MiraCheck...

SkyHog

SkyHog

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Feb 23, 2005
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Everything Offends Me
Anyone else using MiraCheck?

It seems awesome. I tried it today and plan to integrate it into all flights going forward. Seems like a great way to enforce chemist usage.

It's weird to say that a checklist can be "fun!"
 
SkyHog said:
Anyone else using MiraCheck?

It seems awesome. I tried it today and plan to integrate it into all flights going forward. Seems like a great way to enforce chemist usage.

It's weird to say that a checklist can be "fun!"
Click to expand...
Completely off topic, but are you heading over to Kelly Airpark tomorrow (Sat) for the pancake breakfast? We could make it a tiny POA meet. Oddly enough, it's faster for me to drive there rather than fly down, since I live on the south side of the Denver metro area.
 
Doesn't anyone just fly anymore?
Maybe I'm getting ruined by flying the J3 so often.

Engine - Yup
Oil - Yup. Mostly in the engine. Some outside the engine.
Wings - One on each side.
Tail - Didn't fall off when I pushed the plane out of the hanger.
Fuel - The bobber is at the top.
Wheels - One on each corner, and round.
Prop - Smooth as a baby's bottom. (This is important, because a rough blade is going to hurt your hand when you yank the prop to start the engine.)
Doors - Closed in winter, open in summer.
General impression - You can see through the parts you are supposed to see through, and can't see through all the other parts.
Passenger briefing - Lose weight, fatty. Keep your seatbelt tight and try not to fall out the open door.

If you fly the same plane day in and day out, MiraCheck might be worth the effort.
But in those circumstances you may have your checklist memorized, so you don't need MiraCheck.

When you fly numerous types weekly or daily, the setup could get onerous.

For my own use: I use an OCR program and make copies of checklists for a bunch of different planes and have them available on my tablet, and also accessible to Avare.
 
murphey said:
Completely off topic, but are you heading over to Kelly Airpark tomorrow (Sat) for the pancake breakfast? We could make it a tiny POA meet. Oddly enough, it's faster for me to drive there rather than fly down, since I live on the south side of the Denver metro area.
Click to expand...
Nope. Headed to Albuquerque. Want going to go tonight but weather was a touch rough for my first cross country in half a decade.

Heading out early in the AM.

Next time for sure tho!
 
I took a look at the video, installed the app, played with it for a few minutes and uninstalled it. As I think most know, I love my cockpit tech toys. But every checklist app I've seen leaves me cold. This was no exception.
 
midlifeflyer said:
I took a look at the video, installed the app, played with it for a few minutes and uninstalled it. As I think most know, I love my cockpit tech toys. But every checklist app I've seen leaves me cold. This was no exception.
Click to expand...
Really? I love the fact that it calls out checklist items and you can reply "check" and it goes to the next.

Completely hands free. That's what I always wanted!
 
Are you using free or pro version?
 
SkyHog said:
Really? I love the fact that it calls out checklist items and you can reply "check" and it goes to the next.

Completely hands free. That's what I always wanted!
Click to expand...
Zzzzzz. Snore. :confused:

Yes. Really. In my case, although I have them, I'm not even that fond of the PDF checklists on my tablet. For most ops, I haven't seen an electronic checklist more efficient for me than holding up a piece of paper and taking a very few seconds to scan the items. I went back to them about 2 years ago after about 4 years of experimentation.
 
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Badger said:
Are you using free or pro version?
Click to expand...
The pro for now just because I like the voice stuff. It's a bit spendy for a checklist tho.

The free version does everything the pro does except voice which kinda seems like a silly dilleneation.
 
