Comparison

Vane vs Pocket Cockpit

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Vane

Features
Read full description

Vane is a modern glass-cockpit E6B — the classic flight computer, reimagined for the way pilots fly today. Fourteen precise instruments in one fast, beautiful app, from preflight planning to the cockpit — and every calculator works offline. Every result is built on real aeronautical formulas and shows its work, so you can trust the number and understand it — ideal for student pilots training for the checkride and for working pilots who want the answer in one tap. — 14 PILOT INSTRUMENTS — • Wind Triangle — heading, ground speed and wind correction angle from wind and course • Crosswind — headwind and crosswind components for any runway • Weight & Balance — live CG and envelope check for every load • Nav Log — multi-leg cross-country planning with 48,000 airports built in • METAR & TAF — aviation weather decoded into plain language • Density & Pressure Altitude — your true performance conditions • True Airspeed & Mach — CAS, TAS and Mach from altitude and temperature • Fuel — burn, endurance, range and reserves • Performance — takeoff, landing, climb and glide distances • Heading — true, magnetic and compass with variation and deviation • Holding — entry, timing and hold planning • Top of Descent — when to start down for a smooth arrival • Altitude & Speed — pressure and density altitude at a glance • Conversions — every aviation unit: knots, nm, feet, °C, inHg, hPa and more — BUILT FOR THE COCKPIT — • Offline calculators — every airport, formula and table lives on your device; only live weather needs a connection • Show your work — open any result into clear, step-by-step math • Cold-temperature altitude corrections for IFR approaches, matching the AIM's ICAO table • Save calculations and reopen them anytime • 48,000 airports, runways and frequencies bundled in • Magnetic variation built in — no internet lookup — THREE COCKPITS — • Day, night and red night-vision themes to protect your eyes on late flights • Metric or imperial — your units, everywhere • A calm, high-contrast instrument panel designed to read at a glance Vane is made for student pilots, private pilots (PPL), commercial and airline pilots, CFIs and anyone flying VFR or IFR. Replace your plastic E6B and a pocket full of apps with one instrument. Fly prepared. Download Vane.

About

Pocket Cockpit

Features
Read full description

Pocket Cockpit turns your phone into a real flight instrument panel. Mount your phone in landscape, and Pocket Cockpit reads your device's GPS and motion sensors to drive a full set of aircraft style instruments: airspeed tape, altitude tape, vertical speed indicator, artificial horizon with pitch ladder and roll indicator, and a compass. Live instruments, real data Airspeed tape with a speed trend arrow, driven by GPS Altitude tape and vertical speed indicator (VSI), smoothed for a stable readout Artificial horizon with pitch ladder, bank angle scale, and a fixed aircraft symbol Compass ring with heading readout Two ways to fly the horizon By default, the horizon follows your phone's gyroscope, just like a real attitude indicator. Switch on car mode in settings and it switches to the accelerometer instead, so the horizon banks with cornering and braking forces, similar to a simple gyro less attitude indicator. That makes it fun to mount in a car and watch the horizon react to real driving. Pocket Cockpit doesn't need an internet connection and only uses your location on device, to power the instruments while the app is open.

Screenshots

Vane4 screens
Pocket Cockpit2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pocket Cockpit at none against Vane's 2. Vane's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Vane sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Pocket Cockpit asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard3 real differences Ā· 3 level
Vane versus Pocket Cockpit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVanePocket Cockpit
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyFortnightly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size50 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChirag AroraDaniel Bittner

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Vane

Subscriptions2
  • Vane Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Vane Pro - Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
None

Pocket Cockpit

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Vane free?
Vane is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pocket Cockpit free?
Pocket Cockpit is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Vane or Pocket Cockpit have ads?
Neither Vane nor Pocket Cockpit shows ads.

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