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  #1  
Old 04-12-2014, 09:18 PM
MNellis MNellis is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Georgtown, TX
Posts: 90
Default Flight Navigation for PC Based Notepad?

I know many people use products like ForeFlight and Iflight but I have not seen anything similar that will work on PC (Windows 8) based notepads.

We have a Microsoft Surface Pro that we would like to use but was wondering if anyone knows of a quality in-flight navigation similar to the above mentioned products that they like.
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  #2  
Old 04-12-2014, 09:56 PM
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Greenley Greenley is offline
 
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Check out aviationsafety.com. I have used there software for a number of years on a winXP tablet, just upgraded to a win8.1 tablet and it works well with that also.
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  #3  
Old 04-13-2014, 05:04 AM
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Capflyer Capflyer is offline
 
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I second Aviationsafety.com. I had their Cheetah for a couple years and their software package is very good with features the Android and iOS apps don't have. But.... It is also more than twice the cost of the android and iOS apps. They also like to sell their own hardware so wondering if you can get just their software.
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  #4  
Old 04-13-2014, 06:42 AM
jnmeade jnmeade is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Iowa
Posts: 161
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From an email to me:
"Yes, TrueMap will run on the surface Pro. If you have any questions don't hesitate
to call me at 303-819-5303.
Thank you very much
Robert Kalberer
True Flight"
I have not personally tried it.
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  #5  
Old 04-13-2014, 11:34 AM
Steve Steve is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Roy, Utah
Posts: 1,141
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The MS Surface does not have GPS circuitry therefore no aviation navigation apps exist.
That was a big swing-and-a-miss by MS in my view. So I went with the Nexus 7 and Garmin Pilot. Then I installed the free app Kingsoft Office so I can work on my MS Office documents if ever the need arises.
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  #6  
Old 04-13-2014, 11:44 AM
CATPart CATPart is offline
 
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Location: up up and away
Posts: 312
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Have you tried an Android Emulator? I have not personally tried one but I know they exist and allow you to run android apps on a pc.
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  #7  
Old 04-13-2014, 12:26 PM
MNellis MNellis is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Georgtown, TX
Posts: 90
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve View Post
The MS Surface does not have GPS circuitry therefore no aviation navigation apps exist.
That was a big swing-and-a-miss by MS in my view. So I went with the Nexus 7 and Garmin Pilot. Then I installed the free app Kingsoft Office so I can work on my MS Office documents if ever the need arises.
Thanks to everyone who replied and I will take a look at all the recommendations.

I agree, The Surface Pro, given it's price, sure missed the boat with the built in GPS. I don't have a problem connecting an external GPS antenna if I can find program or APP to do the trick.
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  #8  
Old 04-14-2014, 05:23 PM
flyvans.com flyvans.com is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Posts: 466
Default surface

the surface2 and surface2 pro have one usb3 port each, the surface pro / surface RT one regular usb port. both generations also support bluetooth.
those are well suited for serial i/o.

an extenal gps "bug" or "mouse" is imho a better choice for flying than most tablet internal gps chips, although the internal ones have improved greatly in the last few years.

as to software, just take note that for this kind of application only the "pro" surfaces will work as they allow custom software and drivers to be installed / intel platform being backwards compatible. windows RT will only run apps from the store ecosystem and which were built for windows 8 with code both for arm as well as x86 processor technology.
that is not to discount the RT surface tablets, which can be a great value, especially with office included. just not for flying/navigation.

check out "EasyVFR" from www.pocketfms.com
also works in north america and pretty much all the important aviation markets. as a plus, you can export the map data also to be used for the mapping in advanced flight systems, dynon and mgl efis's.
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  #9  
Old 04-14-2014, 05:37 PM
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FORANE FORANE is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: East TN
Posts: 564
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If the surface has bluetooth you can use an external GPS easily.

Anywhere map has a full function Windows option. They have not been developing or evolving the program lately with features such as ads-b but map updates are still supported.
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