New Airmate aviation data

[cbennet12]

DYNON,

I saw your SnF announcement regarding your new partnership with Airmate to provide both VFR/IFR data for Skyview. I am assuming that this is simply an additional option for your user base and that I can continue to use the free VFR aviation data updates from you and my lifetime Seattle Avionics subscription for IFR data as I do today. Correct?

regards,
Craig

 

[d3mac123]

Taking advantage of this thread, is Airmate an alternative to Seattle Avionics subscription for IFR? I am getting closer to renewal date and I am wondering the benefits/issues (if any) I may have if I decided to replace SA by Airmate.

 

[cbennet12]

Taking advantage of this thread, is Airmate an alternative to Seattle Avionics subscription for IFR? I am getting closer to renewal date and I am wondering the benefits/issues (if any) I may have if I decided to replace SA by Airmate.

Looks like it. If you don’t receive DYNON marketing mailing, post your email and I’ll forward the announcement. It’s not on their site yet.

craig

 

[d3mac123]

I got the email Craig (thanks for double checking anyways). I just need some clarification before spending another $50

 

[RV8JD]

The email announcement made today:

Link to Airmate:

AIRMATE – Préparation et suivi de vols

 

[RV14_TD]

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

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I'd pay $50 if the software for loading charts is better than Seattle Avionics....and for a Mac OS application!!!!! Hoping to test it out soon. Also, Mexico nav data and charts?? Not avail through Seattle Avionics for Dynon I dont think...

 

[rvator51]

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

I think the european price is in euros. Dont know current exchange rate.

 

[maartenversteeg]

1 Euro is about $1.07, so if double in Euro's then the actual difference is even more

 

[d3mac123]

I'd pay $50 if the software for loading charts is better than Seattle Avionics....and for a Mac OS application!!!!! Hoping to test it out soon. Also, Mexico nav data and charts?? Not avail through Seattle Avionics for Dynon I dont think...

First of all, I love your videos Eric! Also, please share your thoughts on the maps quality (comparing with the ones from SA).

 

[rleffler]

I'd pay $50 if the software for loading charts is better than Seattle Avionics....and for a Mac OS application!!!!! Hoping to test it out soon. Also, Mexico nav data and charts?? Not avail through Seattle Avionics for Dynon I dont think...

Another set of raster based charts. We really need vector based charts which would solve issues like scaling, track up, etc….

 

[RV8JD]

Although I had no problems or complaints with Seattle Avionics, I decided to try the new Airmate product.

The Airmate store seemed overloaded yesterday when I tried to purchase the US product. I was finally able to get through later last night and made the purchase. It took overnight to get the acknowledgment email. Also this morning I received an email from Airmate (Laurent) asking for my SkyView serial number and N-Number. Another email followed shortly with an account using the N-number and included a password. I downloaded their Mac Data Manager and am using it as we speak to download the data. It is not fast, but maybe that is because of the initial high demand after Dynon's announcement. Note that it offers its own (Airmate) USA aviation & obstacle database. Not sure if I will load that one or stick with Dynon's own database. The other files reside on the USB stick, just like Seattle Avionics files did.

A screenshot while downloading.

UPDATE: The downloading of the USA VFR Sectionals seemed to have stalled, so I closed the Data Manager Program and restarted it. Luckily it started downloading where it left off. Then the downloading of the USA/Mexico IFR Low Charts also seemed to stall, so I closed the program again, restarted it, and the download picked up where it had left off. After the downloads were complete (and it's not obvious when that happens), you have to click the "Program USB stick" to have the program unpack the files and save them to the USB drive.

My initial observation is that Airmate is not much, if any, faster than I have experienced with the Seattle Avionics Data Program Manager on my iMac running Parallels with Windows 10 or 11 (in fact it's still unpacking and writing the data to the USB drive after the downloads completed). You can't get around the fact that there are a lot of data files to download, unpack, and write to the USB drive.

