This is the user manual for the Pilot Gear Watch Navigation App (PgW Nav). This application helps you find the best solution for your rerouting in case of bad weather or
voluntary decision. Find the nearest airport, get its weather information, radio communication frequencies and location directly on your watch!
Version
This is the version 1.3 of this manual.
Change log
| Version | Date of issue | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Dec. 30th, 2020 | Creation of this new version of the manual This is a completely rewritten user manual. To read the previous version of the user manual, click here. |
| 1.1 | Aug. 23th, 2021 | Removed Australian Weather data source |
| 1.2 | Mar. 30th, 2022 | Added new option for flight parameters color |
| 1.3 | June 1st, 2022 | Added new RMI feature Added navaids on navigation view Added course selection for navaids and true HSI behavior |
WARNING ! This application will never be a primary navigation device. It has to be used as a complementary source of information for your decision-making process.
Never rely on the information provided by this application without reconciling it with another official source of information.
The App accepts only the touch screen and the rotating bezel to interact with the user.
The hardware buttons of the watch are only used to quit the app. Two behaviors exist :
- By pressing the upper button, the user quits the app and the app is totally stopped. Next time the user runs the app, a full init will be done.
- By pressing the lower button, the user quits the app but the app remains in memory. The context (active page, current aircraft data) is preserved so the next time the user runs the app, the previous context is restored. Note that the view will be freezed until new GPS data is received and the aircraft data totally refreshed.
If you don’t plan to use the PgW Nav app in a short period of time, it is recommended to use the upper button to quit the App and release all the ressources (memory, cpu) of the watch.
On the touch screen, several touch modes are managed:
- Single tap: Used to access airport or navaid data. Opens an airport information page or navaid information page.
- Double tap: Opens the airport / navaid selection interface.
- Swipe bottom to top: Opens the settings menu.
This watch is designed to be controlled by tapping the screen or turning the bezel of the watch. Buttons are useless (just to quit the app).
The app requires the location information to work. The app won’t start if the location is not available. You have 2 solutions:
- Use the GPS sensor of the watch
- Use the location provided by your smartphone
The second solution is far more faster and reliable than the first one. The GPS sensor may take up to 15 minutes to compute your current location (the time of the initialization may vary). Your phone can establish your location in few seconds (because it uses its internet connection to get the almanac instead of the satellites signals).
Be sure to activate one of these two solutions before launching the app. Otherwise, you will see this screen (see the screenshot on the right).
Check these following pages if you experience some issues with the GPS initialization :
When the app starts, the navigation view can take few seconds to be built. The screen is black during this initialization phase (see picture on the right). This is normal.
The navigation view is a navigation display composed of 5 layers (from background to foreground):
- land map
- GOTO indicators
- flight parameters
- METAR map
- airports and navaids map
All around the screen, the compass shows the current heading and the major angles: one mark every 5 degrees. one value every 30 degrees.
The North reference of the main view can be either the True North or the Magnetic North. The choice can be made with the settings menu.
When the reference is the Magnetic North, the app uses a computed and static model of the magnetic variation to compute the magnetic heading with the computed magnetic variation at the current location.
Maps are built using the Mercator projection. The scale varies with the latitude. The range values shown in this manual are only indications (quite correct for latitudes between 50°S and 50°N). The range values may differ on the navigation view depending on your current position. The higher your latitude is, the greater the scale is.
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- 5Nm
-
- 10Nm
-
- 20Nm
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- 40Nm
The navigation view has 4 different ranges which can be changed by turning the bezel of your watch (see how to use the bezel) :
- 40Nm
- 20Nm
- 10Nm
- 5Nm
These are approximate values for latitudes 48°N or 48°S because the scale depends on the current latitude. Actual range values are displayed in magenta at the right middle part of the screen. Dotted circles show the intermediate ranges.
Maps are built using the Mercator projection. The scale varies with the latitude. The range values shown in this manual are only indications (quite correct for latitudes between 50°S and 50°N). The range values may differ on the navigation view depending on your current position. The higher your latitude is, the greater the scale is.
