New Airmate aviation data

[JP JR]

The data that I downloaded and were written to the USB drive were the same number of files you're showing, 19656. My memory is a little fuzzy, but after the files were downloaded, it took about 2 hours or so to write the files to the USB flash drive ("Programming USB Stick"). Note that in the screenshot below, the remaining time of 37 minutes is just for the Airport Plates. I never saw a "Remaining Time" as long as your pic is showing. The USB drive I have is a SanDisk Ultra 32GB 3.0 flash drive. A 2.0 USB flash drive would take a lot longer to write the files to compared to a 3.0 drive.

Al-in-all, the whole process seemed to take as long as it did when I was using the Seattle Avionics Data Manager running on an iMac using Parallels with Windows 10 or 11.

Update: I wrote the files to a second SanDisk Ultra 32GB 3.0 flash drive ("Program USB stick"), and it took about 1:05 to complete for that part of the operation. So the 2 hour estimate given above may not be accurate, either since I wasn't paying much attention at the time, or the files may already have been unpacked from the first time so just needed to be copied to the drive the second time.

I found these SanDisk drives at BestBuy today… solved my issues.. thanks again

 

[wilkersk]

Well, gee. I bought the lifetime subscription to Seattle Avionics a couple of years ago, even though my -8 wasn't flying yet. I've updated my USB drives regularly, and I don't have any problems doing so. Hope this new vendor doesn't mean my lifetime subscription is going to become worthless. I really will be pissed.

 

[Riseric]

Does anyone at Dynon or other know why Nav Canada seem to not allow their charts to be available on Airmate?
There are 195 countries on earth, (Airmate claim providing charts for over 200 countries ;-) ), and most of them, if not all, available except Canada...
It's very frustrating having a super HDX system on board but not having charts that goes along that would arguably enhance situation awarness and safety...

 

[n144sh]

Well I gave it a try. My review for US customers is don't waste your money. The process is as buggy and painful as SA. First, checkout cart didn't work - email. Then after paying - nothing - another email. Send N number & dynon S/N and received confirmation. Airmate data manager seems as crude as the SA data manager and crashed mid update. Restarted and it eventually finished after many many hours (overnite). The data is not as good as SA - nowhere near as many smaller airport diagrams for example. My home airport doesn't have a diagram. Summary: Takes as long as SA, data not as good. I expect they will work out the bugs and it was nice doing the update on a Mac rather than a PC.

 

[RV6-KPTW]

I have a different gripe but agree about the manager app. It is unusable.

I did download the files and that worked fine. So this product is usable from the manual download perspective.

However, the biggie, my home airport identifier is “X26”. Lots of airports in Florida start with “X” The nav data lists it as “KX26”

No plates show up for KX26 cause the plate data does not use the “K”.

Another issue with the nav data is the display of class E airspace. I have not spent a lot of time with the map but it looks pretty cluttered. Perhaps I can clean this up in config. Will look into.

The VFR map is blurry and unusable.I hope there is a higher rez version or a config available to solve this.

I have not yet loaded the IFR map but am hopeful. It is a much larger file than the VFR map file so maybe higher rez.

On the upside, I like the plates approach and resolution. That is very nice.

Any insights? I will follow up with data provider with my complaints and observations and post response here.

Thanks for listening.

Dennis

 

[JP JR]

I have a different gripe but agree about the manager app. It is unusable.

I did download the files and that worked fine. So this product is usable from the manual download perspective.

However, the biggie, my home airport identifier is “X26”. Lots of airports in Florida start with “X” The nav data lists it as “KX26”

No plates show up for KX26 cause the plate data does not use the “K”.

Another issue with the nav data is the display of class E airspace. I have not spent a lot of time with the map but it looks pretty cluttered. Perhaps I can clean this up in config. Will look into.

The VFR map is blurry and unusable.I hope there is a higher rez version or a config available to solve this.

I have not yet loaded the IFR map but am hopeful. It is a much larger file than the VFR map file so maybe higher rez.

