Nav Trainer Pro vs Visual Holding Pattern
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Nav Trainer Pro
Practice aviation navigational equipment on your mobile device. Simulates VOR, HSI, RMI, ADF, DME, and ILS navigation. Ideal for student pilots, instructors, and flight simulator enthusiasts to improve IFR orientation skills and situational awareness.
- Simulates VOR, HSI, RMI, ADF, DME, and ILS navigation
- Dual navigation displays
- VOR/NDB trainer screen
- ILS trainer
- DME visualization screen
- Test mode for situational awareness
- Drag and drop aircraft and nav fix
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Selected by AOPA.org readers as number one of five aviation apps you can't live without! * ***** Reached No. 4 in the Navigation category of the U.S. app store for iPad! ***** Make IFR flight training easier! Practice the use of aviation navigational equipment on your mobile device. Simulates VOR, HSI, RMI, ADF, DME and ILS navigation. A must have tool for any CFII, student and instrument pilot! -Students and pilots: improve your understanding of radio instrument navigation at the comfort of your own mobile device. -Instructors: demonstrate complex IFR concepts to your students from bird's-eye view while on the ground. -Also suitable for flight simulator enthusiasts. Used in classrooms, one-on-one ground sessions and by individuals to improve their IFR orientation skills. -------------------------------------- -user reviews (from all markets) ***** Great to study instruments and saves lots of $$$!!!" "***** I have been looking for an app such as this to teach my students" "***** Before I used this app all this VOR orientation was so complicated, and now it's clear as ice!" "***** Easy to use, perfectly designed and helping to understand basic navigation stuff. Highly recommended for student pilots, instrument applicant and CFI's." - Improve your situational awareness under IFR. - Save time and money on your instrument and initial flight training. - Prepare for your instrument rating or proficiency check. - Test your NAV situational awareness with the test mode. - Flight instructors: the perfect tool to help you easily explain and demonstrate complex radio navigation concepts to your students. ***Features:*** -Dual navigation displays. -VOR\NDB trainer screen: Simulates VOR and NDB navigation using VOR, HSI, ADF and RMI displays. -ILS trainer with both VOR and HSI displays. -DME visualization screen - demonstrates how DME slant range distance is affected by ground distance and altitude. -Test mode - generates phantom aircraft around the navaids. Your goal is to find the correct aircraft position. -Drag and drop the aircraft and nav fix around the screen. -Fly! mode - Make the airplane fly around the screen. great for practicing intercepting and tracking courses. -Wind direction & velocity control. -Aircraft tracing (contrail mode). -Accelerator support for aircraft control. How to use: -Select the various instruments by double-tapping their dials. -Toggle VOR sectors visualization on/off. -Auto tune OBS by pressing the OBS knob. -Auto turn the aircraft towards the nav fix by tapping the aircraft symbol. Double tap will turn the aircraft toward NAV station #2 -Change aircraft headings by flicking your finger over the heading indicator. -Tune the OBS by dragging your finger around the HSI/VOR displays or over the OBS knob. --------------------------------------- The developer is a Gold Seal CFI/CFII/MEI and part 121 airline pilot --------------------------------------- For comments, feature requests or bug reports, if you have the app, please take the survey at http://bit.ly/hCAqgF * (https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2013/february/26/five-more-aviation-apps-you-cant-live-without) **If you experience any problem with the app, please contact me before leaving a review and I will do my best to solve it for you.**
Visual Holding Pattern
This app offers a visual guide for pilots to determine correct holding pattern entry techniques. It allows for easy rotation of the holding pattern and aircraft heading to visualize the approach, with manual or automatic heading input.
- Visual holding pattern reference
- Determine entry techniques
- Rotate holding pattern
- Match aircraft heading
- Manual heading input
- Automatic heading input
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The Visual Holding Pattern provides a complete visual reference to help you determine the proper holding pattern entry technique based on your aircraft's heading and the holding pattern's inbound leg course. With a single finger rotation a pilot can easily orientate the holding pattern around a holding fix based on the inbound leg's desired bearing, radial, or course. The entire circular image can be rotated to match the aircraft's heading to allow the pilot to visualize the aircraft's approach to the holding pattern. The aircraft's heading can either be set manually or automatically based on the magnetic heading of the iDevice being used. This app is designed for optimal viewing and use on an iPad or iPhone 5 screen size or larger. This app requires iOS 8.0 or greater.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Visual Holding Pattern at $0.99 against Nav Trainer Pro's $8.99. Visual Holding Pattern also leads on iOS requirement (8.0 vs 11.0). Nav Trainer Pro's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 9 months) and review sentiment (74% vs 63%). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Nav Trainer Pro costs $8.99 and Visual Holding Pattern $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.9 for Nav Trainer Pro against 3.9 for Visual Holding Pattern. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 37 and 12 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 74% of Nav Trainer Pro's written reviews are positive against 63% of Visual Holding Pattern's.
Nav Trainer Pro ships an update every 3 months, Visual Holding Pattern every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Nav Trainer Pro | Visual Holding Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 3.9 (37 ratings) | 3.9 (12 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 73.6% of reviews — better | 62.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 37 — better | 12 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months — better | Every 9 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #169 | #102 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | FLEMINGER MEDIA LLC | Arthur Varrassi |
Customer experience
Nav Trainer Pro
Visual Holding Pattern
In-app purchases
Nav Trainer Pro
No in-app purchases
Visual Holding Pattern
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Nav Trainer Pro free?
Is Visual Holding Pattern free?
Which has better reviews, Nav Trainer Pro or Visual Holding Pattern?
Do Nav Trainer Pro or Visual Holding Pattern have ads?
Which is updated more often, Nav Trainer Pro or Visual Holding Pattern?
Which is more popular, Nav Trainer Pro or Visual Holding Pattern?
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