For ranges from 5Nm to 20Nm, the view will display small blue arrows all around the compass to indicate that airports are in the vicinity of the region but outside the selected range (1 arrow per airport). So it invites you to increase the range if you’re currently flying in a region where no airport is visible in the selected range.
In the screenshot on the right, the markers are the 2 little blue arrows on the bottom left of the view.
The opacity of the arrow depends on the distance of the airport. The less opaque the arrow is, the further the airport is. Their position on the compass gives you the direction.
To ease the readability of the view, the arrows are blinking. They appear every 5 seconds.
The land map is composed of the following layers:
- Countries boundaries,
- Major roads,
- Secondary (minor) roads,
- Railways,
- Land usage (natural parks, airports, forests, …)
- Terrain elevation
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- + Terrain elevation
Each layer can contain many graphical objects. So if performance decreases, you can hide the layers you want. By default, the land map is hidden and most of the layers are hidden. Go to the settings menu to activate the land map and select the layers you want to see. Check the performance of the navigation view and correct the settings if needed.
They can be displayed using 2 different styles:
- Day style with bright colors for the terrain
- Night style with dark colors for the terrain
The app can also switch automatically from one theme to another using the local daylight hours.
Use the settings menu to select the style.
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- Navigation with the land map in Night style
-
- Day style
The land map requires a permanent internet connection to be displayed. Map data is provided dynamically by Mapbox. Map data is not managed nor hosted by Aerotools. See the privacy policy page. The land map covers the entire world.
Up to four major flight parameters can be displayed on the navigation view. The parameters are printed with a large font. These parameters are:
- Top/Left:Your ground speed in km/h by default (unit can be changed. See Changing the units)
- Top/Right:Your altitude in feet given by the GPS (unit can be changed. See Changing the units)
- Bottom/Left:The current UTC time
- Bottom/Right:The estimated remaining time to destination (only when the GOTO mode is ON. See GOTO information in this manual.)
Color of the flight parameters can be changed with the settings menu. Up to 7 colors are available :
Airports and navaids map
The airports and navaids map is displayed over the land map. It shows :
- the location of the airports having an ICAO code only. It provides also all the data related to the airports you can see in the airport information pages and the magnetic variation for magnetic heading computation.
- the location of the following navaids: VOR, VOR/DME and NDB
The map doesn’t requires a permanent internet connection to be displayed. It is downloaded only if needed when you start the app then stored inside the watch. See the Airports and navaids map section of this manual for more information. The map doesn’t cover the entire world. See the list of the countries in this section.
Civil airports are displayed with blue circles. Restricted airports are displayed with red circles.
- Civil
- Restricted
Inside the circles, runways are shown with lines. The color of the lines gives the nature of the runway:
- paved (gray color)
- unpaved (green)
Runways are displayed with their true (QFU+magnetic variation) or magnetic orientation depending on the current North reference. Parallel runways are not displayed. Only the orientation matters in the navigation view.
Symbols used in the map for the navaids
Navaids are displayed with purple symbols
- VOR,
- VOR-DME
- NDB
Labels over the airports symbols
Along the symbol, some labels are displayed:
- The last 2 characters of the ICAO code of the airport. Example: For airport LFPZ, only ‘PZ’ is displayed. This reduces the size of the label for a better readability of the view
- The distance in Nm (unit can be changed. See Changing the units). If the ground speed is available, the time to destination in minutes is also displayed right after the distance.
- The bearing (true or magnetic north reference depending on the current north setting)
When range is 40Nm, only the 2 last characters of the ICAO code are displayed (Short ICAO code).
When range is 20Nm, these values are displayed alternatively inside the same label to minimize the space occupied by each airport in the view. Values are shown during
few seconds in this order: Short ICAO code->Bearing->Distance->Time to destination
Tap the labels of an airport to open the airport information pages. These pages are described in the chapter airport information pages.
When range is 40Nm or 20Nm, airport displayed in the inner and middle areas of the map are dimmed to enhance the readability of the airport.
Labels over the navaids symbols
Along the navaid symbol, only one label is displayed. It shows the ID of the navaid. Color is purple.
