This just gets better and better.



I love the new integrated route planner/plog feature.



I've just been playing with today's beta release and would like to suggest a couple of improvements.



1) When pressing 'Accept' on the startup screen there can be a long-ish delay until anything happens - please can you indicate that the system is starting up (e.g grey out the buttons) so that I'm sure that my button push has been accepted. This applies not just to this release, but all previous releases have the same niggle.



2) The wind instrument: I would like the wind barb to rotate when using a 'heading-up' display so that I can have an immediate idea of relative wind direction and strength. Can we have a third option to show X-Wind so that the instrument can display wind barb, head/tailwind or crosswind from Left/Right.



Keep up the great work.

Just to add my views: Great enhancements. Very well done to you.

I really like the Route review and the size of the text is really readable ( I just need to succeed in installing the Large keyboard by Steveup)

The ATC services is also excellent, as is the wind indicator, when I eventually realised it had to be turned on in the settings.

Whilst I also really like the new extended runways, showing them all and highlighting the most obvious, my own personal preference would be to make them shorter. They currently extend to about 20 nm, where I would prefer between 5  to 10, max. I do very much like how you have displayed them though.

Re the above post about the 'accept' button, it is probably different on different devices, but mine starts to load  almost immediately after clicking it, but can't comment on other devies.

Thanks you for the work you have done on our behalf, you've done a good job. I also agree with the comments in the above post about the wind direction indicator when in 'track up' mode

I wd like to add my voice re the excellent additions in the latest beta.

First rate.

David

I agree,  new beta just gets better and better with features.

My comments;

Runway leadins displayed are too long as mentioned above.

On computer simulation the "next" is displayed on a black background and present position given in words. On my mobile device only "next" shows and is still on whatever colour map background is moving underneath. A fixed dark background will make it easier to read on a mobile device. (assume this is not peculiar to my device).

Cannot see any easy quick way of "selecting/forcing" the "next" route way point from the planned list. Maybe I'm missing something but still cannot see how to skip one or more of the planned waypoints without trying to create a brand new plan in flight on the mobile device. Could our "planned route waypoints" be shown in the "direct to" list maybe so that they can be easily selected, or have a "select next" button in the route table ?

Excellent, look forward to final release.

Some good suggestions worth mulling over. Can someone look at Bagby EGNG runway please? Is it still long, westerly displaced with a north-south disposition? I know some staunch SD supporters in that field, and it would be worth getting the runway placement in order.

Very Newbytheway

DurhamTeaseAirport

Hi,



as I fly from North Weald via France and Belgium to Germany on a regular basis and also suffered the crashes when the next map loaded for the country I was approaching, I have been looking forward to the improvements announced in this new beta version. However, being in Germany now, I noticed there is a big difference between the time needed to load the UK map and the German map. I have a 128 MB 500 kHz 6" Chinese sat nav. The issue is the same, whether Skydemon Mobile is installed on the device's 2GB integrated memory or a 4GB MicroSD card.



UK:



- with terrain shading, roads, railways turned on



Initial start up (after pressing "I Agree"). Map fully loaded with all features within 20 seconds.

Redrawing within 3-5 seconds.



Germany:

- with roads, railways and terrain shading turned off.



Initial loading on start up: map starts to appear after 1 min. Rivers after 2 min. Touch screen then starts responding.

Redrawing: 45 seconds



- with roads, railways and terrain shading turned on:



Initial loading at start up: Map starts to appear after 1 min. Shading appears after 1:50 min. Roads, railways and rivers appear after 2:45 min.

Redrawing road, railways & terrain shading on 2:45 min (sometimes shorter but generally at least 45 secs, often much longer)



(Device free memory shown as 65 MB after German map loaded. 68 MB after UK map loaded)



Has the map data been optimised for the UK for this beta version but perhaps not the German map, or is it just the engine that loads them that has been improved? Can the Skydemon team explain this phenomenon?

Mio P550 PDA/64 MB Ram/Win Mob 5.0 + 5" Chinese Sat Nav/128 MB/Win CE 6.0 (from Chinavision)

Wow I love all the changes. These are all nice improvements.



The extended centre line thing is great and I dont they are too long IMO!

Beech Bonanza A36 Based at Blackpool

G-FOZZ www.gotoair.com

Just a thought with regards to the performance issues you're seeing.



The first time a chart is displayed at a particular zoom level, the terrain for that section of the chart is rendered and saved in a cache on your memory card for much faster subsequent reloads.



It's likely that you will see the performance increase as you use the German charts more because more and more of the terrain tiles will become cached.



Its only a theory!

Hi Steve,



thanks for the input, but am not sure it's only the terrain, as there is also a big difference between loading speeds for UK and German maps when the terrain and roads&railways are turned off (see earlier post). When I have a spare moment I may reload the previous non-beta version onto the device and make the same comparisons again, but I don't recall there being such a big difference. (P.S. slow loading also seems to apply the Benelux charts). I have been loading each chart set in isolation (ie not in addition to previously loaded charts, which obviously would progressively eat into my device's memory reserves).



Trevor

Mio P550 PDA/64 MB Ram/Win Mob 5.0 + 5" Chinese Sat Nav/128 MB/Win CE 6.0 (from Chinavision)

Previous releases didn't bother loading the roads/railways parts of a chart at all if they were not chosen for display on the map, hence the requirement to restart the software if that option was toggled. The new version only ever loads geographical features that are close to the map viewport, and it does so in the background, hence the memory saving and also big speedup to chart loading.

The best way to benchmark the actual speed of chart loading is probably to use the load/unload charts facility. It's very possible that your device is simply not a very performant device, but to measure any load time in minutes sounds beyond even the realms of possibility. I'll do a quick test with our own forthcoming 5" and give you the loading times from there to give you a guide to what you should expect from a decent device:

France: ~5 seconds

Germany: ~5 seconds

Ireland: ~2 seconds

UK: ~4 seconds

BeNeLux: ~2 seconds

This happens in the background and should not cause the device to lock up, though the screen redraw will probably be a little slower while loading is in progress. Additionally, a notice will appear in the centre of the chart saying "Loading [Country] Chart".