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Old 19th Mar 2010, 09:08
  #70 (permalink)  
Fuji Abound
 
Join Date: May 2001
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PocketFms

I think there is some confusion here which I would like to correct.

PocketFms is primarily NOT a flight planning product but is very much designed to run in the cockpit. The software can be installed on a very wide range of platforms including most touch screen car GPS, notepads and notebooks and other portable PCs. The maps cover the whole of Europe and in fact most of the world. The software works very very well in the cockpit, and the charts are as good as the printed versions.

Personally I think the holy grail is someone producing a platform on which software of this sort will operate which is comparable with the best panel displays. For a long time screens that could be viewed in bright light were few and far between. For this reason PocketFms was usually run on an iPaq. Cheap in car GPS have provided a good alternative. However, in the perfect world these screens are too small. The ideal screen size would IMO be around A5 size. Get the screen size right and then you need to provide a three hour plus run time on batteries, sunlight readability, touch screen and reasonable storage. All of that can be done except perhaps the run time aspect on batteries but tapping into the ships power is not the end of the world. The probelm is that by the time you have purchased PocketFms and a platform that meets my criteria to be fair you might just as well buy one of the very good units from Mr Garmin.

However PocketFms does work really well on in car type GPS which are a far less expensive solution.
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