You can define a list of favorite items (see Manage your favorite items). All favorite airports or navaids have their data displayed in yellow on the navigation view.
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- LFDL is a favorite airport
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- NY is a favorite airport
The METAR map is a map drawn underneath the airports map and over the land map. It shows the flight category of all the visible airports in the main view with colored halos placed under the airports symbols.
It moves as the map moves. The radius of the halo is linked to the visibility reported by the METAR: the greater, the better.
By default, the METAR map is not active. Go to the settings menu to activate this map.
4 major colors are used every where in the application to represent the flight category associated to an airport. These colors are: lime, teal, orange and red.
- VFR : Visibility > 8km and ceiling > 3000ft
- MVFR : Visibility ≥ 5km and ceiling ≥ 1000ft
- IFR : Visibility ≥ 1.7km and ceiling ≥ 500ft
- LIFR : Visibility < 1.7km and ceiling < 500ft
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- Land map, airport map and METAR map
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- Night mode with METAR map
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- GOTO mode active to get to KCGF (day style)
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- GOTO mode active to get to KCGF (night style)
This colored map requires an internet connection. The watch must be connected through its WIFI interface or bluetooth interface paired with your smartphone.
You may notice a small lag between the movement of the navigation map and the movement of the METAR map. This is due to the internet connection latency.
When the connection is lost, the METAR map is hidden.
The meteorological information is provided by Aviation Weather Center (NOAA). The data is loaded when you request an information based on this and when the application cache contains only obsolete data.
For Australian airports, when the messages are not available on the NOAA database, the weather status is not displayed on the colored map but you can have full meteorological data in the AD information pages.
Turning the bezel changes the range of the navigation view but it can also change the display by modifying the opacity of the layers on the view.
- Turn the bezel clockwise, decrease the range in this order: 40Nm->20Nm->10Nm->5Nm
- Turn the bezel counter-clockwise, increase the range in this order: 5Nm->10Nm->20Nm->40Nm
- If you continue to turn the bezel counter-clockwise when the range is 40Nm, you will dim the airports map to make the flight parameters layer appear progressively. The airport layer can be totally masked.
- If you continue to turn the bezel clockwise when the range is 5Nm, you will dim the airports map to make the land map appear brighter. The airport layer can be totally masked.
The GOTO layer is never affected by the bezel. When the GOTO mode is active, this layer will always be visible.
The airports and navaids map loaded by the app at start-up is composed of 9 tiles (3 tiles x 3 tiles – see the yellow tiles on the picture on the right). Each tile covers 10 degrees in longitude (600Nm at the Equator) and 10 degrees in latitude (600Nm). So, when the app starts, the view can be as large as 1800Nm x 1800Nm.
When the application starts, as soon as the location is determined by the watch, it checks if the required tiles are available in the memory of the smartwatch.
If some tiles are not available, the app will try to download them. If some tiles are available, the app will check if an update exists on the AEROTOOLS server or not.
Airport and navaids maps tiles are only made and provided by aerotools.fr. The application directly downloads them from our server. You DON’T need to download them by yourself.
The airports and navaids map contains only civil and military airports having an ICAO code and VOR, VOR-DME and NDB. Data is provided by openAIP – The Worldwide aviation database.
The airports and navaids map tiles are updated twice a year. The application checks the tiles version only when it starts. If a new version of a tile is available on our server, a message will ask you if you want to download the new version immediately or not.
If you don’t want to download an update, the application will still start with the obsolete version stored in the smartwatch memory.
The app will attempt to load the missing tiles data automatically when it starts. The download may take few minutes. It requires an internet connection. Tiles data are downloaded from the Aerotools server.
The app will not download more than 9 tiles. Less if you already have some of the needed tiles in your watch. If all the needed tiles are already available on the watch and up-to-date, the app will directly display the navigation view.
This process can be aborted but many airports and navaids may be missing. The next time the app will start it will try to upload the missing tiles again.
Updating tiles
When map tiles have already been downloaded on your watch, the app will try to load them for your navigation. Before that, it will check on the Aerotools server if a newer version of the tiles is available. If so, the app will ask you if you want to update your data now or later. This process can be postponed and the app will use the local map data.
