FSX-MS simplates X ultra any good ?

[Dominique_K 10,149]

Hi guys

 

has any of you an experience with the Simplates X Ultra ? It looks quite reasonable paying 35 bucks for 70 000 plates. I'm tempted to get it for my Samsung Android tablet.

 

Thanks for any feedback

[Mickel 42]

Well... it does say to make allowances for network outages. I'm a reasonable person, so I'm ok with that. What I'm not ok with is that I get a 404 error more often than I don't... Maybe it's just teething problems. But I find my ipad version somewhat frustrating. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has similar problems.

 

That said, what you do get is useful, especially for off the beaten track airports.

 

Mike

[N3744F 4]

I was a little hesitant at first, the price being way above that charged for apps generally, but ended up installing it on my Asus Transformer Prime and I have been very happy so far! As mentioned already, I have, once or twice, been unable to download charts because of 'network outages', but once a chart is downloaded, it stays on the device so that it can be accessed in future without the need to re-download. There is a huge number of charts included, and although the GUI could do with a little bit of touching up, it's likely that whichever airport you fly into, charts will be available!

 

In all, a great app for the money. It makes online, especially VATSim flying soo much easier!

 

Hope this helped

[RCITGuy 35]

Hiya Dom

 

I have the iPad version and found the 404 error a few times, even on plates that are listed, it won't download them, but so far, I only tried a few Airports.

 

The airport listed in the FSX tutorial on taxiing won't work.

 

I have since started using Aivlasofts EFB over my network running it on my laptop and its every sim plate you need, and soooo much more, flight planning, live moving map to follow the flight, detailed parking maps for airports and loads more I haven't figured out yet..

 

If I did it all over again, I wouldn't have bothered with sim plates x, but only because EFB is many more things in one, and now it free's up my iPad for HD gauges when using the 2D cockpit..

 

I'm not bashing sim plates x, but I am saying that for a bit more cash, you can get sooooooooo much more app, and can run it from a second PC so you see your FSX live, and your maps all feeding from the same FSX install, and zero performance hit :-)

[Dave_YVR 973]

I had a couple teething issues with Canadian plates when it first came out but it's since been fixed and I haven't had any problems since. Used on a Transformer Infinity.

[peppy197 165]

I use it a lot

Even though the user-interface and the way you use it are getting old in the tooth

 

A newer version was promised eons ago it seems....still waiting

[Dominique_K 10,149]

Feedback appreciated, gentlemen !

 

@Richard : Thanks for the hint. I took a look at Avlaisoft EFB which is indeed what I need if it works as advertised but there's no version for my Android tablet and I'm on a single computer right now (I may borrow the wife's though since she is mostly on her Ipad these days...) . On a single machine, I guess it just eats up memory with no impact on fluidity but isn't switching in flight from the sim to the plates and back a bit cumbersome ? Or does it only open a window with the plate in it ?

[OzWhitey 3,353]

I'm getting the 404 error too. Haven't managed any downloads yet, but will try again. Tbh, i wouldn't purchase again - unless the server issues are fixed.

[wims80 121]

Pretty much every single chart from every civilized country in the world is published for free on the internet these days. It doesn't make sense to buy charts in my opinion. As for Aivlasoft's EFB, it does not contain any charts at all. It simply builds the procedures from the navdata (which unfortunately is more often incomplete or just plain wrong than not). It misses all the text contained in the procedures, so it's very much incomplete in itself as well. I wouldn't buy Aivlasoft's EFB as a replacement for charts, not at all. It might to many cool things, but it's a very poor substitution for getting real life charts.

[RCITGuy 35]

I have used the airport charts in Aivlasofts EFB and so far, they have matched perfectly what is in FSX, so I have no need for "real world charts" of airports so long as what I see on screen matches the view out of the cockpit.

 

Actual navigation charts, well, I haven't got that far yet, but for sim use, will suit me perfectly whilst on the huge learning curve.

 

They update it regularly from what I have seen, so nothing to stop anybody asking for that as an update/feature request I guess..

[pmanhart 176]

I've bought Simplates X for my Android phone and it seems to work great if the plate is available, I haven't experienced any 404 errors when trying to download and view plates.

 

Another great alternative is Fltplan.com's Android App, as it also provides free downloads of approach plates free of charge, and you can download and keep the ones you use most often, I highly recommend it!

[OzWhitey 3,353]

If you don 't perform the in- app update, you're likely to get 404 errors, particularly on us charts.

 

Now i 've got that sorted - i'd say this is a good app, well worth the money.

 

You're paying for the convenience of not having to search for and download the publically available plates each time. Being able to quickly get the plates on my iphone has proved genuinely useful. Some efb software i 've used is too slow for me to enjoy using it - on the iphone 5 simplates is pretty snappy.

[Mickel 42]

Thank Rob! Seemed to fix it...

 

Ignore my first para. I'm with you - the $25 saves the hunt, so I'm satisfied with it.

 

Mike

[metalmike 34]

Pretty much every single chart from every civilized country in the world is published for free on the internet these days. It doesn't make sense to buy charts in my opinion.

 

Usually those charts are very outdated, and don't include newer procedures in more recent FMC navdata that I and many others get via Navigraph (or somewhere else I'm unaware of). For the US charts though of course there is Airnav.

 

I had been using Navigraph NDAC on my netbook to get non-US charts, but I got an iPad for Christmas and am seriously considering getting Simplates, but I also know Navigraph is working on an iPad app (according to their forums) so I'm trying to decide if I should wait for that. On one hand I don't like having to buy credits to get charts (even though they are very cheap, technically), but I've also never had a problem downloading from NDAC and generally have been happy with it. But I know I am not using that crappy netbook anymore so I hope they hurry.

[Overload 91]

I use SimplatesX ultra on my Asus prime, yep, there are some slow network issues at times, and the interface seems slightly clunky, unless I'm not using it properly, but I still find it useful.

For the USA, I use "Approach Charts" for Android. A good U.S. chart provider, Takes a slight different approach, it downloads all the charts for a particular airport in one hit, so can take a minute or 2, but they're then stored on your tablet to use again, so useful if you fly to regular destinations. $9 or about £5.80, not too bad.

I find the "Approach Charts" interface more to my liking.

A word to ""senior" simmers, one of the great benefits of these Apps which may not be evident, is for me constantly switching to my reading glasses to read the paper copies is a pain, plus printing in colour can get a bit expensive, but with these apps full colour charts (if available) plus the pinch zoom function, makes them way better than paper in my opinion.

Both products good value just for the convenience over web browsing, even if charts are free when you track them down.

I can't go without giving a plug to "Skyvector.com" an awesome en-route chart web site, all free, well worth looking at it's flight planning functionality, Ideal compliment to your airport charts.

Eugene