Flight Data Viewer for MGL Devices

[XenosN42]

Hello everyone,

The peak flying season is here with many first flights taking place every few weeks or so. Thought it would be a good time to remind those pilots/builders that use MGL devices about the Flight Data Viewer application.

The ‘Flight Data Viewer’ is an application that allows you to easily extract, view, analyze and archive primary flight and engine performance data recorded by ’MGL Avionics’ EFIS and engine monitoring systems. For a quick summary view this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82WYZXPpCoc&feature=youtu.be

The application has some great features such as analyzing cylinder temperatures to verify that dual ignition timing is correct and calculating climb rate (Vx and Vy). In a few weeks we’ll be adding a feature to analyze take off performance. Here’s a look at that work in progress.



The ‘Flight Data Viewer’ has been used by many pilots on all types of aircraft around the world.

Sonex aircraft with Aerovee and Jabiru engines
Lancair 360 with Lycoming IO360 engine
RV-6A with O-36 fuel injected engine
DynAero with Rotax 914
A twin engine Defiant
Classic airframe with a 9 cylinder M14P radial engine

The application runs on Windows and recently we’ve proven that it also run on Mac OS 10 using Parallels.

Take a look. Buy a copy. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Michael

[Rynoth]

Thank you for this! I just started my flight testing and am trying to wrap my head around what my MGL iEfis Discovery Lite can do for me with data recording. I will dive into this and will probably have some questions soon.

[XenosN42]

Hi Ryan,

Shoot any questions my way. You can also look at my web site: http://www.JASFlyer.Com. There is a FAQ page with links to videos that may answer some of your questions.

-- Michael
'Flight Data Viewer'
OneX N169XE
AeroVee 2.1
MGL Explorer iEFIS

[Onex107]

When the flight recorder worked in my Extreme it was great. You could graph every variable. But, the data recorder stopped recording. It is set for automatic recording at low rpm's and air speeds. Even a new data card didn't solve the problem. Any ideas?

[XenosN42]

Hi,

There are a few things you can experiment with to determine what is wrong:

First recheck that the system hasn't lost the recording configuration. The correct settings are shown in section 4.13 of the manual. If that is set correctly then try this next.

From the image of the XTreme on MGL's web site it looks like it uses a large SD memory card. Those cards have a very small switch that can be set to make the card read only. Check the switch. If you're not sure which position is read only you can insert it into a computer and try to create a small text file on it. If that's not the problem try this next:

Set the EFIS to only record data manually, instead of the automatic flight detect. I've seen some cases where the EFIS doesn't correctly recognize the flights start and skips the recording.

If that doesn't work I suggest you contact Matt at MGL tech support. They've always gotten back to me. Sometimes takes a few days, but I've always gotten an answer.

-- Michael
'Flight Data Viewer'
OneX N169XE
MGL Explorer iEFIS

[XenosN42]

Hello everyone,

Information for anyone who is currently flight testing their MGL EFIS equipped Sonex. A new takeoff performance analysis tool has been added to the ‘Flight Data Viewer’. Take a look at this video demo: https://youtu.be/9mpSuvhGlC4

[WannaFly]

When the flight recorder worked in my Extreme it was great. You could graph every variable. But, the data recorder stopped recording. It is set for automatic recording at low rpm's and air speeds. Even a new data card didn't solve the problem. Any ideas?

One thing that got me.... You have to have the "enigma.rec" file already on the sd card. After I recorded my first flight I transferred everything on the card and deleted it....couldn't get the data of the extreme ever again....I was forced to read the manual and found it in there somewhere...

[XenosN42]

When the flight recorder worked in my Extreme it was great. You could graph every variable. But, the data recorder stopped recording. It is set for automatic recording at low rpm's and air speeds. Even a new data card didn't solve the problem. Any ideas?

One thing that got me.... You have to have the "enigma.rec" file already on the sd card. After I recorded my first flight I transferred everything on the card and deleted it....couldn't get the data of the extreme ever again....I was forced to read the manual and found it in there somewhere...

Hi Onex107

I'll keep that in mind for the future. I would have never even guessed that someone would delete that file.

In general I have always suggested, for any operating system (Windows, IOS, Linux, Android) - don't delete any files unless you know exactly what they are for and you are 100% positive that deleting them won't have a negative impact. And even then, make a backup, delete the file, and if anything goes wrong, put it back.