Two pages,
one navigation solution.
The FlySys app turns an Android tablet or phone into an electronic flight instrument system (EFIS) with two pages: a primary flight display (PFD) and a navigation display (ND) with an aeronautical moving map. The app computes nothing itself: every value arrives ready-made from Joran, our instrument, whose navigation filter delivers the attitude, the heading, the altitude, the vertical speed, the position, the velocity over the ground and the wind. The picture is the same on any device, propped at any angle.
Uncertified. The FlySys EFIS is not a certified instrument. It is for experimental aircraft, or as a supplementary instrument in light aircraft; it is never the primary flight reference.
The display draws; Joran computes. One navigation filter on the instrument estimates the attitude, the heading, the height and the vertical speed and, with a position source, the position, the velocity over the ground and the wind. Joran sends that solution to the display over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), together with its uncertainties and the instrument's own health.
Joran takes its position over the same kind of link: indoors from an ultra-wideband (UWB) ranging tag, outdoors from our own satellite (GNSS) receiver. Both are wireless; no cable runs between them and the instrument. The instrument chooses the source, by the pilot's setting: the tag, the receiver, or automatic, which takes the tag when it is in range and the receiver otherwise.
| Attitude | the full rotation, nothing rebuilt on the display (inverted included) |
|---|---|
| Heading | true, or magnetic from the world magnetic model at the aircraft's position |
| Height | barometric altitude against the pilot's QNH, vertical speed from the filter |
| Position and velocity | latitude, longitude, ground speed and track, with their uncertainties (while aided) |
| Wind | direction and speed (in the air, once the estimate is good) |
| Health | battery, temperatures, processor load, lost samples, recording |
| Alarms | born on the instrument: amber caution, red alarm until acknowledged |
The essential instruments of a light aircraft, in one picture. The artificial horizon splits the screen, sky above and ground below; speed runs down the left, altitude down the right, heading across the top, and the supplementary data along the bottom. Drawn in OpenGL, it stays smooth through the steepest turn.
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Horizon and pitch ladder
Pitch bars every 10°, a bank arc to 60°, drawn from the instrument's full rotation: every attitude renders with the same precision, inverted included.
True or magnetic
Magnetic from the world magnetic model at the aircraft's position, or true; one switch in Settings. The instrument asks for a new declination when it has moved far.
Turn rate and slip
A rate-of-turn scale marked at 3°/s each way, and the ball below it for slip and skid: centred in coordinated flight.
Speed and altitude
Ground speed with its 6-second trend on the left; barometric altitude with a rolling drum and the vertical speed on the right. Units in km/h, kt or mph, ft or m.
The wind arrow
Once the filter has found the wind, an arrow shows where it blows relative to the nose, with its direction and its speed in knots underneath.
The instrument's health
Beside the source label, the battery: voltage, charge and current, coloured by the charge; without a battery it says NO BATTERY in red, never zero volts. The auxiliary field can show Joran's processor load, the lost samples and REC while it records.
A cross when not to be trusted
A red cross over the horizon while the instrument aligns, when data stops arriving or when the navigation solution is not to be trusted; yellow for caution. No word when all is well.
One-button alignment
The instrument levels itself, zeroes the slip ball and remembers the mounting across power cycles.
Altimeter setting
Tap the knob and turn. The setting is stored on the instrument, so any display that connects adopts it.
The second page is a moving map. An aeronautical chart, airspaces, airfields and navigation aids from open data over a terrain map, lies under the aircraft's position and its trail, both from Joran's navigation solution. One button switches between the PFD and the ND.
Aeronautical chart
Airspaces, airfields and navigation aids from open data, over a terrain map, with a continuous zoom from a region down to a room.
Works without a connection
The chart is cached on the device: the flight's region is loaded once with a connection and read offline afterwards.
Position and trail
The aircraft symbol sits at the filter's position, turned with its heading, its trail behind it. The chart follows the aircraft; a pan holds the place, CENTRE follows again.
North up or rotated
Two fingers turn the chart, NORTH UP puts north back at the top, and a north arrow and a scale are always shown.
Trust at a glance
A red cross over the aircraft when the solution is not to be trusted, yellow for caution, with the reason in words, NO GNSS/UWB for instance.
Position source lost
When the position aiding is lost, an alarm tone sounds and the red cross stays until it returns; a double beep marks its return.
The essentials, in text
Under the chart, a few large lines: the heading, true or magnetic, the ground speed, the barometric and the navigation altitude, the coordinates in degrees, minutes and seconds, the battery, the lost samples and the processor load.
Landscape or portrait
The text and the buttons each keep their own corner, so a smaller screen only brings them closer. The page runs on an old tablet as well as on a phone.
An indoor frame view
For the test vehicles, the test train and the balancing robot, the page draws the room as the bench sees it: the radio anchors, the floor grid and the track, placed on the chart by the frame's origin and azimuth. FRAME turns the view to the frame's own axes.
The panel lives on the instrument
QNH, units, the auxiliary field and the alarm thresholds are stored on Joran. Any display that connects adopts them: a tablet swapped for a phone shows the same cockpit.
Alarms born on the instrument
An amber caution with a soft double note, a red alarm that stays until it is acknowledged. A display that connects can neither miss them nor silence them by accident.
Position source in Settings
Tag, receiver or automatic, and the navigation aiding on or off. The switches show the instrument's own answers, never a choice it did not make.
Guided calibrations
Magnetometer, accelerometer and installation, run on the instrument from the Settings panel, with audible cues.
Recordings and files
A two-pane file manager moves recordings between the instrument, the device and flysys.ch, every transfer verified by checksum. The display can log exactly what it showed.
Demo mode
A demo models Joran's solution, the wind and the battery included, so both pages can be explored with no hardware connected; a DEMO tag marks it.