WingX Pro adds support for the Pebble smartwatch

2 min read

The current technology trends are shifting towards “wearables”, which are electronic devices that you wear on your head, wrist or other parts of your body to collect data and display information. Today these are taking the form of smartwatches, eye glasses and other sensors that communicate wirelessly over Bluetooth with your iPad or iPhone when running a supported app. This allows you to view information from your app in a more convenient location, like on a watch or with Google Glass.

The Pebble smartwatch will soon be able to display aviation data from the WingX Pro app in flight.

Garmin was the first to release a dedicated aviation smartwatch with the D2 pilot watch, which integrates nicely with the Garmin Pilot app. WingX Pro announced today that they are also adding smartwatch compatibility, but they’re approaching it differently than Garmin. WingX will soon integrate with the Pebble Smartwatch, a universal device designed to work with a wide variety of Android and iOS apps.

After downloading the yet-to-be-released WingX Pro Pebble app from the Pebble app store to your watch, you’ll be able to display several pieces of aviation data on your smartwatch. The Pebble watch does not have an internal GPS like the Garmin pilot watch though, so you’ll still need an iPhone or iPad with WingX installed for it to work properly. WingX Pro7 for Pebble will be able to display the following information:

GPS Speed, Track, Altitude, and WAAS flag
Estimated Time Enroute (ETE), Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA), Desired Track (DTK), and
Distance (NM or SM) simultaneously to the next waypoint and the destination
Battery indicators for both the Pebble and the iPad or iPhone
A configurable timer for timing fuel or instrument approaches

WingX Pro7 for Pebble provides four types of vibration warnings to the pilot:

The timer has expired – useful for timing fuel tank changes or instrument approaches
When passing a fix in the route – to prevent pilots from missing a turn or a step-down
Pre-selected altitude warning – helpful in preventing pilot deviations
Upon descending below 1,000’ above field elevation – before-landing checklist reminder

WingX Pro7 for Pebble runs on Pebble and Pebble Steel and will be in the Pebble app store later this month. The March update of WingX Pro7 for iOS is required, which has not been released yet.