Excellent tool, but NOT for US pilots

Was just informed by SkyDemon tech support that they have no intention of supporting US-based pilots. Strange, because they provide US maps, plates, etc. But there are several features that dont work at all for US, including NOTAMs and TFRs - a rather critical gap in flight planning coverage. SkyDemon also translates the METAR visibility data into meters and converts the altimeter settings into millibars - again useless for US pilots. This caused me to drop my rating for this app from 5 Stars to 3 Stars, because it listed in the US App Store, but isnt usable (at least for all its advertised capabilities) by US pilots!

OK, with those drawbacks clearly stated and out of the way, I have to say that Im really disappointed that I wont be able to use this as my primary flight planning tool. For those of you in Europe, this is probably the best app of its kind - an easy "5-Star" rating for the Euro pilots.

It provides the most complete planning capability, including fuel planning (with configurable reserves and a factor for "contingencies" that make it highly unlikely to inadvertently run out of fuel on any SkyDemon flight plan...

The ability to create multiple "cruise profiles" for your airplane (think different power settings and fuel burn rates) as well as climb/descent profiles means that SkyDemon can accurately tell you where to begin your climb (or descent) in order to be at the target altitude at the right time/place, and correctly predict the fuel requires to perform the flight.

During the planning cycle, you get warning when your enroute altitudes are below the minimum safe altitudes for that segment, and you can adjust individual segments accordingly.

The "profile view" lets you visualize the vertical flight parameters along your route, and jump immediately to a specific point on the "top-down" view to add a waypoint, or just to get a better perspective.

In summary, for Euro pilots, this could be the best tool around, and well worth the price of the software.

But if you are a US pilot, SkyDemon could be a useful planning aid, but you should NOT plan to rely on it as your primary software. Lack of US-based visibility and altimeter setting info in the translated METARs, lack of any TFR info, and zero availability of NOTAMs are a "fatal gap" in coverage that will force you into another tool.

The companys stated lack of interest in providing support for US pilots is a critical omission to me, and makes me wonder why SkyDemon is even listed in the US version of the App Store. I wonder if Apple even realizes that these folks have no intent to service and support US based users...

Jim-from-Texas about SkyDemon