1) Suggest the airplane is coloured black or flashing black/white etc. to try to make it more visually striking

2) How about a direct to button on the main display perhaps?

3) In landscape mode that keyboard is way too small (at least on my 7" GPS unit I'm running this on) how about a setting to allow users to choose the size & position of keyboard on screen perhaps for data entry?  Pushing the concept further how about when its time for date entry the whole screen is filled with a keyboard and the data entry/choice box that comes up, once you select your town/waypoint the keyboard and data entry form are gone and you are back to the map or route editor?

Does this help?

Ian