 

[campipilot]

So seattle avionics has been a PAIN for Mac users unless theyve come up with something since I checked last. I'll try them just for that reason.
They want your skyview serial number? Where do we get that? off the setup screen? So I need to go to my plane before I can download airmate data at home on my computer? thats a pain

 

[RV8JD]

So seattle avionics has been a PAIN for Mac users unless theyve come up with something since I checked last. I'll try them just for that reason.
They want your skyview serial number? Where do we get that? off the setup screen? So I need to go to my plane before I can download airmate data at home on my computer? thats a pain

I had no problems running the Seattle Avionics Data Manager program on an iMac running Parallels with both Windows 10 and 11.

 

[Dynon]

A round-up of answers:

Yes, the Airmate data is an alternative to Seattle Avionics. They're a worldwide data provider partner of ours that was originally more focused outside of the US.

The main substantive difference between the two is that Airmate has the ~700-800 FAA airport diagrams, while Seattle Avionics has a few thousand more smaller airport diagrams in the form of the digitized/georeferenced former Flight Guide diagrams, which covers smaller airports in the US. On charts/plates/sectionals/IFR lo/high, they should be equivalent.

The digital data that Airmate includes is generated by them. It should be equivalent - though we haven't verified this deeply outside of some spot checks - to the data that we publish for free. One can reasonably use their data for the stuff that stays on the stick but still load the Dynon digital data. The digital data (database loaded into SkyView) and chart data (the stuff that stays on the stick) don't necessarily need to be from the same source.

 

[Dynon]

Another set of raster based charts. We really need vector based charts which would solve issues like scaling, track up, etc….

The digital data is essentially a vector-based chart, of course with limitations. Some of the extra "hand-drawn" mapping elements that exist on many of the other raster products (sectionals) aren't readily available in a vector/digital form, unfortunately.

 

[Dynon]

Also, here's a link to the newsletter that announced this.

 

[campipilot]

I had no problems running the Seattle Avionics Data Manager program on an iMac running Parallels with both Windows 10 and 11.

Yah, I kinda didn't want to go through that hassle buying and loading something like parallels. I don't need it for anything else and years ago when I used it it seemed to cause problems.....I like things simple and spend way too much time screwing with electronics enough....Maybe I'm too old to love that stuff

 

[Rhino]

Never too old to love that stuff. Too old to get motivated or find time? Yeah, okay.

 

[JP JR]

Although I had no problems or complaints with Seattle Avionics, I decided to try the new Airmate product.

The Airmate store seemed overloaded yesterday when I tried to purchase the US product. I was finally able to get through later last night and made the purchase. It took overnight to get the acknowledgment email. Also this morning I received an email from Airmate (Laurent) asking for my SkyView serial number and N-Number. Another email followed shortly with an account using the N-number and included a password. I downloaded their Mac Data Manager and am using it as we speak to download the data. It is not fast, but maybe that is because of the initial high demand after Dynon's announcement. Note that it offers its own (Airmate) USA aviation & obstacle database. Not sure if I will load that one or stick with Dynon's own database. The other files reside on the USB stick, just like Seattle Avionics files did.

A screenshot while downloading.

UPDATE: The downloading of the USA VFR Sectionals seemed to have stalled, so I closed the Data Manager Program and restarted it. Luckily it started downloading where it left off. Then the downloading of the USA/Mexico IFR Low Charts also seemed to stall, so I closed the program again, restarted it, and the download picked up where it had left off. After the downloads were complete (and it's not obvious when that happens), you have to click the "Program USB stick" to have the program unpack the files and save them to the USB drive.

My initial observation is that Airmate is not much, if any, faster than I have experienced with the Seattle Avionics Data Program Manager on my iMac running Parallels with Windows 10 or 11 (in fact it's still unpacking and writing the data to the USB drive after the downloads completed). You can't get around the fact that there are a lot of data files to download, unpack, and write to the USB drive.

That step was pretty quick and easy, but the next step is really going SLOW, how long did your data down to your USB take? So far it’s been two hours since I moved the files to my computer and now pushing it to my USB is taking forever.