PDA for flight planning, XM weather

MMI? ...and I'm supposedly in the business

Dan Luke wrote:

I'm going to switch to a tablet MMI device of some kind with Bluetooth
interfaces for the WxWorx receiver (I'll have to get mine upgraded) and GPS.

" MMI? ...and I'm supposedly in the business

Sorry...

"Man-Machine Interface"

In article .com,
" wrote:
(http://www.airgator.com) are two of the more popular systems. The
Control Vision product is a more robust product and, in my experience,
more stable than AirGator's product.

Jonathan,
Do you have a writeup of your experience with both PDA versions?
Do you have any experience with the Windows XP version?
Thanks.


I don't necessarily have a prepared document of my experience, but I
will answer any questions that you may have. All of my experience is
with the PDA versions of AnywhereMap and NavAir (AirGator). I
understand that the XP version of AnywhereMap is a little behind the
times, but Control Vision is in the process of updating it.

Between AnywhereMap and NavAir, AnywhereMap is the feature leader by
far. Control Vision has done a nice job of making a comprehensive set
of features available, and the product will be even better with the
upcoming release of their next version. Presently, AirGator has a few
more weather features, but very minimal navigation/flight planning
features.

I also researched the tablets (I was looking at the Motion Computing
M1400) with WxWorx on Wings for the weather, and the Flightsoft/Vista
products from RMSTek for the charts. The WxWorx on Wings software is
very nice for weather and, as you would expect, supports all of the
WxWorx weather products. The RMSTek products seemed to be well
appointed for navigation, with reasonable update fees. Although there
is some integration between WxWorx and the RMSTek products, the system
doesn't appear to be as well integrated as a single application, such as
AnywhereMap.

Whatever product you choose, I consider database updates to be mandatory
if you plan to use it for any type of reference in flight.

I do not find the HP hx4700 PDA to be too small to use in flight, and
have about 30 hours of flight time with it so far. Both AnywhereMap and
NavAir have large buttons which makes using the stylus optional; many
times, I just tap the screen with my fingernail. That being said, the
graphics are more impressive on the tablets, but obviously the tablets
are more cumbersome in the typical GA cabin. Folks have reported
various experiences with hard drives failing about 10k feet; apparently
some are more prone to failure than others.




JKG