Dear aviators,
We hope you had a great start to 2023. The team has been hard at work the past few months on several major projects, two of which are now ready for you to use.
Today's release is a significant update that includes a revamped menu design, as well as a new Instrument ribbon that replaces the InfoFields. The new ribbon includes features such as ATC now, ATC next, HSI, Bearing to Next, and more.
UI Design
Several menus and tools have been updated to align with EasyVFR's modern design philosophy. Under the hood, changes have been made to allow for workflow improvements in the upcoming months.
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Menu Restructuring
Menus have been restructured to group items that are often used together more logically:
- Map-related options are now located in the Map Layers menu.
- The "System" menu (in the EasyVFR 4 menu) has been renamed to "Preferences" and includes items that you may want to personalize but likely only need to set once.
- The "General" menu (in the EasyVFR 4 menu) has been renamed to "System" and includes all system-related items that you typically do not have to verify or change, such as Units, Language, Alarms, and the behavior of the VP and Instrument ribbon, etc.
- The country selection has been moved to the Status card -> Data.
- The visibility of the Instrument ribbon and Vertical Profile can be set in the EasyVFR 4 menu -> Preferences. "Off" always hides them, "Auto" shows the VP when there is a route or flying and shows the Instruments when flying, and "On" always shows them.
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Simple Aircraft Profile
The Aircraft Profile is now also listed in the EasyVFR 4 menu, so that Essential and Live users who do not have access to the Pro Aircraft Profile features can still access it. This allows them to choose a speed that fits their aircraft, making their route calculations more realistic.
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Instrument Ribbon
The previous InfoFields flexibility was great but limited us in improving the screen organization because a user could place an InfoField anywhere on the screen. We believe that there is no default setup that fits all flying missions and that each use case requires a unique set of instruments. So we have come up with the Instrument ribbon, which allows you to easily insert or add any of the 29 Instruments to the ribbon. In portrait mode, the ribbon is stuck to the top, and in landscape, it moves to the side. Every instrument has a default color and unit, but for several, these can be customized.
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ATC now, ATC next, HSI, Bearing to Next
Some new instruments have been added, such as:
- Bearing to Next: An arrow pointing towards the next waypoint and shows time (EET) and distance.
- HSI: A nice and clean HSI design is added, guiding you back on to your planned route including time (EET) and distance.
- ATC now and ATC Next: Combining the ATC name with the Frequency. ATC next shows the next ATC ahead of your track.
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We have many more major projects in the pipeline that we are eager to share in the upcoming months. For now, we would love to hear what you think of the design upgrade and Instrument ribbon.
A full list of release notes can be found below.
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Cheers,
Team EasyVFR 4
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Release notes
- NEW: Aircraft Profile now allows to specify the speed to use as takeoff and landing thresholds.
- NEW: For Live, Pro, and FFM licensees there is now an export to GPX for daily breadcrumb files via menu->System->Tracklogs.
- IMPROVED: For each Traffic object received, the last 10 location points are drawn so the path flown can be determined.
- IMPROVED: Above a certain camera altitude traffic objects will not show text anymore, and the traffic symbol will be scaled with the camera altitude to avoid heavy cluttering of the map when zooming out.
- IMPROVED: Support for Android devices with a dual built-in GPS unit.
- IMPROVED: The on-screen button to toggle the Vetitcal Profile is back, and in essence, toggles through the 3-state off-auto-on.
- IMPROVED: The preset buttons A and B to quickly call up detailed airport information for the departure and arrival airfields specified in a route are now moved to the Route card to clean-up map space.
- IMPROVED: Labels for menu items that do not fit on one line are now wrapped over two lines
- FIXED: Callsigns to ignore in Status card -> Traffic showed these callsigns vertically
- FIXED: Airspace Settings menu was garbled.
- FIXED: When editing the Instruments Ribbon and closing it by tapping outside that window, the changes were not saved persistently.
- FIXED: Bearingless traffic with indicated distance had garbled text when displayed in the bearingless traffic banner.
