Garmin Pilot for Android -- Tech Support, Tips, Tricks

Just ran across this, for future reference:

You can start th Nexus 7 in safe-mode. Press and hold the power switch until the power-off message shows up. Then press and hold the power-off message until a safe-mode prompt appears. It'll start up with no add-on apps.
 
I submitted a bug report on the SafeTaxi issue a couple weeks ago now and have not heard back from Garmin other than the automated 'we got your bug report' e-mail - getting a bit miffed.

'Gimp
 
AcroGimp said:
I submitted a bug report on the SafeTaxi issue a couple weeks ago now and have not heard back from Garmin other than the automated 'we got your bug report' e-mail - getting a bit miffed.

'Gimp
Click to expand...
I had similar happen to me about something. I responded with that message because it contains some kind of confirmation code. I got a response within 24 hrs apologizing for the delay. Might as well try again - it seems like sometimes their e-mails just fall through the cracks like the rest of us.
 
Downloading 2.7 right now.

Version 2.7.0

New: Proposed Routes: Garmin Pilot will receive notifications of changes to your filed flight plan. We will alert you with the option to update your active flight plan with this new information. To enable Proposed Route Notifications, update your aircraft information and select 'YES' to ATC Proposed Route Notifications.

New: Supported devices (Android 4.3 with Bluetooth LE) can send Route and Waypoint information to the D2 aviation watch.

New: Option in General Settings to keep the screen on.

New: TAF text is now decoded in the TAF Widget. The raw text is included at the bottom.

New: Added the stopwatch feature to the main header. Start and stop the stopwatch using the Tools menu.

New: Added "Center on Aircraft" button to SafeTaxi.

Improved: Better performance when using the horizontal NavTrack slider bar.

Improved: Track Up mode will now center the plane 25% from the bottom of the screen.

Improved: Added winds aloft to weather data shown from the radial menu.

Fixed: Support latest FAA equipment codes.

Fixed: Issue with animated map layers.

Fixed: Various reported fixes and crashes.
 
Last edited:
AcroGimp said:
Just notified of a GP Update, anyone installed it yet?

'Gimp
Click to expand...


I'm reading the 2.7.0 update what's new right now. So far, I see added option in General settings to leave screen on. That may be one of my glitches fixed.:mad2::goofy:


Added: Track Up will center aircraft 25% up from bottom of the screen.
that's good ....:yes:

Fixed: FAA equipment codes
Fixed: animated map layers .......that may be that annoying weather that wont stop.....:yesnod:
Fixed: Various reported bugs and crashes
 
Last edited:
I will wait for 2.7.1, which should be out around MOnday or Tuesday.
 
ja_user said:
I will wait for 2.7.1, which should be out around MOnday or Tuesday.
Click to expand...



No kidding. But's that's o.k. keep those patches coming.

At least this time mine updated automatic. I didn't know until gimpy said something and looked.

Looks like the N7 updated and installed 2.7.0 o.k. this time. I'd really like to get to liking GP, because it's fast and easy updates with WiFi make it easy to work with. The light tablet is nice if we can just get it more rock solid. Could be the operator, not saying it's Garmin totally. :redface:
 
Last edited:
Download went fine on Acer A500 10.1" tablet and Moto Droid RAZR HD phone.

The previous self-started Wx animation bug has been fixed, the 25%/75% screen for track up is nice, and they added center-on-own-aircraft to SafeTaxi which is huge. Also haven't seen the 'No SafeTaxi Data' error yet in about an hour of desktop testing.

Seems more stable when pairing the Tablet to the Phone for GPS source as well. I thought Binders were synced across devices in the Charts menu but the phone doesn't see the SoCal binder I put together on the tablet.

Seems like a nice solid update. Hopefully they keep working on harmonizing the Android feature set to match up with iPad.

All in all, very satsified with latest update.

