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

[txflyer]

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

If a guy could get used to carrying the thing around, a Galaxy Note might work good in place of a Nexus.

The way I've been flying, I just use the S5 because it's always with me, so ..

I'm kinda wishing I had gone with a Note and ditched the N7 altogether maybe.

 

[Jay Honeck]

If a guy could get used to carrying the thing around, a Galaxy Note might work good in place of a Nexus.

The way I've been flying, I just use the S5 because it's always with me, so ..

I'm kinda wishing I had gone with a Note and ditched the N7 altogether maybe.

I'm looking forward to the new Nexus 8, due out in October.

 

[AcroGimp]

The 8.0 is, in my opinion, the perfect form factor for most light GA cockpits, big enough to read clearly and easily, and small enough to not get in the way of controls, etc.

I am very happy with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 as my EFB platform.

'Gimp

 

[Jay Honeck]

The 8.0 is, in my opinion, the perfect form factor for most light GA cockpits, big enough to read clearly and easily, and small enough to not get in the way of controls, etc.

I am very happy with the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 as my EFB platform.

'Gimp

I'm looking forward to the Nexus 8, which will supposedly have a very small, nearly non-existent frame around the screen. This will allow for a bigger screen without a commensurately bigger tablet. Win-win!

 

[Pedals2Paddles]

Does anyone have an Android tablet with a Sprint 4G modem that can provide a pirep?

 

[Iceman21]

I'm almost done with the trial period, in your expert opinions should I wait for a more stable update befit I purchase?

 

[Jay Honeck]

I'm almost done with the trial period, in your expert opinions should I wait for a more stable update befit I purchase?

Well, there's the $64,000 question!

I've used this app for two years. I've flown with it for almost 400 hours. Two catastrophic updates ago, it wasn't worth a bucket of warm spit. Now, after two more quick updates, it SEEMS to be stable, and with a few nice improvements.

That said, I don't fly IFR. Would I rely on this app for my approach plates, in the soup, without paper back-up? Hell, no! The last several updates have proven that Garmin just doesn't have this app 100% in the bag, yet, even after 2 years of effort.

But for VFR navigation, with multiple backups, it's the cat's meow. It does everything extremely well, from weather to traffic to navigation to gas prices, most of the time, and IMHO it is worth the annual subscription fee for that.

 

[RotorDude]

New GP version 4.0.2 released today. "Contains bug fixes and performance improvements."
So far so good. (No apparent need for GDL-39 update.)

 

[Paul Hamilton]

I'm almost done with the trial period, in your expert opinions should I wait for a more stable update befit I purchase?

The current version (4.0.2) seems every bit as good as the version I bought over a year ago. It may even be better. If you like it, I think you should buy it.

It is consumer-grade software. Don't expect the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy of aviation and military stuff. All the EFB products are competing hard based upon new features, and their respective testing and quality control departments have not always kept up. After the last debacle, this philosophy may change with regard to Garmin Pilot.

Remember, not even paper is not failure-free. Jepp plates can (and do) fall out of a clip and onto the floor. Redundancy is good. For about $100 per year, I subscribe to AeroPlanner, and can print out destination and alternate plates, plus a strip chart of my route. I feel I'm safer with Garmin Pilot plus paper than I was with my 35 pound flight bag of Jepps and nothing else. In any case, I have never had to revert to paper charts due to an EFB failure.

Paul

 

[AcroGimp]

If you will use it for IFR you have to follow the guidance of the AC and that means an alternative source of data. Could be paper, could be same app on a different device, or a different app on the same or a different device.

I now keep AVARE fully loaded with at least the same data set coverage on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phone as I keep for GP on my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet.

'Gimp

 

[35B33]

As much as I like GP, I went with the monthly option. Now trying to decide if I want to go long term or switch to Ifly. Avare does make a great option but I like GPs data options at the top in landscape mode and the ability to tap and pull up most airspace restrictions and control frequencies.

Then there are the new Nexus and iPad mini coming out soon.

 

[ChesapeakeJohnny]

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!

I replaced my Gen1 Nexus 7 with a Samsung Tab S 8.4 and it's much better in terms of screen brightness, contrast and color rendering.

Only a bit bigger (Tab S 8.4 is 8.37" x 4.94" x 0.26" vs. Gen1 Nexus 7 at 7.81" x 4.72" x 0.41") but with a substantially larger screen.

Processes much faster.

Has a micro SD port.

J

 

[Irish_Armada]

I replaced my Gen1 Nexus 7 with a Samsung Tab S 8.4 and it's much better in terms of screen brightness, contrast and color rendering.

Only a bit bigger (Tab S 8.4 is 8.37" x 4.94" x 0.26" vs. Gen1 Nexus 7 at 7.81" x 4.72" x 0.41") but with a substantially larger screen.