- FIXED: When overall button and text sizes were changed using EasyVFR 4 menu -> Preferences -> Readability then the menu items did not respond to the font size change immediately, a restart of EV4 was required.
- FIXED: Status card -> Data sometimes temporarily removed the Download GAFOR option when it was downloading other types of data.
- FIXED: Instrument Next Waypoint direction and Next Waypoint HSI now show N/A as a value when GPS position is not accurate.
Downloads
Apple iOS, iPadOS, M1 and M2 macs
- Minimum requirements:
- 64-bit and 2GB RAM. Effectively:
- iPad Air 2 and higher.
- iPad Mini 4 and higher.
- iPhone 6S and higher.
- The iPad Mini 5, 6, and iPad Pro perform extremely well.
- 64-bit and 2GB RAM. Effectively:
- Download
1. Install the Apple TestFlight app via the Apple AppStore.
2. Go to the following URL to download the latest version of EasyVFR 4 via TestFlight:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/Zxbi0Hof
- IMPORTANT
- Minimum requirements:
- 64-bit, +3GB RAM. Android 8.0 and higher is advised.
- We have good results with:
- Huawei MediaPad M5.
- Xiaomi Mi Pad 4.
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 and higher.
- Most modern smartphones.
- Download:
- NEW: via Google Play: Now you can also download the beta directly via Google Play. You can join the beta here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pocketfms.easyvfr4
- Sideload: To install you must enable the option: "Allow the installation of apps from sources other than Play store" in Android Settings, Lock screen and Security. Some Android devices require you to tap&hold the link below, then choose [Download link] to store the APK on your device from where you then can install this downloaded APK.
https://members.pocketfms.com/WebProgramDownloads/EasyVFR4/EasyVFR4_4.1.320.apk
- Minimum requirements:
- 64-bit, 2GB RAM, Windows 7 and higher is advised.
- Download:
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- IMPORTANT:
- Intel macs on Big Sur and Monterey need to have the latest macOS version 11.6.1 or 12.0.1 or higher installed.
- M1 macs can download via the iOS AppStore.
- Minimum requirements:
- Most 64-bit macOS versions. E.g. High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina. BigSur 11.6.1 and Monterey 12.0.1 and up.
- Apple Silicon M1 and greater macs can download via the iOS AppStore.
- Download:
- Installation instructions:
- After downloading the DMG file, open it and drag the EasyVFR 4 icon into the Applications folder. EasyVFR 4 is now available via Launchpad.
- When you get the message "EasyVFR4.app can’t be opened because it was not downloaded from the App Store" choose [Open in Finder] from that popup, then right-click on EasyVFR4.app and choose open. Now the same popup will appear, now with a [Open] button.
- From there on you can launch EasyVFR 4 from the launchpad without this warning.
- With every update, you need to redo step 2.
- IMPORTANT:
Thank you, EV is much improved in v320
Please check the selection for a Planned Departure time. Â The scrolling has become very slow, so a change by many hours requires a lot of swipes.
I would prefer a wheel to dial dial hours and minutes separately.
Great job Rob and colleagues!
+1 agree here Leif - it's always been too slow to scroll - wheel *and* free entry number keypad are the norm for date & time entry fields ... would be a great improvement 👍🤞🛩
Dancing buttons!Â
Is it just me, but when I use the [hide/show buttons] button, it flips places with the menu button... can it not just always be on the right end of the bottom row - I keep hitting the wrong button😱
Cheers guys!
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Yes, very irritating. Its a little basterd nagging me for some time, I just can't find out why its doing that. Sometimes I have the impressing a little lemming is pushing those buttons secretly back and forth just to drive me crazy 😉
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Thank you, EV is much improved in v320
Please check the selection for a Planned Departure time. Â The scrolling has become very slow, so a change by many hours requires a lot of swipes.
I would prefer a wheel to dial dial hours and minutes separately.
There is definitely room for improvement here, I agree. Its a tedious job however, and I keep postponing it. I will try to get some self-discipline and try to address this one asap
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