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Hi there, I think Synthetic Vision would be a great idea for SkyDemon. I know some pilots won't want such a feature but it's the natural evolution of the product and probably, necessary to maintain market share against Garmin / ForeFlight. Having flown with FF in the US, I much prefer SD and think it's important for us to have a 'local' app developer for our aviation needs. I think we need this sooner rather than later to stop people trying it out on other products. SD has far superior visuals across the board so SV would be an opportunity to really win some room ahead of the competition. Toddy
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+x+x+x+xIt's been 7 years, actually, 10 since the same topic was raised in a different thread. And still nothing on the horizon? Foreflight and Garmin have it. Xavion has it. There is a plethora of mobile steady-state AHRS boxes out there, which can also pull traffic, weather etc. through ADS-B and display it on the EFB software (okay, weather only in the US). Only SD isn't doing this. I love SD. I think the way maps and airspaces are presented is hands-down the best. I love the ease of setting different altitudes for different legs. I love the airspace warnings in the planning stage. You can tell the others are Americans who really don't understand VFR flying in Europe ... B U T - why can't we get SynVis? What does SynVis actually give you when flying under VFR?
What I really mean is ‘What benefit would there be to the majority of SD users to make it worthwhile adding huge complexity, processing demand along with significant development investment and maintenance overhead to the product?’
The fact that other products offer it doesn’t automatically mean it’s the right thing for SD. Two answers: 1) Night VFR 2) Customer retention
Let's face it, with ever-increasing connectivity between mobile devices and avionics, SD is going to find it increasingly difficult to defend its position as a standalone solution in the cockpit. Despite, in my view, superior support for VFR flying, particularly in Europe. The pull towards an "all-Garmin" setup - avionics, EFB, watch - is strong. Not having to dial & click 18 waypoints into the NavCom before the flight is very tempting. Feature-richness might be one factor that keeps people from switching. Connectivity might be another. This didn't used to be a problem with steam gauges and GNS430s. But even many old club planes get upgraded to glass these days and people will want to benefit from the convenience options. In my experience and in speaking to lots of pilots, which I do, Night VFR is a tiny proportion of all flights, and Terrain Colouring already provides a useful tool to assist in additional terrain awareness in conditions of limited visibility. If one observes the Night VFR rules, why would one need SynVis?
Customer retention is a complex issue with many factors. I think Tim knows quite a bit about capturing and retaining customers. If the data told him that people are drifting away to other products due to lack of SynVis I’m sure he’d respond accordingly, but it would seem to not be something that the market currently sees as important. If one always has current paper charts and does proper planning with a ruler and a hand-written plog, why would one need an iPad running an EFB? Convenience, better situational awareness, additional backup. Same goes for extra features. Even apps like RunwayMap, which were actually not meant to be in-flight at all, can now display ADS-B based traffic around you - for instance.
SynVis running with an external AHRS is a great backup in NVFR in case of vacuum failure, for instance. It can go a long way towards preventing spatial disorientation caused by a dark outside and a tumbling AI. I've had a vac system fail on me in flight. As the gyros' rpms drop gradually, it's initially a very slowly developing error on your AI and HI. At night, you might not notice that your slowly pushing the plane into an undesired attitude. You can catch that much more quickly if you begin to see disagreement between your primary flight instruments and an independent backup.
And that's where I'm thinking of switching apps. Garmin and Foreflight can do this. And if they are going to be my backup in the situation described above, I should be very familiar and confident with them. Might as well make the switch and use one of them as my day-to-day app. I think you'll find that keeping customers is easier than winning them back. Playing catch-up when a trend is already happening is generally a bad idea.
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+xIf one always has current paper charts and does proper planning with a ruler and a hand-written plog, That's an extraordinary statement for someone advocating SynVis.
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