iFly GPS Forum

Another opinion on enabling WAAS.

I originally bought a 720 several months ago for use in my soon to be completed homebuilt. It couples with my Dynon D10A beautifully. I also instruct part time and have been using it while I teach. Being able to map a past flight has been really useful during the post flight briefing. I use it with the battery pack and the external antenna. I recently bought a Nexus 7 for primarily non-aviation use. But since I have it I have been trying the various aviation applications. The internal GPS antenna in the Nexus will not work when it is on my knee board. But neither did the iFly, hence the external antenna. So I purchased a bluetooth GPS to use with it. This GPS is WAAS enabled. The difference is not really noticeable with respect to horizontal position but really makes a difference with altitude. The altitude supplied by the WAAS enabled GPS stays within 10-15 feet of the barometric altitude vs about 50-75 feet for the iFly. I feel that this difference is really important. For a couple of reasons: Use as a cross check and backup altitude to catch altimeter problems (or an improperly set altimeter) and for integration with the terrain avoidance feature of the iFly.

From a marketing point of view, the iFly is competing with some really inexpensive systems. For example, a Nexus 7 costs $199.00 with the GPS and additional $49.00. The Garmin Pilot android app (one that I am trying) is $49.00 for a year (not including geo-referenced approach plates). There are MANY features of the iFly that I prefer over the Garmin app and a few on the Garmin app I would like to see on the iFly but it is a cheap alternative and for me it is a backup to the iFly.

I say go with WAAS for the iFly if it can be done.

Thanks for pointing this out to me. That's what I get for reading the forum while not signed in!

Henry