FlyQ EFB version 3.1 Now Available!

Steve Podradchik Uncategorized

We are very happy to announce that FlyQ EFB 3.1 is now available for download from the App Store!  It has important improvements to flight planning, Leidos support, full iPhone X support, and more

ATCRoutes

Flight Planning now automatically adds fuel stops based on lowest prices, looks for recently cleared ATC routes for IFR flights, allows Layover Time during fuel stops, and makes it much easier to change flight plan altitudes. It also includes important fixes for Avidyne users (restores ADS-B and flight plan transfer features) and other fixes. See the revised Pilot’s Guide for more details.

Watch the full What’s New in v3.1 video and read the new Pilot’s Guide for details.

Most of the new flight planning features are also available in the new release of FlyQ Online for your PC or Mac.

What’s New in 3.1

  • ADDED: Automatic fuel stop planning based on lowest prices!
  • ADDED: Automatically shows a list of recently cleared IFR flight plans when creating an IFR plan
  • ADDED: Full iPhone X support
  • ADDED: Full Leiods (1800wxbrief) login support (add your Leidos Username in Settings/Pilots)
  • ADDED: Ability to set Layover time at fuel stops
  • ADDED: Can request weather briefings in either Raw (coded) or Translated format
  • FIX: Avidyne ADS-B and Flight Plan transfer features restored

To upgrade from an existing iPad or iPhone installation:

Go to the App Store icon on your iPad or iPhone and select the Updates tab.  Click the Update button next to FlyQ EFB.  Note:  If your device is set to automatically update apps, you may see an Open button rather than Update because the new version has already been installed.

To download to a new iPad or iPhone:

Go to the App Store icon on your iPhone or iPad, select the Search tab, enter FlyQ EFB.

34 thoughts on “FlyQ EFB version 3.1 Now Available!”

  1. Steve,

    Good stuff! One change I’d recommend is having a minimum fuel option for your fuel stop determination. I noticed that it allows me to fly till fuel is down to 4.3 gal before a stop. In my aircraft, due to the fuel tank configuration with the fuel outlet at the front of the tank I’d have the engine quit if I had to pitch up to go around. Don’t ask me how I know. I’d like to be able to set my minimum fuel for my comfort level.

    Keep up the good work!

    Blue skies & tailwinds, Bob Borger Europa XS Tri, Rotax 914, Airmaster C/S Prop (130 hrs). Little Toot Sport Biplane, Lycoming Thunderbolt AEIO-320 EXP, Hercules Prop. 3705 Lynchburg Dr. Corinth, TX 76208-5331 Cel: 817-992-1117 rlborger@mac.com

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    • Great idea, Robert. We’ve already planned to make those configurable based on time in the future. Right now, it uses the standard 30 or 45 minute rules so not actually based on a specific amount (that is, the amount varies based on winds).

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  2. Keep the good stuff comming Steve!!

    I just added a new subscribsion from you for my KSN770….it’s working great as are the ASPEN data bases. I’m not a garmin guy.

    Question….I built a Raspberry Pi Stratux system, enclosher and all. I see you are selling the Merlin. I just became ADSB out (I have a KT74) and am using my Flyq system for ADSB In with the Stratux. Do you have heat issues with the Merlin system you are selling? My system get so hot it melting the plastic case(it has the fan).

    Another question…..On FlyQ EFB maps, I seem to always get an approach plate overlaided when I reenter maps from another display(scratch, plans, etc). I have to contantly go into the map setting->Other and disable the “Procedures”. Is this a bug? I’d like it so I have to enable it but it seem to constantly do it by itself.

    Best Regards, Steve

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    • Hi Steve. Thanks for the kind words. I’m not aware of any significant heat issues w/ the Merlin as it has a fan that seems to work fine. I think one person reported a melted enclosure but I think that was just something faulty as we’ve sold thousands of them.

      Are you having the problem with the plates in version 3.1? I vaguely remember there being an issue there that I thought we addressed. If so, please email support@seattleavionics.com with a very specific way to reproduce the problem including screenshots or video capture of the whole process including your Layers settings.

      Thanks, Steve

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  4. Am I going nuts, or has the Flight Data Recorder feature moved or disappeared? I can’t find it in version 3.1…it was something I used all the time in 3.0 and really appreciated it.

    Say it ain’t so!

