Review of the Eflybook by MyAirplane.com and ARINC
For those of you who don’t care to read the the rest of this review I will sum it up for you,
The Eflybook is a great idea, but falls short of expectations.
I honestly can not understand why ARINC decided to put their name behind this. It is a poorly written software package, based on a first generation hardware platform. The Iliad is a fantastic concept, and I love reading books on it. I consider it a must have for an avid reader that wants to have his/her collection of books available anywhere. However, the Eflybook carries a 2x premium over buying direct from IREX, and I just don’t see how the Eflybook software is worth it.
Hits:
- Stores all the plates, and certainly does it in far less space.
- Updates via the Internet (see misses)
- Open Source operating system on the device (Linux and BusyBox).
- Will open any PDF file, works great for trip packs from online flight planners. Honestly, I think is the most useful thing it has to offer. Buy the Iliad directly from IREX, and forget the Eflybook if you are already downloading from online planners.
- The IREX IDS service shows promise, and could be used for updates to the charts should MyAirplane.com choose to do this.
Misses:
- My first time using it, it crashed during an approach (under the hood, not IMC thankfully!)
- The box has wireless, but the updates need to be written onto a SD card from a computer.
- AFD “coming soon” for a year.
- Must use the Wacom stylus to enter airport identifier into the tablet. Easy on the ground, but not so easy to do in the clag.
- Enroute chart viewer is worthless, I can’t picture any time this would be usable, in the air, or on the ground.
- Screen is not quite large enough to view the as-is NACO plates, need an easy way to rescale, or possibly present the information differently.
- No update to reader software on the tablet for quite some time, with numerous complaints on the forums about promised features never delivered.
- No easy way to flip between STARS and Approaches.
- E-Paper is hard to read in the dark, could use a built in LED to illuminate it.
- The Iliad downloads firmware updates automatically, but updates to the Iliad firmware are delayed for Eflybook users.
Overall: I would not recommend buying the Eflybook until the Eflybook Reader application is improved, MyAirplane.Com delivers on the features it has been promised, and the application has more of its bugs worked out.
Links:
- Mobileread IREX Forum (Great Discussions on the HW and SW)
- IREX Technolgies (They make the hardware)