iPad NOTAMS

[Fuji Abound]

I am glad to see that an iPhone / iPad version of NotamPlot is underway.

I assume no graphical NOTAM iPad packages are available yet?

I also assume there is nothing yet that covers Europe.

[lopresto]

I'm currently using NOTAMs on the Iphone.

Airport and FIR notams around the world.

Ciao

[S-Works]

I have been using Homebriefing for the last couple of days on the iPad to file flight plans. I had always steered cleared as it was expensive, but I have to say that as an alternative to not having AFPEx available it is actually very good and works perfectly. The weather services are a bit odd but as a straight FPL tool it is very impressive and the email and text alerts are nice.

Are you listening AFPEx developers, we don't want your bloat code we just wants a standards based browser application that we can use where we need it MOBILE.....

I have printed my entire Jepp sub to .pdf and am using good reader to view them on the iPad and in harmony with pilotWizz it is proving to be a pretty handy tool. the battery life is incredible, it exceed the 10hr claims with ease and the 3G is excellent.

[7AC]

Bose-X,
Have you found and mastered a way to print the Jepps to PDF in individual airport format?
I have been using the iRex reader but it is slow and tedious to print off all the plates.

[S-Works]

I am using easypdf to print them. Works ok.

I am also using Sean Hardings excellent PilotWizz which has an AIP download facility for the UK plates. A HD version is coming soon and with any luck a Jepp client.

[Slopey]

I'm working on an IPad app to plot notams onto the map. Had a few issues on how to best draw the circle around the point, and how to handle scaling (which is more complicated than it should be). The notam parsing is done, its just the display which I'm doing just now. I'll post some screenshots up when its working :)

(The iPad is excellent btw - can't imagine not having one after 4 days with it!)

[Fuji Abound]

Slopey

Thanks.

I am also impressed with the iPad - I thought it was a gimmick, but I am mistaken.

[007helicopter]

I have printed my entire Jepp sub to .pdf

Bose can you advise how you would do that? so you mean you can have all the Jepp charts individually on the IPAD

I have a Jepp subsciption and use it to upload CMAX charts to the MFD but would also like as a back up on a seperate device.

[lopresto]

Bose can you advise how you would do that? so you mean you can have all the Jepp charts individually on the IPAD

I have a Jepp subsciption and use it to upload CMAX charts to the MFD but would also like as a back up on a seperate device.

I think is just printing with one of those free pdf printer...

[S-Works]

Yes, I am printing the lot into .pdf and then copying to the ipad and reading with GoodReader.

[clearfinalsno1]

I do believe the iPad has a built in GPS. Has anyone tried using it as a moving map navigator yet?

[Slopey]

My one is coming along nicely :)

http://www.slopey.com/images/ipad150.jpg

http://www.slopey.com/images/ipad250.jpg

That's showing the EGPX en-route notams only while I'm testing the map/list. I'll add current location on it, and if I can find something useful online, I'll add an airport list in there too.

[Fuji Abound]

Yes, the iPad has a built in compass in the same was as the latest gen iPhone. It works pretty well although I have not tested it against a properly calibrated compass.

I have used my iPad now in the sunlight and outdoors lighting conditions and can report it is very much better than I had thought it would be. It is not quite as good as the iPhone display but is as good if not better than say a TomTom. In anything other than direct sunlight it is very good indeed.

I reckon if you could load something like PocketFMS it would be more than adequate for navigation. I always worry a little about devices with in built GPS and without the ability to attach an external aerial. Whether it would suffer from interference would need to be tested although I also found that its ability to acquire satellites (even in the house) is better than any other GPS I have used (for example my Garmin will not acquire any satellites in the middle of the study).

Surprisingly I reckon the screen is as good as a Motion computer and the batery life is excellent - I can well imagine over six hours of continous GPS useage and a lot more for other applications.

Worth buying for the cockpit? Yes, I think so. My cockpit is all glass so I am in no rush to have another glass screen on my lap, but from my point of view very useful for all the other gizmos relating to flying I keep on my notepad at the moment which will be consigned to the bin as soon as there is a NOTAM app for the iPad.

[eharding]

The Apple Store is still listing the expected ship date for my iPad as simply 'June' - fingers crossed it doesn't slip into 'July'.

In the interim, I've fettled with the CSS of my original iPhone web-app delivering a 48-Hour Warning and Restriction NOTAMs for EGTT and EGPX (UK 48-Hour NOTAMs for iPhone and Android (http://i-notam.appspot.com/uk48wr)) for what I anticipate will be an appropriate form for the iPad, but without an example to test against it is still an experimental release:

Point your iPad browser at


UK 48 Hour NOTAMS for iPad - demo (http://metutil-test.appspot.com/iNotam?agent=IPAD)

...and I'd be keen to hear the results - particularly if adding a link to the web-app to the home screen will allow it to run in full-screen mode as per the iPhone.

