Dan’s Pilot Times

AirCheck Aviation Checklist
Released Jan 3, 2009
Seller:  Felix Khazin
(C) 2009 Mobile Dev Group LLC
Price (as of 10/03/2009):  $1.99
Rated 4+ as of 10/02/2009 on iTunes Store

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I rent planes from the flying club I’m a member of.  All of the club’s planes are older than 2001, some as old as 1982!

As such, the checklists and POH’s are rather tattered and delicate.  One of the first apps I thought would work great for my new iPhone was an aviation checklist application.  After trying out all of the free checklist apps, I was severely disappointed.  Most were crippled in that they only showed a sample of what it could do, or it wasn’t easy to edit/add items to check, and they all started out blank or for planes I would never fly in.

I decided to “splurge” on the $1.99 AirCheck Aviation Checklist app from Felix Khazin and was delightfully surprised.  The main feature that I thought was great was that you could edit and download other checklists on the web, not solely on your iPhone.  I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to type out 100 items directly on the iPhone.  From the site, you can also download the checklists that other people have created, and guess what… all the plane types that my club owns were already input…so, set up was a cinch!  The app itself is pretty simple and straightforward.  You can tap on the screen or shake the iPhone to “check off” an item.  That’s a great feature to not have to use both hands – so ultimately it’s as simple as using the POH checklist.  It also has both night and day display modes, to not kill your night-vision if it’s dark out.  The text is perfectly sized and again, you can make the checklist as detailed or simple as you’d like.  I’ve kept all my checklists 100% matched to the checklists in the planes I fly.  Overall, this app is the best aviation checklist I’ve come across, and for $1.99 you can’t beat it!

Navtech’s EFISce application is another Windows CE compatible aviation GPS software package.  To install on the Mio C320, use the Pocket PC 2003 version (the 2nd one down) on the download page.  Install using Activesync, and ignore any errors/messages it throws up.

The software does work, but pretty slowly.  Also, unfortunately the application only occupies half of the screen on the Mio, in either the lanscape or portrait screen settings.  The program seemed fairly unstable (I’m not sure why), and crapped out a handful of times not really allowing me to fully test the software, nor want me to try it in the air.  I can’t say that these errors may just be a function of the “trial” version of the software, maybe the $50 priced real version won’t fail so much, but I’m not willing to drop the cash to find out.  It may be worth downloading and installing the trial version yourself, but don’t drop the money until you do.

Test Specs: Navtech EFISce Pocket PC 2003 version tested on March 7, 2009 on Mio C320
Pros: Cool looking, appears to have lots of features.
Cons: Does not work reliably on Mio C320, app only occupies half of screen on the Mio.