AcroGimp
Cleared for Takeoff
Well, I have written before about my use of a 3 yr old Acer Iconia A500 10.1" Android tablet as my EFB platform. I have been and remain very satisfied with this setup. A few months ago I installed a custom Android 4.3 ROM from Cyanogenmod, turned the processor up to 11 (1.5 GHz), deleted a bunch of bloatware, and really liked how it ran Avilution Aviation Maps, and Garmin Pilot.
However, as I got serious about looking at a Cassutt IIIM I realized that the 10.1” form factor was simply too big, a fact I recently verified flying a fellow EAA members’ Glasair I FT.
Acer Iconia A500 10.1" Tablet vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
I recently purchased my wife a new Verizon Ellipsis 7” tablet to replace her aging Samsung Galaxy Tab. I inherited the old 7” Galaxy and tuned it up similarly to my Acer, and while it wouldn’t run GP (single core processor), it ran Aviation Maps, Naviator and Avare quite well with the processor turned up to 1.4 GHz. Well that is it ran quite well until it died of unspecified but probably natural causes on Friday.
Enter the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 WiFi. I considered several leading small-form Android tablets (Nexus 7, Galaxy Tab 3 7 and Galaxy Tab 3 8), but after going through reviews and capabilities I picked up Note 8.0 at Best Buy, $413 all in with a very nice thin case. I selected the Note 8.0 to maintain the small knee-board sized form factor, and the Note due to some very specific capabilities I enjoy on my Samsung Note 3 phone such as true multi-window for select applications (run and display two apps simultaneously), and the excellent S-Pen which works with a marvelous digitizer element in the screen to allow for written note-taking, sketching, etc.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and Aviation Wings 9G Kneeboard
I haven’t flown it yet in the sim or real world, but I have transferred one of my GP subscription allowances to it, and GP runs beautifully on it. It has a WXGA 1200x800 screen with a relatively high pixel-per-inch count (189 ppi) resulting in a gorgeous high quality display. It has a 1.6 GHz Quad Core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal SD Card, and a 32GB external SD Card for tons of storage space.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 mounted on 9G Kneeboard
It fits nicely and securely on my aerobatic kneeboard (although I would not fly acro with the tablet out). For use in flight, I will need to connect to a GDL-39 ADS-B receiver for weather and traffic info (I haven’t bought one of these yet, ~$700), or tether it to my Note 3 phone for data connection to get weather data only – this is the same situation as previous setups for me.
The built-in GPS chipset locks on quickly and typically holds 11-14 satellites constantly, very good GPS performance.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 on 9G Kneeboard as it will be in flight
I’ll post up a PIREP once I have a chance to fly it, but I am really impressed with the overall performance so far.
'Gimp
However, as I got serious about looking at a Cassutt IIIM I realized that the 10.1” form factor was simply too big, a fact I recently verified flying a fellow EAA members’ Glasair I FT.
Acer Iconia A500 10.1" Tablet vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
I recently purchased my wife a new Verizon Ellipsis 7” tablet to replace her aging Samsung Galaxy Tab. I inherited the old 7” Galaxy and tuned it up similarly to my Acer, and while it wouldn’t run GP (single core processor), it ran Aviation Maps, Naviator and Avare quite well with the processor turned up to 1.4 GHz. Well that is it ran quite well until it died of unspecified but probably natural causes on Friday.
Enter the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 WiFi. I considered several leading small-form Android tablets (Nexus 7, Galaxy Tab 3 7 and Galaxy Tab 3 8), but after going through reviews and capabilities I picked up Note 8.0 at Best Buy, $413 all in with a very nice thin case. I selected the Note 8.0 to maintain the small knee-board sized form factor, and the Note due to some very specific capabilities I enjoy on my Samsung Note 3 phone such as true multi-window for select applications (run and display two apps simultaneously), and the excellent S-Pen which works with a marvelous digitizer element in the screen to allow for written note-taking, sketching, etc.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and Aviation Wings 9G Kneeboard
I haven’t flown it yet in the sim or real world, but I have transferred one of my GP subscription allowances to it, and GP runs beautifully on it. It has a WXGA 1200x800 screen with a relatively high pixel-per-inch count (189 ppi) resulting in a gorgeous high quality display. It has a 1.6 GHz Quad Core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB internal SD Card, and a 32GB external SD Card for tons of storage space.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 mounted on 9G Kneeboard
It fits nicely and securely on my aerobatic kneeboard (although I would not fly acro with the tablet out). For use in flight, I will need to connect to a GDL-39 ADS-B receiver for weather and traffic info (I haven’t bought one of these yet, ~$700), or tether it to my Note 3 phone for data connection to get weather data only – this is the same situation as previous setups for me.
The built-in GPS chipset locks on quickly and typically holds 11-14 satellites constantly, very good GPS performance.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 on 9G Kneeboard as it will be in flight
I’ll post up a PIREP once I have a chance to fly it, but I am really impressed with the overall performance so far.
'Gimp
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