Skyview not working with ForeFlight

[Exbonanzabucko]

I posted this before and got one response.  That was probably because I typed Skivvies instead of Skyview in the headline. 

Bottom line:  ForeFlight locks up early into a flight by not displaying the aircraft location on the moving map on my iPad.  This is most likely a failure of Skyview to communicate properly with ForeFlight via the Skyview WiFi I have installed in my RV12 SLSA.

I suspect that others have had the same trouble and I'd like to find out how we can fix this.

Thanks,
EBB

 

[rfazio1951]

EBB

You did get a responce, but here it is again. I have the same setup and I have been having some issues. There was just an update for Foreflight, which seems to have helped. Have you installed this latest update? It brings Foreflight to version 7.1.1. If not do it, so we can see if it helps you. I'm noticing that when hooked to the skyview, Foreflight seems to want to try and get weather info for the airports, as though it was hooked to the internet. to me it looks like it thinks it is on the web because of the WiFi connection to Skyview. I have also had a few crashes of Foreflight durring flight. One thing that seems to help is to shutdown all apps and reboot the Ipad, then load Foreflight. Good Luck.

Richard

 

[JTD]

If you are displaying Foreflight on your IPad, its a Apple problem. all external GPS position sources were corrupted with the last apple update. 8.4 is coming out by months end and will fix. I have same problem with my Bad Elf GPS that provides position to Ipad / foreflight

 

[Exbonanzabucko]

Richard:
Thanks. I got your reply. I have 7.1.1 running and that is not the problem IMHO. I'm amazed that we are the only ones with the problem. Maybe Dynon isn't selling any wifi

EBB

 

[rfazio1951]

Tim, The IOS 8.3 problem with your bad elf, I believe, is not the same problem we were having. I have heard of your problem and when reading through the discription of the problem, it is discribed as a problem with bluetooth conections. Foreflight uses WiFi to the Skyview. Also I was flying last night and I tried like heck to get it to lock up and could not. Sent up flight plans, zoomed in and out, looked up airports, everything that was locking it up before. I don't know, but it seems good to me now.

 

[tedwaltman]

Flew 20+ hours on two long cross-country flights with iOS 8.3 & ForeFlight 7.1.1. On both ForeFlight logging would randomly stop (so it seems) with a message about "...no movement." Yet the aircraft symbol remained on the map and was moving consistently.

Also, numerous times, while the aircraft was on the map and moving, the HUD information was missing/blank. If I completely shut down ForeFlight and restarted, HUD information returned.

Throughout both the above, the Wi-Fi connection to Skyview remained active, as confirmed both by the Wi-Fi symbol (at the top of my iPad) and by the connection showing as active under the "Devices" tab.

I just updated to the latest iOS & will try again.

 

[akarmy]

with iOS 8.3 & ForeFlight 7.1.1.  On both ForeFlight logging would randomly stop (so it seems) with a message about "...no movement." 

I just updated to the latest iOS & will try again.

Yep me too. Same symptoms. I just updated to iOS 8.4 and will also be testing. I was wondering if the location of the WIFI antenna dongle had something to do with it. I have it behind the panel in my RV-8 at this point. Was thinking about moving it in front of the panel to test.

 

[rfazio1951]

I'm updated to 8.4 and still had issues. Mostly freezing up for me, though I did loose attitude once. Foreflight actually crashed once and I had to start it back up. Then, it's fine for a while. It is definently flacky. When I show my buddies what it does, they think it's is fantastic, and the synthetic vision is really nice. When it works it is great, but flacky.

 

[Exbonanzabucko]

I have 7.1.1 and 8.4 and the attitude is available only about ten percent of the time. I wonder if there is some switch that has to be punched to make it work or what the heck??

EBB

 

[krw5927]

Me too. Foreflight attitude stops working mid-flight. Position stays alive and the rest of Foreflight works fine, but I haven't yet tested whether that's due to the fact that I have a 4G ipad mini with GPS built in or if it's still getting GPS info from the Skyview Wifi dongle.

 

[Exbonanzabucko]

KWR5927:
That's an interesting thought. I certainly would LOVE to hear what either Skyview/Dynon or Firelight have to say about that. I don't NEED the attitude instrument on FF but it would be nice to have if the Skyview went belly up in flight again and if I was then scud running or something dumb like that.

You would think that SV and FF would have said something about this by now...maybe they are perplexed as we are.



EBB ;D

 

[Dynon]

I think this thread might have the entirety of people that we know of that are having issues here, though I'd need to check in with our support team to be sure. That said, we want to help. First, if you're able to bring the connection back by resetting the ForeFlight app / ipad, I don't think the problem is not likely to be with SkyView's Wi-Fi link as the original poster supposes, especially if the iPad continues to be connected to SkyView. Both the ADAHRS and the position data are basically continuously broadcast. But there are a few places there could be issues, and we need more information to try to home in on where it might be.