Processes much faster.

Has a micro SD port.

J

Expensive though wasn't it? More than the new iPad Mini, right? But the screen quality and brightness almost sounds worth the price...

Love that the new 4.0.2 finally allows you to look up any airport by icao code and then go to it on the map by pressing the new "map" button. It's been a noticeable missing feature until now.

 

[flyingriki]

I replaced my Gen1 Nexus 7 with a Samsung Tab S 8.4 and it's much better in terms of screen brightness, contrast and color rendering.

Only a bit bigger (Tab S 8.4 is 8.37" x 4.94" x 0.26" vs. Gen1 Nexus 7 at 7.81" x 4.72" x 0.41") but with a substantially larger screen.

Processes much faster.

Has a micro SD port.

J

Thanks for the input John. Have you tried it in bright sunlight? I really like Samsung products but need to make the next purchase work under a clear canopy to be useful. Still stuck with my 396 for now and wishing for an improvement. It has, however, taken me from Gulf Shores, AL to Long Island to Sacratomato and Boeing Field and Osh several times! Just looking for the next good combo and to get the heck away from XM.....

 

[AcroGimp]

Thanks for the input John. Have you tried it in bright sunlight? I really like Samsung products but need to make the next purchase work under a clear canopy to be useful. Still stuck with my 396 for now and wishing for an improvement. It has, however, taken me from Gulf Shores, AL to Long Island to Sacratomato and Boeing Field and Osh several times! Just looking for the next good combo and to get the heck away from XM.....

Here's my Galaxy Note 8.0 in the back pit of a T-34, sun was at 1-2 o'clock off the nose and about 45 degrees above the horizon in this pic. Daylight readability is pretty good, only very direct overhead sun causes any measureable washout and it is still readable under those conditions.

'Gimp

 

[flyingriki]

Sweet!
Thank you!

 

[Iceman21]

I've noticed it in several pictures now, so what is the purpose of turning the tablet upside-down when in portrait view?

 

[AcroGimp]

I've noticed it in several pictures now, so what is the purpose of turning the tablet upside-down when in portrait view?

Turning it upside down keeps the home and soft buttons out of the way from accidental touch during normal ops, and it sets the tablet book cover up to clip into my 9G kneeboard so that I can flip it open or closed if I want to write a note on paper instead of the scratchpad feature in GP.

This approach works real well in most cockpits I fly in and has proven to be OK for aerobatics when the Velcro strap is used to secure the tablet to the kneeboard (no GDL-39 3D of course for those flights).

'Gimp

 

[ChesapeakeJohnny]

Expensive though wasn't it? More than the new iPad Mini, right? But the screen quality and brightness almost sounds worth the price...

You're right, but your comment hit me as humorous. Folks are so funny. Avgas is what price now? Not to disparage the reality of price differences, but aviation is expensive. Am I not to pursue the best alternative to Apple for the cost of an extra hour of flight time?

 

[ChesapeakeJohnny]

Good example, Gimp.

In reference to the gentleman's question about suitability for a cockpit with a lot of sunlight glare -- I noticed in the store that the Tab S display is appreciably sharper and brighter than the Note 8.0, for what that's worth. Here's a specifications comparison http://www.phonearena.com/phones/co...-8.4,Samsung-Galaxy-Note-8.0/phones/8276,7677
J

Here's my Galaxy Note 8.0 in the back pit of a T-34, sun was at 1-2 o'clock off the nose and about 45 degrees above the horizon in this pic. Daylight readability is pretty good, only very direct overhead sun causes any measureable washout and it is still readable under those conditions.

'Gimp

 

[ChesapeakeJohnny]

Thanks for the input John. Have you tried it in bright sunlight? I really like Samsung products but need to make the next purchase work under a clear canopy to be useful. Still stuck with my 396 for now and wishing for an improvement. It has, however, taken me from Gulf Shores, AL to Long Island to Sacratomato and Boeing Field and Osh several times! Just looking for the next good combo and to get the heck away from XM.....

Yes. Screen brightness overcomes any glare I encounter, including intense glare from many angles during VFR-on-top. The screen is a little bit more reflective than I remember the Nexus 7 being, but the Tab S brightness overcomes it and has to be experienced to believe the difference.

I canceled the XM subscription on my 496 and utilize only the FIS-B wx. Almost always file IFR for our monthly ~500nm trips from the mid-Atlantic area to northern Maine and find the FIS-B mostly adequate.

The real improvement over the 496 (which I still have in the cockpit for redundancy and keep it on the NRST page as a reminder of where I'm landing when my single quits) is the rapidity of information access. The interface is just so much easier for a quick check of what's ahead.

I'm looking forward to adding the Flightstream 210 for uploading flight plans from Garmin Pilot to our 430W, plus the much-welcomed ability to program Victor airways for our frequently gnarly east coast routing changeups.

