June 20, 2019 ChartData Released

Steve Podradchik

New to FlyQ?  Click to watch replays of the recent Intro and Advanced presentations or watch any of the other 70+ videos we have on YouTube. Or learn more about FlyQ from our new Welcome to FlyQ page.

The next FAA data cycle begins next Thursday, June 20, 2019.  We try to release ChartData the Friday before the new cycle starts.  As that’s today, the new data for the US, Mexico, and Central America is now ready for download. European and Australian data will be ready soon.  However, be sure not to fly with this data until June 20.

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

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 currently (hint hint) 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

Also, read this terrific post from Keith R if you use our ChartData Managerapplication 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 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:

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.

Whither iPad 2 / Original Mini?

Steve Podradchik

We are very strongly considering dropping support for the full-sized iPad 2 and original iPad mini.  These two devices are electronically identical so both, effectively, date back to 2011.  Apple stopped supporting these devices with new iOS releases several years ago.  These devices contain just 512 MB of RAM while all newer devices have 1 GB or between 2 and 4 GB for the current generation of devices.  It’s very hard to get a modern application to run in the very cramped amount of RAM of these devices so the app may appear to “crash” — not due to a bug, per se, but because the operating system needs to reserve some RAM for its own use.  Trying to get FlyQ to work effectively on these devices, which, ultimately, is generally a futile exercise, uses development and testing resources that can help far more customers by fixing general bugs and adding new features that apply to everyone.

For what it’s worth, no other major app currently supports these devices.  In fact, others also drop support for the full-sized iPad 3 and iPad 4.  We are likely to do the same at some point, too — perhaps with this release based on your feedback.  If so, you would need an iPad Air, iPad Pro, any iPad mini after the original model, any current full-sized iPad, or an iPhone 5S or better to run FlyQ EFB 4.0.  In other words, anything that can run iOS 11 (the current iOS version is 12.3).

Of course, even if we drop support for these older devices, we will continue to provide data that works with the older devices and the current version of FlyQ will continue to work on these devices.

We’d like to know your thoughts on this topic.

Thanks, Steve

 

 

FlyQ EFB 4.0 Beta 2 has wheels up

Steve Podradchik

We released the second beta for FlyQ EFB 4.0 last night.  It fixed a number of bugs, many of which are related to the ChartData Manager portion of the app.  In the 4.0 release, we very dramatically enhanced the verification of downloaded data and added better automatic retries when a data file isn’t downloaded properly or doesn’t pass verification. These new checks are really, really good things to do but did, not surprisingly, create some problems, esp. when updating from an older app.  These were really hard to track down and fix issues.  We believe this beta addressed those issues and many more.

The next beta should be very quick, possibly later this week, and will address many other bugs, about 1/2 of which are in the new features and 1/2 in the currently shipping app.

Changes in Beta 2:

  • FIXED: Flight Recorder: Flights often broken into multiple pieces (this also implicitly addressed issues of the ident assigned by the recorder for takeoff and landing airports being less than ideal)
  • FIXED: Flight Recorder: Pop-up message about continuing a flight is annoying
  • FIXED: Data Manager: Airports may become missing from the nav database
  • FIXED: Data Manager: Very slow to display states
  • FIXED: Data Manager: Large memory spikes may cause a crash
  • FIXED: Data Manager: Memory leak makes it impossible to load all states at once on most devices
  • FIXED: Data Manager: Incorrectly displays A/FD’s as expired
  • FIXED: Mapping engine: Maps may appear blurry even if downloaded when using expired data
  • FIXED: Sports TFR text out of date
  • FIXED: Endorsements may disappear until scolled into view
  • FIXED: Search filter ignored after a synch
  • FIXED: Airport tab icon wrong on iPhone
  • FIXED: Action button missing on full-screen Analysis images
  • FIXED: ‘Track Image’ should not be inserted as default photo comment
  • FIXED: Various problems with Flight Descriptions
  • FIXED: Flight list does not scroll to top when switching betweek Flight Following and My Flights
  • FIXED: Crash with uAvionics ADS-B receivers after firmware update.
  • FIXED: Many other minor issues

More info: http://seattleavionics.com/FlyQEFBWhatsNew4.0.0.26.htm

Saturday FlyQ Presentation for BEFA at RNT

Steve Podradchik

If you’re in the Seattle area tomorrow, you may want to make your way to RNT for a 10am FlyQ EFB presentation by yours truly.  It’s sponsored by the great folks with BEFA (Boeing Employees Flying Association) but open to everyone.  And includes 1 WINGS credit!

IMG_9171

I’ll be demonstrating FlyQ EFB (including new 4.0) at the BEFA building at RNT.  As a reminder, FlyQ EFB is the #2 best-selling and #1 rated (in the Apple App Store) iPad aviation app.

FlyQ is so highly rated mostly because of its ease of use – fewer taps to get into, larger fonts, bigger buttons, graphics rather than text, etc.  Come and see it in action!

Sign up with the FAA for WINGS credit.

Saturday, May 18, 10 AM, RNT, BEFA building.  840 West Perimeter Road

> More about FlyQ EFB
> Download free 30 day trial
> 80+ FlyQ videos on YouTube
> Preview of FlyQ EFB 4.0

May 23, 2019 ChartData Released

Steve Podradchik

New to FlyQ?  Click to watch replays of the recent Intro and Advancedpresentations or watch any of the other 70+ videos we have on YouTube. Or learn more about FlyQ from our new Welcome to FlyQ page.

The next FAA data cycle begins next Thursday, May 23, 2019.  We try to release ChartData the Friday before the new cycle starts.  As that’s today, the new data for the US, Mexico, and Central America is now ready for download. European and Australian data will be ready soon.  However, be sure not to fly with this data until May 23.

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

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 currently (hint hint) 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

Also, read this terrific post from Keith R if you use our ChartData Managerapplication 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 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:

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.

Wow! Name Suggestions Galore

Steve Podradchik

About 90 minutes ago, we sent out a very short newsletter that mentioned that FlyQ EFB 4.0 was in beta.  It also asked for naming suggestions for the feature in EFB 4.0 that connects pilots together to share flights and such (the “Squawk Network” in the beta Pilot’s Guide) and had one sentence that mentioned that folks could email us to be on the beta list.

In 16 years of making aviation software, I have NEVER seen a response like this before.  During those 90 minutes, we received something like 200 messages with suggested names (many of those messages suggesting several names) and scores of people asking to be on the beta.  VASTLY more than anything we’ve seen with any previous new version.  I’m sure that the offer of a free iPad mini 5 to the winner had something to do with it but not all of it.

Thanks to everyone who suggested a name or asked to be on the beta.  We will surely be reviewing the suggested names for some time as we’ve already seen many great ones.  Pilots are, apparently, a very insightful and creative lot.

Nice way to end the week 😉

Have a great weekend, everyone!  And keep the name suggestions coming to beta@seattleavionics.com!

Steve