Everyone needs to assess the tradeoffs for themselves. Everyone has
different thresholds for safety, flexibility, money and inconvenience.

If your willing to pick and print a few charts for free, then any solution
that costs more than nothing is not going to pay for itself over any period
of time. My requirements have also been that I want a good number of charts
with me to accomodate changing plans with a minimal investment of time to
keep them up to date. Cost was important but about third on the list.

I think that, for the cost, the eFlyBook is a good set of compromises of
size, weight, processing power, and storage.

I used to do the paper Jepp charts. Loved the flexibility and quality. Hated
the regular filing. I traded some flexibility and convenience to keep it
somewhat affordable, I had a subscription for the smallest area that
contained my regular haunts. I had to then plan for and buy additional
charts for trips outside of my area. However, I liked the idea of having
charts for every airport that I might want to go to or divert to - with the
obvious reduction in payload and cabin space. That solution cost me about
$700 a year.

Switching to JeppView was a fair solution to eliminate the filing. The user
interface is about as easy as it gets for picking and printing. It was
possible to print charts for a large area or a good buffer around a route.
But, that is a lot of time and a lot of printing. It was not possible to
just check weather, grab my bag and go. Even if I had printed charts, I had
to make sure that I had the current ones. I frequently would just print them
all again rather that spend the time to determine which ones I needed. I
started out side-by-side, double sided. Cutting and punching to emulate the
printed Jepp charts. Finally, I just left them side-by-side, single sided
without cutting or punching. A little less convenient in the cockpit but
overall more time efficient. That solution also cost me about $700 a year
but I was time ahead because I didn't have to file updates for airports and
whole states I never went to.

For flexibility and safety, having a large number of charts in the cockpit
is the best solution. A full rack of Jepp binders or printing enough from
JeppView solve the problem but at a large financial expense and a large time
expense - not to mention paper and printer ink. I could have gone a little
cheaper with some of the smaller electronic suppliers but there still was
the picking and printing problem. I felt that the JeppView interface was the
best and stayed with it in spite of cheaper options.

The ideal solution is obviously to have a full set of charts in electronic
form in the cockpit. But, a tablet PC was just too much for me. I could not
justify the cost even if I would switch to one of the cheaper chart
suppliers. The additional features of a tablet make it worth the money - if
you want the additional features. All I wanted was approach charts.

I had not heard about the eFlyBook prior to Oshkosh. I actually went to the
myairplane.com booth to check out their user interface on the PC. If I
thought it was usable, I was going to dump Jepp and try them out for a
picking and printing solution. Imagine my surprise when I walk up and they
are demoing the eFlyBook.

For me, it is reasonably priced and does exactly what I want. Plus, with
myairplane.com's annual subscription price of $250, it is much cheaper than
Jepp and even cheaper than other garage-shop suppliers. For the first time,
I have can check weather, grab my bag and go.

eFlyBook strengths:
S1: small size - about the size of a kneeboard
S2: user interface uses mostly pretty large soft buttons so pecking at
them with a stylus is not a problem.
S3: Charts are easily found by airport ID
S4: Other features like having checklists or manauls add value
S5: scratch pad might be handy although I haven't made much use of that
yet. I still keep paper at hand.

eFlyBook weaknesses:
W1: somewhat fragile physical design. It is definitely not something you
want to just stuff in your bag or throw in the back seat unprotected
W2: No case is provided.
W3: Slow processor makes navigating around a very thoughtful affair.
W4: Boot up time is lengthy. It does not operate like a PDA where it is
instant on. W5: No convenient way to power it without a fairly combersome
"docking station"
W5: Some advertised features are missing - like the airport directory.
W6: Some advertised features don't work well and are really beyond the
definition of the device - like enroute charts.
W7: keys on the soft keyboard are pretty small. It takes a bit of finese
to hit them in turbulence. This is necessary for entering the airport ID to
pull up the charts.

For W1 - you just have to take care of it. I think it is a good compromise.
I would rather have the unit light and small and be able to put the kind of
case that works for me around it.

For W2 - I can easily different pilots wanting different solutions - like
a hard case or a BodyGlove style or ballistic nylon case.Any of these would
add value and usefulness without encumbering the basic unit. If it lasts two
years, I'll be money ahead.I'm thinking of making one out of ballistic
nylon, stiffened with plastic panels with a felt liner.

For W3 - Sitting in a comfy chair, it seems very slow. In the cockpit, it
seems just fine. I tend to punch a button, scan, punch the next button,
scan,...

For W4 - I can turn it on and get to an airport chart in 1 minute 45
seconds. That's probably not much more than it would be to find the right
binder and find the right page. It's also probably faster than booting up a
tablet. Battery life is good enough to have it on for the whole flight. Of
course, you could also plug it in, not depend on battery, and just leave it
on.

For W5: I'm sure they will come and I don't need that to justify the device.
However, presuming that they are usable copies of the official AF/D. It will
eliminate another subscription for me. If they are marginal scans, I'm not
interested.

For W6: I wanted a display about the size of an approach chart. Even if if
were a color display, I cannot imagine trying to use if for enroute. It will
be interesting to see where they go with this feature. It might be good as a
backup but I plan to keep my paper versions for now.

For W7: I'm sure they'll have a search by pull down list in the not too
distant future.

--
-------------------------------
Travis
Lake N3094P
PWK
"john smith" wrote in message
...
The unit will pay for itself within a year for the average
cross country flyer. At over a thousand dollars for the
EFlybook, how do you figure it pays for itself?

I spend $80 every quarter to purchase new charts and approach plates.

This must be "new math". $80/quarter=$320/year. The unit costs over a
thousand dollars, so it would take three to four years of this just to
pay for the unit, not counting the data subscription costs.

I looked at the unit at OSH (show price $899). I like the idea, but
given today's processing and storage capacity, the eflybook is
overpriced. Additionally, I would prefer a metal framed case. Aviation
is too rough on plastic cased products.