Full disclosure: I am the creator of MiraCheck. I am an instrument-rated pilot and have an extensive technology background. I have a couple of personal experiences that were a catalyst for building such an ecosystem. For any negative posts, we would appreciate specific feedback of what we can do to improve the product. We just went live a couple of months ago and are working hard to make it a truly useful digital assistant co-pilot. We are starting with checklists, but have plans to integrate more inputs like GPS to make the co-pilot more aware of the current situation. For checklists, we have built a community-based content management system where we are encouraging the community to share their procedures and experiences to crowd-source the creation of the best content for the large amount of aircraft models available. We also have a partnership with CheckMate for pilots that like their concise checklist content. There is a Free version of the app, and a Pro version with more capabilities. The Pro version can be previewed from within the Free version. Two killer features are the ability to slide a slim version of the checklist on top of your favorite nav app like ForeFlight so you don't lose your map and the voice co-pilot. I would be happy to join in on the conversation if their are specific questions from the community.
 
SkyHog said:
Anyone else using MiraCheck?

It seems awesome. I tried it today and plan to integrate it into all flights going forward. Seems like a great way to enforce chemist usage.

It's weird to say that a checklist can be "fun!"
Click to expand...

Never heard of it but I don't understand the need to enforce chemist usage while flying.
 
jeffbonasso said:
Full disclosure: I am the creator of MiraCheck. I am an instrument-rated pilot and have an extensive technology background. I have a couple of personal experiences that were a catalyst for building such an ecosystem. For any negative posts, we would appreciate specific feedback of what we can do to improve the product. We just went live a couple of months ago and are working hard to make it a truly useful digital assistant co-pilot. We are starting with checklists, but have plans to integrate more inputs like GPS to make the co-pilot more aware of the current situation. For checklists, we have built a community-based content management system where we are encouraging the community to share their procedures and experiences to crowd-source the creation of the best content for the large amount of aircraft models available. We also have a partnership with CheckMate for pilots that like their concise checklist content. There is a Free version of the app, and a Pro version with more capabilities. The Pro version can be previewed from within the Free version. Two killer features are the ability to slide a slim version of the checklist on top of your favorite nav app like ForeFlight so you don't lose your map and the voice co-pilot. I would be happy to join in on the conversation if their are specific questions from the community.
Click to expand...

Now I'm even more confused. You built an ecosystem? Please explain.
 
asicer said:
Yes. Yes, you are.

You should hand me the keys while while you get yourself un-ruined. Be sure to gas it up first.
Click to expand...

If someone asks for the keys to your J3 you probably shouldn't let them fly it. :)

That is what I love about the J5. Oil, gas, wings. Let's go. Well that is a bit of an exaggeration but not much.
 
SkyDog58 said:
Now I'm even more confused. You built an ecosystem? Please explain.
Click to expand...

The ecosystem is a web-based content management system for pilots to create, share, derive and discover checklist procedures. An analogy would be a "YouTube" of checklist procedures. This is called MiraCheck Cloud. This will allow the community to crowd-source content. The mobile app is how you interact with the checklists on your mobile device. If you go to the MiraCheck website and sign up for a free account you have access to the ecosystem. There is also a free mobile app and from there you can preview the full capabilities. There is a MiraCheck Quickstart checklist that you can run through on the mobile device to get a quick overview of the capabilities.
 
SkyDog58 said:
Interesting, I've never heard or seen the term ecosystem used that way before.
Click to expand...

OK. Maybe I should say Technology Platform with a central cloud-based management system and different type of Apps to utilize the content. Mobile devices are the first type of App that use the content. In home voice assistants like Alexa, Google Home, Cortana and Siri are future ones. They may not be that useful for the aviation use case, but is has been built to allow any type of procedures to be authored. We already have a proof-of-concept of this.
 
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SkyHog said:
Anyone else using MiraCheck?
Click to expand...

th
 
jeffbonasso said:
Full disclosure: I am the creator of MiraCheck. I am an instrument-rated pilot and have an extensive technology background. I have a couple of personal experiences that were a catalyst for building such an ecosystem. For any negative posts, we would appreciate specific feedback of what we can do to improve the product. We just went live a couple of months ago and are working hard to make it a truly useful digital assistant co-pilot. We are starting with checklists, but have plans to integrate more inputs like GPS to make the co-pilot more aware of the current situation. For checklists, we have built a community-based content management system where we are encouraging the community to share their procedures and experiences to crowd-source the creation of the best content for the large amount of aircraft models available. We also have a partnership with CheckMate for pilots that like their concise checklist content. There is a Free version of the app, and a Pro version with more capabilities. The Pro version can be previewed from within the Free version. Two killer features are the ability to slide a slim version of the checklist on top of your favorite nav app like ForeFlight so you don't lose your map and the voice co-pilot. I would be happy to join in on the conversation if their are specific questions from the community.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you checked in. I have a hard time getting the slim version to work the way you describe (it's probably user error but I can't even figure out how to try).

