Haversine Forums -> AirTrack - Feature Wish List

[iOS] Misc. GUI enhancements

Posted on November 15, 2015 18:07 by TimRodeo314

Been using your app for a few days now (iOS, iPhone 6) and it works very well. There are a couple things that bug me about the interface though, so I'd like to suggest a few improvements:

FMS: prompt before clearing/re-initializing the flight plan
-----------------------------------------------------------

As it turns out, accidentally hitting the CLR button on the FMS is rather easy, but re-entering the whole flight plan (if you forgot to save it) isn't; it might be nice if users were presented with a prompt (OK/cancel) upon hitting the button, rather than immediately clearing the whole plan.

Note: if the above is implemented, then the INIT button should probably have a similar prompt too :)

ALL: visual cue to distinguish between toggle vs. mode selector buttons
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The GUI has two types of button: toggles (on/off, e.g. hide or show airports on the MFD) and mode selectors (e.g. select a navigation source for the MFD, NAV1/NAV2/FMC, or select an MFD mode, APP/VOR/MAP/PLN). There is currently no way to tell them apart (both are plain text and blue, the only way to know it's a toggle is to try it or keep the manual around at all times).

This could be as simple as giving mode selectors a different color, like e.g. the yellow MORE button on the MCP page.

FMS: waypoint deletion
----------------------

The default X-Plane FMS doesn't let you delete waypoints; you can reset a waypoint but that doesn't automatically move the next waypoint into the current waypoint's slot. For example:

01 LSGG
02 MOLUS
03 SOSAL
04 TELNO
05 KORED
06 KONOL
07 BERSU
08 LSZH

If I "delete" KORED using the default FMS in X-Plane, I then get:

01 LSGG
02 MOLUS
03 SOSAL
04 TELNO
05 -----
06 KONOL
07 BERSU
08 LSZH

It would be nice if AirTrack's interface allowed for deleting a waypoint, e.g. I move the > selector to KORED and hit delete, AirTrack then automatically moves the following waypoints so that I get:

01 LSGG
02 MOLUS
03 SOSAL
04 TELNO
05 KONOL
06 BERSU
07 LSZH

FMS: waypoint insertion improvements
------------------------------------

AirTrack lets me insert waypoints in the middle of the flightplan, which is nice. For example, I have:

01 LSGG
02 MOLUS
03 SOSAL
04 LSZH

What I currently do is move the > selector to LSZH and hit NWP, which lets me insert a waypoint before LSZH, let's say TELNO, and I get:

01 LSGG
02 MOLUS
03 SOSAL
04 TELNO
05 LSZH

This is a bit counterintuitive, since NWP stands for "next waypoint", I should be able to move the > selector to SOSAL and hit NWP to insert TELNO *after* SOSAL (but before LSZH).

FMS: scrollable list
--------------------

Currently, when the flightplan is too long, I can move between flightplan pages using the PREV and NEXT buttons, which works fine. Still, on a touch-enabled iOS (or Android) device, wouldn't the ability to scroll the list up or down using my finger make more sense?

Also, this could allow using the screen real estate taken up by those two buttons to implement new features, such as waypoint deletion mentioned above.

Regards,

Tim

Posted on December 8, 2015 21:34 by TimRodeo314

Ping :D

Posted on December 9, 2015 17:21 by haversine

Whoops, sorry, thanks for reminding me!

Not forgotten, and some very good suggestions too. Will reply shortly, sorry for the delay.

joao @ haversine

Posted on December 14, 2015 20:03 by haversine

Hello again,

I am sorry for the delay; these weeks have been manic and I keep falling behind the backlog.

Many thanks for the suggestions;

1) Confirmation for CLR and INIT buttons; definitely a good idea, I'll keep it in mind and try to include it in the next update.

2) Mode selector versus toggles ; although it could be done, I suppose it's not as critical as you get used to it and then don't think about it anymore. Currently the toggle buttons are the APP/VOR... , the NAV/FMC and the VAS button in the EFIS I guess.

3) Waypoint deletion ; does't AirTrack allow you to do this? I thought it did; you can delete waypoints in the middle and it will adapt X-Plane's flight plan accordingly if I'm not mistaken.

4) Waypoint insertion; I guess you're right, inserting after is probably more intuitive. NWP in that case was meant to be New Waypoint. Have an idea for an alternative? :)

5) Scrollable list; also doable; I guess the reason why it wasn't done like that in the first place was because the FMC page was meant to look like an MCDU screen whereby the characters are always in the same position and don't move. A scrollview would make it similar to the waypoints list for example whereby they would scroll and move on the screen and despite being probably better, it wouldn't look as nice.

But I guess it's possible to create a hybrid scrollview with fixed positions and gesture recognisers, but will be a bit of work.

Many thanks for the suggestions,
Currently struggling with time to update but will try to incorporate as many as possible in the next release.

fun flights,
joao @ haversine

Posted on December 17, 2015 14:40 by TimRodeo314

(2) is actually, for some reason, the feature I'd care most about, so please don't discount it outright :)

(3) oh I just figured it out, you have to press CLR while a waypoint is selected; given how this can also be used to clear the whole plan, it didn't occur to me to try this. Maybe the label could be changed to e.g. DEL when a waypoint is selected, to make it clear that we're not clearing (LOL) the plan but just deleting a waypoint?

Regards,

Tim

Note: You need to be logged in to post in the forums.

© 2025 Haversine