On the upside, I like the plates approach and resolution. That is very nice.

Any insights? I will follow up with data provider with my complaints and observations and post response here.

Thanks for listening.

Dennis

Regarding the VFR blurry, I just found that the $49 subscription only includes Low Resolution VFR maps… nothing that I found stated this in writing but I asked then to change my subscription from the $49 USA only to the $99 North American subscription and it included both the lower resolution as well as high resolution VFR maps for the USA…. Downloading now

 

[OgieOglethorpe]

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

 

[RV6-KPTW]

Folks,

Airmate responded (over the weekend) and resolved all issues noted above. The airport identifiers are fixed, the connection to plates is also fixed and a high res vfr chart has been provided. I tested both the VFR and the IFR chart and it has good res - suitable for use. The class E airspace clutter issue is resolved byt turning off that data in config.

I still have an issue with the Manager app and will work on testing this week to give Airmate feedback. The ability to directly download as an alternative is easy and makes the app a luxury.

Pretty happy with what I see. I’ll fly it for a bit and see.

 

[swatson999]

The process is as buggy and painful as SA.

I didn't think such a thing was possible.

 

[Rhino]

Well, the response to customer feedback seems to be way better than SA.

 

[n144sh]

Well, the response to customer feedback seems to be way better than SA.

Absolutely! SA is non-responsive.... Airmate responds quite quickly and is obviously trying to make the product better. Good signs.

 

[RV6-KPTW]

Folks,

I have been talking with the AirMate guys about improvements to the Manager app. My problem, as it turns out, is one of available space in the default install and data location. I have asked for the ability to configure the app to point data to a different location, for better error messaging, as well as a check on available space prior to performing the download. AirMate has agreed and will be working on these in the near term.

The ability to download keeps me flying but app should reduce errors and effort.

 

[Rhino]

Just realized they don't have anything for PC. I really don't want to use a mobile device, so I guess I'll still be stuck with SA.

 

[RV6-KPTW]

They do have a Manager app for PC.

That is what I have been working with them on. It does work except the default location is the C drive and there are no accommodations yet for other locations on your PC. This is a "me' problem. They are working to fix my problem. When I limited my data requests to a size that my C drive can handle, it worked just fine.

I have other drives with tons of space and once the data location can be set, I will be set for running full downloads.

Today, the workaround is just downloading the data to your appropriate hard drive and that works just fine also.

 

[Rhino]

Their site only shows iOS and Android apps. Am I to assume the PC application isn't finished enough to put it on the site yet?

Any idea what installer software they're using? I might be able to fix that myself.

 

[Rhino]

That's funny. They have a Commodore 64 emulator in that install file for Windows.

 

[Rhino]

It's using ClickOnce, which is a Visual Studio installer from Microsoft. I might be able to figure that out, but I don't have any experience with it.

I probably could have figured out the Commodore 64 Emulator install. It uses a tried and true Microsoft msi installer. Unfortunately, that's not what you need. Still can't figure out why that's in the download package though.

 

[d3mac123]

I have pulled the plug and subscribed to Airmate as well. Downloaded and installed both Data Manager (Windows AND Mac) and tried to download the files. On Windows, it took a few minutes. On the Mac, well, it is still downloading (it has been a few hours so far). I honestly do not understand why the differences - btw, I only installed and ran the Windows version after one hour or so after the Mac.

 

[Rhino]

{insert Apple insults here}

 

[Dynon]

Does anyone at Dynon or other know why Nav Canada seem to not allow their charts to be available on Airmate?
There are 195 countries on earth, (Airmate claim providing charts for over 200 countries ;-) ), and most of them, if not all, available except Canada...
It's very frustrating having a super HDX system on board but not having charts that goes along that would arguably enhance situation awarness and safety...

NavCanada's licensing model isn't super-compatible with the volumes in our market is the short answer. We (and our data partners) are continuously trying to find a way to solve it, to no avail yet.