Obviously, its a simple translation of the iPhone menu-driven app to a larger screen factor (the 640x640 map tile size is the largest Google Static Maps will reliably support at the moment) - once I get my hands on the real thing, I intend a presentation which will take full advantage of the larger screen area, as well as taking advantage of the offline facilities available in HTML5 to allow the app to operate without a network connection - probably something resembling the current Google Maps V2 presentation (UK 48-Hour Notams : Warnings and Restrictions (http://metutil.appspot.com/static/maps/48HourWarningRestrictionMap.htm)) but recoded for Google Maps V3 (V2 maps perform very poorly on mobile browsers).

If anyone has one of the new Android tablets, I'd also be keen on seeing how the app behaves on those as well - the codebase for the iPhone and Android app is common (or will be, once Google Gears goes away), the porting exercise is largely just an exercise in tweaking the stylesheet.

[dublinpilot]

eharding,

I find your application (via google maps rather than iphone) to be excellent. Thanks for making it :ok:

Would it be a big deal to extend the FIR's covered to a few more? EISN and perhaps some more of western Europe?


dp

[stevelup]

eharding, they are in stock just about everywhere (Apple Stores / Independent Apple Resellers and Currys/PC World).

You might as well just pick one up and cancel your pre-order?

[Slopey]

Point your iPad browser at

UK 48 Hour NOTAMS for iPad - demo

...and I'd be keen to hear the results - particularly if adding a link to the web-app to the home screen will allow it to run in full-screen mode as per the iPhone.

Works fine - and yes, with the bookmark on the home screen, you get it in full screen mode. :)

[1800ed]

built in GPSOnly the models with the 3G chip in them have GPS, as the GPS provided by these devices isn't 'real'. It uses a combination of cellular information and GPS co-ordinates to figure out where you are.

[Fuji Abound]

1800ed

My undestanding is that the 3G models use assisted GPS the other models do not have GPS.

Assisted GPS uses mobile and / or broadband signals to improve the cold start time which becomes usually only a few seconds.

It is also my understanding that without assistance (no 3G or WiFi) the GPS will operate, well at least as long as there was a recent fix. However I have seen reports that if the almanac has not been updated for some days then the GPS will not cold start and no position will be given (for example if on a two week passage across the atlantic).

Whether or not this is an accurate description I am not certain; please clarrify if you know otherwise.

I am guessing that you dont actually need to have a contract with a 3G provider (just the micro sim installed) to enable an asisted fix - but I also dont know.

In short exactly what the parameters are for an assisted fix is not clear; it would be intereting to know.

[1800ed]

I've tried using the iPhone app Trails while up in the sky (with the usual little to no reception you tend to get) to track my flights and gone so far as to putting the phone beneath the windscreen to give it a good line of sight to the sky. It doesn't seem to work too well at all, I'm not too sure if that's a hardware or software issue though. That's all I can report on at least, however there do seem to be aviation related navigation apps available for the iPhone and iPad.

[S-Works]

The iphone and the 3G iPad have proper gps chips in them. Assisted gps uses your location based on cell sites and wifi to accelerate the lock time when the almanac is out of date. For the gps to work the device can't be in flight mode. I am sat at stanstead typing this on an iPad and can't remember the name of the gps chip set but something is in the back of my mind that it may be infineon.

[Fuji Abound]

Bose-x

I dont think so, but happy to be proved wrong.

Apple suggest it is assisted GPS on their own web site.

[IO540]

It makes me smile how for ages I have been slagged off by certain individuals for using this technology, but the instant God (Steve Jobs in a tight black t-shirt) comes out with it, in the form of an oversized Iphone, everybody raves about it :) :) :)

Gosh, for some time I have been getting airborne tafs, metars, radar images, and even emails (if I could be bothered) using a tablet computer (which could be any cheap windoze tablet computer; they have been about for years, with shiny screens) and a £300 Hughes 7100 Thuraya satellite phone from Ebay. 99 US cents per minute.

[Roffa]

This is the iPad GPS chip. (http://www.broadcom.com/products/GPS/GPS-Silicon-Solutions/BCM4750)

It's separate (if that makes any difference) to the 3G chip. (http://www.infineon.com/dgdl/PMB6952-SMARTi_3GE.pdf?folderId=db3a3043163797a6011667b401e00e17&fileId=db3a304316f66ee801179cf226585f5b)

Referenced from here. (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-3G-Teardown/2374/1)

Fuji, bose has it right re A-GPS. The description at Wikipedia covers it nicely...

Assisted GPS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS)

[Fuji Abound]

I hope he is but I am still not certain.

I just switched on in flight mode (wifi and 3 g) disabled and couldn't get a gps cold start in the time I'd expect on a stand a lone chipsets; so I am still not convinced exactly what is fitted.

[Slopey]

It's definitely full GPS as Bose says, the assisted is just to narrow down the location if a cell tower or hotspot is present.

I've started the 3G iPad up with no SIM and no wifi hotspots nearby.

Finds the location no problem, and tracks correctly with MotionX.

Flight mode will disable the GPS also won't it? Yes, just checked, if you have flight mode on, that's no Wifi/3G/GPS. You need to have it off flight mode to get GPS even if there's no Wifi/Sim inserted.

[Aucky]

Hi Slopey, how's your iPad NOTAM app coming along? Is it available yet? The screen shots looked like a good product.... We want to hear more

Aucky