Also, it seems like the android version does not include "talk to Mira." Is that true? If not, how do I make it work? On my iPhone it works well, but I use Avare on my tablet instead since I can't stand ForeFlight
 
SkyHog said:
I'm glad you checked in. I have a hard time getting the slim version to work the way you describe (it's probably user error but I can't even figure out how to try).

Also, it seems like the android version does not include "talk to Mira." Is that true? If not, how do I make it work? On my iPhone it works well, but I use Avare on my tablet instead since I can't stand ForeFlight
Click to expand...

Apple supports Slide Over support for the last few generation of iPads. The iPhone is not supported because of screen real estate. These are the ones they support:

iPad Air and above
iPad Mini 2 and above

For those devices, all that you do is slide your finger from the right edge and a slide over menu should come up for apps that support it. Then you just select MiraCheck. It will remember the last app the user selected. At the top of the slide over, there is a little bar. If you slide that down it will let you select a different app. to show in the slide over space.

As far as Talk To Mira function, you are correct that function doesn't yet exist on Android. We are still researching it and hope to support it in the near future. The reality is that over 9 of 10 pilots are using Apple devices in the cockpit. With the plethora of Android devices it is a huge undertaking to support, especially from a testing perspective. This comes from real data we have collected over the last five years of usage. Android users also tend to not want to pay anything. It is impossible for us to build out such a Technical Platform (ecosystem) without having some support that can bring in revenue. We are committed to supporting Android for the long haul, but some advanced features may come online later.
 
jeffbonasso said:
Apple supports Slide Over support for the last few generation of iPads. The iPhone is not supported because of screen real estate. These are the ones they support:

iPad Air and above
iPad Mini 2 and above

For those devices, all that you do is slide your finger from the right edge and a slide over menu should come up for apps that support it. Then you just select MiraCheck. It will remember the last app the user selected. At the top of the slide over, there is a little bar. If you slide that down it will let you select a different app. to show in the slide over space.

As far as Talk To Mira function, you are correct that function doesn't yet exist on Android. We are still researching it and hope to support it in the near future. The reality is that over 9 of 10 pilots are using Apple devices in the cockpit. With the plethora of Android devices it is a huge undertaking to support, especially from a testing perspective. This comes from real data we have collected over the last five years of usage. Android users also tend to not want to pay anything. It is impossible for us to build out such a Technical Platform (ecosystem) without having some support that can bring in revenue. We are committed to supporting Android for the long haul, but some advanced features may come online later.
Click to expand...

Got it. I am thinking of getting an iPad soon anyway so it sounds like it will all be moot then since all of these features appear to be more geared toward the iPad.

My Android Tablet is getting a bit dated and I'm trying to figure out what the next device is gonna be. I don't like ForeFlight but I may just need to suck it up and switch.

By the way - as I said in the OP - MiraCheck is one of my favorite apps at the moment. It's very slick. The only last feature I'd recommend is a better login method. It seems like I have to log in every time I start it. I imagine if I forget to do that on the ground I'd not be authenticated to use the pro features in the air.
 
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SkyHog said:
Got it. I am thinking of getting an iPad soon anyway so it sounds like it will all be moot then since all of these features appear to be more geared toward the iPad.

My Android Tablet is getting a bit dated and I'm trying to figure out what the next device is gonna be. I don't like ForeFlight but I may just need to suck it up and switch.

By the way - as I said in the OP - MiraCheck is one of my favorite apps at the moment. It's very slick. The only last feature I'd recommend is a better login method. It seems like I have to log in every time I start it. I imagine if I forget to do that on the ground I'd not be authenticated to use the pro features in the air.
Click to expand...