I do carry paper backups for IAP's.

J

 

[Iceman21]

Turning it upside down keeps the home and soft buttons out of the way from accidental touch during normal ops, and it sets the tablet book cover up to clip into my 9G kneeboard so that I can flip it open or closed if I want to write a note on paper instead of the scratchpad feature in GP.

This approach works real well in most cockpits I fly in and has proven to be OK for aerobatics when the Velcro strap is used to secure the tablet to the kneeboard (no GDL-39 3D of course for those flights).

'Gimp

Thanks for the tip. I'm using a Galaxy Note 10.1, what cover are you using and your setup to your knee board? I like your setup.

 

[AcroGimp]

Thanks for the tip. I'm using a Galaxy Note 10.1, what cover are you using and your setup to your knee board? I like your setup.

My pleasure.

I use an Aviation Wings 9G Kneeboard that I bought at Marv Golden's, very happy with it.

The Note 8.0 is in the stock Samsung Book Cover. I turn it upside down as explained to protect the buttons, then slip it into the stack of Jepp Logs so I can write something down quickly if I don't want to use the Scratchpad function in GP.

I have been extremely pleased with this setup and use it almost all the time. Since I fly with different guys in very different airplanes (Traveller, Yak-52, T-34, Glasair I) and I fly in different planes myself (Citabria, C-182, etc.) this gives me maximum flexibility.

I also have a car windshield mount from iDEA that I have successfully used attached to the windscreen of the Citabria for a fixed mount, and I liked that a lot but it is a bit more work for setup and teardown.

Hope that helps.

'Gimp

 

[Jay Honeck]

You're right, but your comment hit me as humorous. Folks are so funny. Avgas is what price now? Not to disparage the reality of price differences, but aviation is expensive. Am I not to pursue the best alternative to Apple for the cost of an extra hour of flight time?

You clearly haven't dealt with pilots in the real world.

Wait till you hear that $89.95 -- with delivered breakfast and the free use of a courtesy car -- is "too rich for my blood"... lol

 

[RotorDude]

I took GP version 4.0.2 on Nexus 7 (2013) for a good workout today, up and down the East Coast. Bottom line: GP app crashes still occur, although typically not in the air but mostly during taxi, startup, etc.
But despite its obvious unseemliness (very embarrassing if someone is next to you!), a crash is not a big deal -- it takes a few seconds to restart the app, and it usually picks up where it had left off. Of course it's not something you'd like to mess with on approach, but fortunately that didn't happen on today's flights.
I did notice something good that I hadn't noticed before: in the new Connext interface, under ADS-B, you get a cool zoomable/pannable mini-map of the ADS-B ground stations around your present location, so you can plan in advance your expected coverage. (I apologize if this has been mentioned/covered before and is well known.)
Overall, except for the odd crashes (maybe half a dozen or so for the day), everything else, including traffic (limited in my case since no OUT), weather, and specifically current destination and alternate METARs and TAFs, worked great.
My biggest pet peeves for the moment: I'd like terrain, obstacles, and more stability.
Oh, another good and bad: it seems ATC is starting to assign more STARs to us small fry with /G (got one today), and a nice thing is that GP does a good job letting you add it into the flight plan and fly it. So a definite plus. OTOH, it still doesn't support SIDs and IAPs at the flight plan level, so it's got a way to go.

BTW, today I used the free Avare as backup (on the same tablet, for testing) and it seemed to work fine, as such. Obviously it's way more primitive than GP, but my main goal is to have another source for approach plates (soon on another tablet).

 

[flyingriki]

Great stuff guys! Thank you!!

 

[Brianflys]

Just got back from 2,500 mile journey from the Keys to San Diego, using 4.02 all the way. Agree with prior post about occasional crashes, but none at inopportune times like approaches. And I had lots of IMC and approaches in the whole 5,000 mile trip. Love the interface with the quick transition between chart types and the split screens which I have set to the airport chart books.

BTW, regarding visibility, here is a shot of my Samsung Tab Pro 8.4 in my Tiger, shortly before the trip during a sunny afternoon. Only glare issue is with the sun reflecting directly into my eyes. Otherwise, I don't even think about the screen visibility.

 

[Matthew]

Configuration preferences:

On the map screen - do you display Nav Bar Items across the top?

If so, how many (10, 15, 20)?

And what info do you display?

 

[kgruber]

One more stupid question.......I can't figure how to print approach charts from GP. Is it possible?

 

[RotorDude]

One more stupid question.......I can't figure how to print approach charts from GP. Is it possible?

Not to my knowledge. I use AOPA or SkyVector. For the complete set, AOPA is easier, since they let you combine them into a single PDF.

 

[Brianflys]

Configuration preferences:

On the map screen - do you display Nav Bar Items across the top?

