Flymap F7/F5
 

Hi All,

I've searched everywhere on PPRuNe for info, but with no luck.

I'm looking to purchase a GPS, preferably with CAA VFR maps, and after a bit of reasearch I've narrowed it down to either the Airbox Foresight, or Flymap's F7.

Has anyone had any experience of the flymap at all? It seems the better out of the two, but I can't find any information about it, apart from a promising review;

http://www.pioneeravionics.co.uk/dow...Double_tap.pdf

Cheers

there is a large GPS buyer's guide in the June issue of Pilot magazine that might help - the Foresight and F7 feature amongst the reviews.

A search on the Flyer GA Discussion forum for "Flymap" will present some results; not all of them complimentary

Cheers folks. Spoken to Brad at pioneer avionics, very helpful indeed.

Out of the Airbox and flymap, I decided to try out the Flymap F7.

It came yesterday, I'll post a reply as soon as I've used it in the air, but on first apperances it seems like an extremely slick bit of kit, which responds well.

North up or Track up
 

Let me know how the CAA chart looks in track up mode, on the Airbox Forsight the resolution in track-up is terrible

SF

I can't see a raster chart (like the UK CAA VFR ones) being usable in track up mode. What if you are flying a track of 180? Everything will be upside down. You will need a very flexible neck :)

it will be terrible. It's a technical impossibility for it to be anything other than terrible.

I have no idea why those raster map based devices have anything other than a north up mode on them.

Why is it a technical impossibility?

Because, if a map is to be rotated meaningfully, the text needs to be on a separate layer, so the text remains upright as the underlying map is rotated.

Moreover, the text needs to be not just one layer but each piece of it (e.g. each airspace label) needs to be "attached" to a particular piece of airspace so that as the map is rotated the label can be redrawn in the right place.

And the CAA does not publish its VFR charts in a layered form. They let them out only as a single-layer flat graphic, and that is how Memory Map resells them.

Companies which produce rotatable aviation maps are Jeppesen (whose maps are used on most GPSs), PocketFMS, and I think 1 or 2 others. But I don't think any of the national-CAA-produced VFR charts are available in a layered form suitable for rotation.

There is a separate issue with rotating a graphic in that there is an inevitable loss of resolution - unless the rotation is 90/180/270 degrees in which case you can do it precisely. But I don't think that is the major issue here.

Ah I see. The question you quoted was about resolution, rather than things being upside down.

The resolution issue is solvable simply with a higher resolution image and some half decent anti-aliasing.

Agreed though, you can't turn the text round!