Category Archives: Blog

You can now edit aircraft information, including manufacturer and model. Useful if your aircraft is not automatically found in a registry.

To edit the aircraft information, click or tap the Make & Type button in the My Aircraft section of the Account tab. You can type the manufacturer and model information, and if desired let the system auto-complete the typing.

In several countries including the US we look up the data automatically based on the tail number. This new feature is important in countries in which we do not yet access the local registry. If your aircraft’s tail number is not found in one of the registries that we support, it’s a good idea to enter its data. Doing so will display the type in your Flights list. Also, if the make/type is associated with a system-wide V-Speed, the flight analysis will be more accurate (obviously, you can always enter the V-Speed manually). And another important reason: by editing the type you can change the way CloudAhoy analyzes the flight – fixed wing vs. rotorcraft vs. glider.

Make/Type of a given tail number is crowdsourced; your editing will also help other pilots flying the same aircraft.

This new feature is one of many to come, to make flight debriefing more effective worldwide.

We added a new profile: Altitude + IAS displayed together (with IAS in dashed line), which provides a good insight in many situations. Here are a couple of examples.

– The picture below shows one loop around the traffic pattern on a gusty day, with a large airspeed and altitude variance.
– The beautiful picture below, sent to us by Don Honabach (thanks, Don!) shows his debriefing of a steep turn of 3×360°, flown in a Zodiac 601HDS. Don clicked the steep turn’s segment info button, and got the Info window below. Note the beautiful inverse relation between the airspeed and the altitude, resulting from the conservation of energy: you lose one and gain the other.

 

 

For several years you’ve been able to debrief from the web and from our iPad app. With today’s iPhone screen sizes and capabilities, it was time to add debriefing to our iPhone app – which we did!

The iPhone6 or 6s’s screen is just big enough for a decent debrief. It has a remarkable processing power, and our 3D visualization works very well on it.

After a flight, tap the D tab on the bottom, and debrief.

CloudAhoy 3.9 is available in the Apple Store.

 

Last week Sporty’s iPad Pilot News published an article about our recent features.

We always find iPad Pilot News highly accurate and informative. This was no exception 🙂

The newly added Moving Map feature does exactly what you’d expect:  when the timeline changes, the  aircraft symbol stays centered, and the background (2D map or satellite photos) moves under it.

Click the picture to see it in action ▶

Click/tap the icon on the upper-right of the 2D Track View to toggles Moving Map mode on/off.  You can also use this mode to “find” the aircraft after zooming/panning which leaves it outside the view.

More…

 

We enhanced and improved the process of flights’ import into CloudAhoy:
– Quicker and simpler drag-and-drop form,
– Tips for importing from various apps and systems.

To import a file, click the  button, and you get this:

Click any of the items on the drop-down menu to find out how to import flight data from those systems into CloudAhoy – either directly from an iOS app, or by saving a file which you then import into CloudAhoy.

To Import a file – select the top entry in the drop-down menu. The input form look very much like our iOS and Android CloudAhoy apps for logging, including a “swap” button for swapping the pilots’ names. After all, logging with our app or importing flight data from another device are both equivalent ways of adding a Flight to CloudAhoy’s flight list.

Next, enter the flight’s pilot names, tail number and remarks, then drop a file with flight data to be imported (or select the file with ).

After a few seconds the import is complete, and a thumbnail picture is displayed (1). You can now immediately debrief this flight (2). Optionally, you can edit the flight (3) if you want to add/modify pilot/co-pilot, hobbs, etc.

 

CloudAhoy supports a wide range of data sources, such as from ForeFlight, Garmin G1000 and others. Read more…

To better support every iPad user, our Beta 3D now has two alternative ways to display 3D on the iPad:

1. 3D views in the CloudAhoy app
   You can select 3D Track and 3D Cockpit from Viewing Options, as we described in a previous post, fully integrated with the rest of CloudAhoy.
2. [new in Beta 3D] CloudAhoy invokes the Google Earth app to display 3D
   This option exists in our non-beta software, and now we added it to the Beta 3D as well, based on feedback.

To view your flight in the Google Earth app,  tap the Google Earth icon on the top bar of CloudAhoy, and select either 3D Track or 3D Cockpit. The Google Earth app will be invoked and display the flight.

 

Q: When would I use the built-in 3D (Cesium), and when would I use Google Earth?

A: The preferred option is to use the built-in 3D (Cesium), our full-featured integrated 3D. Exceptions:

1. Use Google Earth if you have an older iPad. On older/slow iPads Cesium may not run well or may not work at all, and your only option would be to use Google Earth.
2. Use Google Earth if you would like to see 3D buildings and trees. Google Earth displays them, Cesium does not.
3. Some users prefer the rendering of the Google Earth app, some like Cesium’s better.

