Let me start out by saying that the illiad, out of the box, is really cool and impressive. It's thin and light, has amazing display technology, and is very welcome in my flight bag compared to all those paper charts (not to mention how nice it is regarding keeping charts current).

But in my opinion there are some shortcomings that really must be addressed, and addressed quickly. It could very well be that ma.c and arinc are approaching a crossroads with this product. There has been a lot of talk about the product's introduction to the market, but soon the reviews will be coming out in AIN, B/CA, Flying, AOPA Pilot, etc. Unless some issues are taken care of really quickly the reputation of the eFlybook may be tarnished beyond repair and its demise imminent.

1:
problem
- The stylus is not reliable. Mine works only intermittently and the response of the unit is such that you are almost always guessing if it's working or not. This is in the sofa at home, where i can hear the click sound. Single pilot IMC in the bumps, forget about it.

- the eFbook relies on the stylus to find charts. There is just no way that one can possess the required dexterity while flying, especially single pilot IMC.

solution
- make it such that the stylus does not need to be used to find charts. This should be easy enough (take a page out of the iPod book, or the way you do it on a handheld GPS). In fact, you are almost there as a lot of navigating can be done with the buttons. As a note here, I'm experiencing that once you've gotten to the final layer of selecting the actual approach procedure to be displayed, the up and down 'text' keys (up down arrows on the bottom left) don't function, making you revert to the stylus.

2:
problem
-you are viewing a chart that you've loaded early because ATC told you to expect that approach. however, you get a different approach as you are descending near the airport - maybe it's even nighttime. It's a real pain (even in the living room chair in daylight) to go to that other chart.

solution
-It would be so nice to just put that big page flip button to work - it's just begging for the job. All you have to do is to have all the approaches (if you're in the Instrument Approach Procedures section) associated with that airport be numerous pages. This way you can page flip through approaches (or STARs, SIDs, T/A's, etc). This idea was mentioned elsewhere in the forum i believe.

3:
problem/solution
-you can't set 'favorite' or 'commonly used' plates. It would be nice to be able to tell the eFbook before departure (or enroute for that matter) the destination so that you don't have to 'type' in that airport's identifier. the ability to select recently used charts would be a great feature.

4:
finally, you must stand up and take responsibility for the product. I realize that iRex makes the actual hardware, and that you must work within their box, but the bottom line is that the ARINC and MyAirplane.com names are on it, and it's being sold to perform an important and serious job.

It's a good start, but without a real overhaul of customer support and some truly necessary software improvements, it will wither into obscurity.

-Tyler Hall

Hi Tyler,

I think most of what you mention has been well discussed. ma.com has indicated that they are working on no-stylus navigation of charts. They have also indicated that they are working on a trip folder concept that would enable easy navigation to pre-selected charts. Check out some of the other threads for pretty in-depth discussions of proposed features.

As for customer service. I have talked with Dennis and several of the tech support people (well, at least virtually). I have a lot of respect for them. They are doing remarkably well with a pretty small staff. The problem, of course, is that the unit is much more fragile than anyone would like. Rather than shipping the unit and moving on, I'm sure that ma.com has been buried in complaints and returns for issues they have no control over.

Which, of course, brings me to your point that they and ARINC have to take responsibility. I agree to a point. For the price point, if iRex doesn't cover a unit under warranty, ma.com/ARINC can't afford to replace it out of their own pocket. The only way that ma.com or ARINC could have protected themselves would have been to set the price higher - which is virtually impossible with iLiads being sold on the open market.

So, ma.com and ARINC are kind of stuck. I think they did a great job of setting the price. I am worried about the display and treat it like gold. Since I am using the eFB to replace a Jepp subscription, if it lasts me a year, it's paid for itself. I'll be anxious to upgrade to the next generation hardware.

not really sure what jepp subscription you are paying for but their problem is worse than what you describe. the sony e-reader is out and at a $350 price point. what we are asking for in terms of software isn't rocket science and the digital charts are available free from the feds. if ma.com/ARINC doesn't get it right soon someone else will and the eflybook will be a brick.

The iLiad is unique in its size. I would not want to fly an approach as displayed on the Sony. I am not aware of any other device that has the form factor of the iLiad.

Developing chart viewer software for the iLiad may not be rocket science but it does require effort and everyone needs to earn a living. So, the problem is how does ma.com provide charts in a usable form that competes with free charts downloaded off the internet?

The ma.com subscription is the cheapest way to have easy access to charts for the entire United States. The free ones are not that easy.

I'm sure that whatever software developers ma.com has on hand (or on contract) have been helping out with tech support issues that ma.com is cursing iRex for.

As sales pick up and unit failures die down, ma.com will be able to put more effort into software development. Until then, they have to find the balance between going broke and making software improvements. I hope that you and the rest of the market hangs in there.

I though AFD was due in this release. Anyone know when this will happen? Thanks.

Jeff,
AFD is due in the 1.10 release of the eFlyBook software. I have had to delay it slightly while we could get another developer on board to help get things done quicker which has been an issue as you might have noticed. I have no estimated release date yet, though I am hoping for a minor release before end of December to resolve some of the last issues with the Enroutes, and to incorporate the first release of the Trip Folder. Please keep an eye on the forums for further info.

Thank you,
Johan Van Zijl

Stuart wrote:


Travis wrote:


I think that everybody's fairly hip to the fact that myAirplane is not Sony, or Apple, and that their resources are stretched near the limits at this point. However it's their (ma.com) job to know their business, which includes knowing their market, current customers, and supporting/developing their product. This has been an interesting product launch, and I sympathize with ma whole-heartedly, as I myself have been intimately involved in similar product/service launches. (...a few of which were real train-wrecks compared to this!)

Clearly the responsibility lies with ma and ARINC to support their product adequately, which I believe they are ultimately doing, albeit while they learn/tweak their processes. (including customer relations and communications)

"Rocket science"? While I'm no software developer, I can say, from my own similar experiences in development, that working with a platform that is proprietary, as well as it's operating software, is not easy by any means. I'm assuming that ma has access to Irex code and all that, but with the size staff that I'm assuming ma has, it's still no trivial job.

I like the fact that the trip-planner is coming, and ma has seemingly identified the cause of the stylus issues, and especially the one-handed navigation feature that's forthcoming. 'Hats-off to ma for working on the "right things".

While I myself am not inclined to abandon my investment here, and am willing to "hang in there", the fact remains that ma/ARINC are ultimately the ones who will determine whether-or-not the eflybook becomes a "brick", or not.

Keep the suggestions coming folks!

-Chris R.