Great to hear! As far as login, you only have to login if you are syncing new content you edited in MiraCheck Cloud to the device. All content is stored offline. It will know that you are a Pro member offline as well.
 
I think it's a cool new idea. Gonna take a look...
 
Cessna 172. . .one page, laminated. Side pocket. I can't imagine many GA fixed gear, single engine land aircraft that would justify the hassle and commitment required. ROI isn't there to my mind. But each to his own. . .

For clarity:
"Cloud" - using someone else's computers and storage. Been around since the sixties; the name and some of the details change every few years.

"Platform" - computer (physical or virtual), operating system, probably a DB, and junk to serve up the applications. Maybe a further mess of stuff to tangle up the software development with the final product.

"Content management" - apps to create and manage the stuff on a web site.
 
Sundancer said:
Cessna 172. . .one page, laminated. Side pocket. I can't imagine many GA fixed gear, single engine land aircraft that would justify the hassle and commitment required. ROI isn't there to my mind. But each to his own. . .

For clarity:
"Cloud" - using someone else's computers and storage. Been around since the sixties; the name and some of the details change every few years.

"Platform" - computer (physical or virtual), operating system, probably a DB, and junk to serve up the applications. Maybe a further mess of stuff to tangle up the software development with the final product.

"Content management" - apps to create and manage the stuff on a web site.
Click to expand...

ROI - I have had two incidents that were a catalyst for MiraCheck. Just got first airplane, Cessna 182. Had one month. Excited and in a hurry after work to get up before dark. Called fuel truck and while there, got distracted with phone call. As soon as fuel truck left, hopped in plane and started up. All good. Do break check and !#$BAM%$ Towbar still connected and came up in air and prop strike. Plane down 6 months and $30,000 claim. Told story to tons of pilots, and most have had similar story but better results by either hearing it dragging or tower saying "hey you have a towbar hanging from your plane!" Second incident...picked up from oil change. Seasoned mechanic of 30 years. I did not do thorough enough preflight. Took off and oil gushing on pilot side. Getting to the point where could barely see out window. Very experienced pilot in right seat and no oil on that side. He did emergency landing back at airport. Two human errors...mechanic "first time in career" forgot oil cap, and me not double-checking.

Emergencies - having any emergency read to you in headset in a matter of seconds so you can focus on looking outside and flying the airplane.

Single Pilot IFR - it is not hard sometimes to get behind the airplane.

High-performance and complex airplanes - again, not hard sometimes to get behind the airplane.

MiraCheck also allows the community to customize and share procedures publicly so other pilots like student pilots can benefit from the experiences of others. Many pilots like to create their own workflow. There is the ability to get a very good print of the customized content for backup or primary purposes.

MiraCheck Platform - there has not been something like AWS since the 60's unless maybe you had millions to hand over to IBM (my former employer). No DB in sight. They aren't fun to scale to the world.
 
jeffbonasso said:
ROI - I have had two incidents that were a catalyst for MiraCheck. Just got first airplane, Cessna 182. Had one month. Excited and in a hurry after work to get up before dark. Called fuel truck and while there, got distracted with phone call. As soon as fuel truck left, hopped in plane and started up. All good. Do break check and !#$BAM%$ Towbar still connected and came up in air and prop strike. Plane down 6 months and $30,000 claim. Told story to tons of pilots, and most have had similar story but better results by either hearing it dragging or tower saying "hey you have a towbar hanging from your plane!" Second incident...picked up from oil change. Seasoned mechanic of 30 years. I did not do thorough enough preflight. Took off and oil gushing on pilot side. Getting to the point where could barely see out window. Very experienced pilot in right seat and no oil on that side. He did emergency landing back at airport. Two human errors...mechanic "first time in career" forgot oil cap, and me not double-checking.

Emergencies - having any emergency read to you in headset in a matter of seconds so you can focus on looking outside and flying the airplane.

Single Pilot IFR - it is not hard sometimes to get behind the airplane.

