Kelly wrote:

Has anyone used the software from Approach Systems? I had not run
across this before Dave mentioned it, but it looks pretty good and has
an option for free 30-day trial. I was particularly intrigued by the
attitude indicator page and wonder how well that works. With a Pocket
PC, the Approach Systems software would seem to be similar in many
respects (but cheaper) to the Anywhere Map software.

Kelly


Kelly,
Unfortunately I have not tried any of the three that I have suggested.
I never heard about approach systems until I bought my bonanza. The
guy I bought it from is one of the owners. The panel shot in the
brochure is my airplane. I think he was more of an investor and test
pilot of the product than a designer/programmer.

One other pricing issue - database updates. According to the flight
cheetah website Garmin costs about $1000/year vs. $200/year. That's a
significant cost. I'd like to go with a software solution and use an
ultra-mobile PC, UMPC, like the samsung q1. I can use the UMPC for
work which makes buying the package more valuable. Dropping $2500 for
a 496 which admittedly is a very good product doesn't make sense if I
can spend the same or less on a software solution and a UMPC that I will
use for several hours/week for other things. If I did go with a
hardware solution I'd pick the flight cheetah 190 over the garmins.

Dave
M35