Care to elaborate? Tabletapps seem to work for the vast majority of private pilots (as MFD replacement, to aid situational awareness), because otherwise they wouldn’t use them. So why is this a straw man argument?
From Wikipedia:
The straw man fallacy occurs in the following pattern of argument:
Person 1 asserts proposition X.
Person 2 argues against a false but superficially similar proposition Y, as if that were an argument against X.
This reasoning is a fallacy of relevance: it fails to address the proposition in question by misrepresenting the opposing position.
For example:
Quoting an opponent’s words out of context—i.e., choosing quotations that misrepresent the opponent’s actual intentions (see fallacy of quoting out of context).3
Presenting someone who defends a position poorly as the defender, then denying that person’s arguments—thus giving the appearance that every upholder of that position (and thus the position itself) has been defeated.2
Inventing a fictitious persona with actions or beliefs which are then criticized, implying that the person represents a group of whom the speaker is critical.
Oversimplifying an opponent’s argument, then attacking this oversimplified version.
In this case, you wrote:
Yeah…iPads will never takeoff in the cockpit….just a “fashion” accessory….yeah real pilots use old expensive panel mounted tech….sheesh!
Please point to anyone in the prior discussion that said “Yeah…iPads will never takeoff in the cockpit….just a “fashion” accessory”. You will not find any such prior statement. So you setup a premise that was never stated or asserted by anyone and then made it a point of ridicule.
That is a classic example of a straw man argument. In fact, it could be used for an example in the straw man article found in Wikipedia!
It was a counter point to Peter’s assertion that panel mounted MFD were no longer fashionable….
I personally know no one which uses terminal charts on panel mount electronics. Also, nobody I know still uses paper subscriptions.
I know of numerous in the former group (usually people with loads of money, or – in most cases – somebody else is paying) and plenty in the latter group (usually with contacts in low places and using printed Jepp charts). However if (in the latter) you mean people who get the charts delivered as paper, yes I too don’t know anybody who does that. I am certain many still do but nobody I know in GA.
Panel mounted MFDs are going out of fashion for new installations because most people spending big money are putting in big-screen GPSs (the GTN750) and the main vendors are not developing the market. Not sure which came first… chicken or egg? The main MFD vendor (Avidyne) has obviously had severe financial problems lately and they have seemingly abandoned most R&D just to get the IFD540 out of the door. So we have what we have… and we are stuck with it.
I know of numerous in the former group (usually people with loads of money, or – in most cases – somebody else is paying) and plenty in the latter group (usually with contacts in low places and using printed Jepp charts).
Peter, you have an expensive plane. Why do you persist in silly stereotypes?
Perhaps, Jason, with your extensive knowledge of aviation and aircraft systems, you might like to help to make EuroGA an informative site without first waiting for me to post something you disagree with 
Back to the topic, here is a rather vague description. It seems that the biggest benefit – in the European context – is the uploading of flight plans from Garmin Pilot into the GTN panel mount products.
I have got my hands on the installation manual and it doesn’t suggest that the device gives access to any of the other “useful” parameters which are visible to the GPS.
According to this, a full Garmin Pilot sub is $150/year. Does Garmin Pilot have a means of accepting a copied/pasted Eurocontrol route from say the EuroGA router?
One good Q might be what (if anything) does this product do if you are not using the Garmin Pilot software?
I have got my hands on the installation manual and it doesn’t suggest that the device gives access to any of the other “useful” parameters which are visible to the GPS
Many of the more interesting parameters (admittedly not the attitude information) are available on RS232, so you could use an industry standard RS232-Bluetooth bridge. But that won’t give you flight plan input
I’d agree that the major (only?) benefit of FlightStream in europe would be flight plan upload. I’d be surprised if Garmin documented the protocol or opened it up to other vendors
I am not familiar with Garmin Pilot… does it have a window, like e.g. Flitestar
into which an externally generated Eurocontrol route could be pasted?
This path (via the Flight Plan Migrator) is perhaps not today’s “preferred” path especially as it involves inserting a new flash card and power cycling the GPS (not sure what other electronic loading options there are) but unless Garmin incorporate autorouting into Garmin Pilot… (I am sure Achim is listening).
Also it would be slightly dumb if you had to pay the annual sub for GP just to load externally generated routes into a GNS or GTN box…
only a Grade A idiot is going to fly below the MEA and use the MFD colours to avoid death
Unless forced (by mechanical failure or whatever) to descend at night or into mist or hill fog, in which case one might be inclined to use all available terrain/synvis resources while preparing aircraft and occupants for CFIT.
PJ
Yes, Garmin Pilot does have a manual entry screen similar to the plain text option in Flitestar.
I have been using it to transfer flightplan routes from Eurofpl.
I am also considering installing Flightstream into the Jetprop. It would marry well with the GNS430/530 pack I have and simplify flightplan entry, especially for the longer international trips I do.
Cheers. E
I saw the Flightstream working the other day in eal’s Jetprop.
Totally seamless and instant transfer of a flight plan to a GNS530W. The client side is the Garmin Pilot app and that expands the airway names to waypoints.
The system seems to use a previously undocumented means of loading the route into the GNS, over an RS232 port – this being enabled by a firmware upgrade. It doesn’t appear to use the crossfill bus.
It’s an interesting move by Garmin, to give extra life to the old GNS boxes, and eat a big bit of Avidyne’s lunch which is largely based on the IFD boxes being plug-in replacements for the GNS boxes. I am sure that if it wasn’t for Avidyne, Garmin would have dropped all upgrades for the GNS boxes by now.
Of course an IFD does much more than a GNS but the extra is not worth it for the $-thousands to many pilots. If my KLN94 could do LPV and accept say 100 waypoints (instead of 20) I would probably never upgrade, because European enroute IFR is just not all that “tactical” in the GPS lateral guidance sense. You don’t get asked to intercept Airway X123. You could do it with a €50 GPS from a camping shop provided it had all the IFR fixes.
