What to choose - SkyDemon, Jeppesen FD, JeppView, Garmin Pilot

I don’t think they have them. Or if they do, they aren’t in any obvious place. I don’t think GP is there yet for pure VFR flight.

GP has several missing features which mean I still subscribe to SD:
– graphical NOTAMS
– airspace frequencies
– the vertical profile tells you nothing about the type of airspace

Admittedly the third and second one are easily solved with a paper chart, but the first one is a major advantage of software over paper especially for VFR flight (although missing a GPS jamming NOTAM could really spoil your IFR fun), so it’s a shame to miss it. As several people said, they can do TFRs so why not?

I’ve been playing with Foreflight as well and if they can sort out of few things, which they are clearly keen to do, it will become very interesting for Europe IFR.

As said above, GP is not (yet?) equivalent to SD or JeppFD VFR for VFR flights.

There is a workaround though when searching Info frequencies:

• tap on the map where you want to get the frequency from
• choose the Airspaces icon on the pop-up menu and look for which ATC has the reasonability of the sector
• the go to the airport (tapping on its icon on the map or via Airport Info) to get the frequency

It is obvious that this a way to work only when you fly VFR from time to time. That is why I keep my JeppFD VFR along with GP (used primarily for IFR).

BTW, I don’t understand what you are looking for as you seem to search for features in GP which are present in SD. Why do you want to get away from SD?
JeppFD does not have graphical NOTAMs either but I never were looking for it. Each program has its peculiarities and will never totally offer what other programs do. It is much more a question of how an application fits with your way to fly.

Any updates on this topic 4 years later?
What is on the market today for a European based, light GA VFR/IFR pilot? We have: SkyDemon, ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot etc.?

I am using SkyDemon and, although it is “usable” for IFR, it doesn’t seem like it was designed with IFR in mind. You can’t create a “briefing pack” of the plates you are going to use throughout the flight, and have them easily accessibly in neat chronological order: parking chart, taxi, SID, enroute, STAR, IAP, taxi, parking etc.
The scratchpad functionality is a bit useless because you don’t have the time to look for it when you need to write something down right now.

Is Garmin Pilot predominantly IFR with proper VFR capability as well?

My understanding from what people write on different forums is that for VFR most use SD and there is no much alternative for this in Europe.
Autorouter is used to do IFR planning. And if you create a pack & FP in Autorouter you can import it into the SD and fly it there.
For IFR-only some people use Foreflight, some – GP, some use other tools.
But, quite a few pilots, that fly IFR and VFR actively, use SD or SD+Autorouter.

arj1 wrote:

But, quite a few pilots, that fly IFR and VFR actively, use SD or SD+Autorouter

SkyDemon for flying +Autorouter for planning works pretty well for both IFR & IFR, especially if one flies UK & nearby France, Belgium…
As one goes beyond a better deal would be ForeFlight + JepVFRManual, maybe?

PS: SkyDemon is de-facto designed for UK uncontrolled IFR, I would not fly using somethinge else, it would be irresponsible

there is no much alternative for this in Europe.

With the demise of Jepp MFDVFR (getting merged with Foreflight but it sounds like FF will not get the excellent MFDVFR VFR mapping) the main alternative is EasyVFR. That is what I have for VFR, although I do VFR almost only in the UK and even then for very simple flights because anything complicated is way too risky.

For IFR, I have a weird workflow, where I

• use the Autorouter for getting the route
• copy the route to myself on telegram (in case I have to use a different method to file the FP later e.g. eurofpl.eu)
• paste the route into the old Jepp Flitestar, print off the route chart (one A4 page; also use the image for my trip writeups) and print the plog

so I fly with the two sheets of paper, plus printouts of the approach plates (and I have other possibly needed approach plates as PDFs).

On a few occassions I have used AR only for the flight but that was only on diversions. It is messy with a phone, if say the phone packed up.

arj1 wrote:

But, quite a few pilots, that fly IFR and VFR actively, use SD or SD+Autorouter

SkyDemon for flying +Autorouter for planning works pretty well for both IFR & IFR, especially if one flies UK & nearby France, Belgium…
As one goes beyond a better deal would be ForeFlight & JeppVAC/VFRManual

PS: SkyDemon is de-facto designed for UK uncontrolled IFR, I would not fly using somethinge else, it would be irresponsible

I use FF both for IFR (majority of my flights) and VFR. Sometimes I use AR to check if better routing is available. I used to copy route to Notes (similar to Peter) in case I needed to file FPL via eurofpl.eu but since I have two separate options (FF and AR), I don’t do it anymore.

I use Foreflight for IFR, incl. a subscription to Jeppesen – by far the easiest way to get Jeppesen. Also displays the Golze weather data btw.
For VFR and as a back-up when London drops you out of controlled airspace somewhere ‘random’, I use SkyDemon.

I could probably save a bit if I was prepared for a less convenient setup