Aviation Forum / General / IFR / April 2005

Many of the things you want to do with the software, you can do without any
"keyboard/text" input. A lot is based on selection screens, where a list of
airports, navaids, user waypoints, etc, are listed, and you select what you
want, or tapping what you want on the moving map screen, such as the
airport. The section of the their documentation that is relevant to this, is

http://docs.controlvision.com/pages/finding_nearby_airport.php

One quote from that section is:
"The ideal way to select the nearest airport in an emergency is to use the
EMODE button. This button will allow you to graphically select the nearest
airport with a single tap, and will set up a flight plan to that airport,
with VNAV enabled and a glide predictor arc drawn in front of the aircraft.
For more information on this, see the EMODE section of this document."

Over all, "I" don't think it's a major problem doing what you envision.

I should point out that I have no vested interest in the company. I'm a user
of the product. Needless to say, everyone needs to base their selection on
their unique requirements. For me, I like using a PDA. I not only have the
aviation moving map software, but street level moving map for all of the
U.S. of A.(Navman Smartstreets), keep a bunch of songs in mp3 format, have
checklists, have a mini word processor and spreadsheet, Quicken, cruise the
Internet, print, view pictures, pdf files, check email, weather, calendar,
calculator, etc, etc, and fit it in my pocket. Do all that with a Garmin
296. ;-) If anyone in the eastern mass area would like a look, send me an
email if you want to meet someplace. I'm in the KOWD/K1B9/KTAN/K3B2/KPYM
area.

XM protects their satellite broadcast from unauthorized use by having
the XM receiver carry an authentication code.  I'm not sure how the
whole process works, but when you get a new XM receiver, you call
XMRadio, provide your radio serial number, and they respond by
broadcasting a code for a couple of hours that "enables" your radio to
decode the satellite signal that you've paid for.  What's apparently
happening with a number of users is that the code stored in the
receiver is being lost, particularly when it hasn't been used for a
while, as in airplanes.  The CV system then displays a screen message
that receiver activation is needed.  You then have to re-dial XMradio
and have them re-send the activation signal.  It isn't a big deal, but
if you just got to the airport and planned to launch into LIFR with all
your inflight wx data, you will either need to wait for re-activation
or launch without it.  In theory, once you make the call, you can fly
and let the system update in the air, but these things are supposed to
reduce workload, not increase it.

CV has a new software release that assists in retention of the
activation code, but I recently defeated that by turning off my system
components in the wrong order.  I'm good at this... :-(