I am very happy how the new iFly 720 keeps track of update data on each machine so we don't have to remember whether we updated certain data or not. That being said the following paragraph has nothing to do with Adventure Pilot and pertains to the FAA:
Sitting watching my 720 run through it's airport diagram and approach plate update, I am perplexed. I know back in the good old days (2010) and even now when the FAA publishes it's approach plates and diagrams they keep the same procedure as they use when publishing a bound printed volume. However, with the new digital format (and new cost structure they propose) should the FAA start to provide "progressive" updates? By "progressive" updates I am talking about only updating and adding/removing those items that have "actually" changed. If an approach plate has stayed the same for years and is still the same during the current update period why not just leave the old data in place rather than overwriting it in a "shotgun" scheme of complete new data? Think of the time and cost savings when you take the number of users having to download and install complete total updates and burn the bandwidth required when the majority of data has not changed. Surley we are smarter than this in America today. I, like many rural amercans, do not have cable or DSL broadband so am more aware of the wasted time and expense of the totality approach left over from the good old days.
I know we're working with the gubmint' here but somebody needs to break the printed paper paradyme when it comes to our digital data updates.
As an aside, does anybody know what the countdown timer is in the bottom right corner of the 720 as it runds updates through it's wifi feature? It seems to fluctuate up and down between about 4 minutes and 2 minutes throughout the process.