I am SO sick of the SA app

[meyerflyer]

What does this mean?

 

[Tigermoth]

I cancelled my $100 annual subscription to SA in favor of Foreflight ($75) and Dynon synthetic vision ($25). With the wifi adapter I can use my iPad at home to review weather, notams, TFRS etc, plan the flight and then transfer it to Skyview in the cockpit.

I have all the charts in a relatively easy to read format and Foreflight updates in a minute or two max, usually less.

My experience with SA was painful and despite emailing their boss he replied that they have no plans to adapt to Mac users and extolled his product. Problem is it's next to useless for me.

It takes hours and hours to download on my old PC tablet and the only charts I ever really used were the geo-referenced taxi chart, which still works despite being out of date and is a good guide at a new airfield if nothing else. I never used their VFR sectional area on SkyView much preferring the Dynon generated map backed up by Foreflight.

Sorry SA but your product is overpriced and near worthless in my book.

 

[dynonsupport]

The Seattle Avionics Data Manager is used to download data for a number of different devices, not just SkyView.

What does this mean?

 

[swatson999]

It takes hours and hours to download on my old PC tablet and the only charts I ever really used were the geo-referenced taxi chart, which still works despite being out of date and is a good guide at a new airfield if nothing else. I never used their VFR sectional area on SkyView much preferring the Dynon generated map backed up by Foreflight.

Sorry SA but your product is overpriced and near worthless in my book.

It's not the product that's overpriced. The maps are great, and I like the georeferenced approach plates, etc.

It's the *delivery system* that sucks. It's unintuitive, clunky, fails a more-than-reasonable portion of the time (which necessitates a burdensome "fix" process of deleting all the files, etc.), and just generally isn't up to snuff.

The *charts* are great. The software...not so much.

 

[Tigermoth]

You write:-

"It's not the product that's overpriced.  The maps are great, and I like the georeferenced approach plates, etc.

It's the *delivery system* that sucks.  It's unintuitive, clunky, fails a more-than-reasonable portion of the time (which necessitates a burdensome "fix" process of deleting all the files, etc.), and just generally isn't up to snuff."

Well, if that's all true (and it is) then paying $99 for it makes it well over priced in my opinion.

 

[rlmarshall]

As one very pleased Seattle Avionics customer, I am a little tired of all the ranting going on. Granted, the system could be better, but I personally have no real issues. I find the $99 per year quite reasonable as the system works for me. My temporary patch on this forum and on the Vans Air Force forum is to not read any more Top Cat posts.

 

[krw5927]

As one very pleased Seattle Avionics customer, I am a little tired of all the ranting going on.  Granted, the system could be better, but I personally have no real issues.  I find the $99 per year quite reasonable as the system works for me.  My temporary patch on this forum and on the Vans Air Force forum is to not read any more Top Cat posts.

Neat that it works for you. For many of us, it doesn't. Thus the complaining. I guess since you don't have problems we're not allowed to?

Those of us with problems need a place to implore Dynon to come up with an alternative solution. This is that place.

Since you're tired of it, how about not clicking on the thread titled, "I am SO sick of the SA app"? :-?

 

[Garrett]

I agree with krw5927 this is our place to get things fixed. SA needs this feedback to work out the bugs. I would love to be able to get my downloads a few days early without having to babysit the app.

 

[NASA515]

Well, I'm with Bob M.  Top Cat shows up on the various Forums (here and Vans) and it's "let the threats and hyperbole flow."  He gets told by Dynon that they're working to fix a problem he reported and expect something in January, so he reports to all how mad he is that he called them nine times in one day - in December - I guess to check hourly how well they're doing.  I'm glad I'm not in customer service, 'cause my fuse would be way too short.

OK, SA ain't the greatest data provider out there, but they're OK.  I had trouble with the downloads early on, but I've gone over two years with no problems.  The download is slow, but not as slow as it used to be - not a problem for me, I plug it in and come back in a while and all the balls are green and I go do my thing.

If you don't like the value, don't buy the product instead of complaining about everything else.  I actually use very little of the SA stuff except for airport diags and Approach Plates; I prefer the Dynon maps.  I probably wouldn't renew - actually I didn't renew recently - EXCEPT - SA has a yearly SALE - half price.  That makes it $49/year - hard to beat.  I have to buy a Sectional and a TAC chart twice/year - that's about $40.  For $9 extra, I get the whole country and all the other goodies too.  Seems like a no brainer to me.

