Just to say - airway direction is certainly displayed on the Waypoint view within the windows planning tool. Look at the airway name. If its a box - it means both ways. If it is an arrow shaped box, it is one way...

Having started this topic before I had even tried SD in anger, I can now post with some experience under my belt!

First of all I love the product. As an avid and long time user of Foreflight when flying in the US, I always felt we were being shortchanged in Europe that no one in the aviation software business was providing anything remotely similar so Kudos to Tim and the team for bringing us SD and getting to the current level of utility.

However, it is clearly still a VFR only product and that's all it claims to be so I don't have a problem with that. Having read the various posts above, I agree there are IFR features included in SD such as IFR Intersections and you could use the software for when flying under the UK IMC rating since you are not usually flying in the "IFR System". However, airways are only depicted by way of the airspace they occupy. There is no indication on airways that are one-way only (yes, some airways can only be used in one direction), there are no indications of minimum en-route alitutudes or reception altitudes or crossing altitudes or VOR radials....

I could go on but don't want to bore!

If you tried to mix in with IFR traffic using the information in SD, you could find yourself in trouble. It's a great VFR tool and useful for additional IFR awareness but should not be used as a primary IFR planning or flight tool.

If EASA ever deliver the promised "PPL IFR" rating, there may be enough demand for IFR features for it to make sense for SD to do the development work.

I came a cross an email exchange I had with Tim back in April 2010 when I asked if he would consider developing an iPad version. His succinct reply was "No, we will not" Clearly he can be swayed!

I use the lower airways in France, VFR. They are mainly Class E and D, and if you're on a flightplan at somewhere between FL55 and FL105, VFR on top with an IMC rating to keep legal, it's by far the most relaxing way to the Med; you just get smoothly handed on from sector to sector. On my last flight I found all the airways I needed indicated on SD, although I understand from Tim's earlier post that the airways coverage is not complete in SD.

On the charts of the Netherlands and Belgium you can see the lower airways. Why not on the charts from other countries like France, Germany and Spain?

Yes I know, agree with all of the above.
Regards
Gavin.

If I were to make a suggestion, I would recommend taking the plunge and subscribing, simply because SD is such a pleasure to fly with. My subscription runs out in Sept 2013 (not 2012).

Fair enough! (genuine question btw, from a new IMCR who hasn't done any 'real' IFR flying )

In which case I would have thought that a pseudo-DME should be fairly easy to implement?

Integration of approach plates with the GPS perhaps more difficult to implement but I can see how that would be *very* useful.
Perhaps I should hold off subscribing until I see if any of these features have a chance of appearing in a future SD release....

...As much as I would on the synthetic vision in Garmin 795, Air Navigation Pro just to name a few.

IFR Charts with IFR plates that are accessible and fly-able at the press of a button.

With regard to pseudo-ILS / pseudo-DME, how much reliance would you place on these? Are you really going to use them to fly a DIY approach to minima in IMC at an unfamiliar airfield?

Edit: Or perhaps just in marginal VFR conditions at a familiar one?

In a product such as SD (and not withstanding what Tim mentioned earlier here re SD being aimed at the VFR market) I would certainly appreciate, for now: