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

Got two flights in yesterday with the 4.0 update on GP and the GDL-39 3D, GP worked fine but it took a reset of the GDL-39 3D and the tablet to connect on the 2nd flight in the afternoon.

Came home and saw the predictable 4.0.1 UPDATED-update was out, downloaded and installed the GP update, will get the GDL-39 3D update today.

'Gimp
 
RotorDude said:
Version 4.0.1 (on Nexus 7 2013, ART runtime) seems more stable than 4.0.0, which was nearly DOA. But even 4.0.1 crashes, either after a while just sitting there or after some operation. E.g. trying to get the A/FD for airport 1TE4 (which has its own thread) crashes consistently.
Also, I have noticed that at least sometimes, when zooming in during a flight in track-up mode (aircraft icon at the bottom), the map scrolling motion stops and the aircraft icon starts crawling up. This doesn't seem to happen in zoom out. Easy (but distracting) workaround is to click the "course up" icon twice (clicking the circled aircraft icon at the bottom doesn't fix it).
Overall I like this app and use it a lot, but I've had some app crashes while on IFR approach in IMC (not with the latest version yet), and I can tell you that's not much fun.:eek:

RD
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You probably do this, but be sure to send the crash report to Garmin EVERY TIME the app fails.

This is not always possible when it happens in-flight, unfortunately, but it's really important that we all keep hammering Garmin to get this thing right.

What bothers me most about this is that Garmin has really not added any valuable (to me) features in the last several updates -- yet over the last six months they've seemingly made the app less stable. This is NOT acceptable.

It's sad. I want Garmin Pilot Ver 3.2 back, or whatever the last stable version was.
 
diesel 10 said:
Has anyone else had difficult connecting to their GDL39 after downloading 4.0.1? My GDL39 still pairs with my Samsung tablet (per the Android settings menu) but does not connect in the Garmin Pilot Connext screen? Have sent a support request to Garmin.
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I had a royal beeyatch getting my Nexus 7 to connect the first time, post-4.0 update. Only after poking around for an embarrassingly long period did I find the new Connext menu, where you must now go to connect to the GDL-39.

Why they added this extra step, I do not know, and I sure hope it's a one-time deal.
 
Jay Honeck said:
You probably do this, but be sure to send the crash report to Garmin EVERY TIME the app fails.

This is not always possible when it happens in-flight, unfortunately, but it's really important that we all keep hammering Garmin to get this thing right.
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree and do it whenever I can. I also got into the habit of running each new version at home for a while, coupled to FSX. Since I view this app as very important, I prefer not to go fly (especially IFR) with a new version without this minimal testing procedure.

RD
 
RotorDude said:
Absolutely agree and do it whenever I can. I also got into the habit of running each new version at home for a while, coupled to FSX. Since I view this app as very important, I prefer not to go fly (especially IFR) with a new version without this minimal testing procedure.

RD
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I'm VFR, so it's not flight critical -- but I'm afraid that GP has become so unstable that I could not recommend it to anyone. A friend of mine who is IR recently dumped it, precisely for that reason.

I'm astounded that Garmin -- the 600 pound gorilla in aviation -- can't seem to get this right. Right now I'm running FlightPro and Avare, to see if I can find another more stable option. :(
 
Jay Honeck said:
I had a royal beeyatch getting my Nexus 7 to connect the first time, post-4.0 update. Only after poking around for an embarrassingly long period did I find the new Connext menu, where you must now go to connect to the GDL-39.

Why they added this extra step, I do not know, and I sure hope it's a one-time deal.
Click to expand...

Yes, I managed to find the Connext screen and the GDL is listed there but it will not connect. This despite the GDL39 is showing as successfully paired in the Android Bluetooth settings menu :rolleyes:.
 
diesel 10 said:
Has anyone else had difficult connecting to their GDL39 after downloading 4.0.1? My GDL39 still pairs with my Samsung tablet (per the Android settings menu) but does not connect in the Garmin Pilot Connext screen? Have sent a support request to Garmin.
Click to expand...


Trying the reset feature of the GDL-39. This will remove all pairing history. To do this, press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. The blue light will blink. Release the power button. Press and hold the power button again for another 5 seconds and then power off the GDL-39.

Once reset, power up and re-pair.
 
Jay Honeck said:
I'm astounded that Garmin -- the 600 pound gorilla in aviation -- can't seem to get this right. Right now I'm running FlightPro and Avare, to see if I can find another more stable option. :(
Click to expand...

AFAIK, Garmin is not directly related to Garmin Pilot. It is produced by the company called Digital Cyclone, which was acquired by Garmin in 2007 but looks like it operates independently from the main Garmin. Knowing how acquisitions go in large companies, I wouldn't be surprised if Garmin avionics developers and Garmin Pilot devs don't talk at all...
 
EugeneR said:
AFAIK, Garmin is not directly related to Garmin Pilot. It is produced by the company called Digital Cyclone, which was acquired by Garmin in 2007 but looks like it operates independently from the main Garmin. Knowing how acquisitions go in large companies, I wouldn't be surprised if Garmin avionics developers and Garmin Pilot devs don't talk at all...
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Well, Garmin should be embarrassed.

Maybe 4.0.1 will fix everything -- I haven't flown with it, yet -- but this whole "updating" rigamarole is ridiculous.

I've been with this app from the beginning, since before most people had ever heard of "Garmin Pilot", and it had evolved into a solid, stable, and mature aviation app -- but it's been on the downhill slide since about February(?) of this year. Since that "update" (and I use that term loosely), the app has become unstable, with quirky/weird problems.

Examples:

1. Track up. You can select "Track Up", and sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. The fix is to unselect/reselect. That fixes it...for a while. Stupid and annoying.

2. Animated radar. For the last three (?) updates, that feature has worked sporadically. Sometimes it will load the radar pictures out of sequence, and sometimes it will suddenly show a radar picture as old as seven hours old. Stupid and annoying.

3. ADS-B. This feature had been bulletproof, often outperforming my panel-mounted EFIS. Not anymore. Now, sometimes we have radar, and sometimes we don't. Same with traffic.

4. Trip Planning. This part of the app is still a hopelessly stupid, overly complex cluster-fluck. It is so bad, we never, ever use it.

I just went in the app to see if it had been improved. Nope -- and trying to plan a trip crashed the app.

Totally, completely, 100% unacceptable on a 2+ year-old app!
 
This is why I'm flying with a 696 hard wired to the GDL39.

The 696 and the 430W in the panel are my primary tools while GP has been relegated to my S5 stuck on my yoke as kind of a 'token' toy now.

I'm waiting on a stable platform with SVX and all the bells and whistles like the iOS version, but it ain't happenin'....
 
My conspiracy paradigm brain has me thinking Digital Cyclone has some type of vested interest in iOS more than android.

Or some type of (we make more money, screw the customer) business reason why android GP is riding at the back of the bus.
 
txflyer said:
My conspiracy paradigm brain has me thinking Digital Cyclone has some type of vested interest in iOS more than android.

Or some type of (we make more money, screw the customer) business reason why android GP is riding at the back of the bus.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt that they have any conspiracy reasons. I bet it's much simpler: there are two teams, Android and iOS, and Android team is understaffed with all the money and resources going to iOS folks. The primary focus of the company is iOS because it's much more popular and Android devs have to play a catch up game...

If I was them, I would put more efforts on Android platform instead. Android lets you do more, and it's very easy to squash the competition, as there are no players like Foreflight/WingX there. I switched to Garmin Pilot and bought GDL-39 because they had an Android version (well, both Android and iPad which is even better). If I wanted to stay with iPad, I would just stay with Foreflight and buy Stratus for traffic/weather.
 
In the apple realm, Garmin has to directly compete with Foreflight. So they dump huge amounts of resources into. There is big money to be made when people have to decide between FF or GP. No such competition in the Android world. No such resources to dump into it. Not surprising. I don't like it, but not surprising.
 
Pedals2Paddles said:
In the apple realm, Garmin has to directly compete with Foreflight. So they dump huge amounts of resources into. There is big money to be made when people have to decide between FF or GP. No such competition in the Android world. No such resources to dump into it. Not surprising. I don't like it, but not surprising.
Click to expand...

Wow, best explanation I've ever seen. Thanks for the clarification!
 
Extremely unhappy to report I have had to move the GP Data back to the internal SD card as it seems unstable on the External SD Card.

Functioned OK on my flights Saturday but after I updated the GDL-39 3D today GP could not find the data, showed 88.1 GB available (64GB Class 10 MicroSD) and generally was behaving poorly.

Come on Garmin, get it together.

UPDATE - scrapping the update and reinstalling, non-functional today - this is BS.

'Gimp
 
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If you read the comments on the app (at the download screen in Play Store) you will see that we are not alone.

These last two updates have been catastrophic. I'm going to go fly with 4.0.1 this afternoon, and will see how long I can keep it running.

What an embarrassment for Garmin!
 
4.0.1 hasn't been pushed to me yet. Maybe today.

What's the list of "What's new with this release"? Anything besides "Multiple bug fixes"?
 
My GP 4.01 crashed today, would not connect to databases. Tried a full reinstall. FUBAR. Crashes after uploading initial data. corrupt.

Called Garmin. Their Fly Garmin site is down. they said all databases crashed at their facility. Slowly rebooting. Fail. I even wiped my tablet thinking it was local corruption.

Nothing will work until Garminis back up.
 
Brianflys said:
My GP 4.01 crashed today, would not connect to databases. Tried a full reinstall. FUBAR. Crashes after uploading initial data. corrupt.
Click to expand...

Same experience here. I noticed that when the "Subscriptions" page shows unsuccessful attempts to connect to the Garmin central site (for authentication?), the app is partially down, in a weird way. For example, on the map page it was able to switch between different map types, but refused to accept other changes, like enabling/disabling radar, TFRs, etc. It also refused to display the present GPS position.
What I find most worrisome is that it seems that the app is so tightly coupled to the central Garmin site that if for some reason that connection fails (like today), then the app is hosed, or brain damaged. Fortunately today I wasn't flying (except via FSX for testing), but I can imagine how this could be very problematic on a flying day.:mad2:
 
Brianflys said:
My GP 4.01 crashed today, would not connect to databases. Tried a full reinstall. FUBAR. Crashes after uploading initial data. corrupt.

Called Garmin. Their Fly Garmin site is down. they said all databases crashed at their facility. Slowly rebooting. Fail. I even wiped my tablet thinking it was local corruption.

Nothing will work until Garminis back up.
Click to expand...
Me three. What complete and utter BS.

Between the App and GDL-39 3D I have a solid grand into this setup, it was fine and I was confident using it up until this latest update and-a-half, and it is total crap since.

Still, after factory wipe on tablet and fresh install of GP I am getting 6-19 second delays on loading of airport data on touch, then a second 6-19 second delay when opening the airport browser. Glitchy delayed SafeTaxi display as well.

If all this data is downloaded why should there be any delay pulling it up?

This is an embarassment.

Edited to add - I have been burning-in a stripped down install of 4.0.1 for a while (only 1 sectional, SafeTaxi, one A/FD region, and basemap data only) and although it still has the lag issue when pulling or changing screens, for whatever reason the TIS-B traffic is performing flawlessly, far better than I have ever seen either on the ground or in the air - really doing a great job of picking up and displaying traffic.

'Gimp
 
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Flown with both Garmin Pilot both on iPad and Android today, everything worked well. Latest version (4.01) installed on my Nexus 7, and latest firmware (4.10) installed in my GDL 39 3D.
 
Late in the day I was able to install the databases and get GP to run "normally" but will have to go thru the dance of the cursed to re-pair my tablet to the GDL 393D. Hopefully the firmware update does not break this connection for my 2500 mile trip home from the Keys to San Diego.
 
Updated to the 4.0.1 release on my Nexus 7.

When I select the A/FD button in the Airport browser while on-line, the a/FD page is downloaded and is displayed in the .pdf reader as I would expect.

If instead I download a region and select the A/FD button for an airport in the region, I get an error message "The document path is not valid." Has anyone else seen this and do you have idea of how to fix it?

I've submitted bug report on the Garmin site.

Thanks
 
msa@anastasmail.com said:
Updated to the 4.0.1 release on my Nexus 7.

When I select the A/FD button in the Airport browser while on-line, the a/FD page is downloaded and is displayed in the .pdf reader as I would expect.

If instead I download a region and select the A/FD button for an airport in the region, I get an error message "The document path is not valid." Has anyone else seen this and do you have idea of how to fix it?

I've submitted bug report on the Garmin site.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Seems to work here. Can you give specific examples of specific airports?
 
RotorDude said:
Seems to work here. Can you give specific examples of specific airports?
Click to expand...

I have a Nexus 7 and a Samsung Galaxy smart phone both the latest Android release that is available for those devices running the Garmin Pilot 4.0.1 application. Both of these devices demonstrate exactly the same behavior as follows.

If I download any A/FD region (for example the Northwest Edition 1450 region) then access an airport in that region (say KHIO) then I get an error message returned from the Adobe reader “The document path is not valid.” This means that the Adobe either could not find the file that Garmin Pilot gave it to open or some other information passed to the Adobe reader was not correct.

If I then access another airport (say KSTL) in an A/FD region for which the region has NOT been downloaded and the Nexus 7 or smartphone is connected to the network the .pdf is downloaded and again the adobe reader opens up just fine.

A guess is that Garmin Pilot is either saving the A/FD regions downloaded into a folder different from where it is telling the adobe reader to display or Garmin Pilot is passing some other information to the adobe reader that is incorrect.

Note also that I have not changed any of the other Garmin Pilot settings like the new “Storage Location (Experimental)” which is still set by default to “/storage/emulate/0 (Default)” on both of these devices.
 
I have found that when I go from some other screen back to the map, the map stays blank. I have to move, zoom, or manually refresh it to get the map to draw. This is on 4.01 using my Samsung S4.
 
msa@anastasmail.com said:
I have a Nexus 7 and a Samsung Galaxy smart phone both the latest Android release that is available for those devices running the Garmin Pilot 4.0.1 application. Both of these devices demonstrate exactly the same behavior as follows.

If I download any A/FD region (for example the Northwest Edition 1450 region) then access an airport in that region (say KHIO) then I get an error message returned from the Adobe reader “The document path is not valid.” This means that the Adobe either could not find the file that Garmin Pilot gave it to open or some other information passed to the Adobe reader was not correct.

If I then access another airport (say KSTL) in an A/FD region for which the region has NOT been downloaded and the Nexus 7 or smartphone is connected to the network the .pdf is downloaded and again the adobe reader opens up just fine.

A guess is that Garmin Pilot is either saving the A/FD regions downloaded into a folder different from where it is telling the adobe reader to display or Garmin Pilot is passing some other information to the adobe reader that is incorrect.

Note also that I have not changed any of the other Garmin Pilot settings like the new “Storage Location (Experimental)” which is still set by default to “/storage/emulate/0 (Default)” on both of these devices.
Click to expand...

Yes, I can confirm seeing the same error here for KHIO A/FD after loading the NW A/FD region.
 
Well I ran GP and the GDL-39 3D for hours yesterday in my office and driving around a bit at lunch and it seems to have stabilized. No crashes or freezes and the delays on data access are now intermittent and seemingly shorter.

As mentioned above, I did find that the TIS-B traffic from ADS-R as well as airborne traffic being picked up by the GDL-39 3D itself seems vastly improved from before.

I did download the free AVARE App onto my Galaxy Note 3 phone and will do the same on the Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet to have a back-up in IMC. AVARE has, I must say, come a long ways in terms of capabilities.

Free georeferenced approach plates, airport diagrams, obstacles data, the A/FD, Sectionals, TAC's, Instr Hi/Lo, etc., it is all there if not as polished as payware offerings - I am really impressed with AVARE as a free offering and feel pretty confident with it as a backup.

'Gimp
 
I've loaded the NE region AFD on my 32 G Nexus 7 and tried DCA, 2W5, and GAI. All AFD pages come up quickly and correctly. Perhaps the problem is how Adobe is configured?
 
Regarding the A/FD problem:

The issue appears to be related to the fact that you viewed the A/FD "a la carte" before downloading the region from Downloads.

If you had downloaded the A/FD region from downloads before viewing the A/FD at a particular airport, then it will probably work. (To get into that state now, you'd need to delete/reinstall or clear app data.)

Also, if you delete the region from downloads, then you will be able to view the A/FD for that airport again.

..The above works for some airports, but not KHIO. That seems to be a different issue..
 
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ryarya said:
Regarding the A/FD problem:

The issue appears to be related to the fact that you viewed the A/FD "a la carte" before downloading the region from Downloads.

If you had downloaded the A/FD region from downloads before viewing the A/FD at a particular airport, then it will probably work. (To get into that state now, you'd need to delete/reinstall or clear app data.)

Also, if you delete the region from downloads, then you will be able to view the A/FD for that airport again.

..The above works for some airports, but not KHIO. That seems to be a different issue..
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Yep, just as you noted I received the following response from Garmin this morning to the bug report I had submitted earlier with the same workaround you described until they get a fix for this issue.

"We figured out how to reproduce the A/FD bug, so no need to get any more data about it from customers.

If a user views the A/FD for an airport *before* downloading the region in Downloads, then they will see the problem. If the user deletes the A/FD region from downloads, they will again be able to view the A/FD for that airport.

Until we fix the bug, the workaround would be to delete/reinstall the app (or clear data), then immediately go download the A/FD regions you are interested in. Once the download and processing is complete, they should be able to view the A/FD for all airports in that region.

Thanks,"
​
 
Jay Honeck said:
Finally got to fly with 4.0.1 today. Rock solid, on a two hour flight. Happy! :)
Click to expand...

Agree. Took it with my GDL 39 3D for short trip where I was entering an area where a storm area was receding. WX radar worked well, seemed like faster updates. Southern tip of Florida so not much traffic behind the storm, ADSB, TIB, or otherwise. I think this will be a Go for the transcontinental trip in the next week.
 
Try again...

Gave up on my Nexus gen 1 due to lousy readability under clear canopy.
What Android product are you folks having good luck with regarding vis?
Thanks!
 
flyingriki said:
Try again...

Gave up on my Nexus gen 1 due to lousy readability under clear canopy.
What Android product are you folks having good luck with regarding vis?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Nexus 7 (2013) works fine for visibility under our canopy, although we do have a retractable shade.
 
flyingriki said:
Try again...

Gave up on my Nexus gen 1 due to lousy readability under clear canopy.
What Android product are you folks having good luck with regarding vis?
Thanks!
Click to expand...


Readability on my S5 is like night and day compared to my gen 1 N7.

I don't have one yet, but I bet the latest N7 with the 1920X1200 super amoled display like the S5 solves readability.

I'm just having a hard time not throwing in the towel for a more modern app with SVX. (Hint Garmin.) That's why I haven't bought a new N7 or 3D from Garmin. :mad2::redface:
 
I now have four hours on 4.01. Sometime around 3.4, SafeTaxi continued to pop the airport map but ceased to display the ownship icon on it. SafeTaxi now works again.
 
stevenclin said:
I don't know if anyone else here uses XM / MobileLink with the Android version of GP. But I do, and for the last couple of updates I've noticed an annoyance that I'm wonder if anyone has figured out.

The app doesn't seem to automatically display the most recent radar image. For example, say it is 1500Z and I've just received and am viewing the 1500Z radar image. At 1505 (or soon afterwards), the app doesn't automatically update the display. If I manually click on the time in the lower right hand corner, I can usually manually advance the slider to 1505Z and see the new weather, but this is a pain -- it means that I can't ever just glance down at the tablet to see the latest weather; instead, I have to manually click the time and advance to the latest time, only to do so again after the data has been updated.

I know, this is a minor thing. But still, just wondering if anyone has found a trick to get it to always display the latest radar image.

I could have sworn it _used_ to do this, several updates ago, but not anymore.

Thanks,
Steve Lin
Click to expand...

FWIW, this issue I mentioned a month or so ago seems to be fixed in 4.0.1. Like a few others here, I had some crashes when I first installed 4.0.1 and tried to download the A/FD. So I just uninstalled and reinstalled the app along with all the data, but now things are much better. This is on a 2012 Galaxy Note 10.1.

I like having the A/FD, and as I mentioned, the MobileLink annoyance I mentioned above is now fixed.

Steve
 
Jay Honeck said:
Nexus 7 (2013) works fine for visibility under our canopy, although we do have a retractable shade.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jay. I talked to that guy that makes the shades and think I can adapt one to the narrow canopy I have. Sounds like the new screens are much better. Need to look into them. So I gotta nice nightstand mini tablet......:dunno:
 
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txflyer said:
Readability on my S5 is like night and day compared to my gen 1 N7.

I don't have one yet, but I bet the latest N7 with the 1920X1200 super amoled display like the S5 solves readability.

I'm just having a hard time not throwing in the towel for a more modern app with SVX. (Hint Garmin.) That's why I haven't bought a new N7 or 3D from Garmin. :mad2::redface:
Click to expand...

Contract is up next month but I love my S3...better get a new Nexus or smaller Samsung then my 10.1
 
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