'Gimp
 
Hopefully they keep working on harmonizing the Android feature set to match up with iPad.
Click to expand...
I'm actually quite disappointed by this release. Considering the time elapsed since the last release I was hoping to see more substantive features to be added.

This app is the tallest midget on the Android platform, but compared to the iPad version it is still a midget.
 
I want to like this software (have a full subscription), but I find the interface just doesn't logically function like I do. I do really like the radar display, however, especially the lightning information.
 
ja_user said:
I will wait for 2.7.1, which should be out around MOnday or Tuesday.
Click to expand...

It's Tuesday. 2.7.1 is out.


Version 2.7.1

Fixed: Possible SafeTaxi crash using snap-to-gps function.
Fixed: VOR waypoints now showing up in graphical route editing nearby search results.
 
I have been running GP for maybe six or eight months now.

For all of that time and including yesterday's version, hitting the direct-to button produces an instant crash on my Nexus 7. "Unfortunately Garmin Pilot has stopped." Then, when I hit "Report" I get "Unfortunately, Google Play Store has stopped." Absolutely repeatable, every single time.

Is anyone else experiencing this or anything similar?
 
Yesterday I went flying with my N7. During preflight I loaded a flight plan and set the N7 aside. A couple minutes after takeoff I pulled it out and had the "Garmin pilot has stopped" message. Restarted it and all was fine.

I've not seen any crashes with direct-to and I did use it yesterday in flight.

Can you post a procedure for how to recreate the error so the rest of us can try it?
 
Can you post a procedure for how to recreate the error so the rest of us can try it?
Click to expand...
:) Open Garmin Pilot. Push Direct-To immediately or at any later point. Crash.
 
oops! posted to wrong thread. Apologies.
 
For those of you who may be using an iPhone or iPad as a your "other" device, I encountered a problem on my N7 that said I did not have a valid Safe Taxi subscription. My iPad version was working fine. I sent an email to Garmin and they fixed it.

On the iPad the subscription looks different than the N7. The iPad version shows the Garmin Pilot subscription and, in my case, VFR Premium and IFR Premium subscriptions as being valid. On the N7, the subscriptions are listed differently. I have a Garmin Pilot subscription, a Geo-referenced FlightCharts subscription and a SafeTaxi subscription. The SafeTaxi was not showing an expiration date and just the "purchase" option.

Garmin was able to link up the accounts for me.
 
airdale said:
:) Open Garmin Pilot. Push Direct-To immediately or at any later point. Crash.
Click to expand...

Works for me. I did direct-to as many ways as I could find.

Direct-to button on the top left.
Touch an airport on the screen and select direct-to from the popup.
Open the active flight plan, select a waypoint and activate direct-to.

I think I found another way, but forgot it already.
 
Just got my nexus 7 and got to try garmin in flight yesterday. I found that when I tried to zoom in, the sectional wouldn't come in, I got a dotted pattern, if I zoomed back out, the map would come back. Any ideas?

Did notice that the GPS was pretty accurate and the screen was really easy to see evev in the sun.
 
airdale said:
I have been running GP for maybe six or eight months now.

For all of that time and including yesterday's version, hitting the direct-to button produces an instant crash on my Nexus 7. "Unfortunately Garmin Pilot has stopped." Then, when I hit "Report" I get "Unfortunately, Google Play Store has stopped." Absolutely repeatable, every single time.

Is anyone else experiencing this or anything similar?
Click to expand...

No. Uninstall it and reinstall.
 
ScottK said:
Just got my nexus 7 and got to try garmin in flight yesterday. I found that when I tried to zoom in, the sectional wouldn't come in, I got a dotted pattern, if I zoomed back out, the map would come back. Any ideas?

Did notice that the GPS was pretty accurate and the screen was really easy to see evev in the sun.
Click to expand...


Scott,

It's normal. When you are connected to wifi, GP will display sectionals wherever you are. In the air, though, you will only see the charts you have loaded and stored internally. Otherwise you will just have some kind of national wac loaded by default. GP tries to match the scale of the chart to your zoom level. So you zoom in from wac to sectional to tac. If you don't have a particular chart loaded, you get the checkerboard.

Go to the home>downloads>procedures and charts section and select whatever sectionals, wacs, and other charts you want. Then download them. GP will let you know when they expire and prompt you to update them.
 
Last edited:
Matthew said:
Scott,

It's normal. When you are connected to wifi, GP will display sectionals wherever you are. In the air, though, you will only see the charts you have loaded and stored internally. Otherwise you will just have some kind of national wac loaded by default. GP tries to match the scale of the chart to your zoom level. So you zoom in from wac to sectional to tac. If you don't have a particular chart loaded, you get the checkerboard.

Go to the home>downloads>procedures and charts section and select whatever sectionals, wacs, and other charts you want. Then download them. GP will let you know when they expire and prompt you to update them.
Click to expand...

Excellent! Thanks.
 
Another release:

Version 2.7.2

Fixed: Stopwatch display never dismissing during flight.
Fixed: Various reported fixes and crashes.
 
Matthew said:
Scott,

It's normal. When you are connected to wifi, GP will display sectionals wherever you are. In the air, though, you will only see the charts you have loaded and stored internally. Otherwise you will just have some kind of national wac loaded by default. GP tries to match the scale of the chart to your zoom level. So you zoom in from wac to sectional to tac. If you don't have a particular chart loaded, you get the checkerboard.

Go to the home>downloads>procedures and charts section and select whatever sectionals, wacs, and other charts you want. Then download them. GP will let you know when they expire and prompt you to update them.
Click to expand...

ScottK said:
Excellent! Thanks.
Click to expand...

This is why I have the 32 GB N7. I just load everything. :D
 
I have the 32gb too. Guess that would work.
 
You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a new release:

Version 2.7.3

Fixed: Problem detecting GDL pairings.
Fixed: Crash adding aircraft with empty burn rates.
 
Matthew said:
You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a new release:

Version 2.7.3

Fixed: Problem detecting GDL pairings.
Click to expand...

That was me! Could not get the GDL-39 to pair no matter what I did!
 
Just want to say thanks for this thread... I have my Garmin Pilot app, it's /okay/ I really like my flight instructors foreflight but meh...

The whole thing has a very ~90s/00s feel to it but I am learning slowly but surely..
 
I hope they fixed the GDL-39 hookup problem. I bought one, and they named part of it right.

GD! :mad2:
 
Quick pirep now that I've used GP successfully a few times with my new 32GB N7 WiFi only version:

I am impressed! This unit cost me $269 bucks and I've stored every sectional/WAC/etc known to man on it and have tons of storage space to spare. I've used GP as back up navigation on two 2-hour flights so far, with the N7 strapped to my knee, and only using my N7's internal GPS, and the thing has been deadly accurate! I was frequently comparing the readouts on the N7 to the $14k-installed Garmin 430 WAAS unit and the two were matching ground speeds, bearings, distances, etc almost exactly. That is dang impressive stuff to me. Plus the fact that it only used about 20% of the battery was cool too.

Downsides: GP for Android stilllllll doesn't have dynamic maps, i.e. airspace overlays, which it does have on the iOS version. Lame. Also, there are some peculiarities in just the functionality when compared to ForeFlight (really wish GP had the little pop-up ruler for getting a quick distance reading, not as intuitive navlog and Direct functions, etc).

Overall though I'm very happy with my decision to switch from the full-size iPad/Foreflight combo over to Nexus 7 w/ GP. I just couldn't rationalize spending another $400 more for the iPad Mini equivalent.
 
Yesterday's flight came right after a double update -- Garmin Pilot 2.7.3 and the new Kit Kat operating system. Updates always scare me -- I remember the Jelly Bean debacle last year, which disabled most FB software, and the August update, which clobbered XM datalink right before a major trip. This time, the updates were harmless and the box worked perfectly.

