Survey results

[Keith Baxter]

@Ralph

Please share the FB survey results here. Made some very interesting reading.

Keith

[Ralph]

They're in the newsletter, you can read the newsletter here: https://37wy7.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/mk/mr/ ... CSoW3KTTJQ

[Keith Baxter]

Thank you Ralph, Very nice news letter.

Might be an idea to have a "LOCKED" thread with all the back dated news letters and then to publish them here as well.

Keith

[JackZ]

I figured that it would be easier to publish here some extracts:
2020 Survey summary

Question 1 - Country of residence
More than 60 percent comes from English speaking countries. The main amount of our users comes from the US (38%), followed by the UK and Germany.

Question 2 - Age
86% of the respondents is older than 40, with the biggest group (29%) being between 50 and 59.

Question 3 - Do you have a pilot license
48% does not have a pilot license, but that means that 52% does. The majority of this 52% has a private pilot license. We are happy to see that also many real life pilots are using our software.

Question 4 - When did you first start using Air Manager?
As expected, 63% started using Air Manager from version 3.x. But we're glad to see that 37% is following us from version 1 and up.

Question 5 - Where did you find out about Air Manager?
45% found us on a forums, 35% found us on YouTube. With Russ Barlow being our main promoter.

Question 6 - How often do you use Air Manager?
This suprised us, 45% weekly and 26% daily. It is great to see that you are using our software that often.

Question 7 - What is your main use of Air Manager?
38% is using Air Manager for entertainment. But 33% is using Air Manager for flight training, and 26% has a mixed usage. We're happy to see that our software contributes to flight training so much.

Question 8 - Air Manager tablet version
Approximately 40% is using the tablet version of Air Manager as well. With iPad (74%) being the most used version.

Question 9 - What flight simulator do you mainly use?
Probably not surprising to see that 78% is using X-Plane. 14% is using Prepar3D. And to be honest, we are happy to see that only 5% is using FSX. We noticed that many respondents who filled in Other, are using DCS World. We will certainly start looking at DCS support for one of the Air Manager 4 versions.

Question 10 / 11 - What (type of) aircraft do you fly most in your sim?
The majority is flying general aviation aircraft, with the Cessna 172 being on the top of this list.

Question 12 - Do you plan to use Microsoft FS2020?
37% said definitely, 25% maybe and 19% said maybe. We expectd the number who said definitely to be greater, but this might change when FS2020 is released. 4% said: No way!

Question 13 - Which aircraft should Air Manager support in FS2020
We had this list limited to the aircraft that have a 'steam gauge cockpit'. 81% chose the Cessna 172, 12% chose the Robin DR400/100. This means we will probably start with the development of a Robin DR400/100 panel as well.

Question 14 - Which other aircraft should Air Manager support
We noticed that this question caused some confusion. We were trying to ask what other aircraft panels you would like to see us develop for Air Manager. It was a lot of work to filter trough all the different aicraft that were listed, and the results can be interpreted in different ways. The top 10:

Aircraft Votes
Boeing 737-800 70
Piper PA28 40
Airbus A320 37
Daher TBM900 models 20
Business jets 15
Bombardier Q400 12
Cirrus SR20 12
Pilatus PC-12 11
Mooney M20 9
Diamond DA40 6

Question 15 - Do you own a Knobster?
30% does, 70% does not. One of those 70% now belongs to the 30% by winning a Knobster.

Question 16 - Did you try KnobXP?
91% of the Knobster owners never tried KnobXP. Those who do not know about KnobXP can watch this video made by Russ Barlow. While your at it, make sure to subscribe to his channel, because he puts out a lot of interesting flight simulation videos.

Question 17 / 18 - Have you used Air Manager's Arduino support, and if not why?
27% is using the Arduino in combination with Air Manager, and 49% wants to in the future. We're happy to see so many people interested in the Arduino. 47% of those who want to try the Arduino in the future just hasn't got around to it, 28% doesn't know how. We hope to get many of those who do not already use the Arduino to use the Arduino, and make it easier for them, in 4.0.

Question 19 - Have you ever created a new panel in Air Manager?
79% has, but we still will try to make more pre-made panels.

Question 20 / 21 - Have you ever created your own instrument, and if not why?
68% hasn't, mainly because they think it is too dificult (55%). While scripting surely isn't for everyone, we will try to find ways to make it easier.

Question 22 - What feature would you most like to see added to Air Manager in the future?
We will have to sit down with this list and try to find the most common requests. Hopefully we can implement some of the requests into Air Manager 4.0 or a later 4.x version.

Question 23 - What do you think about Air Manager's current pricing?
We realize that our software isn't cheap. We were happy to see that most people think the pricing is a good value. I think we can say that we will increase the value and not the price.

Question 24 - Other comments
We also have to carefully go trough this list of comments. As we mentioned above, some people asked questions, or indicated that they were not 100% satisfied. We again urge those people to contact us, so we can help.

——————
Some personal comments:
1- For the DR400, some gauges already exist (had made some myself a long time ago, and I think that Gilles as well), and it won’t be overly complicated to add the gauges needed and adapt those to FS2020

2- I’m anxious to have more details about the question 22 (Most asked features)

3- The survey shows clearly the three types of customers I described in a long post about my thoughts for AM future development I published a long time ago.
These three categories are equally important, the “casual user” ones being probably the bigger one in terms of members, and I still believe that for the sake of AM, all the three categories of user should be considered in future developments.

For the first category of users (casual users with little to no intention of developing any instruments, due to lack of programming/graphics skills, among others), I have a couple of ideas that could ease their path through the use of AM. This post could be the good place to exchange about it.

Jacques

[Ralph]

Yes I can do that, I I'll search back on what we have.

[Keith Baxter]

I figured that it would be easier to publish here some extracts:
[
——————
Some personal comments:

2- I’m anxious to have more details about the question 22 (Most asked features)

For the first category of users (casual users with little to no intention of developing any instruments, due to lack of programming/graphics skills, among others), I have a couple of ideas that could ease their path through the use of AM. This post could be the good place to exchange about it.

Jacques

Ralph,
For me the sample size is also an indication. Was it 10, 20,50,100,1000??? not indicated

Jacques,
Another interesting one would be the percentage of "forum" members that asked for specific feature and also what features did the top 20 forum posters ask for.

This is interesting stuff and a good guidance to SI on their development path. Also gives us an indication when to push for a feature.

Keith

[Ralph]

Question 22 is something I have to still go trough, but I haven't found the time to do so.
But maybe I can make your day by saying that this is also because we're starting with the first bits of navigation, which is the database. That will be the first start, from there we're going to slowly expand the capabilities.

[Keith Baxter]

Youall just knew it was coming.

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[Keith Baxter]

Thank you for the news letter thread @Ralph

Keith