iFly GPS Forum

Okay, admittedly another really small nit for when there's nothing major left to do.

I was scud running today (purposely) and wanted to get the AWOS of my destination airport from about 50 miles out. (To see if I could land there.)

Usually, when I want that info, I pan to my Final destination and read the frequency on the chart. (That only works if your Final is not too far away. More on that in a moment.)

I didn't want to scroll to pan away from my current position today since I was busy flying in scud around mountains.

I thought "Hmmm... how can I quickly get to an info page for my destination?"

I thought "Flight Plan!" Didn't the flight plan page in v8 have an option for calling up waypoint info?

Well, it doesn't have it in the Opt menu in v9, although I just found (on the ground at home) that I can tap the Destination proper and that moves the map to my Final and shows the "Info box." (Or whatever we're calling it.)

Okay, that solves that problem for next time. Especially for far away waypoints, where panning is not reasonable.

(Tapping a waypoint in Flight Plan still pans me away from my current position on the map, but I guess it has to be that way. At least it's only a button push back to current position.)

So then I started experimenting more and wondered what happened if I tapped "Final" on the Instrument button?

First, I never thought about tapping an Instrument for more info. Aside from the Vertical Profile window, which is obviously a minimized version of the full window (and so it doesn't give any new information, just a larger picture of old information), I didn't know you could tap on an Instrument to get more info. How many Instruments do that? (Ergonomically, I don't think they should. But practically, I think it's a good idea.)

Anyway, when you tap the Final Instrument, it gives you the full Airport Information page. (Which still has lat/long, and other non-critical info, as its top data. Sigh. Thankfully the Info Box got it right.)

But if you tap the Waypoint Instrument, its behavior is different, depending on what your waypoint is.

For example, it might give you the same Airport Info page that Final does if your Waypoint is an airport.

But if your waypoint is a lat/long, it simply takes you to that waypoint. (Shouldn't it also call up the Info Box so you don't have to double tap to get it?)

If your waypoint is a VOR (what's a VOR?) it takes you to the VOR. But shouldn't it give you an Info Box on the VOR, offering all that arcane AFD data about which radials are unusable, etc.?

So you get different results at different times. Call me your lowest common denominator (like your mom), but I find that confusing. This doesn't pass the "mom" test.

I suggest, instead, that tapping the Waypoint or Final Instrument always move the map to the waypoint and always call up the Info box for a consistent user experience.

That's because a lot of this is like learning to fly Instruments in various planes. It takes a while before your eyes automatically learn where to look for the information you need. (That's why trying to fly a new airplane at night is so disconcerting - your eyes don't know where to look for basics, like "Where's the MP gauge" when you make a power change.)

It's the same way with flying with IFly. We would like it so that our eyes and fingers can learn where information is, so that we can automatically find it without having to think about where it is. Especially in an emergency situation. And our eyes and fingers can only happen if there's a consistent interface.

Bump. I would like the FINAL Instrument (or the NEXT WAYPOINT Instrument, when it's an airport) bring up the Quick View and move the chart to the airport. (Like NRST does already.) (I admit I've been inconsistent about this in my previous post, where I complained that I didnt' like the chart moving when I was scud running. I was wrong.)

I had previously suggested that this should be done for consistency. (Because tapping the NEXT WAYPOINT, when it's a lat/long or VOR brings up the Quick View and moves the chart to that waypoint. Whereas, if the waypoint is an airport, it brings up the Airport Info page only.)

But consistency aside, now that Quick View has been implemented, it's become my "Go To" app. I can get most of what I need about my Destination at a glance from the QV. What I can't get, I can get in two clicks from QV. And I can get to the info I need within two clicks.

More crucially, I don't see a way to auto-move the chart to my destination airport, which I find myself wanting to do when 100 miles (30 minutes) out and my destination is not yet showing on the chart. (Too far away for NRST to get a hit and even if it's in the list, too cumbersome to scroll down the list. Is there an easy way to jump the chart to my Destination in flight with one or two clicks?)

Going to the Flight Plan page and tapping the Destination airport should still bring up the Airport Info page directly as it now does, since, now that you're off chart, you don't really expect the QV to pop up.

As a side note, now that QV is here, I'm finding that the Airport Info page has become more of a flight planning page for me, when I need to find a phone number to call ahead to talk to the airport manager. (Although in flight I sometimes read thru the remarks to find Calm Wind runway, etc. Still, I can get to that page with two clicks from QV.)