hiroProtagonist
01-27-2003, 09:09 AM
I don't know if anyone here is a pilot, but for those that are I thought I'd review the eFAR and eAIM available from MyPilotStore (http://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/sep/1925). I just got these eBooks today, and I'm fairly impressed (not the least because they replace a three pound brick of paper with my e740) 8) .
For those who don't know, FAR stands for Federal Aviation Regulations and AIM, for Aeronautical Information Manual. Also, FYI, I have absolutely no conection to these companies... :wink:
Ok, now then......
The eFAR and eAIM aren't actually "software", just eBooks for the Mobipocket reader. (http://www.mobipocket.com/en/HomePage/default.asp)
As such, the best description of their functionality would be found in reading a review of the Mobipocket reader since I only have about an hours experience on this software so far. The basic reader is free and allows reading, bookmarks, index, etc. and is a demo of the "pro" version for the first 14 days. For $19.95, you can register and keep the advanced features such as highlighting, annotation, screen rotation...(see the website for more info) I'm probably gonna have to cough up the money, 'cause highlighting is almost mandatory in the FAR. :?
Now to the content...
The package includes parts 1, 25, 43, 61, 63, 65, 67, 71, 73, 91, 97, 103, 105, 119, 121, 135, 137, 141, 142, and NTSB part 830 and the AIM. For comparison, this is everything in the ASA FAR/AIM plus pt. 121 (woo-hoo! 8O ) I would add pt. 133 to my wish list, but oh well... These parts are divided up into four different instalations some of which contain more parts, some less. They range in size from 226kb to 2460 kb and the AIM is 1770kb (but it needs to be bigger, see below).
My one gripe so far...
While the text is right on, the graphics are WAY over-compressed. This doesn't matter much in the FAR, which has very few graphics on the whole, but it hurts the AIM which generally has a lot of informative graphics and charts. Unfortunately, these are basically thumbnails in this implimentation and although the mobireader can blow up the pictures, all you get is pixel mishmash not a usable picture. I assume that this choice was made to minimize size (i think that this product was originally developed a couple of years ago and for the palm, and I hear that they didn't have much ram back then :wink: ) however, I would like to see them offer a graphics rich version in the future. After all, times have changed and we're watchin' movies on our PPCs now!
Still this is the best (only) PPC version of this information I have found and on the whole I think it's well worth the $14.95 (less than paper), for convience and searchability alone.
p.s. You can buy these at handango if you need to use some of those credits you've been gettin' there :)
p.p.s If anyone here has experience with other aviation related software (especially GPS stuff like NavGPS, MountainScope, etc...) for their Pocket PC, I'd love to hear about it either in a PM, or preferably as a post.
Happy flying...Josh Emmons
For those who don't know, FAR stands for Federal Aviation Regulations and AIM, for Aeronautical Information Manual. Also, FYI, I have absolutely no conection to these companies... :wink:
Ok, now then......
The eFAR and eAIM aren't actually "software", just eBooks for the Mobipocket reader. (http://www.mobipocket.com/en/HomePage/default.asp)
As such, the best description of their functionality would be found in reading a review of the Mobipocket reader since I only have about an hours experience on this software so far. The basic reader is free and allows reading, bookmarks, index, etc. and is a demo of the "pro" version for the first 14 days. For $19.95, you can register and keep the advanced features such as highlighting, annotation, screen rotation...(see the website for more info) I'm probably gonna have to cough up the money, 'cause highlighting is almost mandatory in the FAR. :?
Now to the content...
The package includes parts 1, 25, 43, 61, 63, 65, 67, 71, 73, 91, 97, 103, 105, 119, 121, 135, 137, 141, 142, and NTSB part 830 and the AIM. For comparison, this is everything in the ASA FAR/AIM plus pt. 121 (woo-hoo! 8O ) I would add pt. 133 to my wish list, but oh well... These parts are divided up into four different instalations some of which contain more parts, some less. They range in size from 226kb to 2460 kb and the AIM is 1770kb (but it needs to be bigger, see below).
My one gripe so far...
While the text is right on, the graphics are WAY over-compressed. This doesn't matter much in the FAR, which has very few graphics on the whole, but it hurts the AIM which generally has a lot of informative graphics and charts. Unfortunately, these are basically thumbnails in this implimentation and although the mobireader can blow up the pictures, all you get is pixel mishmash not a usable picture. I assume that this choice was made to minimize size (i think that this product was originally developed a couple of years ago and for the palm, and I hear that they didn't have much ram back then :wink: ) however, I would like to see them offer a graphics rich version in the future. After all, times have changed and we're watchin' movies on our PPCs now!
Still this is the best (only) PPC version of this information I have found and on the whole I think it's well worth the $14.95 (less than paper), for convience and searchability alone.
p.s. You can buy these at handango if you need to use some of those credits you've been gettin' there :)
p.p.s If anyone here has experience with other aviation related software (especially GPS stuff like NavGPS, MountainScope, etc...) for their Pocket PC, I'd love to hear about it either in a PM, or preferably as a post.
Happy flying...Josh Emmons