Pizza and Karaoke!

When you think of Sun ‘n Fun, you probably think of planes and sun. Yes but there’s more. For dinner tonight, the team and I went to a truly great pizza place called KC’s Artisan pizza. We’ve been there many times in past years. Outstanding pizza!

But never on their new Karaoke night!  Never had so much fun eating pizza in my life.

BendixKing + Seattle Announce New BendixKing xVue Touch System

Lakeland, FL (Sun ‘N Fun): Yesterday, BendixKing, a unit of Honeywell (NYSE: HON), introduced the xVue Touch, an all-new primary flight display for experimental aircraft.

Available now, the new cockpit technology provides builders and pilots with a powerful and intuitive touchscreen flight display built with superior craftsmanship, at a very affordable price.  The new flight display represents a major milestone for BendixKing as its first product specifically launched for experimental category aircraft.  For more info, see the press release or detailed product information.  If you’re at Sun ‘N Fun, see the device live at the BendixKing booth (A34-36) or learn more at the Seattle Avionics booth (C22).

Of course the xVuew Touch is powered by Seattle Avionics ChartData!  Comprehensive US annual subscriptions are just $99/year and European annual subscriptions just $199! Available now.

US Customers

• Annual ChartData subscriptions with VFR and IFR data are available for just $99. Buy Now
• Covers all 50 US states.
• Each ChartData subscription includes:
  • Geo-referenced, seamless Sectionals for all 50 US states.
  • Geo-referenced airport Diagrams: Contains BOTH the full set of airport diagrams that the FAA produces (currently about 700 Class B, C, and D airports) and the approximately 5000 Seattle Avionics-produced airports. Both sets are geo-referenced.
  • Geo-referenced, seamless IFR Low Altitude Enroute charts for 49 US states (Hawaii has no IFR Low charts).
  • Geo-referenced, seamless IFR High Altitude Enroute Charts for all 50 US states.
  • 12,000+ geo-referenced approach plates, SIDs, STARs, and MINs.

European Customers

• Annual ChartData subscriptions with VFR and IFR data are available for just US $199. Buy Now
• Covers 53 European countries (See European coverage area details).
• Each ChartData subscription includes:
  • Geo-referenced airport Diagrams.
  • 18,000+ geo-referenced approach plates, SIDs, STARs, and MINs.

 

Sun ‘n Fun!

Sun ‘n Fun is almost upon us – in fact some of our team is already there (did they leave town early to get away from the Seattle rain?).  Festivities begin this Tuesday in Lakeland, FL.

• See us at Sun ‘n Fun in booth C22.
• Attend one of our four seminars during the show.
• Get show-only special deals on the Merlin ADS-B, new FlyQ EFB version 3.0, and all our products!

Come see us in Booth C-022 (Hangar C) to learn about all our products, take advantage of our great show-only specials, or just meet the team.  We’ll also be giving several seminars during the week that cover topics near and dear to our hearts.  The Friday one, Using Augmented Reality in the Cockpit, was recently presented at another show to a standing room only crowd.  Rooms are expected to be packed for all four seminars so come early!

Seminar Schedule

Date/Time	Topic	Room
Tuesday, April 10 1:00 PM	Combining Online Flight Planning with iPad Apps	CFAA-1
Wednesday, April 11 12:00 PM	Intro to FlyQ EFB	CFAA-4
Thursday, April 12 12:00 PM	Advanced FlyQ EFB	CFAA-4
Friday, April 13 12:00 PM	Using Augmented Reality in the Cockpit	CFAA-1

All the talks are in the CFAA (Central Florida Aerospace Academy) building a little away from the rest of Sun ‘n Fun.  Leave some time to walk there as it’s a bit of a hike.

Combining Online Flight Planning with iPad Apps

FlyQ is a family of products, not a single product. This special presentation shows using the web browser-based FlyQ Online on your PC or Mac to create a plan that avoids bad weather and minimizes fuel cost then use FlyQ EFB 3.0 to execute the flight.  Also discusses using other online planners and shows using FlyQ Online to export flight plans to ForeFlight and Garmin devices.

Tuesday, April 10.  1:00 PM.  CFAA building, Room 1.

