Padpilot E vs IFR Trainer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Padpilot E
Access assigned or purchased educational books. This reader allows students to engage with digital learning materials provided by their aviation training organization or bought directly.
- Access assigned books
- Purchase books
- Digital learning materials
- Aviation training content
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Padpilot's E-Reader provides access either to those Padpilot books that have been assigned to you by your ATO, or purchased by you.
IFR Trainer
Master holding patterns for your instrument rating exam with realistic, randomized scenarios. This app focuses solely on direct, teardrop, and parallel entries, providing step-by-step guidance and visual aids for quick learning and improved retention.
- Direct, Teardrop, Parallel entry identification
- Step-by-step entry procedures
- Timing, wind corrections, and adjustments
- Visual sector diagrams
- Randomized scenarios
- Timed quiz mode
- Progress tracking
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The needle starts moving and you freeze. Direct, parallel or teardrop? Intercept the radial before you blow through it, or fly a DME arc without ballooning off the circle? IFR Trainer drills the three maneuvers that trip up instrument rating students until they stop feeling like maneuvers at all — before you burn a cent of Hobbs time proving it in the airplane. THREE MODES, ONE APP Hold Entry Trainer Read the heading, the inbound radial and the turn direction, then call the entry: Direct, Parallel or Teardrop. Wrong guess? See exactly why, on a clear 3-sector diagram with a ±5° tolerance for the boundary cases that trip up every student once. Then fly the holding pattern itself, by hand, on a live HSI/CDI — scored on time in the pattern, maximum deviation and fix crossings. Easy mode is calm air. Hard mode adds crosswind drift, the way it actually shows up on a checkride. Radial Interception Pick your inbound or outbound radial, set your own intercept angle, add wind if you want the real challenge, and track the needle to centered. IFR Trainer scores how long you hold the course inside a tight tolerance corridor — not just whether you got there once. DME Arc Fly a constant-distance arc around a DME station: adjustable radius from 6 to 16 nautical miles, your choice of sweep angle, clockwise or counterclockwise, wind on or off. Keep the station abeam and the DME needle pinned — the maneuver most instrument students only fly twice before their checkride. ALSO FREE Timed Exam — 10 questions, 20 seconds each, the same clock-pressure as an oral. Stats & History — every attempt logged, so you can watch your accuracy climb instead of guessing whether you're actually improving. BUILT FOR Instrument rating students working the ACS. Private pilots moving up to IFR. Instrument-rated pilots who haven't flown a DME arc in a year and want to stay sharp before a flight review. CFIIs who need a fast, repeatable drill for a lesson instead of redrawing hold diagrams on a whiteboard. Three instrument skills most flight training apps split across three separate downloads — holding pattern entries, VOR radial interception, and DME arc procedures — live here in one place, with a live moving map and real HSI/CDI instrumentation instead of static diagrams. DESIGNED LIKE A COCKPIT Dark interface built for a kneeboard, not a toy. No account, no setup screens between you and the next attempt. Full VoiceOver support reads your flight instruments aloud, with full Dynamic Type — built for pilots who actually use accessibility features, not as an afterthought. Free to start. Remove ads with a one-time purchase, or unlock every mode for life — no subscription required to train. Know the entry. Own the radial. Nail the arc. Walk into your instrument rating checkride having already flown every maneuver on it. PRIVACY Your training history stays on your device. Purchases handled securely by Apple. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://github.com/fourniermarien/HoldingPattern/blob/main/PRIVACY_POLICY.md
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: IFR Trainer at 100% against Padpilot E's 21%. IFR Trainer also leads on rating (4.6 vs 1.5) and update cadence (weekly vs monthly). Padpilot E's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ads (none vs shown). On price and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. IFR Trainer sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Padpilot E asks for nothing beyond the download.
IFR Trainer holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 1.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 7 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 21% of Padpilot E's written reviews are positive against 100% of IFR Trainer's.
Padpilot E ships an update monthly, IFR Trainer weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Padpilot E | IFR Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.5 (2 ratings) | 4.6 (7 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 21.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 7 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 61 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Padpilot Limited | MARIEN ANTOINE ALEXANDRE FOURNIER |
Customer experience
Padpilot E
IFR Trainer
In-app purchases
Padpilot E
No in-app purchases
IFR Trainer
- Holding Pattern Pro Monthly3 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Holding Pattern Pro$2.99