End of the process
When the download process is over and successful, the following screen will appear. Tap the CLOSE button to close this message and see the navigation view.
In case of download failure, the following screen will be displayed. You have to quit the app and start it again to rerun the download process. You can also decide to continue; in this case, the app will use the data which could have been loaded.
At the time this manual is written, the map covers the following countries (alphabetical order):
albania
algeria
angola
argentina
armenia
australia
austria
azerbaijan
bahrain
belarus
belgium
benin
bosnia and herzegovina
botswana
brazil
bulgaria
cambodia
cameroon
canada
chile
china
colombia
costa rica
croatia
cuba
cyprus
czech republic
denmark
dominica
dominican republic
ecuador
egypt
el salvador
estonia
finland
france
gambia
georgia
germany
ghana
gibraltar
greece
grenada
guadeloupe
guatemala
guernsey
guinea
guineabissau
guyana
haiti
honduras
hong kong
hungary
iceland
india
indonesia
ireland
isle of man
israel
italy
jamaica
japan
jersey
kenya
korea
kuwait
lao peoples democratic republic
lebanon
lesotho
liberia
liechtenstein
lithuania
luxembourg
macedonia
madagascar
malawi
malaysia
malta
martinique
mauritania
mexico
moldova
monaco
montenegro
morocco
mozambique
myanmar
namibia
netherlands
new caledonia
new zealand
niger
nigeria
norway
oman
papua new guinea
peru
philippines
poland
portugal
puerto rico
qatar
romania
russian federation
saint barthlemy
saint kitts and nevis
saint lucia
saint pierre and miquelon
saint vincent and the grenadines
saudi arabia
senegal
serbia
sierra leone
singapore
sint maarten dutch part
slovakia
slovenia
south africa
spain
swaziland
sweden
switzerland
taiwan
tanzania
thailand
togo
tunisia
turkey
ukraine
united arab emirates
united kingdom
united states
venezuela
viet nam
virgin islands
zambia
zimbabwe
The position of the aircraft is determined by the coordinates provided by the location of the watch.
It is recommended to connect the watch to your phone with bluetooth, and activate GPS on the phone to have the best sensor performance. In standalone mode (no bluetooth connection), the GPS of the Samsung Gear Watch takes a lot of time to compute the current position. This may generate high latency in the PgW Nav app. With bluetooth on, the GPS of the cellphone provides accurate data to the app with a good performance.
The ground speed of the aircraft is provided by the GPS of the watch. It is not your airspeed. It is expressed in knots by default (can be changed. See Changing the units).
This information is not mandatory for the application to work. If this information is not available, the estimated time to destination won’t be available.
The heading of the aircraft is provided by the GPS of the watch. It can be a magnetic heading or a true heading depending on your current North reference setting.
When barometer is used, the altitude is calculated using the standard factor of 28ft/1hPa.
This information is not mandatory for the application to work.
The settings menu can be opened by swiping gently the navigation view from the bottom to the center with your finger.
The menu is composed of up to 5 circles.
The top and bottom circles are used to select a topic in the menu:
- NAVAID names display
- RMI mode
- HSI mode
- Land map theme
- METAR map display
- North reference
- Visibility of many land map elements such as : major roads, railways, terrain elevation
- Color of the flight parameters
Just tap one of these circles to select a topic.
The name of the topic is displayed on the right circle.
The current setting value for the selected topic is displayed on the left circle (the black one). Tap this circle to change the value.
Tap the center circle to exit the menu.
The pages give the following information:
- ICAO and name of the airport
- The location of the airport and its altitude above mean sea level
- The sunrise (SR) and sunset (SS) times computed using the current date and the airport location
- The distance from your aircraft and the bearing
- The list of radio frequencies
- The current weather report
- The weather forecast
- The runways axis display for course selection (HSI in GOTO mode)
The 3 first topics are displayed on the top of all the airport information pages. Location of the airport and sunrise/sunset are displayed alternatively every 3 seconds.
The units for the distance and the altitude can be changed (See Changing the units).