As to Foreflight, why spend the $75 when you can get Avare and SA's FlyQ Pocket for nothing, nada, zilch - and they work great.  They're my backup (along with a couple of other freebies - I recommend GPS Test), and work great on my Android phone.  Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would carry an iPad with FF around in an airplane that has Skyview.  i like to say my iPad is bolted to the panel.  And I can read it in sunlight too!  I don't know where I would ever carry an iPad in my airplane anyway - there ain't no room.

Bob Bogash
RV-12 N737G
511 flights in the last 2 years

 

[Tigermoth]

Well, I'm with Bob M.  Top Cat shows up on the various Forums (here and Vans) and it's "let the threats and hyperbole flow."  He gets told by Dynon that they're working to fix a problem he reported and expect something in January, so he reports to all how mad he is that he called them nine times in one day - in December - I guess to check hourly how well they're doing.  I'm glad I'm not in customer
service, 'cause my fuse would be way too short.

OK, SA ain't the greatest data provider out there, but they're OK.  I had trouble with the downloads early on, but I've gone over two years with no problems.  The download is slow, but not as slow as it used to be - not a problem for me, I plug it in and come back in a while and all the balls are green and I go do my thing.

If you don't like the value, don't buy the product instead of complaining about everything else.  I actually use very little of the SA stuff except for airport diags and Approach Plates; I prefer the Dynon maps.  I probably wouldn't renew - actually I didn't renew recently - EXCEPT - SA has a yearly SALE - half price.  That makes it $49/year - hard to beat.  I have to buy a Sectional and a TAC chart twice/year - that's about $40.  For $9 extra, I get the whole country and all the other goodies too.  Seems like a no brainer to me.

As to Foreflight, why spend the $75 when you can get Avare and SA's FlyQ Pocket for nothing, nada, zilch - and they work great.  They're my backup (along with a couple of other freebies - I recommend GPS Test), and work great on my Android phone.  Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would carry an iPad with FF around in an airplane that has Skyview.  i like to say my iPad is bolted to the panel.  And I can read it in sunlight too!  I don't know where I would ever carry an iPad in my airplane anyway - there ain't no room.

Bob Bogash
RV-12 N737G
511 flights in the last 2 years

Bob Bogash,

Just for the record.

When I originally had the map screen problem I called Tech Support. The answer they gave me then is different than the responses they posted on this Forum.

The reason I called them 9 times in one day was to see if I could speak to someone,anyone, and get an update. Yes I made 9 calls but didn't actually speak to anyone, or leave a message, except once when directed by reception and it turns it it was just to voicemail.
Your implication that I pestered them all day is false. Your 'guess' about why I called is also wrong.

The comment about 'threats and hyperbole' is just false. What 'threats' for example?

I did leave ONE message and the next day spoke with a guy at manager level who apologized that no-one answered the phone, including the receptionist, and said he'll look into why that was.

He also said that the Tech Support guys response that it "was a glitch the required a software fix' wasn't true and that it was looking like false data inputted into the ADSB system. All information that could have easily been reported by Dynon and saved some people a lot of time. They could have also mentioned possible remedies that they've talked about previously, including on this forum. I made a few positive suggestions and he made notes, and thanked me for the input.

By the way, regarding your comment about 'why anyone would fly with FF on an iPad when they have Skyview?'. If it was alluding to a comment I made in a previous post I'll tell you why. My airplane was almost brand new and about a year old when my Skyview unit completely failed in flight. Black screen.
Fortunately I wasn't too far from home field but I still landed with nothing but a radio. No compass, heading, airspeed, engine instruments etc Just the radio, seat of my pants and my experience in the plane. The reason it failed was because it was part of a number of faulty memory modules and Dynon knew about the problem and had since changed vendors. A couple of other SLSA customers had the same problems and we shared experiences with it on VAF. Like me they too had to spend approx $150 each to ship units for repair, and they too were frustrated. Sharing the experience was nonetheless helpful to us.