A month ago, the tablet started discharging when connected to ship's power, a real concern on long trips. Yesterday, I replaced the micro USB cord and everything was OK. Particularly with a yoke mounted tablet, some of the wire strands can break and increase the resistance of the cable.
 
Yesterday's flight came right after a double update -- Garmin Pilot 2.7.3 and the new Kit Kat operating system. Updates always scare me -- I remember the Jelly Bean debacle last year, which disabled most FB software, and the August update, which clobbered XM datalink right before a major trip. This time, the updates were harmless and the box worked perfectly.
Click to expand...
My story is good news/bad news:

Good News: I got the OTA KitKat update a couple of days ago and installed it, already having installed 2.7.3 and Voila! my direct-to crashes, mentioned a few posts back, are gone. I can use direct-to for the very first time.

Bad News: I installed the OTA KitKat update on my wife's N7 this morning and the update bricked it. Dead android symbol, etc. I am now following instructions found here: http://nexus7.wonderhowto.com/how-t...us-7-tablet-even-if-youve-bricked-it-0145541/ to see if I can heal it. :-( From searching, I see that this brick problem seems to be fairly widespread. Edit: The wife's N7 is now healed, thanks to that article I linked to.

Re charging, I have found that many chargers that claim 2 amp capacity are marginal or will not even support the tablet when the GPS is running. And, as you say, the cable resistance is important too. A month or two ago I posted (in this thread) some test results for different chargers.
 
Last edited:
Flash issues???

Slightly OT...How do you get around the fact that flash doesn't really work on the latest models. I didn't realize how much flash was involved with the stuff I do.

I have the Nexus 7 (32 GB), and have been unable to use it on quite a few of the site I frequent.
 
I just downloaded the latest flash player for Android, Dolphin browser and set the browser to flash player on. Now it all works fine. Took 2 days to figure it out....?!
 
Re: Flash issues???

ScottK said:
Slightly OT...How do you get around the fact that flash doesn't really work on the latest models. I didn't realize how much flash was involved with the stuff I do.

I have the Nexus 7 (32 GB), and have been unable to use it on quite a few of the site I frequent.
Click to expand...


FireFox is also a browser for the Android systems that allows for app pairing to seamlessly play flash player vids within the FireFox browser.
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-watch-flash-videos-firefox-android
 
I gave that a shot, but it didn't work. It kept telling me that Flash isn't supported for any Android version newer than 4.0.x.....

Had I known this wasn't supported, I would've never bought this tablet. It seems like just about every site I use as well as interactive sites for my daughter won't be available.

Not sure what to do now.
 
Re: Flash issues???

ChesapeakeJohnny said:
FireFox is also a browser for the Android systems that allows for app pairing to seamlessly play flash player vids within the FireFox browser.
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-watch-flash-videos-firefox-android
Click to expand...

I tried Firefox as well, but it didn't work either. There is a website my daughter uses that has interactive drag and drop games. The games show up and the video part plays, but the drag and drop isn't available. The same goes for Yahoo Spades. Once you get into the game playing screen, it won't respond to the touch screen part of the game (picking cards and games).

This is really frustrating.
 
ScottK said:
I gave that a shot, but it didn't work. It kept telling me that Flash isn't supported for any Android version newer than 4.0.x.....

Had I known this wasn't supported, I would've never bought this tablet. It seems like just about every site I use as well as interactive sites for my daughter won't be available.

Not sure what to do now.
Click to expand...

I'm using 4.2.2 and my flash player works fine now. If you go to the correct Adobe version listing page you'll see the latest for Android is for versions 4 and was uploaded a month or two ago. It has nothing to do with the 'device' as the error message suggests, just the browser and settings.
Don't forget to go into Dolphin or, I guess, Firefox and adjust the settings to turn Flash player on. That had me floundering for several days thinking all I had read was incorrect.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top