IFly Fluke?

[Don]

I bought an iFly720 back in late June after doing what I thought was due diligence - checking reviews here and on other boards. It gave me the option of using an affordable (SkyRadar D2) ADSB for onboard weather. I really liked the iFly with a few minor exceptions. If felt lightweight compared to other aviation GPS's and the resistive touch screen was clunky compared to my iPhone and iPad (capacitive touch screens). All-in-all the device had a lot of nice features and it was the perfect size.

It worked as advertised up to Stanley BC and back. Then one Saturday I started off on local a poker run and was proudly showing off my iFly and ADSB to a fellow pilot friend and everything worked fine until I started up after the first stop. I got a blank screen. I figure it must have overheated sitting in the sun. The unit didn't feel hot but it was sitting in the sun. I stuffed in a pocket during lunch and voila', the unit came to life after the second stop. It worked fine on a couple of subsequent flights but I never really trusted the unit.

A call to iFly and a few days later they agreed to swap the unit for a new one. I picked it up at Oshkosh and then took my RV down for it's conditional inspection and just started flying it again last week. The new unit worked well until this past Saturday. I left Beaufort, NC and took a friend to Carthage, NC for some BBQ. Well, no good dead goes unpunished. The FBO at Beaufort (Smith Field) charged me $10 to pick up my friend - I guess RVs are tough on their apron and then when I was leaving Carthage the iFly would boot up to a half black, half white screen and then shut off. Repeated attempts to reboot the machine over the next 2 hours resulted in the same thing.

Come Monday I'm planning to leave Ocracoke, Island for home and the iFly booted up just fine.

Now I've never had any issue with my Garmin Aera 510 or my iPad using ship's power. I've got a VM1000C engine monitor and voltage appears normal. So I'm pretty sure the problem is with the iFly. As it turns out, the pilot that flew with me on that poker run knows another pilot who had the same problems with the iFly.

Adventure Pilot has been good about replacing the unit and I'm guessing they'll do it again. They have explained what they think the issue is (a capacitor that's not discharging fully) but my issue is I'm really reluctant to trust the iFly unit. I love the display and how it shades airspaces. It makes avoiding TFR, the DC SFRA, and restricted areas (which abound here) easy to do. It's an intuitive device to use and it fits my needs.

Am I just having a string of bad luck here or are there others who are experiencing these refusals to boot up between legs of a flight? There has been some discussion on the iFly board about this but I'm guessing I'll get a more balanced response here. If the problems are common, I think I'll move to something else.

[John RV8]

I'm not sure my experience is much of a data point, I've only used my
iFly720 on a couple dozen flights. But so far I've had no issues with it.

[Kyle Boatright]

I haven't had that problem, but I've had others. The support staff at iFly has been helpful (and sent me a replacement SIM card, followed by a replacement unit), but some problems persist.

Since I bought mine last Christmas, I've had the following problems on an intermittent basis.

- Sometimes the unit refuses to get a satellite lock. That is despite the external antenna. The most recent instance was last Saturday. I rebooted it twice and it locked on and worked perfectly after the second reboot. This was after flying around for 20 minutes waiting for a GPS lock.

-The unit has locked up on me without giving any indication. I'm flying merrily along looking at a screen that tells me I'm on course, but my eyeballs say something different. A 30 degree heading change and no response from the GPS. Hmm, locked up. I'd hate to be near busy airspace when that happened. Fortunately (ahem), I'm based right by Atlanta/Hartsfield. Nothing to worry about there.

-Some odd in-flight uncommanded reboots.

-The occasional refusal to talk with my autopilot.

I'm pretty frustrated given that I reworked my panel to accommodate the thing...

[roadrunner20]

I used the iFy720 on a trip from Florida(KBKV) to Albuquerque(KAEG) in August.
My fuel stop was in Gainesville, TX (KGLE) where the ramp temp was 104 degrees. I left my RV7 on the ramp as we went to lunch.

On departure, my Dynon 10A went into safe mode for about 10 minutes but the iFly720 was operating without any issues.

