Mobile App Brainstorming Please

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mariosabogal
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Mobile App Brainstorming Please

Post by mariosabogal »

Hey,

I'm looking to design a successful mobile app to be used by pilots, and I thought opening the discussion here would be productive. Any suggestions?

We have developed one : Fly Coordinated Corrections... however its a very niche app as I've only herd of the RCAF using coordinated corrections.

I was thinking an app referencing the procedures in the transport canada flight training manual... like digital flash cards for quick study on the go.

anyway... any idea would be productive ... even if its impossible or ridiculous ... it could springboard my thoughts or other's thoughts in the right direction

thank you!
mario.
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PilotDAR
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Re: Mobile App Brainstorming Please

Post by PilotDAR »

I'm certain that the RCAF are not cattle.

Fly the aircraft in accordance with its limitations, equipment, and documentation, and you probably don't need additional nonessential equipment (like a cell phone, as an information tool), which adds more distraction than beneficial information. Bear in mind that nearly all information to be used in flight, and quite a bit of the preflight information also, is "controlled". Introducing additional uncontrolled information, or an uncontrolled path to otherwise controlled information is introducing a risk. If the RCAF has a "data" system, you can be assured that it is very robust in terms of currency and data control. That is a big burden for a small organization.

What you really do not want is a pilot, who has been caught busting airspace, loading the plane wrong, flying the wrong speed, making the wrong control selection, briefing passengers incorrectly, making a flight planning error, or misunderstanding the applicability of a regulation, explaining to Transport Canada (or worse, the TSB) that they did so based upon data, or a data link, which you provided! I write TC approved documents, and am audited and accountable directly to TC for any and all of those documents. Be careful what you bite off....
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jschnurr
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Re: Mobile App Brainstorming Please

Post by jschnurr »

I'm sure that any app will have appropriate disclaimers ect.

I've often pondered the possibility of a smart phone AHRS. Most smart phones have accelerometers, magnetometers, and some have gyros and air pressure sensors. A phone based backup system for attitude, heading, and altitude could be very useful in certain emergency situations.
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photofly
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Re: Mobile App Brainstorming Please

Post by photofly »

I have experience of writing AHRS code based on MEMS technology.

It's not something you can do in smartphone user-space. You need low level access to the hardware, careful calibration, and tight timing to maintain orientation.

If you want to see what's involved, research the various Ardu-drone codes available.
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PilotDAR
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Re: Mobile App Brainstorming Please

Post by PilotDAR »

A phone based backup system for attitude, heading, and altitude could be very useful in certain emergency situations.
Were this to be the case, the pilot has already extended either themselves, or the plane well beyond the capacity of one or both. Aircraft which could conceivably be in an emergency for which standby information could be needed, have the required redundancy installed already - or that plane should not have been taken there. A pilot qualified and competent to take an aircraft into conditions where standby instrumentation could be needed, has been trained to use what the aircraft has installed already. Other pilots and planes either should not go there at all, or should use the standard 180 and go back where your came from.

Using a smart phone which is not approved for this purpose, with an app of uncertain origin, which enters it's "emergency" role with a disclaimer in front, is simply a bad idea. The fact that technology is advancing, and making possible homebuilt standby systems, does not make the use of those systems a good, nor even acceptable idea.

Instead of inventing more ways to provide cockpit distraction, particularly in an emergency, simply use the equipment approved in the aircraft, within its limitations, and with the competence for the operation. Avoid those conditions and operations for which you are not trained and equipped with approved instruments.
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photofly
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Re: Mobile App Brainstorming Please

Post by photofly »

I approve of the effort to create such a system. If you take the job seriously it's an eye-opener about how difficult it is to create something reliable and accurate. Just don't imagine it's going to be of the slightest use to anyone.
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DId you hear the one about the jurisprudence fetishist? He got off on a technicality.
mariosabogal
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Re: Mobile App Brainstorming Please

Post by mariosabogal »

Coold ideas so far, i think that back up smart phone instruments would be potentially suceesful. However, thats a serious amount of code i m sure... Would probably need a team. As for being approved by TC, that is something we as a company will not pursue.

Any other mobile app ideas? I was thinking more academic.
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JoeShmoe
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Re: Mobile App Brainstorming Please

Post by JoeShmoe »

I would love to see a well done NOTAM app, where you can enter an entire area of Canada into the app and it spits out a list of NOTAMs for that area that you can easily refresh, and then gives you alerts when new NOTAMs pop up in your selected area. Shouldn't be too hard and I would pay money to not have to type a list of airports into the AWWS website on my phone every day.
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I_Drive_Planes
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Re: Mobile App Brainstorming Please

Post by I_Drive_Planes »

JoeShmoe wrote:I would love to see a well done NOTAM app, where you can enter an entire area of Canada into the app and it spits out a list of NOTAMs for that area that you can easily refresh, and then gives you alerts when new NOTAMs pop up in your selected area. Shouldn't be too hard and I would pay money to not have to type a list of airports into the AWWS website on my phone every day.
This would be great. In addition, I would like to see the NOTAMs graphically overlaid on a map.
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