The 4 others topics have dedicated sub pages. You can scroll from one sub page to another by touching large arrows
placed on the left and the right of the screen.
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- Previous page
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- Next page
The description of each item is given in the chapter Airport information.
When an airport is restricted, a small sign is displayed above its ICAO code like this :
This page lists the radio communication frequencies to use to contact the airport services.
Frequencies are given in MHz with their names.
If the list of frequencies is too long to fit the screen, an automatic vertical scroll is activated. Frequencies are moving up and down alternatively.
You can control the scrolling by turning the bezel of your watch. It stops the automatic scroll and let you move up and down the list.
Pressing the GOTO button on this page will activate the GOTO mode without any course (see section GOTO without course)
The meteorological information is provided by Aviation Weather Center (NOAA). The data is loaded when you request an information based on this and when the application cache contains only obsolete data.
For Australian airports, when the messages are not available on the NOAA database, the messages are taken from the Australian Bureau Of Meteorology. This feature is no more available. Check out the post Australian METAR and TAF not available.
This page gives a decoded and graphical representation of the latest METAR downloaded by the application.
The application downloads a METAR if one of the following conditions is met:
- No METAR data has been downloaded for the current airport
- The downloaded METAR data is deprecated.
The application automatically invalidates the latest METAR cache memory 30mn max after the time of its publication.
The application will automatically try to download a new METAR message every minute until a valid METAR message is received.
This feature requires an internet connection. It can use either a direct WIFI connection or the 4G/3G connection of your smartphone through bluetooth.
The airport must provide a METAR message to have the weather report. Otherwise, the following page appears: (see picture on the right)
Here are some examples of METAR pages with their associated METAR message:
- The visibility. Value is in meters (can be changed. See Changing the units). ‘9999’ is displayed if the visibility is greater or equal to 10kms and unit is km. In the background, clouds appear from the right side of the screen if visibility is lower than 9kms. The more the background is cloudy the less the visibility is good.
- The cloud layers. Each layer is displayed from the left (the lowest layer) to the right (the highest layer) on the same band. The horizontal position of the layer in the band is relative to the layer height in feet. Each layer contains the coverage factor (FEW,SCT,BKN,OVC) and the cloud base in feet above the ground level. A red line starts a layer when the coverage is equal to BKN or OVC.
- The weather is described in a coded way into the white box on the left with the QNH value expressed in hPa by default (unit can be changed. See Changing the units). The coding is the one of the raw message. Under the box, two keywords may appear : TEMPO, BECMG.
They are shown if the raw message contains the keywords. Tap the box with your finger to read the raw message (see below). - The wind is shown graphically over the airport symbol with its QFU. The arrow gives the direction of the wind. The barbs give the strength of the wind in knots.
The barbs are displayed using the same rules as the WINTEM chart.The angle reference can be either the true north or the aircraft heading. Tap the graph to swap from one reference to another.
The white small symbol over the graph shows the current reference. - The temperature and the dew point are shown in degrees Celsius (unit can be changed. See Changing the units). The temperature is on top.
Finally, the raw message can be seen on the page by tapping the weather box. Examples:
-
- DECODED LIFR METAR
-
- RAW LIFR METAR
Tap the message to hide it.
When the message is too long to fit the screen, it scrolls automatically. You can control manually the scrolling by turning the bezel of your watch and move the message up or down.
TAF-on-WHEEL
The meteorological information is provided by Aviation Weather Center (NOAA). The data is loaded when you request an information based on this and when the application cache contains only obsolete data.
For Australian airports, when the messages are not available on the NOAA database, the messages are taken from the Australian Bureau Of Meteorology. This feature is no more available. Check out the post Australian METAR and TAF not available.
The third information page is the weather forecast decoded from the TAF message.
The application downloads a TAF if one of the following conditions is met:
- No TAF data has been downloaded for the current airport
- The downloaded TAF data is deprecated.
The application automatically invalidates the latest TAF cache memory 2h max after the time of its publication.
The application will automatically try to download a new TAF message every hour until a valid TAF message is received.
