Pocket FMS: Mobile Flight Management System

[Pat Logsdon]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pocketfms.com/1-software.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.pocketfms.com/1-software.htm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"PocketFMS is a constantly developing software Flight Management System package for Windows PC's and PocketPC's, which will assist you with flightplanning and during flight execution. Flightplanning now becomes a breeze: by plotting your route, getting weather information from the Internet, computing your performance and fuel consumption, suggesting alternates and computing your weight &amp; balance PocketFMS does all the tedious work for you. Once connected to a GPS receiver, PocketFMS's Moving Map feature will guide you safely through any flight, be it in Europe, Australia, Asia, the US, wherever. Your present position is clearly displayed on the Moving Map, as well as your track, heading, speed, altitude etc. The Moving Map also displays the location of beacons, airports, restricted areas, frequencies, elevations and, basically, anything you select to be displayed."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/logsdon_20041028_pocketfms.gif" /><br /><br />This looks like a great tool for pilots! There's a PC and Pocket PC component to the package - maps and routes can be set on one or the other, or set on the PC and then transferred to the Pocket PC. You can download meteorogical information, and it can even interface with Microsoft Flight Simulator. Plus, it's free while it's in beta. Any pilots out there? How does this look?

[Jason Dunn]

When the start bar goes to the bottom of the screen, that means it's an app that was compiled to work on a Palm-size PC...we're talking 1999 here folks. 8O Time for the developer to get up to date...

[Jonathon Watkins]

Time for the developer to get up to date...

Lets hope he does. This looks rather good. I know few private pilots may go for something like this.

[AndyEich]

This looks ok, but Control Vision's AnywhereMap appears to be way out in front in the PPC Aviation category.

www.anywheremap.com

Some of the other big guys I know of are Teletype and MountainScope. Nice to give little guys some press, but I think those familiar with the market are watching other players...

[Darius Wey]

This looks ok, but Control Vision's AnywhereMap appears to be way out in front in the PPC Aviation category.

www.anywheremap.com

Some of the other big guys I know of are Teletype and MountainScope. Nice to give little guys some press, but I think those familiar with the market are watching other players...

That package looks very impressive, especially on the hx4700. The only catch-point? The price. (http://www.anywheremap.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=7) ;)

[Birdiestyle]

Anywhere Map looks good.. But is appears to be just a Moving Map type system and not for Actual "flight planning" too like this. I would think Flitesoft (Express) would be one of the leaders, being that they've been around the longest and had a quality product from the get go. http://www.rmstek.com

I pushed hard to do a Pocket PC version of one of the other top 3 Flight Planning/Moving Map systems, Destination Direct(both as the lead developer on it, and in a consulting role later), but couldn't quite convince the right people that this platform is perfect for pilots! Their Loss! It would still be cool!!http://www.flightplan.com

Poking around in my old market I now see a new competitor has emerged, Voyager, that looks pretty cool too. Not sold completely on the idea of a VB .net application being the absolute best way to go, and can't see that it will port to Pocket PC as well as they seem to suggest, like it's traditional C++ competitors, but... They are giving away FREE a pretty cool "Flight Calculator" for the Pocket PC that is based off some of their stuff. They're Doing some pretty cool "connected" stuff, though most of it is stuff that the other 3 have been able to do for years, or stuff that the others offer without needing the connection(like in an airplane). I'd love to see how complex(and fast) they got their planning engine in 18 months of development.... Check them and their free PPC FlightCalc here...
http://www.seattleavionics.com/

Brian
Birdsoft.net

[wjsteele]

I've used it for several flights... the only problem I have with it is that it has one poor UI. Each screen is a Windows Form, that appears to never be in the right place. It is definetly in need of a good UI designer. However, the functionallity is perfect... everything that I need is in there. You even have the ability to download weather, Sectionals, etc. Which is great, especially for a free package.

It even has a moving map display, so you can quite clearly, see the boundaries of different airspace as well as obstacles.

There is also a desktop/laptop version.

Bill