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Old November 9th 07, 09:41 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Tim Mara
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Posts: 375
Default FlyWithCE - SeeYou Mobile: How Steep the Learning Curve?

look at FlywithCE Navigator. It is still IMHO the easiest to learn and
easiest to use of all of the PDA software. It does essentially everything
you might possibly need and when you need the information it's quicker to
access without having to jump through menu's like most other
software....plus you can store everything including your registration and
the program on an SD card so even if you let the PDA battery go dead as soon
as you ad power your program is restored with all of your databases,
personal preferences and so on without having to go back and
re-install....plus it really is very inexpensive
see : http://www.wingsandwheels.com/lx_nav...ies_for_ip.htm or
http://www.flywithce.com/index.html
tim
Please visit the Wings & Wheels website at www.wingsandwheels.com


"Chip Bearden" wrote in message
ups.com...
See comments inline:

Rarely do I need to stylus. Tasks are created or edited using a
finger and the pull down list of turnpoints.


I used SeeYou to open my GNII .dat file that includes ~35 contest
turnpoints plus another 200 waypoints. Then I created the SeeYou .cup
file and moved it to SeeYou Mobile. Now when I want to create a task,
all 235 waypoints show up on the task pulldown list. GNII allows me to
select from only the 35 actual turnpoints for a task but gives me all
235 to select from for "go to". Can I set SeeYou up the same way?

And the developer touts the benefits of comparing achieved L/D with
required L/D. Great once you're on final glide but not helpful when
setting it up unless I'm missing something, and that means adding
still more nav boxes to the screen.


No, they display L/D needed for the landing points on the map and 1
nav box showing L/D current. Compare and you're golden.


I'm climbing at 2 kts. in a thermal coming up on glide path. My L/D is
infinite. So I need more nav boxes to do the normal "how far above/
below glide path given a destination, wind, and MC setting"
calculation before I can roll out and start monitoring current vs.
required L/D. Or am I missing something? I don't want to have to be
cruising to see if I can make it to various waypoints. I've set my
waypoint text lines up to show arrival height for now, plus colors.

It also seems buggy. I often freeze the map display in sim mode though
I can usually still use the menu to save my config settings and exit
without losing the map layouts I've laboriously been building.


I have only had 1 bad freeze bug and that is under the following
conditions. snip


I've had map screens freeze 3 or 4 times just in the past day during
sim mode and the entire app freeze the PDA when playing back a flight.
I've read the postings re the Assigned Area bug but that's not the
problem. Are "simulator" and "playback" modes less solid than navigate
mode?

snip

Picking the nav boxes that you want has been the biggest hassle for
me.


Agreed. I've got the user manual PDF open on my PC together with the
PDA and it's still a chore. The built in "help" is great but I can see
situations where I'm in the cockpit reading the help file and trying
to stay out of trouble.

There are not really many pages that you need to get to in flight
other than the main pages, which are cycled by the left/right
buttons.

The addition pages I go to are
1) the task page (set to one of the 4 hardware buttons)
2) the flight properties page (altimeter setting, bugs, ballast,
etc)
3) the fly direct page


Yes, I like these features.

I have a hardware button to turn on/off the topo, because it is
distracting most of the time.


Haven't tried that; sounds good.

I also keep the "thermal assistant" off.


The thermal assistant is one reason I'm looking at new software!

For Assigned area tasks (TAT) just tap the screen to adjust the
turnpoint location.


In my cockpit, tapping the screen happens often when I'm trying to
change the zoom or change screens due to rough air, what with having
the PDA on the panel and my long arms. I'm scared to death I'll tap
this thing and reconfigure it or lose the screen I want and have to
spend minutes getting back where I want. Right now what seems to
happen most of the time is changing the destination waypoint
accidentally.

The biggest tip is to not allow draging the "Symbols" like the final
glide or wind vector. This reduces screen touch screwups.


This might help. I guess I can also remove the "speed to fly" symbol
since that's on the LNAV anyway, and the north arrow, and the glide
path symbol (also on the LNAV and don't need if I've got the right nav
boxes.

Maybe I should just list the actual in air tasks that I use SeeYou
for:

1) Navigation backup, where am I.

Same with GNII
2) Show landing spots that I can glide to. they show up in yellow or
green,

Same with GNII
3) show me the wind guesstimate

Same with GNII
4) tell me the local ground elevation (it's pretty accurate)

I like this feature, which I don't have
5) give me bearing, distance and arrival altitude to a destination,

Same with GNII
I have to select the destination

6) change MC, ballast or bugs
7) manage tasks (this is the big one and it takes most of the
interaction)

7.1) press the start button on your last exit of the cyclinder
7.2) add, delete, change or edit turnpoints - work the "task page"
7.3) move TAT points within the circle.

All as per GNII
seeyou will then tell you all kinds of things like how much time it
predicts that you will take to finish. How much time is left before
the min time, your XC speed so far, etc. It will also predict how
much altitude you need to finish.


SeeYou Mobile has some nice features GNII lacks. Some are small but
important; e.g., being able to show airspeed in knots but task speed
in mph (GNII forces you to pick one or the other). Also more powerful
comparison of glide to turnpoint vs. glide to finish at the same time.

Later I can email you my setup file and you can see how I have the nav
boxes set up.


Love to see. jnbearden at aol dot com. I'll chat with you next
time I see you. Thanks!

Chip Bearden