.com/, which provides this info.)

Anyway, you guys are doing a great job with development. Quick feature updates with minimal bugs. Very responsive to the user community. Thanks for all you do to support the pilot community.

Like my tagline says, I'm not an Adventure Pilot employee, but I'm sure @Walter Boyd or @Brian or another AP rep will see your kudos and appreciate it!