High-performance and complex airplanes - again, not hard sometimes to get behind the airplane.

MiraCheck also allows the community to customize and share procedures publicly so other pilots like student pilots can benefit from the experiences of others. Many pilots like to create their own workflow. There is the ability to get a very good print of the customized content for backup or primary purposes.

MiraCheck Platform - there has not been something like AWS since the 60's unless maybe you had millions to hand over to IBM (my former employer). No DB in sight. They aren't fun to scale to the world.
Click to expand...

Gentle but stern comment: Technology may help, but it is not a fix for bad habits.

Towbar: If your hand is not attached to it, it is not attached to the airplane. Period. Full stop. You'll never accidentally leave it on again with that rule. Because it's not possible. Also another rule, if distracted during pre-flight, start completely over.

Emergencies: Certain things MUST be committed to memory and a flow. The rest, just isn't that important. "Jack with getting gadget to read me the checklist" is just time wasted.

On another CFI forum today a couple of CFIs were sharing devious ideas on how to make people really pre-flight. One stashed some coins somewhere the pilot should have seen them but they'd fall off harmlessly if forgotten.

Another likes to use pieces of non-translucent tape. "How many pieces of tape did you find?" Didn't find all the tape? We aren't going flying. Because you didn't really look at everything you are supposed to look at.

Anyone missing towbars and pre-flight items really needs a CFI to mess with you to build better habits. And I'm trying to say that in a nice way. ;)

MiraCheck is not the solution. It may help, but the solution is building a habit because someone else is forcing a standard by peering at you over their glasses.
 
I use mirrahcheck, I check mah mirrah constantly on the drive to the airport. Then once airborne, I check mah mirrah constantly to see whether there's a bogey on my six.

Oh wait, what did you mean? Some useless toy that has no place in the cockpit because we don't need distractions from flying and checklists? My bad!
 
denverpilot said:
Gentle but stern comment: Technology may help, but it is not a fix for bad habits.

Towbar: If your hand is not attached to it, it is not attached to the airplane. Period. Full stop. You'll never accidentally leave it on again with that rule. Because it's not possible. Also another rule, if distracted during pre-flight, start completely over.

Emergencies: Certain things MUST be committed to memory and a flow. The rest, just isn't that important. "Jack with getting gadget to read me the checklist" is just time wasted.

On another CFI forum today a couple of CFIs were sharing devious ideas on how to make people really pre-flight. One stashed some coins somewhere the pilot should have seen them but they'd fall off harmlessly if forgotten.

Another likes to use pieces of non-translucent tape. "How many pieces of tape did you find?" Didn't find all the tape? We aren't going flying. Because you didn't really look at everything you are supposed to look at.

Anyone missing towbars and pre-flight items really needs a CFI to mess with you to build better habits. And I'm trying to say that in a nice way. ;)

MiraCheck is not the solution. It may help, but the solution is building a habit because someone else is forcing a standard by peering at you over their glasses.
Click to expand...

Everyone doesn't have the luxury of the best CFI's. Some people aren't afraid to share human mistakes made. Talk to a few pilots, especially the very experienced ones, and they will all tell you some major mistakes they have made.
 
jeffbonasso said:
Everyone doesn't have the luxury of the best CFI's. Some people aren't afraid to share human mistakes made. Talk to a few pilots, especially the very experienced ones, and they will all tell you some major mistakes they have made.
Click to expand...

I don't mind the mistakes. Heck I've made plenty myself. I worry when someone thinks a gadget will fix them.
 
jeffbonasso said:
ROI - I have had two incidents that were a catalyst for MiraCheck. Just got first airplane, Cessna 182. Had one month. Excited and in a hurry after work to get up before dark. Called fuel truck and while there, got distracted with phone call. As soon as fuel truck left, hopped in plane and started up. All good. Do break check and !#$BAM%$ Towbar still connected and came up in air and prop strike. Plane down 6 months and $30,000 claim. Told story to tons of pilots, and most have had similar story but better results by either hearing it dragging or tower saying "hey you have a towbar hanging from your plane!" Second incident...picked up from oil change. Seasoned mechanic of 30 years. I did not do thorough enough preflight. Took off and oil gushing on pilot side. Getting to the point where could barely see out window. Very experienced pilot in right seat and no oil on that side. He did emergency landing back at airport. Two human errors...mechanic "first time in career" forgot oil cap, and me not double-checking.