    –JPW

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    • Actually neither, John. The feature most definitely has not been removed. In fact, a dramatically enhanced version of it is the star of upcoming FlyQ EFB v 4.0. In v 3.0, you could access it by tapping any of the 5 status lights at the top right of the screen or from Settings. I suspect you used the Settings method. We removed that method because, from what we could see, no one used that method to access it (and we never showed it in any video and not sure even mentioned it in the Pilot’s Guide). So, just tap any of the Status lights then select Flight Recorder. See the video for more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkJxoWrTjJ0

      Sorry for any confusion but, as I said, the Flight Recorder is about to get a huge promotion within the app 😉

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  5. Steve,

    Big Bad Bug. Trying to plan a trip to KOSH. I didn’t like your choice of fuel stops (See my last e-mail) so I turned off “Add fuel stops” and added my preferred stops as waypoints. When I press “Create” the route still adds your fuel stops along with my waypoints. I can’t turn off your fuel stops!

    Blue skies & tailwinds, Bob Borger Europa XS Tri, Rotax 914, Airmaster C/S Prop (130 hrs). Little Toot Sport Biplane, Lycoming Thunderbolt AEIO-320 EXP, Hercules Prop. 3705 Lynchburg Dr. Corinth, TX 76208-5331 Cel: 817-992-1117 rlborger@mac.com

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    • Hi Robert,

      Sorry about that and thanks for getting in touch. We’re having a little trouble reproducing this one. Can you give me the EXACT inputs you used? Like a screenshot that shows all your settings on both Plans/New and Settings/Defaults? Please email that to us at support@seattleavionics.com and me personally at stevep@seattleavionics.com

      We did find one case where this could happen and fixed it so it’s possible that you can’t reproduce the problem anymore but please let us know either way.

      Thanks, Steve

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  6. Thanks for all your hard work. Today as I was using the windy.com site to plan for a flight, I got thinking about how much I’d love to have the entire Windy.Com info/graphics in FlyQ. It is easily the best graphical interface for weather information I’ve ever found. The way they depict information compared to anything coming from aviationweather.gov is truly a dream. Truthfully any upgrade to your depiction of weather in FlyQ would be much appreciated as it seems vastly lacking compared to other EFB’s.

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    • Thanks for the kind words. But have you looked at the weather in FlyQ Online? It’s better. For example, not only can you select most of the same layers (way more than FlyQ EFB), it also both a Timeline and Altitude slider so you can see how weather will change given time and different cruise alts. And your flight plan is synched with the timeline so you see WHERE your plane will be in conjunction with the weather. Also a Profile view linked to the Timeline so you see where you are relative to mountains.

      https://flyq.seattleavionics.com

      Here is a video specific to the weather features: https://youtu.be/aH4QIggQny0

      Check out the FlyQ Online Playlist of videos at https://youtube.com/FlyQEFB

      Thanks, Steve

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      • Yes, I have, and I like it, but using the on-line version of FlyQ *IF* I have cell service while flying is not ideal for obvious reasons. I’m distinctly looking for better weather information within FlyQ. Even when I receive weather via ADSB on FlyQ, it just seems very in-effective in how it’s displayed. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve turned on the weather layers in FlyQ only to question if it has actually “done” anything? (I primarily fly on nice days, so seeing weather in the app is harder unless the weather is BAD.) The overall weather depiction within the app is just not as good as other EFB’s. Maybe it’s the colors (or lack of,) the way the transparency works, the lack of visible movement of weather patterns, the lack of a time-line chart that you can play, fast forward, rewind, etc. but overall I find I basically do not use the weather layers in the app AT ALL while flying because I don’t care for how it displays weather. The Windy.com wind particle animations are beyond delicious, along with their pressure isolines, their radar colors, their low cloud depiction, their temperature color chart, and the timeline at the bottom that I can use to see animation of the weather patterns. I could go on and on about how much I like the windy.com depiction of weather. I wish I could just have that entire windy.com package within FlyQ. That would be the da bomb. I doubt any of your competitors out there could even touch the quality of a windy.com + FlyQ synergy. Maybe… give them a call? (grin.)

        On a related note. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve turned on the traffic layer, the ring layer, the course line layer and go fly, and then go to fly days later and find these layers have been turned off and I have to turn them on again. Is there not a way to insure these stay on every time? Can we have a “default layer” section in the settings page so that every time the app starts, the layers I want are ALWAYS turned on? The ring and course line are not as big of a deal to me, but man, to think there is no traffic in the area only to realize the traffic layer was turned off is a bit fright when you turn it on and POOF! planes all around you that you could have been tracking!

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      • Windy.com doesn’t work when flying either. My point was that, web site to web site, FlyQ Online is much better for flying even if it’s not as pretty. The features there will come to FlyQ EFB over time as they are high on our To Do list. FlyQ Online is often used as a test bed / proving ground for future EFB features because we can make more rapid changes to it and it forces us to make the backend server changes that will assist FlyQ EFB as well as FlyQ Online.

