Don

Don

Well Known Member
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.
 
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.
 
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...
 
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.
 
ifly

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]
 
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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.
 
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Rock solid on the iFly

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.
 
Kyle Boatright said:
- 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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
grubbat said:
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.
Click to expand...

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

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
 
I just finished a 23 hour cross country with my 720 and had no issues with it on this trip and I used it very minute. I didn't buy one sectional and crossed 12 states one way, in my 6A. I too was concerned because I had one issue with it, earlier, that I believe was heat related and I was concerned. The first week of August was not that hot either out east or in the west so I don't know if that was a good test. I like the unit but it can be quirky. Whenever I parked he plane I always took it with me for the streets mode.

Cheers,
Lee
 
I saw something new this morning. If I'm telling it slightly out of sequence, sorry, I wasn't writing the steps down.

I'm out flying and push the bottom left "button" on the touchscreen - the "Menu" button.

What appears isn't what I expect. I get several options and choose the one at the bottom of the list - "Close", IRRC.

It doesn't close, but goes to another unexpected screen. Again, I select the last option on the list "close". The screen goes pitch black.

Here's what had happened:

The touchscreen's alignment had gotten off. So when I pushed the bottom "button", the iFly did whatever function the second from the bottom "Button" was supposed to do - the "Mode" button. And when I tried to back out of the "Mode" menu, the same screen alignment problem took me to the "night time setting" option, and then confirmed that, um, selection. A serious SNAFU.

I couldn't close out of anything, and the system was set to nighttime mode, which means it is a useless brick since, in that mode, you absolutely cannot make out what it says in the daytime.

Fixing the mess required landing, rebooting (it boots in daylight mode), and re-calibrating the touchscreen.

I've made the "night mode" mistake before. That is a design flaw - the "button" is too easy to accidentally hit, an there is no practical way to back out without a reboot.
 
Kyle Boatright said:
Fixing the mess required landing, rebooting (it boots in daylight mode), and re-calibrating the touchscreen.
Click to expand...

If the device is not in a dock or buried in the panel it can be rebooted "on the fly" by just pulling the power cord out of the jack a 1/4" and then plugging it back in.
 
I don't mount my 720. I applied a foam rubber strip on the bottom and one on the very top back side. I lean it on the panel on top of my three verniers and this way can adjust any glare out of the screen. I can easily see it but when I want to view it closer it's easy to pick up and work with it. I tried mounts and in bumpy flying not good compared to being ably to hold it and do your inputs, despite the pumps, as you can brace you hand on the side. The unit stays put in any situation because of the foam rubber stops it from moving around.
 
iFly Fluke

Also bought my iFly-720 in May and experienced a similar problem of failure to turn on after short flight and trying to restart it. Unit was not hot. 2 hours later it works! But after several of these failures, Adventure Pilot replaced the unit back in July paying postage both ways. This unit has not failed since but I am still concerned with reliability as my friend Don reports. Have heard of a few of these failures but suspect it is more wide spread than we have heard. Unit is a windows platform and we both wonder if that is part of the issue. Windows crashes easier than Linux or other machine platforms. Adventure Pilot says the problem was resolved with replacing a bad batch of either the super capacitor or shut down switch some time back (the units are made in Korea). Tech support is good at AP, the features are great on the iFly-720 but reliability is a concern. Will update after a few more months using the unit or sooner if it fails to start or other weird stuff happens. Right now I carry a backup GPS just in case.
 
I commented earlier in another post that I've not had any start up and/or heat related issues.
I did have the problems others have identified where on a return XC, the 720 would not come alive. I could hear a humming, but no start up. I tried it again several hours later with no success.

I also had a terrble experience with tech support and found them to be unreliable. They acted surprised when I told them it would not power up. It appears from the other posts, this is a known issue.

Here's my current experience pasted from that other post.
I've had the 720 for 10 months & it operated without issues.
I like the UI & the touch screen.
I wasn't going to pile on iFly as I thought this might be an isolated incident, but here goes.
2 weeks ago on my return leg from a XC, the 720 would not power up.
I tried both my power plugs and it still would not power it up.
I tested it again at home later thinking that maybe it got hot on the ramp.
Still no power with 12v or the ac adapter.
I called ifly tech support, they said they'd send me an RMA. No RMA sent. They said it was because of a new email server. They told me since it was under warranty, I need to send the unit back & they would send me a new one upon receipt of my unit.
One week later they said they received my unit & would send a new one out that day (Monday). BTW, tracking said they received it Friday.
Wednesday, I left a message for a call back & sent an email looking for a tracking#. No call back or email.
Called Friday morning, tech support was going to get me status & call back. Two hours later, I left voicemail. Still no callback.
One hour later, I contacted tech support again. They had my unit, said they tested it & they said it worked fine but they would send me a new unit anyway. I called back to get a tracking# & they said the unit had already been picked up by USPS.
Do I trust it really went out. I hope so.
 
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