Emergencies - having any emergency read to you in headset in a matter of seconds so you can focus on looking outside and flying the airplane.

Single Pilot IFR - it is not hard sometimes to get behind the airplane.

High-performance and complex airplanes - again, not hard sometimes to get behind the airplane.

MiraCheck also allows the community to customize and share procedures publicly so other pilots like student pilots can benefit from the experiences of others. Many pilots like to create their own workflow. There is the ability to get a very good print of the customized content for backup or primary purposes.

MiraCheck Platform - there has not been something like AWS since the 60's unless maybe you had millions to hand over to IBM (my former employer). No DB in sight. They aren't fun to scale to the world.
Click to expand...
It's cool if it works for you, electronic display vice a physical checklist, I mean. We all don't gotta think alike, for sure. For me, the simplicity and reliability of a laminated document trumps the up-front investment in time and energy. . .but I can see it being useful/attractive to someone else.

You could definitley get into "off premise" computing for less than millions back in the day, or spin up your own service, as well. I think VM rolled out in the sixties, and variations on that have been around ever since, across a lot of environments, from many vendors. From the big picture view, AWS is the same concept, albeit refined, and supported by gobs better network speeds. But it's still just buying compute cycles and storage, and "renting" mostly back office tools.
 
denverpilot said:
I don't mind the mistakes. Heck I've made plenty myself. I worry when someone thinks a gadget will fix them.
Click to expand...

I don't believe a gadget is the silver bullet, but it can help supplement human mistakes as well as provide real on-demand information that can be useful. We have built a free open-source platform for pilots to share any content as well as a free version of the mobile app that used appropriately can help improve safety and instill a behavior to have a digital co-pilot help you double-check things even when a real co-pilot is not available. The decision can be made in what phases of flight, from preflight to postflight, to use for your workflow. Hey, it may help you not forget your keys... It may not be for everyone, but pilots that are just learning, to pilots who fly many different aircraft, to pilots who fly complex airplanes in complex situations are happy to embrace technology. We just returned from Oshkosh where we had a booth and had some amazing feedback about the mission. There was a trend of a large amount of pilots that could care less about checklists because they have it all figured out, but there was great feedback from other groups that understand the value.
 
Sundancer said:
It's cool if it works for you, electronic display vice a physical checklist, I mean. We all don't gotta think alike, for sure. For me, the simplicity and reliability of a laminated document trumps the up-front investment in time and energy. . .but I can see it being useful/attractive to someone else.

You could definitley get into "off premise" computing for less than millions back in the day, or spin up your own service, as well. I think VM rolled out in the sixties, and variations on that have been around ever since, across a lot of environments, from many vendors. From the big picture view, AWS is the same concept, albeit refined, and supported by gobs better network speeds. But it's still just buying compute cycles and storage, and "renting" mostly back office tools.
Click to expand...

The internet did not exist until the 80's. Before that AOL and earlier dial-up bbs which were the beginning of forums like these where people can tear each other down :)

Emojis didn't even exist until late 90's ✈️

Good mobile devices didn't exist until the iPhone and Android, although some people swear by (or at) their palm pilot. To build something to scale internationally with server-side (now serverless to us) and mobile components was just not a reality. I have been developing software since the early 80's and what used to take teams (and millions) has been reduced drastically with services like AWS.
 
denverpilot said:
I don't mind the mistakes. Heck I've made plenty myself. I worry when someone thinks a gadget will fix them.
Click to expand...
Are you against checklists in general then? Because it sounds like you're saying that avoiding mistakes by using a tool (i.e. A paper checklist) is not the right answer

And to that, I disagree. MiraCheck is a checklist. A tool. Just not on paper.
 
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