        Sometimes layers are not restored properly. We know this happens very occasionally but have never been able to come up with a repro case for it. In the near future, FlyQ will automatically turn on the traffic layer when an ADS-B receiver is connected so the specific issue you mention will become irrelevant.

        Thanks, Steve

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  7. Also .. it’s totally unfair to compare weather data from ADS-B to what you can get from a direct connection to the Internet. ADS-B provides far less data, it’s spotty by nature, and the radar imagery is very low-res because of limited radio bandwidth. That’s one reason why you will alway get better and prettier weather from an online system than from one using ADS-B.

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    • Look, I’m telling you I like the way weather is depicted in other EFB’s more than yours. I have bought your app regardless because I like your app better overall. My comments about windy.com are not about the DATA but about how it depicts the data graphically. I like the colors they use, the animation they use, the timeline options, the navigation/layer options, etc. Regardless if the source is via the Internet, ADSB, XM, etc. I’m referring to how the data is shown in the app. I actually use the free FltPln app for weather information while flying because I like the way it depicts the weather better using the exact same information available to me while flying as FlyQ has. Do whatever you’d like with this feedback from one of your customers.

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      • Hi. We’re are definitely listening! As I said, the features in FlyQ Online, which far exceed anything in FltPlan.com or anything else I’ve seen that is specific to aviation, are coming to EFB. My point about the ADS-B data is that it is very low-res so the radar in FlyQ Online, Windy.com, or anything else that uses Internet-based weather sources, will always look better. That doesn’t mean I don’t think we can do better in EFB. Rather the opposite as it will have the same set of weather as FlyQ Online has. We just can’t do everything on our wish-list at once, I’m afraid. As I said, it’s very high on our list of things to put into the iOS app.

        Steve

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    • Regarding the loss of layers discussed above. I lose the layers all the time and have complained before. I agree with “goodanddumb” why can’t you put layers in the settings page so we don’t lose them? That seems like a way to fix this irritating problem.

      Thanks, Paul

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      • Hi Paul. Where the layers settings are displayed is totally irrelevant as all settings, from the Layers button or in the Settings page are stored in the same file. The issue is that the app sometimes loses the layers settings and, for the 3.2.1 release we’re working on now, we’re putting a lot of effort into finding out why and fixing it. To be be very clear, although this seems to happen to you a lot, it is NOT a common occurrence overall, which is why we’re having so much trouble tracking it down. It, like most hard to find bugs, seems to do with very specific timing of events, possibly specific devices, and, possibly, memory consumption.

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      • Thanks Steve for your constant effort to find the layers bug and squash it. Might I suggest that at the least you default the traffic layer to always being on and it only goes off if the operator purposely turns it off? There is nothing worse then flying along assuming your FlyQ is receiving and displaying traffic from your ADS-B, only to realize it’s turned off, so you turn it on and then you get a fun little shock of all the turds flying around that haven’t been making radio calls in your area like the good little pilots they are. The other layers are handy and not as big of a deal if they are on or off, but the traffic layer is directly related to safety and I just can’t imagine any pilot honestly choosing it to be off more times than they wish it to be on. Your file could simply track the “off” setting, so if the file is not written correctly, at least the default behavior is on.

        “To be be very clear, although this seems to happen to you a lot, it is NOT a common occurrence overall”

        Just to provide you some feedback on this… This issue occurs to me about 75% of the time. I’m not sure your definition of “common” but 75% certainly meets that requirement. To help you to understand how bad of an issue it is, I have actually added a step in my written checklist to check this. EVERY flight, I verify that I have Traffic, Courseline and Rings turned on before take-off. What is REALLY goofy is these are the only ones that ever seem to magically turn off. Flight Plan, TFR’s, and Flight Track NEVER turn off randomly and are always turned on, just the way I like them. So whatever issue you are having with your layers file, for me, is not impacting the on/off of every layer, only specific ones. In fact, I just pulled out my iPad on the ground here and sure enough, those three are turned off and all my other layers I had turned on last while in flight are still turned on.

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      • Thanks Rob. As you know, we’ve been working on this issue this week and we think we might have it resolved based on the help you and Paul gave us recently. Thanks! BTW — the reason why FP, TFR, Radar, and Track come on is because they are the initial defaults that the app uses. It will also use them if the app somehow gets confused about layers during app launch.

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      • I lose the traffic layer all the time, which is downright dangerous.
        And the tracking layer likes to turn itself on, which is downright worthless.

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      • Hi James. You’re likely using an old version of the app. The current version is 3.3.1.

