Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

Skydemon (merged thread)

Reading the June 2020 UK MOR listing (can’t be openly published unfortunately; it is quite amazing what is in there) it is full of people having “problems” with SD. Of course this is to be expected with a product which has outsold all the others. However this is the sort of thing one finds

This one is better

As I’ve written before, a lot of people are totally confused by the user interface or even the general functionality. I suppose this is a sign of the age profile of the GA community.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Correct. The fault is not with Skydemon, the user interface is good. But if one is illiterate on using software in general, one will not make some mistakes/miss some things. And FF is much worse.

Last Edited by boscomantico at 29 Jul 12:02
Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

The problem is that there is a total disconnect between meeting the requirements of the PPL learning process (basically WW1 era) and being familiar with modern IT / user interface paradigms / user interfaces crippled by the inescapable requirements of touch screens.

I tear my hair out with lots of websites. I could not work out how to do foreign payments from my online bank, and having been doing electronics since the 1960s and embedded systems software since 1980 I am clearly not “IT stupid”. Everybody I have flown with who was using SD clearly didn’t know how to use the program. And we’ve had examples posted here where someone was disputing some airspace when actually didn’t have the declutter set up right.

The % of infringements which are caused directly by mis-use of Skydemon is hard to gauge but is not going down. And there is probably no solution to this. Well, I have suggested to the SD owner/programmer, years ago when I used to feed him feature tips, that he has an “advanced” mode and a “simple” mode, and that idea was shot down, as it would be, as everybody knows

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

1. Aviate
2. Navigate
3. Communicate
4. Pro……
5. Fiddle with your iPad

ESME, ESMS

Dimme wrote:

1. Aviate
2. Navigate
3. Communicate
4. Pro……
5. Fiddle with your iPad

Sometimes I really wish we had a ‘like’ button on here…

I’ve just received a few months’ more of MOR listings and they are all full of “Skydemon confusion” cases. No wonder SD’s programmer is a bit defensive on their forum and on the UK sites when it comes to certain features. He probably gets a lot of “contact” from the CAA. The UK is Skydemon Skydemon Skydemon Skydemon everywhere.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

It’s fascinating that it’s mentioned so much in the MORs but I guess it can be expected to a certain extent given how much it is used. I’ve only had an issue once that I can recall wiith it having signal on the ground then very shortly after take off from a field dropping totally out. (I suspect this was my tablet rather than skydemon itself) I knew I needed to be precise on my route out to avoid airspace hazards, so made some tight orbits where I knew it should be clear until I got a decent signal again.

I would think without skydemon/ generic gps navigation program airspace busts would be way way higher.

Peter wrote:

I’ve just received a few months’ more of MOR listings and they are all full of “Skydemon confusion” cases. No wonder SD’s programmer is a bit defensive on their forum and on the UK sites when it comes to certain features. He probably gets a lot of “contact” from the CAA. The UK is Skydemon Skydemon Skydemon Skydemon everywhere.

I’d still prefer to have some sort of “advanced mode” tick-box, where you can modify the settings heavily.

EGTR

I have found that SD does occasionally drop out, and per sod’s law it will be at the most inconvenient time. It happened to me yesterday depating from Dunkeswell, heading towards CAS on “standby” for an IFR pickup. Tap “stop navigating”, tap “start navigating”, problem sorted. When the “standby” goes on for minutes you do wonder if the controller has gone to make a cup of tea, but that’s a subject for another thread.

However, despite this ocassionally irritating feature, SD is the best product for VFR nav and CAS awareness I have seen/used, and that includes Southern Africa as well as closer to home. I have even used it in the USA where it showed a great track round the Hudson VFR corridor in NY after a memorable flight. Frankly I would not try a VFR departure from the London area without it and it has helped save my bacon a few times. I don’t think it is difficult to set up and use, although its not unreasonable to expect a new user to spend some time with it on the ground first. I do think ATOs should teach students the use of some common nav apps like this as part of the PPL syllabus.

NeilC
EGPT, LMML

I was also disappointed by the SD feature request response.
Having been a product manager for SW, I feel for anyone in those shoes, but it costs nothing to be nice in replying and setting expectations.

Users willing to offer ideas and provide feedback are basically free interns in my opinion.
Some may not be so good and others great, but treat them all nicely and you will end up with a test force and idea channel to be reckoned with. Not to mention that customer loyalty goes way up and they start marketing for you and fighting the competition ;)

Last Edited by AF at 01 Aug 15:54
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top