New Airmate aviation data

[Dynon]

So, this came at an interesting time for me. I have yet to get the updated data since the Dynon upgrade. Still learning it. Was just about to get a Seattle avionics subscription but this came out and thought maybe they would be better. Generally not a fan of doing something like this with a company overseas, when there's an issue or question timing can be difficult. Perhaps not the case here.

In the email announcement Dynon says they're Raster charts...but then in this thread Dynon says,"essentially a vector-based chart, of course with limitations". Clear as mud. Am I misunderstanding something?

For those that have gaven it a shot... Stick with Seattle? Id put up with some wonkiness for a foreflight style vector vfr sectional. But if it's missing that many airport diagrams vs Seattle avionics... Stick with Seattle avionics? Not part of the apple cult so the Mac os isn't an issue

The digital data - IE, the free data on our website - which paints the airports and airspaces and has the info that you can "look up" on SkyView are vector. The sectionals and plates are raster whether they come from Airmate or Seattle Avionics

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I subbed to the Airmate North America data package. I would do just about anything to avoid Seattle Avionics Chart Data Manager software, considering I have a Mac and have to run a windows emulator to get it to work, which is super buggy and slow. So I had high hopes for Airmate. I downloaded and used Airmate's data manager application. There is a lot missing from this bare bones piece of software- just basic simple things like some kind of text that lets you know when the last cycle you've downloaded expires...The software was also very slow to download and very slow to install the data on my new, high speed, properly formatted USB drive. You also can't select state by state like you can with SA...it's all or nothing I guess. This would be forgivable (I guess) because at least I would not have to run the buggy windows emulation software....but I discovered a couple things that are making me think I'll have to go back to SA...

Apparently, the taxi diagrams (or at least The 3 Southern California airports I landed at while using Airmate data) are not geo referenced. A little crossed out pink airplane icon appears over the taxi diagrams for the airports I landed at. I fly into larger airports often enough that I really like to have geo-reffed taxi diagrams in front of me.

I also noticed that on the instrument approach into Santa Monica, my CDI driven from Avidyne IFD was showing me left of the course, but Airmate's geo-reffed approach plate depicted me right of the course. Obviously, I use guidance from the IFD and CDI but the visual on the approach plate being off was enough to make me think for a second. Maybe it's just this one plate? I've not flown this IAP with SA plates before either to compare.

Aside from the non geo-reffed taxi diagrams, one of my biggest complaints is that I was not able to push and hold the right button to call up a previously selected plate, or an automatically chosen taxi diagram on landing. This was one of my favorite features of the HDX and it worked with SA plates and taxi diagrams. I'm not sure why it's not working now but the only thing that has changed is I am using Airmate data/plates.

One nice thing is having airport info in the database, taxi diagrams, and IAPs for Mexican airports which I fly to once or twice a year. But this isn't enough to keep me around since the rest of the experience has been a step back.

I'm pretty bummed about this. I hope Airmate can continue to work on improving their app design and functionality, and geo-reference the taxi diagrams for all airports (if any even are I don't know). If the one button push is an issue with Airmate plates I'd love them to fix that too. Until then, I may have to begrudgingly put up with SA's horrible app for awhile longer.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Quick update. I contacted AirMate with the issues I mentioned in the post above and they said that The taxi diagrams SHOULD be georeferenced and they are looking into the issue, along with the issue of the quick call up of the plates by holding the right button. They think the latter is some kind of small configuration issue on their end.

hopefully these things will be resolved and AirMate will be a decent alternative for my HDX chart and data needs…

 

[Silver]

I switched from SA to Airmate and I'm also bummed at losing geo-referenced taxi charts. I've checked everything and been to multiple airports and the moving plane on the taxi chart does not exist. Just a chart and the X'd out airplane in the bottom right corner. This is a major fail and needs to be fixed before I stay with Airmate. I also can't get the raster charts to show up in the Map layers view of my HDX. I've double checked how they were loaded both on my flash drive and then to the unit and I can't view them at all. Again, for me to stay with Airmate, I expect some of this basic stuff to get fixed.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Airmate has been extremely communicative during this process and I believe they are going to fix the geo-ref issues on the next data cycle. I will report back my experience! The download manager worked better for me on the most recent data and transferring to my USB drive didn't take too long. So the experience is definitely improving!

 

[Silver]

Airmate has been extremely communicative during this process and I believe they are going to fix the geo-ref issues on the next data cycle. I will report back my experience! The download manager worked better for me on the most recent data and transferring to my USB drive didn't take too long. So the experience is definitely improving!

I agree. I have a couple of issues that matter, but after the very prompt comm I've received from Airmate, I'm fine with giving them time to work through some of this stuff. Having prompt support replies will carry the day.

 

[tedbain]

I had moved to Canada and gave up my SA subscription. Bought the North American data from Airmate and had an initial glitch downloading but Airmate was very responsive and fixed it within a day. The download for all of the North American data took about as long as SA downloading for 1/2 of the USA data. Airmate is bringing out Canadian VFR sectionals soon. The cost for Airmate to get the Canadian IFR charts and approach plates from Nav Canada is cost prohibitive. I can only guess as to Nav Canada's reasoning.

 

[Silver]

I've been working with Airmate the last couple of days to work through a few issues getting it working on my dual HDX screens. They responded very quickly and I suspect that I somehow didn't get my flash drives loaded correctly. They helped me resolve the issue and I like the product and the support is excellent.