        In 3.2.1 we made the layers stay on much better and also automatically turn on the traffic layer when a Wi-Fi based ADS-B system is connected (auto-on it doesn’t work for the Dual XGPS 170/190).

        I’m sorry you don’t like the Track layer but, again, just turn it off. In the newer versions of the app, it stays off.

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      • Hey, minor little issue that drives me nuts… Whenever I connect to my ADS-B, it puts a banner at the top that says “Connected ADS-B”. This is great and all, except you can’t do anything on the app until you tap the screen once (anywhere) which then gets rid of the banner. If you don’t notice the banner and you go to swipe/slide/pan the map, the map doesn’t move and you think “what in the world???” and then eventually see the banner at the top and realize you have to tap the screen to get rid of the banner and then the app works as expected. I’ve had a number of occasions where I have switched to a different app, come back, and then the banner appears at the top all over again and I have to tap the screen again before the app will start working. This has been very annoying to me. I don’t like having to tap the screen to get rid of the banner to get the app working. Can you come up with a different solution for this? When I return to the app, say from a checklist, W&B or E6B app, I’m typically ready to start using the app and it’s frustrating when the app doesn’t work until I realize what happened and I get rid of the banner.

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      • I did know the banner goes away after 30 seconds, and that is entirely toooooo long that where you can’t use the screen after switching back to the app from another app (unless you tap on the screen once, which is equally as annoying.)

        The banner doesn’t bother me. It’s the in-ability to do anything in the app when the banner shows. Is it possible to just allow the app to “work” while the banner is showing? I’m not sure why the entire app has to go into a pause mode while the banner is showing?

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      • Hi, the app is not in pause mode – it’s all running just fine — maps move, etc. I’m not sure I see the issue — if you’re saying you can’t move the map or such until you dismiss the popup, yes, that’s correct but you’re touching the map anyway so it doesn’t seem too hard to do a quick tap anywhere on the screen before you can move the map or such. No? That said, we can look at making the message timeout sooner.

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  8. Thanks for the hard work you guys put in to produce and excellent product for a great price.

    I was and old Freight Dog hauling cancelled checks all over the Southeast in the 90’s and then left aviation only to return as a ministry about two years ago. If we would have had this technology back then, I would not have nearly as many flying stories today. I test drove FlyQ and another product that will remain nameless and obviously decided to go with FlyQ. Both are good products. But I concluded that for the kind of flying I am doing, FlyQ made the most sense. I saw some advantages to the competitor. But they only came into play if I was burning jet fuel in the flight levels. On the other hand, I saw a number of advantages for the ligh GA pilot in FlyQ. Don’t ask me to list those comparisons now. I have long since forgotten them. As FlyQ has evolved, many of those issues have been addressed.

    As our Chief Pilot, I have been a big advocate of FlyQ to our other pilots. I believe everyone as now transitioned over to FlyQ. They are still working the learning curve. But they all seem to be very satisfied with the product and agree that FlyQ is definitely the easier to interface with.

    One thing I would like to see added to FlyQ EFB would be the PIREPS layer. I don’t know if that is available through ADS-B. But if it is, it would be great to be able to see them depicted as it is in FlyQ Online.

    Thanks again for the great work.
    Ed<

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    • Thanks for the kind words, Ed, and for talking to our fellow pilots about it. Very much appreciated! Yes, PIREPs are coming to EFB but I don’t have a timeframe. On the plus side, they are in FlyQ Online today.

      Thanks, Steve

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      • Hi Steve, I understand what you’re saying that the Settings and Layers are stored in the same file BUT I have never had anything turn off on my Settings page, yet I have had some other layers like Radar, Flight Plan, Flight Track , and Runways drop a few times and of course the frequent loss Traffic, Courseline, and Rings. It seems the loss of any layers has got much less frequent after v3.2.0. I appreciate you all working this irritating problem and I definitely like the FlyQ EFB program and find it very stable and easy to use overall. Thanks to all,

        Paul

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      • Thanks Paul. As you know, we’ve been working on this issue this week and we think we might have it resolved based on the help you and goodanddumb gave us recently. Thanks!

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      • Steve thanks for your work on this issue. I appreciate your emails to me explaining the inner workings of these layers and I now understand how hard it’s to fix some things. Not having the RADAR layer fail to OFF has made this worth it and is so important to safety. FlyQ EFB is the best flying app without a doubt. My thanks to your team also.

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      • Our pleasure, Paul. We think that, due to your help, 3.2.1 will fix the infamous layers problem. Many thanks and really appreciate the kind words, which I will certainly pass to the team that did all the real work 😉

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