This feature requires an internet connection. It can use either a direct WIFI connection or the 4G/3G connection of your smartphone through bluetooth.
The airport must provide a TAF message to have the weather forecast. Otherwise, the following page appears: TAF NOT AVAILABLE
The TAF content is displayed in a very efficient and innovative way called TAF-on-WHEEL: the weather forecast is decoded hour by hour from the TAF message. Each hour
is displayed in a sector of 60 degrees placed on a rotating disc. Use the rotating bezel of your watch to turn the disc:
- Turn clockwise to see the next hours.
- Turn counter-clockwise to see the previous hours.
Small arrows in the header show if sectors are available before and/or after the visible part of the disc.
The wheel is automatically rotated to show the current UTC time segment.
The TAF header shows the TAF publication date and time and forecast period (start datetime and the end time. If the end time is not for the same day, the number of days is displayed in the header. For example, the indication ‘+1d’ means that the end time is for the day after the start date of the forecast).
Tap the TAF header to read the raw message.
When the message is too long to fit the screen, it scrolls automatically. You can control manually the scrolling by turning the bezel of your watch and move the message up or down.
Each sector is composed of several parts (from the center to the border of the disc):
- The visibility: A digit gives the visibility in thousands of meters. A ‘+’ indicates a visibility greater than 10kms. The background color changes with the visibility: blue means a good visibility, gray means visibility is poor.
- The cloud layers: Up to 4 layers are shown. Each layer is given with the coverage level (FEW,SCT,BKN,OVC) and the clouds base in feet above ground level. The background color depends on the coverage level: blue for FEW, white for SCT, gray for BKN and dark gray for OVC.
- The weather: shown in the coded format directly taken from the raw message. TEMPO, BECMG and PROB flags are displayed too.
- The flight category and the wind. The wind speed is expressed in knots. The background color depends on the flight category.
Start time and end time of the sector are displayed at the border of the disc.
If the TAF contains BECMG and/or TEMPO segments, the weather may vary during some hours. In this case, the different weather conditions applicable to the same hour
are displayed alternatively on the same sector.
COURSE SELECTION
The fourth page displays on the same graphic the magnetic orientation (QFU) of the runways of the airport. The orientation can be relative to :
- The true north
- The current aircraft heading
- Any orientation (course like the OBS of the HSI)
Just tap the center of the graphic to switch between these modes.
When the orientation is relative to the current aircraft heading, the graphic is dynamically updated as the heading changes.
When the orientation is relative to the OBS value, turn the wheel of your watch to change the OBS value. Graphic will turn automatically.
Each runway has a blue label with the value of the magnetic orientation inside. The runway number is displayed on the graphic.
The graphical orientation of the runways on the map and in the runways axis page takes into account the magnetic variation. The magnetic variation is provided by the airport map data so the internet connection is not required for this graphical display of the runways. It is computed using the NOAA magnetic field calculator.
The value of the magnetic variation is displayed on the top right of the graphic, below the reference symbol (“true north” or “aircraft heading” or “OBS value”).
Parallel runways are NOT managed. The app only shows the orientation.
By tapping the label of a runway, you will select the runway as your course and activate the GOTO mode with the HSI (see GOTO with course). It will highlight the axis of the selected runway on the navigation view.
By tapping the OBS value, you will select the value as your course and activate the GOTO mode with the HSI (see GOTO with course). It will highlight the axis of the selected course on the navigation view.
A yellow arrow with the value of the magnetic orientation of the runway (or the OBS value) will be displayed on the navigation view. The arrow points the center of the GOTO destination and is oriented with the true north orientation of the selected runway axis.
When a course is selected and GOTO is active, the active course value is displayed with a magenta background.
WARNING ! The GOTO function can’t be used as a localizer. The GPS reference for the computation of the CDI position is the GPS location of the airport; it is NOT the GPS location of the runway centerline.
The pages give the following information:
- ID and name of the navaid
- The location of the navaid and its altitude above mean sea level
- The sunrise (SR) and sunset (SS) times computed using the current date and the navaid location
- The distance from your aircraft and the bearing
- The radio frequency
- The type of navaid : VOR, VOR-DME, NDB
- The range
- The course to get to the navaid (QDM)
The 3 first topics are displayed on the top of all the navaid information pages. Location of the navaid and sunrise/sunset are displayed alternatively every 3 seconds.
