Electronic flight bags

[Rick1128]

An interesting note. The reason I went with FDR is because at the time they were the only one installing touch screens that was able to use without the use of a special pen.

I flew a bunch of trips that had one that had to use a special pen to select everything. It drove me friggin nuts i kept losing the dang pen. You couldn't use your finger to select anything. It drove me friggin nuts.

Get one with a touch screen not a special pen you'll end up needing that dang pen on a low approach.

The FG4000 has a special pen, but your finger or a regualr pen will also operate it. And I too prefer the FG7000 for the better viewing in daytime.

The FSDO's we deal with (2) basicly are saying that the units must be permanently installed. And that the plug we have it plug the units into qualify as permanent installation.

With our boss things change so fast that it is a pain to keep up at times. But we normally print out a set of charts for our destinations. What we really like about them is updating. We operate worldwide and doing the revisions in paper takes forever. With the EFB it is 20 minutes of paper revisions every 56 days and about 30 to 45 minutes every two weeks on each EFB through the internet, any where in the world. So you don't have to be home or have th revisions shipped to you to keep them current.

 

[prpjt]

I have been looking at the LS800 with the view anywhere screen for our Falcon. I really like that unit. What is the issue with JeppView/FlightDeck? I would think it would work the same as any other tablet since it runs Windows. Thanks for the info,

Pat

The one I played with had Jeppview on it. The problem is that you couldn't thumbnail approaches or arrivals. It was a 3 step process to look at a different chart. May not be an issue with Flightdeck.

Due to the small screen size you had to scroll around to see the entire plate. So you had to have the pen in hand. A touch screen would be very handy on a screen that small.

3 hour battery life.

Edit. Just talked to a guy running an LS800 and he mentioned another issue. Jeppview requires a higher resolution screen than the LS800 has. When he downloads updates he has to go to settings and run the resoplution up to max, which jumbles the 800's screen. Then he downloads the update and changes the setting back to normal when he's done.

If he doesn't switch the res. on the unit beforehand, the download will freeze, and he gets an error message that it can't download to a unit with that low of a resolution. He also has issues with the pen.

You are correct about the Class I being stowed, not a problem for us since we have a very convenient spot to stow. We didn't want to mount anything in our smallish cockpit.

As far as FSDO's, when I called they didn't give a hoot what we did.(Not a Large aircraft) The only question asked is if it would be run by ship's power. We connect to a cig lighter plug and as far as the FSDO was concerned that is not "connected" to ship power. Their reasoning was that we were recharging the unit's power source and could easily break that link by simply unplugging the unit.

 

[patq1]

prpjt,

Thanks for the information! I have not seen JeppView/FlightDeck on an LS800. I've only seen it on an ADR FG7000 which I tried out for a weekend. I liked the screen on the LS800 much better than the one on the ADR unit. It was brighter and had a much wider viewing angle. Of course if it doesn't work very well, it isn't very good. I'll have to see if I can find one to play with some more.

Thanks again,

Pat

 

[pilotviolin]

I built ours using the LS800 and there is no issues with flitedeck. We have wxworx xm weather using their software and everything is bluetooth including the GPS. I would not buy anything bigger.

A touch screen would be nice instead of the pin. Battery life sort of sucks on the long trips, but we have a AC plugs in the cockpit, so it is a non issue.

Beware once the pax see it, it will end up in the back with them. The bluetooth XM and GPS works in the entire airplane and on occasions the CEO will start advising us if we need to climb or descent for better winds!

 

[patq1]

I built ours using the LS800 and there is no issues with flitedeck. We have wxworx xm weather using their software and everything is bluetooth including the GPS. I would not buy anything bigger.

A touch screen would be nice instead of the pin. Battery life sort of sucks on the long trips, but we have a AC plugs in the cockpit, so it is a non issue.

Beware once the pax see it, it will end up in the back with them. The bluetooth XM and GPS works in the entire airplane and on occasions the CEO will start advising us if we need to climb or descent for better winds!

I am very happy to hear that you like the LS800. That is the unit I will probably go with. I am also going to go with XM weather and I would like to run vistanav on one of the units for better terrain awareness. Motion just announced a touch screen version of the LE1600 so maybe a touch screen LS800 is not far in the future. What did you get for RAM and hard drive capacity? I am planning on 1 GB RAM and the 60GB HD for future expansion. Thanks again for the info. I was hesitant to go with the LS800 without at least hearing from someone else who was using it.

Pat

 

[pilotviolin]

We have 1 GB Ram and a 40 GB HD. Flitedeck has pretty good terrain awareness, but we hardly look at it because most the time we are up at FL40's. I wish the LS800 had a touch screen too, but other than that is a good machine. Flitedeck can be updated via the internet now so no need to worry about carry around the portable cdrom. The xm weather is by far the best thing about it.

 

[YankeeEcho]

I have the larger 1400 series Motion Computing with JeppView - and it is great - but would get the LS800 now that it's available - it's the perfect size.