I've recently been wasting money on various navigators that I've been thinking of for some time. For years I've been using the AnywhereMap ATC which with it's 5 inch overall size has been perfect for my small cockpit, plus the AnywhereMap software is about as perfect as can be found. Until the owner of the company screwed it up, it had a GPS-driven glideslope - a "virtual ILS" that could be reliably and instantly used to guide one to whatever runway threshold is in range in case of an engine out when over a solid deck or at night with no moon. It was a fantastic feature that I loved playing with - and then the bastard totally screwed it up by replacing the needle-against-a scale display with some stupid colored blocks that were completely useless. AnywhereMap runs on Windows mobile (at least the one in the HP 310 which is the hardware platform for the AWM ATC I use). They do have a "Pro" version that retained the original V-ILS feature that runs on full Windows, but until recently there haven't been any small Windows tablets. In 2013 DELL came out with the Venue 8 Pro, an 8-inch tablet running Windows 8.1. That got upgraded with a newer model with more memory and I bought one. They are 377 nits which, in my cockpit, is invisible. My ATC is not that bright either, however I have a shade on it which makes it usable unless the sun is directly behind me. I've kept the ATC despite the V-ILS screw up since the software design is elegant, predictable, intuitive, useful, and just about the best navigation software one can imagine.
Instead of putting AWM Pro on the new DELL I bought, I discovered Lenovo has an 8 inch tablet with 520 nits (Miix 2 8-inch) so I bought one of those. AWM is selling their entire suite of software for $199 these days - that is, the Pro navigation software (which retained the original V-ILS display), plus high definition terrain called Max Nav, Pocket Plates with geo-referenced plates - all of which used to be add-ons. AWM is pretty much out of business these days since iPads and the software that's come out has killed everything else pretty much. I don't expect AWM to keep the program up to date but I'm thinking at the current fire sale price it will be good as a back-up navigation program which I can keep in a side pocket. These 8 inch tablets are extremely thin and light and with ten hours of battery life make a good back up. Both the DELL and the Lenovo are the same size as the iPad Mini. I couldn't get everything (AWM software suite) to install correctly so I sent the tablet (the Lenovo Miix 2 8-inch) in to AWM to get it all installed by the programmer. Haven't got it back yet but already I know this was probably all a waste of money. The 8 inch tablet is too big to put a shade on and even at 520 nits I doubt it will be visible in the cockpit during the day. For sure the DELL is invisible. I wasted $260 buying some software that has intrigued me for a long time - Flight Cheetah, also called True Flight. It runs on Windows and until recently there haven't been any small Windows tablets so now that there are, I bought the software. Flight Cheetah will actually give you approach overlays with HITS boxes to fly through. You pick your IAP and it will do the rest, taking you right to the numbers as you fly through the boxes. Well, at night or in the clouds when one might use or need such a capability, I'm sure there's no trouble seeing it on a 377 nit tablet but in normal daylight - forget it. I put it on the DELL. I can't see a durn thing on the DELL. Plus the Flight Cheetah software written on Windows is, like AWM, not long for this world and the software is as flaky as it gets - despite the fact it's been around for many years. When the guy who wrote it sold Windows boxes for cockpit use it was probably the cat's meow, but on these touchscreen tablets it's all over the place. Unpredictable, unreliable, and a total waste of money. No wonder you never see it mentioned on any of the aviation boards anymore. This is getting rather long-winded so I'll wrap it up by saying today, knowing what I know now and after having wasted about $1000 with these tablets and software programs, I would just get the new Garmin 660. It's 5 inches, thus will fit my cockpit perfectly. It's got a worldwide database. It's sunlight readable. It's got a V-ILS feature - it won't take you to the numbers, just to pattern altitude, but that's good enough in most cases. It's Garmin. I've followed and liked the iFly and would probably buy the 740 in lieu of anything else, except the Garmin is smaller and more suitable for my 24" wide cockpit. Anything on an iPad is useless for me - I've no idea how you guys see anything on a 400 nit screen. I sure can't. Mike KSEE ____________________________________________________________ Los Angeles Post This Father and Son Took the Same Photo 28 Years in a Row, Last One is ... http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/57605162e8b3d51626aa2st01vuc
