Are you planning to compete with RocketRoute? This would be great news as RR could need some competition!
The auto router seems to be rather primitive, doesn't find much and takes long. When working with the route, the UI is not good. It should directly show the CFMU error (and not a separate dialog) and display the most important bit of information directly next to the route field: distance in NM and overhead to GC.
Keep up the work!
PS: you are never going to make any money from hobby pilots with your current pricing model. Even a very frequent flyer like Peter wouldn't end up pay you much.
I am not sure if you can compare RR with our app. RR provides a lot more than only the route, such as the plates. Our app focusses only on the Flightplan and Routes part and leaves the plates out.
As for the routing engine: it works as follows.
A quick search searches the Eurocontrol/CFMU system for available routes on the requested flightlevel. If it finds them at < 120% of the greater circle distance, it will display them. If not, then it asks to do an extensive search.
This extensive search is not done in the app but on our server, but will find in most cases a route with some level changes, DCTs etc. It works the other way around from e.g. FPP by analysing the error messages produced by CFMU and fixing them. Not by creating a route from scratch and thus cannot give you direct feedback as you might get with FPP while typing in the route.
From about 20 beta-testers that fly intensive IFR we have received the feedback. On most routes there will be no problem getting a valid route. There are of course the problematic parts such as a direct route over Jersey at e.g. FL100. Sometimes we have fixed this already. In some cases it does not produce a valid route yet.
In the next weeks we will be ready to update our routing engine to be able to create a route from the route structure itself.
In the mean time we would welcome any feedback and routes that do not go well or will not give results, so we can take these into account.
RR provides a lot more than only the route, such as the plates.
RR provides plates from Eurocontrol which you can do by yourself - I don't see much added value in this.
BTW According to info during last Flightplan Pro upgrade, next version will require RR acount.
Forgot to mention that you first have to configure your aircraft in order to properly find routes. See the FAQ section in the app or watch the video tutorials.
In principle, I like your approach very much (i.e. limiting the product to everything concerning the flightplan). However, honestly I expect it will take at least a year or so until everything works nicely and without unpleasant surprises. Good luck!
Boscomantico: what kind of unpleasant surprises? The app exists already for more than 2 years and we have just been adding new features time after time. This is now version 2.1. The new features were tested by our test pilots.
Until recent I could only find IFR routes in this app that were suggested by Eurocontrol/CFMU, but now it provides me also with a smart route engine that supports level changes, DCTs and so on. It provides validated routes, but if you want to, you can validate them against the CFMU system from within the app.
Everyone is of course free to use what they want. I am just informing that we created this new version and I would love to get some serious feedback from those that are willing to try it out: install the free app, get your aircraft configured in it with the PBN and NAV settings in there correctly and use it besides whatever you want to use to find IFR routes. The filing itself is a stable solution in use already for a long time. Without serious feedback I cannot know what to do to improve (other than to listen to my beta testers of course).
BTW According to info during last Flightplan Pro upgrade, next version will require RR acount.
On the FPP site, it says
Not so bad. Could have been much worse. Could have been the €200+ one!
IMHO RR is way too expensive now, for IFR.
It works the other way around from e.g. FPP by analysing the error messages produced by CFMU and fixing them. Not by creating a route from scratch and thus cannot give you direct feedback as you might get with FPP while typing in the route.
FPP doesn't work that way. It does a "maze" route and submits it to IFPS for validation, then parses the error messages, and iterates. Maybe FPP can give direct feedback while typing in the route but I have never seen that feature.
Autoplan (dead for 3 years now) worked the same way as FPP.
I don't see any other way to produce a tool which works even most of the time, due to the "daily CRAM" issue (frequently changing airway restrictions).
Incidentally, what route would you generate for
EGKA - LGST
FL140 (min 070, max 190)
The latest FPP crashes on this one.
EGKA - LDLO works OK
WIZAD M140 DVR L9 KONAN L607 RUDUS L984 ASKIK Z74 KOSEK L603 OLETU Z106 BAVAX M867 LOMRO/N0150F150 M867 NOKDA Q100 ARNOS P125 URAVA L607 CRE
776nm (11% over GC)
Also, unless I am missing something, a product which does IFR autorouting is best done as a website. It needs internet access anyway. An Ipad app requires an Ipad, which not everybody has. I have one but it does about 50% of what I need and I can get maybe another 25% by tearing my hair out. I know there is a big fashion these days for "apps"... If you want to charge for the service then you can sell the account credentials and keep all the money (none going to Apple). IFR is a very small world and advertising is quite easy.
For the route EGKA - LGST, our routing engine finds more than 20 valid routes ranging from 101% to 105% of GC distance.
If you can accept FL200 for part of your route, then I have several almost direct routes (101% of GC distance) such as: BOGNA DCT BENBO DCT HAWKE DCT XAMAB/N0165F200 UL612 MILPA UM730 ANC UL612 BRD UL995 TIGRA L995 KRK A14 XAVIS
Alternatively, a route (105%) at LF170: LYD M189 DVR L9 KONAN L607 RUDUS L984 ASKIK Z74 AKONI L603 ZAG L187 IDASI M867 GILUK L604 RETRA Y400 MAVAR N132 TALAS Z508 SKP B1 ATV L617 XAVIS
I would see if the FL200 route could be filed with your aircraft profile (Eurocontrol checks the aircraft ceiling in their database against the requested route and then just request a lower level enroute from XAMAB.
As for the other route I find 11 routes of which the shortest is 110% over GC.
Our routing engine is written in Java and runs as a web service, so our iPhone/iPad app sends the request to our web service and gets the results back. We also provide web-based and Java software to ARO offices and airport towers. There, we provide a web-based interface to the routing engine. At this moment, this web-interface is not separately available, but maybe in the near future. However, I would personally prefer a native app as it works way more intuitive.
There are several problem areas in Europe where at the moment our engine does not provide an ideal route, such as direct flights over the Canal islands at a low FL, the Frankfurt area, but also the direct flight over the city centre of London which was just discussed on this forum is one that we still have to solve.
The Eurocontrol/CFMU system provides in 75% of the cases a route that is <120% of the GC distance. Our engine fills in the gaps in most situations by either offering a more optimal route or providing a route where Eurocontrol does not.
Then in those rare cases where you are not happy with the route or can't find one, we provide you with the helpdesk number of the ARO office of the airfield of departure as well as the Eurocontrol helpdesk (which helpdesk is open 24 hours / 7 days a week).
Correction on above post: The Eurocontrol/CFMU system provides in 75% of the cases a route that is more or less optimal (<120% over GC). In most of the rest of the cases we can provide you with a better route or a route where Eurcontrol cannot find one. In the rare cases were even our engine does not find a route, we provide you with the helpdesk number of the ARO office of the airfield of departure as well as of the Eurocontrol helpdesk (which helpdesk is open 24 hours / 7 days a week).
Here are some images from the app related to the above route taken (screenshots) from the iPhone. Latest screenshot shows the same flightplan in the Flightplan Operations web-based software.
[edited to show images - need the ! in front]
