I have to say I find SD a fantastic product and criticising something or someone is the easiest job in the world, so I list these suggestions as desirable not essential but they would ultimately enhance the product in my humble opinion. (My comments are based on experience having used both Garmin & Flymap (which runs on Win CE) products previously).
Ideas & suggestions:
• Make the projected time/distance line from the a/c symbol bold/thicker as it is nearly impossible to see clearly in flight, particularly the time/distance makers on the projected line.
• If the compass rose display is suppressed a heading correction indicator is displayed instead, this display is too small. This combined with the above does rather detract from the devices primary reason of existence – a navigation aid. Flymap places a big bold blue arrow at the bottom of the screen pointing towards the waypoint, a similar solution but so much easier to see at a glance due to size and boldness.
• If used the compass rose display and its indicators are too small for in flight use, Flymap overlays a transparent compass for an alternative idea.
• You might consider a Height Above Terrain (HAT) display. This is extremely useful data, particularly for farm strip flying. Again Flymap implement this option well.
• On reaching close to a waypoint, the change over to the next leg should happen sooner (in my opinion), rather than waiting till right overhead. As we are all using this system as a VFR aid we will have identified the turning point within 1 mile at worst and will be focussing on the new leg, it would be ideal to see the route guidance swap over to the new leg when close to the turning point or an option to do so.
• An option for airfield plates to auto load & display when reaching an airfield (this idea is implemented within flymap). Basically reduce the “touch” time in flight to a minimum.
• The SD onscreen keyboard is really bad (not your fault as it is the built in Win CE system). Not that the Flymap system is brilliant but at least in can be used with a finger in flight if needed and their system is also running on Win CE.
Any just ideas to place into the melting pot!
Thanks for listening.
Graham