 

Q: What is the disadvantage of using Google Earth?

A: Google Earth is a separate application, and is not fully integrated with CloudAhoy – you can see your 3D Track with color coded segments, and cockpit view animation, but none of the other features.

3D-track on Google Earth Note the auto color coding of the PPL maneuvers	3D-cockpit on Google Earth Executing 360 turn, the yellow segment in the 3D-track on the left

 

Video: 3D-cockpit on the Google Earth app
Landing KACK RWY 24

It is often useful to focus on one maneuver of a flight, and see this maneuver in context.  We’ve just added a new feature to make it easy.

Here is a typical example – a single loop from multiple traffic patterns (this screenshot is taken from our new tutorial Debriefing Traffic Patterns):

The screenshot (taken on a Mac) shows cluttered traffic pattern loops in the small view, and a zoom on one specific loop in the main view. To create this

To Declutter:
 □ On the Flights Segments (left pane) click the “eye” next to Entire Flight, then click the “eye” next to the segment(s) you want to focus on.

To add a “context” view
 □ Click New View to create a small  view.

 □ Click Viewing Options, select “3D Track” and “show hidden segments”.

 

This technique allows you to view selected parts of the flight in one view, while displaying the entire flight in another to see things in context.

 

Another example: focus on a student’s left 360 maneuver. The screenshot below (taken on an iPad) shows both the entire flight, and a zoom on the decluttered maneuver. By moving the aircraft symbol , a CFI can highlight the issues in this maneuver.

 

We are excited to start the public beta of our new 3D Views, based on Cesium.

Why a new 3D? What is Cesium?

The initial trigger for the change was that our existing 3D is based on the Google Earth plugin, which is being phased out by Google (for the curious, read this ). The Google Earth plugin is already unsupported in Chrome, and will be discontinued by Google this December.  

We started to look for an alternative, evaluated Cesium we realized that it has many advantages. We have been working on the integration for a few months now, with collaboration from the Cesium people – see our demo page on their website. It’s a great team to work with.

What are the benefits?
The important advantages of Cesium over the Google Earth Plugin:

• Runs everywhere:
  –– iPad – great news for many of you!
  –– Any computer, any browser:
  —– Windows, Mac and Android
  —– Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari 
• No plugin! No need to install anything, and the browser will not ask you to approve its use.

Issues?
The main caveat: it requires a relatively modern hardware. It will run nicely on a 2-year-old PC or Mac and on an iPad Air 2. If you have an old computer or an old iPad – regrettably, the new 3D will probably not run so well; we continue working with Cesium on performance improvements.

Another issue:  currently there are no 3D buildings.

Other than that – it works great!
The new 3D works great for us and for our pre-beta testers.
Bear in mind that it’s a new technology, though, not as mature as the Google Earth plugin.

 

How to join the beta?
To start using the new 3D, click the ꩄbeta3D checkbox on the top-left on the screen.

If it does not work well for you, you can get off the beta and continue using 3D with the Google Earth plugin, or stay on the beta and use the 2D only.  And – IMPORTANT – let us know, please!

—

We are eagerly awaiting your feedback!
Tell us how it works for you – the good, the bad, and the odd.
Use email, or you can use the feedback link on the top-left of the screen. We always reply.

For those of you who share their flights with others – we have a new and improved way to share: quicker, and personalized. It has a thumbnail image of the shared flight – a popular request.

Sending flight share in an email
The other day I flew with non-pilot friends to Nantucket. It was a perfect flying day, and after we left Boston’s class bravo I let my friend in the right seat drive most of the way. He was thrilled.

Back home, I sent him an email with the flight’s share. The new share’s email feature includes a thumbnail of the flight in the email message, like the example on the right. My friend could click the thumbnail or the link in the email and relive the flight.

Receiving a link
We also made it easier to view a flight share, even for non-pilots; this is what my friend saw when he clicked the thumbnail in his email. In this share I was using our new Cesium-based 3D rendering, which, at the time of writing this post, is a sneak preview of the tech to come.

How to share a flight?
When you debrief a flight, note the new  button on top.

Clicking the button, you now can:

• Create a link to the flight
• Post the flight on Facebook (example on the right) and Twitter.
• Share with your buddies/groups
• Embed the flight in your own web page,
• Send an email with the flight link and a thumbnail to anyone.

Details here. BTW, you can also share a flight  from the Flights tab.