The geo-reference on some taxi charts should be resolved soon and there will be an update to the PC Data Manager product that lets you load all that data on the hard drive or SSD of your choice instead of the boot drive.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Just a follow up. I have noticed that the load times onto a USB flash drive can vary widely depending on the ACTUAL speed of the USB flash drive. I was having some issues where loading charts onto the USB drive was taking exceptionally long. I researched fast compact USB drives and found the ones linked here tested very well in speed tests. I ordered a pair and indeed the data loads quickly onto them. So far the best I have found and I'm happy with the speeds and am going to stop looking for something faster! As of the time of this post I was able to buy TWO for $16.99 with free shipping.

Lexar LJDS47-32GABBKNA JumpDrive S47 USB 3.1 Flash Drive 32GB 2 Pack​

https://a.co/d/eMCHRzG

 

[uri43]

interesting developments
for European database they are asking twice the price of US subscription

I can't speak for the USA or Europe, but for Southern Africa the only other alternative is getting my data from
the crowd that brought us the 737-Max.

Their data for my Dynon HDX equipped Jabiru J430 is dissapointing and expensive. The Airmate subscription for
Africa is 99 Euro which is much cheaper and so far seems to offer better coverage and includes the published plates
and procedures for most of Africa.

In South Africa, however, we ran out of the Mandelas, and the current Regime is too busy enriching themselves to
properly maintain and calibrate previously installed ILS and VOR so, apparently, recently, some SA ground based
Nav Aids were condemned and suspended following an ICAO inspection. One of the VOR's that went off the air
is RIV (Robben Island VOR - that's where Mandela was jailed). It's just a few miles from my home. The unwarry
remain complacent, because there are now many locations in South Africa and the rest of Africa where there are
available normally reliable GNSS VLAN procedures, however, there are no reasonably affordable GNSS for smaller
and non type certified aircraft, and even for the bigger guys GPS constellations can be switched off instantly by a
flick of a switch during conflict, or, deliberately downgraded and made less accurate.

 

[RexBrewer]

using Airmate data manager on a Windows10 computer the data local downloads to the computer, but the program USB stick stops and will not complete.

later......
Found the local download was corrupted. Deleted all data and re-downloaded. USB stick loaded

 

[SV_Classic]

using Airmate data manager on a Windows10 computer the data local downloads to the computer, but the program USB stick stops and will not complete.

Dynon's tech support email address is support@dynon.com , give them 24 hours to get back to you, they're usually very good about it

 

[OgieOglethorpe]

Dynon's tech support email address is support@dynon.com , give them 24 hours to get back to you, they're usually very good about it

Except his issue has nothing to do with Dynon. Rather its an airmate issue. Airmate has been helpful when I've emailed them for similar issues

 

[SV_Classic]

it sounds like the upload to the Dynon display was not completing. If that's the case, it's 50-50 which side is causing it if not the windows 10 system

 

[OgieOglethorpe]

it sounds like the upload to the Dynon display was not completing. If that's the case, it's 50-50 which side is causing it if not the windows 10 system

It sounds like he downloaded the charts in the airmate data manager to his pc. Once that is downloaded to PC you put your flash drive in and hit program usb stick on the data manager to get that info to to the usb. Its at that stage data starts downloading and then stops.

I dont believe he ever made it to the plane to upload the info.

 

[SV_Classic]

it sounds right, maybe he'll clarify, I don't know the answer but sharing the Dynon support email address is never a bad idea since they are very reliable about responding where the forums are hit and miss, imho

 

[uri43]

It sounds like he downloaded the charts in the airmate data manager to his pc. Once that is downloaded to PC you put your flash drive in and hit program usb stick on the data manager to get that info to to the usb. Its at that stage data starts downloading and then stops.

I dont believe he ever made it to the plane to upload the info.

I has a similar issue recently and it appears that Airmate update their data manager app.

After installing the updated app I needed to login again and that was hindered by having forgoten my user name and password.
It appears that my user name was my tail number and the rest was resolved.

login afresh on the updated app downloading the date and writing it to USB.
Another minor complication was I tried uploading it to my JAB4 using an optional auxiliary battery bus failed because my auxiliary battery was not as healthy as I expected.

Switched back to the main battery bus and connecting an auxiliary power supply/conditioning charger and uploading again worked perfectly.
Unrelated: My JAB4 is an updated nodel that had the Max All Up weight increased to 800kg (1763.7 lb) and it is IF equipped and certified. The Aux Battery bus and battery were optionally installed at my request but fail to fully charge the aux battery. I have since installed additional wiring and an Anderson/Brad Harrison plug to connect auxiliary power supply / conditioning charger to the auxiliary battery but I may have to replace that battery because it no longer retains a full enough charge, though I am wirworthy even if it has failed or was never installed to start with.

Concerning data. I am in Africa (Cape Town) My one NAV/COM is ab Avidyne 440, and, unfortunately so far it requires data from the same people who gave us the 737 Max, at a cost disproportional local salaries wages and cost of living. My dual Dynon HDX was originally using the other, very expnsive data update service and I switched to Airmate.aero which supplies the Dynon Data at a much more reasonable rate. I am told that Airmate may release a data update for my IFD 440, hopefully soon as I am already a young Octogenerian.
A mild compensation is that my JAB4 (Jabiru J430) is comfortable using Gasoline rather than AVGAS, and even though it is a 4 seater it burns about half the Gasoline my 13 years old Jeep is burning for the dame distance but at half the time. I flew yesterday for exactly 1 hour and burnt 19 litres = 5 US Gallons

 

[RexBrewer]

The problem, quickly resolved by Airmate, was an interrupted/corrupt download of files to computer. Solution was data/delete on Airmate data manager. Re-downloaded without interruption, loaded onto USB stick ok.

 

[RexBrewer]

where can I download Airmate data manager for windows?

 

[RV6-KPTW]

At the airmate.aero site