Intro to FlyQ EFB

FlyQ EFB is the highest-rated major aviation app because it’s so easy to use.  Our exclusive “Rule of 2” design philosophy means that all major functions are no more than 2 touches away so you fly the plane, not the iPad.  This presentation covers all the major features so you can download a free trial and get flying immediately!  Also covers new features added in FlyQ EFB 3.0 such as new iPhone support, Augmented Reality, and the Flight Data Recorder.

Wednesday, April 11.  12:00 PM.  CFAA building, Room 4.

Advanced FlyQ EFB

FlyQ EFB has emerged as one of the most popular iPad apps around, mostly due to its ease of use.  But it has a lot of power, too.  We’ll peel back the covers on some of its more advanced features and show how it integrates with FlyQ Online (PC and Mac).

Thursday, April 12.  12:00 PM.  CFAA building, Room 4.

Using Augmented Reality in the Cockpit

Put that camera in your iPad and iPhone to good use. With FlyQ EFB’s new Augmented Reality (AR) feature, the app blends live video from your phone or iPad with computer generated airport markers. Now you’ll literally see the airports not just guess where they are. See why Robert Goyer (Plane and Pilot) and Dave Hirschman (AOPA Pilot) are raving about it.

Friday, April 13.  12:00 PM.  CFAA building, Room 1.

Approved iOS 11.3

Seattle Avionics has approved the use of Apple iOS version 11.3 with current version of FlyQ EFB for iPad/iPhone, FlyQ InSight for iPhone/iPad, and SmartPlates & Charts for iPhone/iPad.

How to find the version number for FlyQ EFB

1. Open FlyQ EFB app
2. Go to the Settings screen (gear icon)
3. The version number is at the top right. Example: v3.0.1

How to find the version number for Apple iOS

1. Open the Settings app
2. Go to General
3. Go to About
4. The iOS version number is under ‘Version’. Example: 11.2.1 (15C153)

How to update a Seattle Avionics app

1. Open the App Store app
2. Go to ‘Updates’ screen (bottom right)
3. Look for the app icon and tap on ‘UPDATE’

How to update Apple iOS

1. Open the Settings app
2. Go to General
3. Go to Software Update
4. Tap on ‘Download and Install’

*Please note that beta (aka “test”) versions of Apple iOS are not finished, have not been fully tested, and contains bugs. Seattle Avionics does not support beta versions of Apple iOS for use with any of its apps.

Infrastructure Upgrades

UPDATE: 4/2/18 02:15 AM Pacific:  Upgrades complete.  All systems online.

UPDATE: 4/1/18 10:00 PM Pacific:  Upgrades started.  All systems offline.

UPDATE 3/31/18: Based on today’s dry-run, we expect the system to be down for 4 hours on Sunday (that is, from 10 PM Pacific to 2 AM Pacific).

Seattle Avionics has been in business for nearly 15 years.  During that time, we’ve continually upgraded many of our systems but two remained running on older hardware and software because they were so difficult to move.  One of these was migrated on Thursday and we anticipate the final step in moving the other this Sunday night.  The entire system will be down for several hours late Sunday night for the change.  We’ll try to provide a better time estimate on Sunday but all should be up and running in time for Monday morning flights.

1.  Web Server.  SA uses several different server systems, most running on redundant, fault-tolerate clusters.  But one remained on an old system.  On Thursday night (a week after we released data for this cycle), we upgraded our main web server to a new system on a much larger, more reliable provider.  It seemed to generally go smoothly but, for reasons what we have not been able to identify, some customers were having trouble connecting to our web site (www.seattleavionics.com) or were getting connection-related errors in FlyQ or the ChartData Manager application.  The new system seems to be generally working well now and, based on support emails and calls, we don’t think too many people were affected but apologize to those who were.   If you’re having a connection issue, please try rebooting your PC or iPad/iPhone.  If that still doesn’t work, please email support@SeattlAvionics.com
2. Database System.  We rely on a database for customer info, flight plan storage, and much more.  Over the years as our business has grown, the database server, run by a 3rd party, has become less reliable so we’ve been working to migrate it to a new, more robust system.  We’ve been doing this in stages and think we’re ready for the final step.  To do this, however, we need to completely shut down all our systems to ensure data consistency between the old and the new systems.  During this time, FlyQ EFB and FlyQ InSight will continue to function for inflight use but will not be able to plan flights on the server, get updated weather, etc.  FlyQ Online and the ChartData Manager will be completely shut down.  Voyager should be mostly functional.  We plan to begin this at 10 PM Pacific Sunday night.  It will take several hours but should be done before morning on the East Coast.  We’ll provide a better estimate on Sunday and give updates as required during the transition.We hope that none of this will affect you but apologize in advance if it does.  It will definitely lead to a faster, more reliable system but there may be some unanticipated issues 175547during the transition.

Steve

Gov Weather Service Offline Again

Update 12:00 PM Pacific.  The National Weather Service seems back up.  All clear.  While it was down, we modified some of our code to automatically switch to a backup server should it go down again (the switch was added after the last NWS outage but required some manual intervention).  We also took the opportunity to migrate some weather processing systems to newer versions of various libraries to increase our systems reliability.  We’re very sorry for the issue.

Heads up that the METAR, TAF, etc. data from AviationWeather.gov (the US National Weather Service) is not functioning properly.  Their web site is running but has little or no data.  This will affect the METARs, TAFS, Winds Aloft, PIREPS, AIRMET/SIGMET data that all FlyQ apps use when connected to the Internet.  Radar and Satellite layers appear to be functioning properly as they do not come from AviationWeather.gov

Unclear if ADS-B weather, which is derived from the same base data, is affected or not.

We’ll keep you updated as we learn more.  And thanks Paul 😉

March 29, 2018 ChartData Released

The next FAA data cycle begins next Thursday, March 29, 2018.  We try to release ChartData the Friday before the new cycle starts.  As that’s today, the new data is now ready for download.  However, be sure not to fly with this data until Mar. 29.

Three notes about this release:

1. Dynon Users:  We fixed a bug in how Caribbean SEC/LO/HI data was processed such that it is no longer missing northern Caribbean areas.
2. FlyQ EFB Users: We fixed two data problems regarding Mexican and Central American data.  One was a problem pre-loading plates/diagrams for some parts of Mexico and the other required adding basic airport info for airports in Central America so those approach plates/airport diagrams can be accessed.  No new version of the app is required, just this new data.
3. Dynon + FlyQ Users:  Version 3.0.0 of FlyQ EFB had a bug that caused a crash when connecting to SkyView via WiFi to see ADS-B info in FlyQ, send/receive flight plans, or use the SkyView GPS/AHRS data in FlyQ.  This was corrected a few days ago with FlyQ EFB 3.0.1.  Click to upgrade now.

Important notes for FlyQ EFB user:  Please do not download this new data if you plan to fly before next Thursday as the app does not have any concept of “current” versus “next” data cycle.  However, FlyQ EFB downloads TFRs, fuel prices, and weather automatically so rest assured that this data will always be current even without doing a manual update

As a reminder, we just added approach plates, airport diagrams, SIDs, STARs, etc. for Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Belize!  You may remember that we also recently added this same data for the Bahamas.  All of it for no additional cost.

European data will be available shortly.  Australian data is unchanged this cycle.

If you’re using another data provider, check with them about availability.

Also, read this terrific post from Keith R if you use our ChartData Manager application for Windows to update your data.  It explains how to automatically download data and even copy data to a card or USB memory stick without any clicks!  No need to sit there and wait for data to download or copy.

If you haven’t already done so, please be sure to update your ChartData before you fly.

• In FlyQ EFB:  Tap the ChartData Manager icon (the “down arrow” icon), review which states you have selected, then tap Update Now.
• In FlyQ InSight or FlyQ Pocket: Select the Downloads tab on the bottom of the screen and tap Update Now.
• In FlyQ Online:  Nothing to download.  Just go to https://flyq.seattleavionics.com and the new data is automatically used when the new cycle begins on Thursday (but not before).
• For apps and devices that use our Data Manager, run the ChartData Manager (or select Settings from the little icon at the lower right corner of your Windows screen) and tap Update Now.
• In Voyager, select Update Data from the Tools menu then choose the All Monthly ChartData item.

If you need to renew your subscription, click the appropriate link below:

• FlyQ EFB
• Voyager
• Aspen
• Dynon
• GRT
• Bendix-King AV8OR ACE

Note that FlyQ Online (our Web-based flight planner) ChartData is enabled automatically on the day the new cycle begins (next Thursday) so what you see is always the current, legal data.  Unlike data for our apps and devices, we do not release FlyQ Online ChartData ahead of time since there is nothing to download.