The presentation of the data and the buttons used to change the page work like the ones defined in the airport information pages.
This page gives the radio communication frequency to set in order to use the navaid with the traditional instrument of your aircraft.
Frequency is given in MHz for VOR, VOR-DME. It is given in KHz for NDB.
The frequency is provided with the range in Nm and the type of navaid :
- VOR
- VOR-DME
- NDB
The page contains also one or two buttons to activate one RMI pointer on the selected navaid. Buttons are visible only when the RMI function is activated in the settings menu.
This page shows a graphical view of the route you can use to get to the navaid.
Turn the bezel of your watch clockwise or counter-clockwise to turn the route and change the course value (displayed on the right).
The view shows the FROM and TO sectors of the route. So you can clearly see what will be the indicator on the instrument.
The relative position of your aircraft and its heading are displayed on the view.
The page contains also one “GOTO” button to activate the GOTO function with the selected course and navaid.
The button is named “NOGO” when the GOTO function is already active for this navaid. Press the button to stop the GOTO function.
When the route goes through your position and the selected navaid, you found the QDM to the navaid. A blue circle is then displayed below the aircraft symbol.
Select this route to go to the navaid directly.
The RMI function can be activated in the settings menu. The function has 2 modes:
- Single pointer: you can select only one navaid. Only one pointer is displayed on the navigation view.
- Dual pointer: you can select 2 navaids. Up to two pointers are displayed on the navigation view.
Note that no pointers are displayed when no navaids have been selected. The selection of a navaid is done on the radio frequency page of this navaid.
Depending on the selected mode, one or two buttons are displayed on this page.
Tap one button to link the corresponding pointer to the selected navaid.
When the navaid is already linked to a pointer, the button of this pointer can be tapped to remove the link and hide the pointer.
You can tap at any time a pointer to open the navaid information page related to it.
The pointer has a label which shows the ID of the linked navaid.
You can declare your favorite airports and navaids by simply tapping the “star” button on the left of the radio communication frequencies page.
The star is filled when the airport (or the navaid) is in your favorites list. Otherwise, it is empty. Tap the “star” button when it is filled to remove the airport (or the navaid) from the list.
Your favorites list can be opened at any time from the navigation view by double-tapping the screen.
The list is presented with 4 buttons in circle. So you can see 4 items at a time.
If you have more than 4 favorite items, turn the bezel of your watch to change the page. Labels show you the direction for turning the bezel to go the next or the previous page.
Just tap one of the buttons to directly open the airport (or navaid) information page.
Tap the “Cancel” button to close the favorites list and return to the navigation view.
The selection of an airport (or navaid) in the favorite list doesn’t move the navigation view to this airport (or navaid). The navigation view is always linked to the current GPS location.
All the recent airport information pages opened can be displayed again directly using a recent list.
The recent list can be opened at any time from the navigation view by double-tapping the screen.
If you want to enter a new code, tap the center button named “Enter new code”.
Just tap one of the buttons to directly open the airport information page.
Tap the “Cancel” button to close the recent list and return to the navigation view.
The app keeps only 4 recent airports. The list is not saved when you quit the app.
You can enter the ICAO code of any airport available in your current map or the ID of any navaid available in your current map.
The smart keyboard can be opened at any time from the navigation view by double-tapping the screen.
If you have favorites, tap the center button named “See most recent” (if your recent list is not empty) then the button “Enter new code”.
The smart keyboard is composed of
- 26 buttons spread all around the screen,
- one field where the code is displayed as you enter letters,
- one red button to cancel the latest letter
- and one button named “Cancel” to directly return to the navigation view.
To select a letter, you can tap any button or turn the bezel of your watch and tap the big letter on the top.