If so, how many (10, 15, 20)?

And what info do you display?

Most people I see are using the tablets in portrait orientation for their tablets, so it seems like 15 or 20 items displayed are unlikely or too small if you can display that many.

I have my android tablet set for 10 items, but only 6.5 items can be seen in portrait mode.

My list from L to R:
--Groundspeed
--GPS altitude
--Course
--Next Waypoint
--Distance (Next)
--ETE (Next)
--Zulu only the first couple of digits are visible, but enough to know the hour

 

[Jay Honeck]

Here's a (bad) picture of how we have our Nexus 7 mounted in landscape mode in the back cockpit of our RV, running Garmin Pilot:

Here's a better pic, showing the Nexus 7 running the GRT EFIS app. This app bluetooths to our EFIS, providing us with real instrumentation in the back cockpit.

 

[Matthew]

You can swipe left and right to display the additional fields.

I think my info is set for GS, next, dist next, ete next, dist dest, ete dest, eta dest, and then I can't remember.

 

[dickf]

I have subscribed to Garmin Pilot for a couple of years and would like to keep it if I can. The software was recently updated and now it appears to be incompatible with my android 4.2.1 operating system. The problem is that I cannot enter the "@" symbol so I cannot enter my Google email address. Therefore I cannot update my subscription which has just expired. The "@" symbol works everywhere else. Anyone else with this problem? Can anyone suggest a workaround? Garmin itself appears clueless at this point.

Thanks,

Dick Frederick

 

[35B33]

While I go back and forth between ETE and ETA, I like landscape format and display:
Bearing, Course, GS, Distance Next, ETA Next, Distance Dest., ETA Dest., Time.

 

[FlightTest]

I have subscribed to Garmin Pilot for a couple of years and would like to keep it if I can. The software was recently updated and now it appears to be incompatible with my android 4.2.1 operating system. The problem is that I cannot enter the "@" symbol so I cannot enter my Google email address. Therefore I cannot update my subscription which has just expired. The "@" symbol works everywhere else. Anyone else with this problem? Can anyone suggest a workaround? Garmin itself appears clueless at this point.

Thanks,

Dick Frederick

Can you type your email in somewhere else and copy/paste it into the text box?

 

[ryarya]

I have subscribed to Garmin Pilot for a couple of years and would like to keep it if I can. The software was recently updated and now it appears to be incompatible with my android 4.2.1 operating system. The problem is that I cannot enter the "@" symbol so I cannot enter my Google email address. Therefore I cannot update my subscription which has just expired. The "@" symbol works everywhere else. Anyone else with this problem? Can anyone suggest a workaround? Garmin itself appears clueless at this point.

Thanks,

Dick Frederick

What device do you have? Where is it that you are trying to enter your email address in the app?

 

[Jay Honeck]

Here's a pic from today's flight. GP was rock solid all the way, and the new features worked great. Happy!

 

[Brianflys]

I have subscribed to Garmin Pilot for a couple of years and would like to keep it if I can. The software was recently updated and now it appears to be incompatible with my android 4.2.1 operating system. The problem is that I cannot enter the "@" symbol so I cannot enter my Google email address. Therefore I cannot update my subscription which has just expired. The "@" symbol works everywhere else. Anyone else with this problem? Can anyone suggest a workaround? Garmin itself appears clueless at this point.

Thanks,

Dick Frederick

IIRC, the My Garmin system uses a username (alphanumeric) not an email address. Confirm you are entering your My Garmin account username, not your email address.

 

[RotorDude]

I did notice something good that I hadn't noticed before: in the new Connext interface, under ADS-B, you get a cool zoomable/pannable mini-map of the ADS-B ground stations around your present location, so you can plan in advance your expected coverage. (I apologize if this has been mentioned/covered before and is well known.)

OK, I might have been imagining things. Today's flight with GP 4.0.2 showed me that that mini-map depicting the ownship relative to the ADSB ground stations is not pannable (if it is, I couldn't find how to do it), though it is zoomable.
The ownship position was by default off the screen, so I had to unzoom the mini-map to see it (since there didn't seem to be any centering or panning function). Not sure if this is me, or this feature (with good potential) is still half-baked.
Also, on today's "hard IFR" international flight (on the gauges almost from start to finish, culminating in Localizer approach to near minimums), there were thankfully no crashes. However, initially the main vector map seemed sluggish to redraw, to the point of almost being frozen. Since this was in very busy airspace, I had a suspicion that perhaps it was all the traffic in the area slowing down the rendering to a crawl, so I turned off traffic depiction and things did seem to improve. I re-enabled traffic later on in the flight, when the airspace was less busy, and everything seemed to work OK from that point on.
Still happy with the product overall, but there are certainly still some ragged edges, even ignoring the missing features.