On the return leg to Florida, the temp was 98 degrees and I did not experience any shutdown or safe mode issues on the iFly720.

[Christeneagle]

I sell lots of used pilot stuff including tons of Garmin GPS's. I have sold many Garmins to people who bought the ifly and say [ed. Removed some text that rubbed me the wrong way. dr] In my airplanes I fly with a ipad mini and a Garmin 696. I love the ipad and wing x but am not 100% trusting it as a only source. It does drop gps sometimes but comes right back. The Garmin 696 is ROCK SOLID!
[ed. Removed some text that rubbed me the wrong way. dr] I think Garmin is top notch and will always have one in my airplane.
I think the 196,296,396,495,496,695 and 696 are top notch. The aera 500 series is a $89.00 auto gps with aviation maps. Not sure about the 796 yet? The looks of it remind me of Chinese junk.... Just my opinion.
[ed. Removed some text that rubbed me the wrong way. dr]

[Sam Buchanan]

I bought a used iFly 700 about 18 months ago--it is the only GPS in my RV-6 and it also feeds data to the Dynon D10 and Trio Pro Pilot.

There have been a few random reboots which quickly recover on their own but overall the device has been reliable and the interface is easy to use. There was one occasion when it had difficulty getting a GPS lock but a hard reset forced it to download a fresh almanac from the satellites and it has locked just fine ever since. I've never seen any issues with the NMEA stream.

Is the iFly perfect? Is any Windows-based device perfect? No, but I consider the iFly to be a good primary choice for the VFR flyer or a secondary device for IFR. I like the iFly and have found it well supported by the seller and updates are extremely easy and reasonably priced. I definitely would not consider it "junk". My hangar partner liked my iFly so much he purchased a 720 and has been pleased with it.

[RONSIM]

Had the 700 and now the 720 in the -8A, -10, and now, -6A -- no real issues -- as someone noted, an occasional re-boot, but even that is rare.

[60av8tor]

Originally Posted by Kyle Boatright

- Sometimes the unit refuses to get a satellite lock. That is despite the external antenna. The most recent instance was last Saturday. I rebooted it twice and it locked on and worked perfectly after the second reboot. This was after flying around for 20 minutes waiting for a GPS lock.

I have had random fits with this same thing. I would go from full green bars/WAAS lock to nothing - no amount of waiting would bring back the signal. At first I thought it was an external antenna issue, but after trouble shooting, realized it was not. The only way for me to regain signal was to go into the GPS setup and do a hot reboot - would regain all satellites almost immediately; very odd...

It sounds odd, but part of me thought it was a software issue, as when this would happen, the system would slow down - i.e. screen taps/menu selections would be delayed in response compared to normal operation.
I also had some issues with connecting to my iLevel ADSB via bluetooth. I have never had random reboots.

Just recently Ed, from tech support, realized that I didn't have the latest OS version and talked me through updating it. The updated OS definitely fixed my ADSB issue. The verdict is still out on the GPS lock issue as it happens very infrequently, so I need a good 30-40 flight hours to see if the issue returns.

Overall, I like having the iFly in my panel, but I will say that it is a bit buggy. With Skyview having chart view in the next update, my use of the iFly will be extremely limited.

[Kyle Boatright]

Originally Posted by grubbat

I too upgraded my panel to accommodate the AirGizmo IFly mount. I have thought about replacing the IFly panel mount with GRT or another mfg but no other company offers the sectional map near IFly's annual subscription rate.

How about an iPad mini and WingX? I love mine. The only downside is it won't drive an autopilot.

[Don]

I spoke to Dave at iFly. He was very accommodating and offered to replace the unit again. Until I can believe it will fix a problem, I'm not sure I'm going there. His suggestion was I have dirty power. We talked about the plane and any basis he'd have for making the suggestion...and I'd say it was a long-shot guess, at best. Anyway, he said the power cord could cause this sort of problem and he's shipping a new one. We'll see.

My plan is to fly with the unit (only as a backup) for a while and see if it fails to boot again. If there's another failure, I'll swap it or return it for a refund.

I'm thinking maybe there's a silver lining here after all...but that's another story.

Don