A aviation & planes forum. AviationBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » AviationBanter forum » rec.aviation newsgroups » Piloting
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Jeppesen's Internet Flight Planner - 1st Impressions



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old December 19th 05, 11:09 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Jeppesen's Internet Flight Planner - 1st Impressions

Hi all. Took a chance and purchased the JIFP subscription. With a free AOPA
membership renewal that you can keep even if you discontinue the service
after three months, it was pretty much risk-free so Iuse the term "chance"
loosely.

Why? Well, I had purchased the Voyager flight planner at a discount last
year but I've found that I've been printing out some pages from the
AOPA/Jeppesen free flight planner for use in actual flights. Plus, my
patience is waning with the performance of Voyager on my P4 2Ghz, ATI Radeon
9800-equipped computer. That should be adequate horsepower but it still
seems slow. It seems anything Voyager does hogs the processor (60-70% CPU
usage with no other apps running). I [briefly] looked into Flitestar but
the $300 initiation and $400+ yearly service price for the package had me
yearning for something in between.

Enter the JIFP. At $115 a year (versus Voyager's $75/yr update fee) it
advertises to have 95% of the functionality of Flitestar. The only thing it
does not do is wind optimization, automatic fuel stop planning, some terrain
features, and multi-routes.

My first impressionsof JIFP versus Voyager:
1) Nice maps. The VFR map is sectional-like and the IFR maps look great with
what seems to be just the right amount of detail. The vector maps are what I
liked most about the AOPA planner and JIFP did not disappoint.
2) Very functional trip kits. They clearly have more experience than Voyager
here. Voyager has some things that are a bit better (like the METAR map) but
the JIFP is clearly more refined. The maps are much more usable while in
flight because they have almost as much detail as my enroute charts and look
like them too (I use Jepps). Voyager' trip kit is OK but drop the ball on
the maps because they show only flight log line numbers for the waypoints
forcing you to cross reference the flight log. Plus the clutter is terrible
on Voyager's map detail in the kits. Black and white printouts are totally
useless.
3) Weather a tie. Voyager downloads all the weather automatically which is
nice except that those auto downloads are what causes much of the
performance hit. I also like JIFP's print-out of the weather briefing in the
kneepad size. Voyager prints it out in a full-page size so it doesn't fit
neatly into the rest of the trip kit.
4) JIFP map quirkiness. As nice as it is, I experienced some weird stuff
when using the rubber-banding feature. This happens in the AOPA planner as
well. Sometimes it just does not want to anchor onto the intersection or
VOR. I call it quirky because it happens one out of every 20 times. Today it
took me 5 minutes to get it to anchor onto BDR instead of KBDR. Tried
zooming, taking out airports from the view, deleting and re-adding, etc. to
no avail. Then it just chose it after I was able to get the VOR data to show
in the info pop-up box.
5) Overall speed. JIFP is much faster in map redraws, print preview
generation, and route manipulation. This all makes for a much more pleasant
user experience.

I'll post a follow-up if I see anything that's new or noteworthy. I'd be
interested to see other folk's impressions. I'd hate to see my money spent
on the Voyager initial software go down the drain but if it's much more
usable then it may be worth the $35 premium over Voyager's yearly update
service. I'll chalk the rest up to experience.

That's it for now. Hope this was useful to some of the readers.

Marco Leon



Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
----------------------------------------------------------
** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usenet.com
  #2  
Old December 20th 05, 01:34 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Jeppesen's Internet Flight Planner - 1st Impressions

That's it for now. Hope this was useful to some of the readers.

PIREPS are ALWAYS useful!

Thanks,
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
AOPA Stall/Spin Study -- Stowell's Review (8,000 words) Rich Stowell Aerobatics 28 January 2nd 09 03:26 PM
Thunderstorm - Ron Knott Greasy Rider© @invalid.com Naval Aviation 0 June 2nd 05 11:05 PM
Dumb Reg question John Gaquin Piloting 67 May 4th 05 04:54 AM
ramifications of new TSA rules on all non-US and US citizen pilots paul k. sanchez Piloting 19 September 27th 04 11:49 PM
Looking for Cessna Caravan pilots [email protected] Owning 9 April 1st 04 02:54 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 12:16 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 AviationBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.