Thought users might be interested in my experience of SkyDemon during a trip this w/e.

Left Husthwaite (NY) Sat am, flew to Cromer (landed) flew onto Beccles (stayed over). Departed Cromer Sunday & flew to Weybourne (landed) took Off & went to N Coates and finally returned home around 5pm Sunday.

Comments areas follows. As previously, the features re vert nav, NOTAM warningss and clarity of maps are v good. Best in Class. BUT.....

1. The programme's auto-sensing of where you are on a route really does not work in a way that I find acceptable. I plumbed in a route that covered the whole trip. But when I started up at Beccles it informed my I was 140NM "off track". It therefore assumed I should have been back at my home airfield. No such problems with my G296 which made the correct assumption re where I was and what wd happen next. I should say it is indeed possible to "fool" the 296. If you have aroute that leaves and returns to home airfield with pretty similar legs and you start off on the reciprocal of your intended final leg, the 296 will automatically invert the whole plan! Does not happen often and I now know what to do about it.
2. This also mean that if ATC ask you to give estimate at next waypoint, you can't. Hopeless.
3. But SD's internal logic is simply not good enough for what I imagine is a pretty common usage. If you are just bimbling about you are not going to set up a route and plug into GPS.
4. The default offtrack alert is too senistive  .. being told I am 0.2NM off track is a pain.
5. Redrawing Map warning is simply annoying  .. cannot see why I need to be told at all  .. just get on and redraw asap.
6. Actual Time  .. not sure waht can be done about this one. The clock on my GPS (Navigon 8410) did not show the correct time in SD. If I loaded the normal Navigon program, then clock was correct (local time of course). And it was not just 1hr adrift to mean Zulu time. It was hours out.
7. As anothe 8410user has pointed out, sometimes it stops logging the track and re-fixes staellites. Works 100% in PFMS and in native Navigon. Feels like a snsitivity problem. I certainly do not want to have an external antenna  .. 8410 can get a fix indoors and so shd not drop the signal outside.

OVERALL

No way cd I use this unit as primary GPS even tho there is lots to like. Route logic is NBG. Drops signal too often. Some defaults need sorting but I know I can override.

FINALLY

How do I tell the unit I have a full license. Mobile Device Ctre does not work with 8410. Where do I put the license file? This also drove me nuts on 2 hr flight.

SD card sync  .. roll on this feature.

Of corse I write this not on the spirit ov overt criticism but in order to amke something that has huge potential to be basically usable in a real trip.

Cheers

David

I have a feeling something more fundamental is going on re SD & satellite fix.

I flew for around 2hrs todat Sunday. 8419 worked fine except for the last 15 mins or so. Started to "lose" fix and said(pretty often) it was refixing with the alert across the screen (which you don't seem to be able to turn off). Final straw was when it said it had a fix on 12 sats and could see 12 sats but was seeking a fix!!

Not sure if this relevant but it seems to be related (coincident with) redrawing the map  .. esp if you change direction by say 90 degrees. Perhaps if you zoom as well. Its as if its processing is getting clogged up. Cd be nonsense though.

I did look at GPS output and the accuracy data was all OK expt the last figure was around 20.

Where is the gps log saved to? have not looked yet. If its being saved to the SD card OK. Since this is a WinCE hack if its being saved to the internal memory, this cd be a problem.

Anyway when it works its great but its still too flaky to rely on.

Will dig some more but I think we need some feedback from as many people using SD Mobile, in flight for real as possible.

Wd like to avoid another antenna but looking like I will have to try one and see what difference it makes. But I am sceptical as this unit is a fairly high end car nav device and claims to have "SiRF Star III + SiRF InstantFix II / Built-in". So wd not expect poor gps performance.

Any ideas very welcome.

D
PS liked the "current leg logic" which worked fine.

This is a problem I see quite a bit also. If the data is good enough to plot my location then I'd prefer not to see this message at all as it takes up too much room. A change to an icon on the bottom left would be better.