I'm still contemplating backup which may include a second ADHRS and second screen but for now the iPad at least provides chart, and GPS altitude and heading info in case it happens again. SkyView is a remarkable piece of technology, until it fails, and now I know what can happen. Again, I posted previously about this as a way of sharing the experience to others.

Bob, I'm entitled to my opinion, as you are yours. Unlike you, I haven't ever felt the need to go on a forum and publicly make negative remarks about someone.

I posted my experience, both here and on VAF, because in the spirit of fellowship I thought it might help another owner who was perhaps having the same issue in the SouthEast/East Coast and who also hadn't found the cause. More people have responded positively than negatively.

In the future I will avoid posting here and on VAF because of the vitriol and snarky comments by those such as yourself.

Feel free to have the last word.

 

[krw5927]

I'm glad I'm not in customer service, 'cause my fuse would be way too short.

I'm glad for that also.  Refusing to acknowledge that others are having a problem because you haven't personally experienced it, would not be a good way to keep customers (or food on the table).

I actually use very little of the SA stuff except for airport diags and Approach Plates; I prefer the Dynon maps.

Dynon maps are great, but not exactly legal or safe for IFR.  Once again, great that you have a solution that works for you.  Others have different needs.

Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would carry an iPad with FF around in an airplane that has Skyview.

Again, another solution is needed for IFR flight.  But it's clear you've posted not only to bash a particular person, but also to speak ill of Ipad and Foreflight.  That's another forum. Let's stick to Dynon here.

 

[Edwardoc]

Just for info. Two days ago I plugged a Cruzer 16 GB USB into my antique PC that I use to update the Databases.  Have been using this disk for over a year.  When I came back to see how it was doing there was a message saying it was a Read Only disk and would not update.  When I checked the info on the disk sure enough it says "Read only" on the permissions and when I tried to erase it to reformat it fails the erase.  When I looked at the data on the disk it has "0" memory remaining and is showing all memory used.  Have no idea why it did this but cannot get access to the disk to delete anything.  Tried deleting files on the disk etc but get an error no matter what function I attempt.  Cannot drag anything to waste basket etc.  Have no idea why it filled up the disk.  I had nothing else on it except the SV files  (24 Sectionals & Low Alt IFRs and the Nav data) I have two other Cruzer disks to use but just wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to erase this disk.  Using an old Toshiba with Windows 7 Home edition.  It is really slow.  Tried erasing using my MAC to no avail

 

[60av8tor]

I'm glad for that also.  Refusing to acknowledge that others are having a problem because you haven't personally experienced it, would not be a good way to keep customers (or food on the table).

Bob did the exact same thing to me over the summer in this thread - extremely rude in my opinion.  Ok to complain if/when you have a problem, but not ok for others when your issues are resolved.  That type of attitude just amazes me.  The bottom line is that the SA DM software is just cumbersome.  Knock on wood, it has worked fine for the past several updates, however it has worked fine in the past for several months and then out of the blue gives nothing but frustration.  I do appreciate what seems to be more involvement from the SA head shed, and I do enjoy Dynon's customer service (except for a very rare few instances), but as avionics time draws closer for my current project, I am still leaning away from SV in the next plane.  Not 100% solely due to SA DM, but in LARGE part because of it. 

 

[Garrett]

I just downloaded everything I wanted a day early and it worked

 

[airguy]

I tried it yesterday morning, it did not work for me - but it downloaded just fine this morning.

 

[krw5927]

Anyone else unable to download the new data that starts tomorrow?  When I check for updates, I get the green balls that say my data is good but expires today. No option to download the new cycle.

Dynon has had the new cycle out since the weekend, and maybe even longer.  Why can't SA get their act together so we can download data before the very day it becomes active?

 

[Garrett]

Same here on 2 different PC's, it worked for the previous 2 month's. I thought this issue was behind us.

 

[airguy]

Same here, no joy.

 

[Carl_Froehlich]

I sent an email to SA this morning asking why the update is not out - waiting for a response.

I just tried to call them but was not able to get a live person.

I've hit the update link a dozen times and get a message saying "New scan charts are available" but then the manager does not update. I end up with "Update Process Complete" but the files are still for 2/3/2015.

Is there something I just don't understand as to why this is so hard?

Carl

 

[dynonsupport]

There's a deeper discussion of why the new cycle data wasn't available beforehand in this this cycle on this thread.