I already have 1 iPad and 2 iPad minis. What I want is a solidly reliable GPS and the 795 fits that bill. Plus it can be coupled to my Jeppesen subscriptions, both IFR and VFR.
Peter wrote:
is sunlight-readable (only the milspec ones are, currently, € 4 figures, and they are bulky)
Does this statement mean that my iPad Mini 3 is milspec, costed ten times as much as it actually did and bulky? Since at max brightness I have no problem reading it in my bubble canopy on a CAVOK day…
has a switch for totally disabling the touch screen
I don’t see how such a switch would be good on a device with the touchscreen as its primary mode of input?
Peter_Mundy wrote:
I already have 1 iPad and 2 iPad minis. What I want is a solidly reliable GPS and the 795 fits that bill. Plus it can be coupled to my Jeppesen subscriptions, both IFR and VFR.
So you have paid about as much for your handheld GPS as your three iPads altogether, with the latter being useable in many other applications, not just aviation. And you are also paying top dollars in subscriptions. This is good if it fits in your budget, or think that these costs are minuscule compared to the other costs of flying, but many private pilots are on a tight budget. For them (us) mixed-use, consumer grade devices are a blessing, and give much better redundancy than what any dedicated aviation device could ever achieve.
My budget is as tight and possibly tighter than most pilots – I earn my living by selling pilot supplies 
The second iPad mini was the result of my dropping the first one and then finding the repair to be unreliable. The first iPad Mini was purchased to see if it was a viable alternative to my Garmin. It was not.
For me it is about safety so the price is worth it. For the same reason I own lifejackets and a raft. The raft especially cost an arm and a leg but I won’t do over water flights without it. At the end of the day we all make our own decisions and the criteria vary from person to person.
JnsV wrote:
I don’t see how such a switch would be good on a device with the touchscreen as its primary mode of input?
To prevent accidental touches. I would, however, leave this to the app.
Correct, because most of the time one is not interacting with the device, and may want to put something on top of it, etc.
Touch screens are great when you want them and the rest of the time they are a huge hassle and a source of “what the f- is it doing now?” scenarios.
Leaving it to the app is necessary on IOS (unless jailbroken) but most apps don’t have such a mode. For example JeppFD does, JeppTC doesn’t.
OTOH some people are able to mount the tablet up somewhere, where it can’t be touched accidentally.
JnsV wrote:
Does this statement mean that my iPad Mini 3 is milspec, costed ten times as much as it actually did and bulky? Since at max brightness I have no problem reading it in my bubble canopy on a CAVOK day…
Same. Much more readable than the 496 I would say
Peter_Mundy wrote:
would a Y cable solve the audio problem – 2 females and 1 male plug? The GDL39 is great but Without regulation to make ADSB out compulsory the traffic display is no benefit. The AHRS function is great.
No a Y cable won’t work…the complexities of this audio issues are real bother: The Garmin 795, when in a 795 yoke cradle, sends its audio signal down the cradle’s cable…but only if the cradle supplier has built the 795’s sound signal into a combined data and audio cable terminating in two connectors – one for the other connected device, and one audio out cable terminating in an audio jack. So when I previously used to use a Xaon XRX PCAS device connected by cradle to the 795, the cradle and cable was manufactured by the Xaon people (to connect their XRX device and send their data to the 795) and their cable was a clever one down which the XRX’s data was piped to the 795 and the 795’s sound was output along the connection cable and which diverted so that part of it terminated in an audio plug which I plugged in to the plane’s single audio socket. Everything worked perfectly – traffic audio alerts from my 795 through the plane’s systems.
On the other hand the 795 yoke cradle supplied with my Powerflarm Portable (made by the Powerflarm people) does not have a “clever” cable between the two devices. The cable is a thinner cable with no audio capability. Instead (1) the Powerflarm has an audio out port on its rear and this is directly connected to my plane’s audio so that I get the Powerflarm device’s own alerts in my headset and (2) the 795’s audio is completely cut off : it is not transmitted down the cable (because the Powerflarm people built a “simple” no-audio cable for the 795 yoke cradle) and there is no other accessible sound out port on the 795, so no way to get the 795 audio to the plane’s intercom even if I owned a Y socket.
Judging by the supply issues I had in obtaining the 795-to-Powerflarm cradle / cable in the first place the feeling I get is the Powerflarm people care too little about the 795 capabilities of their device. They built a simple cable connection that carries the Powerflarm traffic data to the 795 but with no audio out for the 795, and that’s that. It’s a big pity not least because the 795 issues better traffic audio alerts (“Traffic!”) than the Powerflarm does (rather quiet “beep”) and now I only get the Powerflarm’s beeps… Pity.
Audio cabling is basically “easy” in the purely technical sense. One output can drive multiple inputs (attentuation with resistors may be needed). Multiple outputs can be “mixed” together but this needs to be done with resistors (even some UK’s biggest shops don’t know that – see here).
The biggest challenge can be working out the connector pinouts and what the pins actually do – example where Garmin washed their hands of any help.
Then you sometimes need to obtain special connectors e.g. the nonstandard one in the above URL. Fortunately that one can be obtained on a cable which one then cuts off.
Peter wrote:
Correct, because most of the time one is not interacting with the device, and may want to put something on top of it, etc.
I have a panel mount for my tablet and I definitely not plan to put anything on it. I don’t do that even when the tablet is on the kneeboard.
OTOH some people are able to mount the tablet up somewhere, where it can’t be touched accidentally.
I think this is true for most people, unless their cockpits are exceptionally small.
I normally use skydemon as well. However, I am currently a bit upset.
I normally print out my flight log and put it on the seat next to me so I can read the COM and NAV frequencies from paper instead of fumbling with the iPAD.
Now, I am on travel and do not have an “AIRPRINT” capable printer with me. Neither can I find an app that kind of “poses” like an airprint printer, nor does Skydemon allow me to file the log as a pdf to print it out i.e. from Adobe.
My workaround until right this minute was opening Skydemon on their web interface. Guess what, joy, there is a “pilot log” option under the “print” menu which SHOULD do the job, unless it doesn’t because it only sets up the flight log and then when you press “ok” it does, plain, nothing.
Ah, and yes, you can call them on their support unless THEIR WHOLE TEAM vanishes off to some air show. So, answer machine. I mean, WTF ????
Incomprehensible. Couldn’t they at least install a call forwarding ??
This is plain unprofessional behaviour. These small but important f***ups show how how well thought through systems like Jeppesen VFR FD or the Garmin Pilot App are.
To whom I will switch now.
