WingX Pro adds trace routing feature

There’s no argument that competition has been a good thing in aviation, and nowhere has it been more evident than in the aviation app industry. The rapid growth in mobile apps has forced developers to rethink and reinvent how pilots accomplish basic tasks like flight planning and view aviation data in the air. WingX Pro has been one of the leading apps in this movement since the iPad hit the market and has released another big update last week continuing this trend.

WingX Pro version 8.5 introduces a new route planning feature called Traca™, which allows you to trace a route directly on the map with your finger to load. When finished, the app adds the airports and any waypoint coordinates directly in your flight plan. Pilots will find this helpful in quickly drawing routes around restricted airspace, obstacles, terrain or weather. In the air you can also use this feature to plan a re-route around weather – very helpful when flying with ADS-B weather during thunderstorm season.

To use this feature, select the Actions drop-down menu from the arrow in the upper right corner of the screen and select “traca” from the list of options. You’ll then need to select how you intend to use the feature from the menu:

• Airport to Airport: the current route will be replaced with the traced route. The start and end points of the route are automatically determined based on the traced route.
• Location to Airport: the current route will be replaced with the traced route. The app will use your current location as the starting point and the end point will be automatically selected as the nearest airport to the end point.
• As Drawn: the current route is replaced with the newly traced route.
• Re-route: the current route will be modified based on the newly traced route.

Once an option is selected, the route can be drawn on the moving map. The feature works well, but it would be a nice enhancement if there were an option to have the route “snap” to VORs or intersections as with rubber-band flight planning.

WingX Pro also adds a collection of additional improvements with this update:

• Now includes the full digital version of the Airport/Facility Directory (A/FD)
• Adds Flight, Fuel and Approach timers to the top of the moving map page
• The split-screen view width can now be changed with a small toggle at the bottom of the screen
• Adds support for the L-3 Lynx ADS-B system
• Adds native support for Bad Elf GPS (workaround for iOS 8.3 GPS bug)

The latest version of WingX Pro can be downloaded from the app store here.