Bendix/King is hoping to become the pilot’s go-to wingman with its new iPad app: MyWingMan electronic flight bag. 
“Simple, simple, simple, that’s what we want people to think when they use the application,” Jeff Simon, director of strategic marketing for Bendix/King, told AOPA Aviation Summit attendees Oct. 11 during a product demonstration in the Palm Springs Convention Center.
Designed on two principles—putting unprecedented power and information in the pilot’s hands, and making the app the most user-friendly EFB on the market—MyWingMan can display data in one, two, or three screen views on the iPad. In split-screen mode, the bottom screen is always active. A quick drag and drop will swap active features. All of the features are only a few taps from the main screen—all without menus.
Bendix/King is touting SmartRoute and SmartAltitude. Just select the departure and destination airports, whether you’ll be flying VFR or IFR, if fuel efficiency is a goal, and the app will select the best route. With SmartAltitude, the program will display winds aloft and show the pilot how flight time will change at each altitude. Once an altitude is selected, it will automatically update the flight plan with the new weather information, en route time, fuel burn, and more.
The app features geo-referenced charts and taxi diagrams, moving map, synthetic vision, and weather overlay; navigation logs, flight planning, weather briefing, flight plan filing, and more. Simon said the app’s large-text format makes it easy to read in the cockpit, day or night, and the screen brightness can be adjusted through setting in the app instead of the iPad’s setting menu.
Once the app is released in the Apple store, pilots can try it for 60 days free of charge. A one-year VFR subscription runs $99, and a VFR plus IFR subscription runs $149.
In a future release, the app’s synthetic vision will integrate with Airborne Heading-Attitude Reference Systems.