One thing to make sure you understand: if you don't have SkyView working, there's no ADAHRS data to transmit to the FF app. So that's definitely not a backup/redundancy feature. Seeing the attitude on ForeFlight from SkyView is definitely more of a convenience feature.

A few questions for any of you that are experiencing this:

1) Does the Wi-Fi link remain active as far as the iPad can see (look in the ipad's settings; don't rely on the wifi indicator as that can be suppressed depending on...)
1b) Does SkyView's Wi-Fi status indicate ONLINE? This is in SYSTEM SETUP > WI-FI SETUP.
2) Do you have the WI-FI ICON ON APPLE DEVICES option set to "yes" or "no" on SkyView?
3) Does ForeFlight freeze entirely? Or do you just lose position and/or attitude. Does flight plan transfer still work?
4) How long, after you're up and running, does this problem seem to happen. Does it happen minutes after ForeFlight and SkyView are connected? Hours? Randomly?
5) Does SkyView itself lose its GPS lock at all? The most immediate way you'd see this is the Synthetic Vision display would revert to the "old" brown over blue depiction.
6) We have limited ability to troubleshoot the ForeFlight app ourselves. Please, if you haven't already, reach out to ForeFlight directly here so that they know that there is more than an isolated customer having this issue. url=https://www.foreflight.com/support/contact/]directly here[/url].

 

[dynonsupport]

KWR5927:
I don't NEED the attitude instrument on FF but it would be nice to have if the Skyview went belly up in flight again and if I was then scud running or something dumb like that.

As a note, Attitude on FF comes from SkyView. If SkyView is not operating properly, you will not have attitude on Foreflight unless you have another AHRS connected to FF.

 

[Exbonanzabucko]

I think I broke the code on what's wrong here: I had Bluetooth running on my iPad and when I killed it the attitude instrument in FF works like a champ.

EBB

 

[Dynon]

EBB - are you saying that if the bluetooth radio is on at all your SkyView Wi-Fi connection is intermittent? When bluetooth is on, is it attached to any devices? Particular GPSes?

 

[Exbonanzabucko]

For Dynon:
When Bluetooth is on in my iPad the attitude indication in FF is intermittent. I assume that means that Wifi is too but I didn't check that while I was flying.....it was bumpy . All I know is that killing Bluetooth fixed the problem. I don't know why Bluetooth was on....I didn't turn it on because I never use a Bluetooth device with the iPad...never have either.

BTW my iPad has GPS installed.....it's the version that has that. I killed the "cellular data" input to the iPad first because I suspected that it was interfering with the SV Wifi but that didn't help. I don't need the cellular data for nav with the wifi from SV to the iPad......I think???

Anyhow, all is now working.

I am interested, as stated above, in the ADHRS data from SV getting to the FF in the iPad because SV has failed in flight once.....that produced an airplane with no PFD or Engine instruments....an airplane that was not airworthy. I am flying an RV12 SLSA that is VFR/Day only so I probably won't ever need an artificial horizon in FF but I would love to be able to have a backup for airspeed and altitude from the ADHRS boxes should SV fail again.

BTW: I think that an airplane like mine with no "steam gages" as a backup for a "glass cockpit" relies way too heavily on tech to replace instruments that may be dumb and expensive but which don't go belly up in flight with no warning because some geek who ain't a pilot thinks they are "cool."

EBB

 

[dynonsupport]

EBB,
Please do not rely on FF as a backup for SkyView. All the attitude, airspeed, altitude, and other aircraft data comes from SkyView. If SkyView fails, you will lose all the data on Foreflight as well.

If you are looking for redundancy, you need a second SkyView screen or a independent device like the Dynon D2.

 

[Exbonanzabucko]

I am shooting my self in the foot and my airplane in the cockpit but those facts make my airplane essentially not airworthy.

EBB

 

[aerofurb]

............BTW:  I think that an airplane like mine with no "steam gages" as a backup for a "glass cockpit" relies way too heavily on tech to replace instruments that may be dumb and expensive but which don't go belly up in flight with no warning because some geek who ain't a pilot thinks they are "cool."EBB

Blimey, there's a statement and a half... I'm sure there are pilot people at Dynon - and at Van's....

So an iPad would be okay as a back up....?

Unairworthy if the screens go blank?

Okay, so you might not take off with a blank screen but there are plenty of other components in an aircraft that might prevent it taking off or make it wise not to take off should they fail or be inop.

If the screens go blank the propeller still turns and the wings still work.

Remind me again what you do like about the SkyView-equipped, Rotax-powered, RV-12....     

 

[Exbonanzabucko]

Dear Aerofurb:

I love SV but I don't like it when it fails in flight. Blimey! I assume the Brit equivalent of the FAA and all those fine pilots you furb for understand that the absence of Primary Flight Display data -- i.e. airipspeed and altitude etc....plus the loss of all engine instrumentation would make an airplane not airworthy legally and in fact. That is what happens in an RV 12 SLSA when SV goes belly up in flight.

EBB