AVARE: Android VFR flight tool

[jschall]

Avare is an "Electronic Flight Bag" (EFB) application for Android that's been developed for real-world VFR pilots. It has most of the features of relatively expensive apps like Foreflight for iOS, but Avare is free, with no ads.

And it can be used in simulators! I have used it in FSX and Aerofly FS2, but it works with XPlane, too.

I find it much easier to use than FS Tramp, Plan-G and FSMap, and much more intuitive than other Android apps like FlightMap and FSWidgets GMap.

Avare uses downloaded real-world charts and plates that can be stored on your phone/tablet's SD memory card.

Waypoints can be entered simply by pressing or long-pressing on the map. With airport diagrams, your plane's position on the apron is displayed.

https://apps4av.com/avare-overview/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTo8FWqX5Ac

http://amileofrunway.blogspot.ca/2013/03/android-app-review-avare.html

Has anybody here tried Avare?

[roger-wilco-66]

Sounds great and I'd give it a try. How did you connect it to FSX exactly? Via USB and some sort of driver? Does it display the aircraft position?

The propect of running such an app on a detached device sounds like a great idea.
I really like FSX Google Earth Tracker that also does a real time ac display and track plotting, but it's on the GE map environment of course and it's lacking the aviation related functions.


Cheers,
Mark

[jschall]

Hi, Mark.

For FSX, there's a little utility called XCONN:

http://www.pocketfms.com/2-downutility.asp

that takes the FSX coordinates and converts them to NMEA ("National Marine Electronics Association") sentences that GPS devices can understand. Avare emulates a GPS and reads the info from XCONN.

Yes, the FSX aircraft position, heading, etc. is shown on the sectional.

[Dimus]

Another similar option is if you use the AirNavigation Pro app on a tablet or phone for real flying, you can connect it to FSX or P3D over the home WiFi. It works great and feeds your FSX location and speed onto the Navigator map. You need however to purchase the Air Navigation Pro app and this is not meaningful unless you use it for real flying.

This AVARE looks very interesting though. Is there an IOS version?

[jschall]

This AVARE looks very interesting though. Is there an IOS version?

Nope. Android only.

[roger-wilco-66]

Hi, Mark.

For FSX, there's a little utility called XCONN:

http://www.pocketfms.com/2-downutility.asp

that takes the FSX coordinates and converts them to NMEA ("National Marine Electronics Association") sentences that GPS devices can understand. Avare emulates a GPS and reads the info from XCONN.

Yes, the FSX aircraft position, heading, etc. is shown on the sectional.

Thanks for the advice! Really interesting, I'll test that in the days coming!


Cheers,
Mark

[BrittMac]

Interesting. I've had Avare for over a year on my Android, and downloaded it because it was free and I didn't have an iPhone/ipad.

I ended up getting an ipad for my real world flying because Avare wasn't "perfect" so to speak. But, i'd certainly consider using it on FSX. Though FlightSimGPS is free, small, and works with Foreflight.

Very nice to have options.

[rvn817j]

Not to hijack the thread, but another very good Android real world program that works over wireless with FSX is Naviator. Naviator also supports Stratus. Stratus is the ADS-B receiver that you can build for about $100. (On FSX you will get traffic on Naviator.) There is a ~$50 annual fee for Naviator, but I find it money well spent. Back to regularly scheduled programming....

[BrittMac]

Not to hijack the thread, but another very good Android real world program that works over wireless with FSX is Naviator. Naviator also supports Stratus. Stratus is the ADS-B receiver that you can build for about $100. (On FSX you will get traffic on Naviator.) There is a ~$50 annual fee for Naviator, but I find it money well spent. Back to regularly scheduled programming....

I assume you mean Stratux for around $100? We have one in our Cherokee, and it works well. The Stratus is much much more.
Naviator sounds interesting. Apologies for more hijacking, but, I don't mind hearing about other options. Foreflight is so dang powerful, but, they just won't go to Android. Drives me nuts.
Anyways, nice to have another option out there.

[rvn817j]

I assume you mean Stratux for around $100? We have one in our Cherokee, and it works well. The Stratus is much much more.
Naviator sounds interesting. Apologies for more hijacking, but, I don't mind hearing about other options. Foreflight is so dang powerful, but, they just won't go to Android. Drives me nuts.
Anyways, nice to have another option out there.

You are absolutely correct! Stratux...I've built 2 of them and it (the Stratux device) keeps getting better (better Pi Rasberry, better receivers, better attenae, better cases, better software, etc., etc.). Maybe it's time to build another for summer flying. Last I recollect, there is work on getting a microchip combining GPS and ADHRS to work with the Stratux software. Of course you all know what that means...inertial navigation system for about $100! Knowing that in the 1970's an INS cost millions of $$ and was only available to the military, I'm just blown away by all the technology available to us now.

Again...apologies for the hijack.