The keyboard is smart because it activates only the letters which are available in the current airport and navaid map for the next character of the code to enter. White buttons contain available letters. Black buttons contain unavailable letters. When there are no choices for a character of the code because only one letter matches, the keyboard selects this unique letter and ask for the next letter. Note that if there are still no choices for the next characters, it repeats the automatic selection of the letter till the end of the code or the next multiple choice.
When the letters match a known code, the field becomes green. Just tap this field to confirm your input. It will open directly the airport (or navaid) information page for this code.
This function highlights the airport of your choice in the navigation view. Airport is shown in magenta in the navigation view. An orange arrow appears in this view too. It aims the selected airport like a RMI pointer (but using GPS coordinates).
The airport bearing and ICAO code are displayed at the bottom of the navigation view. You can tap the ICAO code to open directly the airport information page.
The GOTO function without course can be activated at any time by tapping the ‘GOTO’ button on the frequencies page of any airport.
When it is activated, this button is transformed into a ‘NOGO’ button to cancel the GOTO function.
If you activate the GOTO for an airport which is not the current GOTO destination, it becomes the new GOTO destination. No need to cancel the previous GOTO to activate a new one.
When GOTO is activated, a new indicator is available in the background of the navigation view: the estimated remaining time to destination. It gives in minutes the duration of the flight
from your current position to the airport. This information requires the speed to be available.
The GOTO button of the radio communication frequencies page activates the GOTO mode without CDI on the navigation view. The arrow will simply point the destination. To get the CDI feature, use the GOTO button of the course selection page or choose a course in this page.
The GOTO function adds a new layer in the navigation view when the rotating bezel of your watch is used. If you continue to turn the bezel counter-clockwise when the
view range is 40Nm, the airport map and the land map will fade out and only the GOTO arrow will be visible.
When you select a course with the course selection page (see course page), the arrow is magenta and is composed of a segment which can shift to the left or to the right depending on the current aircraft deviation from the selected course: it is the course deviation indicator (aka CDI). White dots are displayed to give you the deviation scale. Each dot is 2 degrees of deviation. The full scale is 10 degrees on each side of the course.
At the bottom of the navigation view, in addition to the destination code, 2 more fields will be displayed:
- the selected course
- the FROM/TO flag
Since the version 3.0, the GOTO function has two modes :
- The “PgW” mode : the magenta arrow moves as an RMI pointer. It is not fixed to the selected course. This is the only mode available in the PgW Navigation App before the version 3.0. This mode is a combination of a standard RMI and the CDI of an HSI (the position of the needle always gives the direction you have to take to join the route). A yellow mark on the compass shows the selected course.
- The “HSI” mode : the magenta arrow is fixed and shows the selected course. It is a true HSI mode. It can be used along with the new RMI pointers. This mode is available with the version 3.0 (see the settings menu) .
By tapping the ICAO code of the GOTO destination at the bottom of the navigation view, you will directly open the “course select” page for the destination (airport or navaid).
In this page, the selected course will be highlighted with a label having a magenta background (it can be a runway or the OBS value).
You can change the course by tapping a new runway in the graphic.
You can also cancel the GOTO mode by tapping the bottom button “NOGO”.
Here is an example of the behavior of the GOTO indicator during a flight (in PgW mode):
The red route is computed when the GOTO is activated (the black point). The destination is the blue point.
At the beginning, the aircraft is heading directly to the destination.
At the middle of the route, the aircraft has deviated from 2 degree to the left of the route.
At the end of the route, the aircraft has deviated from 5 degrees to the right of the route.
The body of the needle of the GOTO indicator reflects the deviation.
The unit of some measures can be changed to fit your regional units.
To change the units of measures, you need to install the free app PgW Converter. This application is the common interface designed to select the units for all the PgW applications.
The selection of the unit is applicable to the following measures:
- distances,
- altitude,
- temperatures in METAR page
- pressure in METAR page
- visibility in METAR page
- speed
This application can be run directly from the Pilot Gear Watch watchface. When this application is installed on your watch, the PgW watchface will show a new button
in its menu in flight mode. This button launches the Pilot Gear Watch navigation app directly so you can use both applications without changing your shortcuts or using the
standard Samsung Galaxy Watch application menu.
See the User Manual of the PgW watchface.
