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Trying out the
Flymaster B1 Nav by Tim O'Neill
Google Group, and I have seen requests general, the package is well-designed and from pilots go from idea to implemented robust. Noticeably missing from the ’ve been fortunate enough to have the firmware update in 48 hours. The value of packaging is a User Manual. For that, one opportunity to try out the Flymaster integrated flight instruments is their abil- needs to go online. This is a reasonable B1 Nav integrated variometer. The ity to reduce the pilot’s workload—to “get solution since documenting firmware upunit was delivered to me while I was flying things out of the way”—and allow him to grades can be done more efficiently with in the Chelan PWC event, and I flew it think about the task and the course. All an online revision to the manual. More without much prior knowledge of the ca- of the available units do this. My goal was about that later. pabilities and user interface (UI) of the to find out if THIS instrument does what is expected and also to learn what it does Getting Started unit. I usually carry an aging Flytec 5020 well. Out of the box the unit had firmware ver. and a Garmin 76S on my cockpit and am 1.16 so I went online and found that the very comfortable and familiar with the General Impressions latest version was 1.20. Downloading the combination. Adding the B1 Nav to the The B1 NAV comes boxed with a very Flash program and installing the revised mix would be interesting . . . especially nice storage case to protect the unit when firmware was simple and easy. I used adding it to my scan while competing in knocking around in your kit-bag. The GPSDump to load the Chelan waypoint a XC comp. I really didn’t know what to case is a hard case with zipper that protects file and, 15 minutes after plugging in the expect from this new instrument and had the screen from damage. A USB cable is USB cable, it was ready to aviate. Setting limited expectations since its price is quite supplied for unit charging and data trans- up the User Defined Fields (UDFs) was a bit less than other, comparable instru- fer, as well as a wall charger for fast charg- simple also. The list of options available ments on the market. ing the unit. The B1 has a nice”’feel”with for UDFs is extensive and expanding reguOne thing I had noticed was the enthu- a plastic case that is sturdier and more larly to meet the requests of pilots. There siasm displayed by those pilots using the streamlined than the Flytec 5020. The are two groups of six UDFs programmable B1 Nav, especially regarding customer ser- screen size is twice the size of the 5020, by the pilot, so having 12 UDFs available vice and the firmware improvements made with a resolution of 320X240, and is provides a large amount of visible informain response to user feedback. Cristiano similar in size to a 6030—a nice big dis- tion. Pereira, founder and software developer for play. The four UI buttons are easy to use The Guts The B1 Nav uses a 50-chanFlymaster, is very active on the Flymaster with gloves and their use is intuitive. In nel GPS engine system. The battery is a
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