I considered myself lucky today. First I met one of the ardent supporters of SD face to face and briefly discussed SD compatible hardware. That was excellent and hope to repeat the experience without having to rudely rush away, as I did today due to time constraints.



However, the reason for writing here is to report my experience with the latest SD version 2.1.1, which I managed to put to the test in a flight, in marginal and IFR weather conditions. As we all expected SD passed with flying colours. here is my summary:



1. The colour moving map appeared enhanced, very clear to see and totally uncluttered.Ideal.

2. The options that we needed the most we found very easily acceptable, merely within a 2-4 touches of the screen. Changing from map to instrument was simply ideal. Go to nearest or more distant field was very simple and the selection list was intuitive.

3. The instrument screen we found virtually breathtaking, with its simplicity usability, clarity and above all accuracy.

4. Localiser, glideslope, and DME were very accurate and could easily have replaced our aircraft's own instruments. We would have liked to have tested these down to virtual ground level. I feel it would have shown it to be very reliable.

5. The colours of the instruments were well chosen and very clear. The ILS lines could be made thicker in future releases for better visibility inflight, particularly that screens in commonly used devices leave a lot to be desired.

6. My companion who is a seasoned flyer who survived two serious aeroplane accidents while doing low level aerobatics was extremely impressed with SD's accuracy.



Verdict: Full marks for SkyDemon and SkyDemon Team on a job well done. In my mind SD is by far the best software on the market. It has certainly come a long way since I subscribed first some 8 months ago. I am glad I did.

I would be interested to hear views from others.

Very Newbytheway

DurhamTeaseAirport

For the third consecutive day I tried SD in a trip to a non ILS equipped airfield. The Glide Slope needle did not appear but the localiser needle was seen. The glide path was not seen in the profile part of the map either, on this one occasion. This phenomenon was not noted previously.



Two request for future releases: 1. A large Key board e.g. almost full screen would help (and may be essential) for making entries easier in the good old British usually turbulent weather. 2. It would be very nice if the list of (Direct To) included one empty row for the pilot to enter an airfield's name or designator that is not included in the (Direct To) list, during flight. Perhaps this airfield is not close enough to the current aircraft position for it to be listed. I recognise that digitally moving the map in flight to the destination is another possibility of entry, however, that is not always convenient during flight, for the same reasons above. If this feature is there already, (noting that there is what looks like a text box immediately beneath the Direct To title), please accept my apologies and would be obliged if someone could confirm its existence.

Very Newbytheway

DurhamTeaseAirport