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HomeHomeDiscussionsDiscussionsiFly Pictures &...iFly Pictures &...First Long Cross Country with IFlyFirst Long Cross Country with IFly
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7/10/2011 6:47 PM
 
My wife and I flew VFR from the San Francisco Bay area up to Vancouver and Victoria BC over the July 4th holiday. It was my first long cross country with the IFly. Until now I have had to rely on VOR's and eyeballs for my navigation. What a huge difference to fly into unknown territory when you have this gem for guidance.

I very soon learned that, although I had programmed a flight plan, I was able to constantly adjust and change the plan as the flight progressed. No need to search for buttons, knobs or airport codes - just touch on the screen where I wanted to go and select "Fly Direct to Here". I found myself constantly adjusting the plan as conditions changed and opportunities presented themselves.

I was able to avoid mountains that I had not taken into account on my original flight plan. The BIG ones were obvious but some of the "smaller" 8000' ones I managed to overlook on my original plan.

It was quick and easy to pick a new spot to stop for lunch and fuel - and re-adjust the flight plan on the go. No screwing around, just touch a spot on the map and "voila" new flight plan.

There are no digital charts available in Canada so I pre-programmed VFR reporting points and airports. The IFly navigated perfectly (think vector mode).

Returning home there were large build-ups of clouds all around the Seattle area. With the IFly I was able to remain VFR while navigating around the Class B airspace and the other control zones in the area. Again we changed our planned lunch/fuel stop and created a new flight plan with a few touches on the screen.

For those of you who have been flying cross country with the IFly for some time I'm sure this all sounds like, "Yeah, we know." For my wife and I however, the IFly truly made this the lowest-stress cross country flight of our lives. It also saved us time and money as we were able to take advantage of short-cuts when they became available, while still knowing exactly where we were.

The IFly paid for itself by this flight alone. Without it I would never had had the confidence to dodge clouds around the Seattle Class B and get to CAVU conditions. The weather got worse shortly after and we would still be sitting in a motel in Bellingham waiting for the weather to clear.

Gary Welch
Cloverdale, CA
 
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7/17/2011 2:51 PM
 

I'll add to Gary's post because my comments are in the same spirit. I received my iFly during the winter and did not leave the local area much, though I was so impressed with it that I convinced one of my hangar neighbors to buy one as well (and he loves his, too).

In June, my wife and I flew from Rochester, NY to Fort Myers, FL in a Cherokee. Once in Florida, we did a daytrip to Marathon Key. This was a chance for the iFly to really shine. Though I had some issues with lock-ups early on with the iFly, the unit performed flawlessly for 26.3 flight hours and proved itself to be a true asset. I remain very pleased with our purchase. There are a lot of reasons why I like the iFly, but this trip brought out some others:

1. Although there were times when the sunlight fell directly on the screen, (I have a Cherokee with the iFly yoke-mounted), it was always readable. Much more so than the Lowrance 500 I used previously. There may have been times when it washed out a bit, but I could always see the important details.

2. Like Gary, we experienced weather deviations and appreciated the simplicity of reprogramming the GPS quickly and easily. At one point, we deviated to an airport that was not a part of my original flight planning, so the A/FD type information available on the iFly was quite useful.

3. During the cross country, the iFly was great for doing flight planning and "what-if" calculations on the ground when access to a computer was limited. The function that allows you to "fly" the route looking for airspaces is a great feature for double checking the plan.

4. We flew near one presidential TFR (around Miami) and a firefighting TFR over the Okefenokee Swamp. It was wonderful have explicit TFR boundaries depicted right on the iFly.

5. At the end of the trip, we used Walter's pointers on exporting the GPS tracks to "GPS Visualizer" and made some excellent maps of our trip. I like how the iFly organizes each leg into a separate track, nothing more, nothing less (my Lowrance just ran a continuous track until its buffer filled up, which meant that you sometimes got more or less of the track you really wanted).

6. The new vertical speed guidance for hitting pattern altitude is going to make me lazy, it works so well! What a nice tool to have.

Thanks to Walter and everyone else at Adventure Pilot for making this wonderful device available! I can't wait to see what you all come up with next.

-- Chris

 
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