Clip4
Touchdown! Greaser!
WingX ended free service to CFIs June 1, 2024.
WingX CFI Free No More
- Thread starter Clip4
- Start date
Yep. I'm guessing the beginning of the end for a once-great app that has not had an update in years. Probably just concentrating on the AeroApp DoD version at this point.
Clip4
Touchdown! Greaser!
You may be correct, but when you give the VFR product for free to anyone and the IFR product to CFIs and military for free, there not much revenue to develop new software.
I have used WingX for more than a decade and will probably stay with the product because it does everything I need.
I have used WingX for more than a decade and will probably stay with the product because it does everything I need.
I think it’s one of those chicken-egg situations. WingX and ForeFlight ran neck and neck for several years, leapfrogging each other with new features. I made my choice over 13 years ago when they were the only two EFBs, but my impression was that their shares of the then tiny market were pretty much equal. We can only speculate why it happened but at some point FF took the market share lead and never looked back.
I agree with you on VFR free, but I saw that as a sign of giving up. And I don’t recall a significant upgrade since (incorporating ADS-B was a necessity). CFI free and CFI discounts are typically efforts to put the app in the hands of CFIs who generally have influence over their student choices. Removing it suggests the strategy hasn’t worked for them.
brcase
En-Route
Probably means I will start using Foreflight, as that is what I recommend for students that are planning on flying professionally as it is the one employers are most likely to provide IMO.
I thought they might get a pretty good in, in the Android market for Recreational pilots, but their Android version never really caught up to the IOS version.
Brian
I thought they might get a pretty good in, in the Android market for Recreational pilots, but their Android version never really caught up to the IOS version.
Brian
Clip4
Touchdown! Greaser!
The difference is primarily the marketing both companies did and FF paying a royalty to Gamin. FF is $240 for geo approach charts vs $75 for WingX. There is not 320% additional value in Foreflight.
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That’s a matter of personal preference.
I saw a post that said Avare had everything they needed for VFR an IFR. I replied the chances are they never tried anything else.
A friend is an Apple hater. Happily used DroidEFB for years. Then he helped a friend bring a newly purchased airplane back east from the west coast. The aircraft owner used ForeFlight. My friend bought an iPad and subscribed to FF a week later.
Just IMHO from having used just about every EFB in the US market: Marketing is definitely at work but I think there was more to the early growth of ForeFlight relative to WingX than marketing. The two apps approached the subject in different ways and one just was felt to be more personally “intuitive” by more people.
According to the Apple store, WingX has been updated to new version numbers 5 times since 2020. If you meant MAJOR updates, then having to rewrite the entire app to keep up with ipad and iphone operating system changes, then IIRC that was around 2014 or so and there were some growing pains then. However to set the record straight, they have been updating the app roughly once per year for the past 5 years (once in '20, twice in '21, once in '22, and once this past May of '24.
I’m talking about significant optional upgrades, not updates required to keep the app functional. Personally , I even consider the addition of ADS-B support to be purely functional. So, since you’ve looked into it, what were those updates since ‘20?
RussR
En-Route
It seems to me, from looking at the version history, that WingX was basically abandoned in March of 2021. Prior to that, updates were released every few months or so. Since then, there have only been two updates, both of which simply say "Improved app stability and performance."
Compare that to Foreflight and Garmin Pilot, which both release updates about every other WEEK. FF has 23 updates this year so far. Many are big fixes, yes, but many are also added features and improvements.
I don't disagree with your conclusion. There were 2 updates in 2018, 4 in 2019, and 8 in 2020. My only quibble, above, was the comment about the app having NO updates in years. Not true, but also not indicative of new innovation. However, the app works smoothly, the charts update on time, fuel prices are up to date, weather works both from hte internet at home and from ADS-B, and every time I boot it i see my plane on the geo-referenced charts and plates, in split screen if so desired! So, until all that stops working and being supported (albeit minimally), new of the app's demise is (IMHO) a little premature. By the way, the version history is very easy to locate on the App Store page for WingX, so I not going to type in or cut and paste 18 version updates since 2018 here.
Clip4
Touchdown! Greaser!
What significant upgrades would you like? I have used the App for years and the only suggestion I have forwarded was pencil to write on the sectional and low en route charts. I would also delete some features like attitude indicator, synthetic vision, and HUD
If it does everything you need its enough.