Search Results for: foreflight

The battle has raged a long time between useful, inexpensive, portable, non-certified devices and panel-mount certified instrumentation. In practice, weve long used non-certified portables for navigation and we havent been falling out of sky in swarms.

Many of us just seem to need the latest gadgets. But others fly quite successfully with nothing on their laps but a chart and just conventional VOR navigation in the panel. Both ends of this technology spectrum are valid and which one is appropriate for you depends a lot on your type of flying, your skill and your level of comfort with the latest technology.

I made up my mind to sell my house at that fancy Florida fly-in community the day a joker from the homeowners association scoffed at my Skyhawk and asked, You flew all the way from Chicago in that thing?

For many, the cockpit weather product of choice is SiriusXM Satellite Weather (XMWX). Thats partly because of Garmins highly popular line of GPS portables with optional satellite XM receivers. That started with the GPSMAP 396 in 2002 and continues with the current aera series and GPSMAP 696. Theres also the GDL 69-an XMWX receiver compatible with most Garmin panel-mount devices. As dominant as Garmin and SiriusXM are in datalink weather, there are other choices. …

Reference Fred Simonds article Need Datalink? in the May 2014 issue. We first put datalink into our Bonanza about a dozen years ago after being stuck for a few extra days by weather. We had a post-mounted StratoCheetah by Echo Flight that used the Iridium satellite system. It worked reasonably well but was intrusive. Next a panel upgrade included the, then, UPSAT MX-20 with WSI datalink FIS. This is what we still use today in contrast to the XMWX system mentioned as the only available system in the article. There are some differences in the data and presentation, but the WSI receiver provides most of the same information as XM systems I have used.

Conditions were about 600 overcast, visibility four miles in haze as I prepared to depart the Santa Maria Public Airport/Capt G. Allan Hancock Field (KSMX) in Santa Maria, Calif. I was flying a well-equipped Beechcraft A36 Bonanza sporting a Garmin 530/430 stack and a Honeywell KFC225 autopilot/flight director—the airplane and configuration with which I’m most familiar and current.

Check out AOPA’s first regional fly-in event, which was a huge success and garnered surprising attendance numbers.

Flight Data Systems has introduced two ADS-B receivers designed for portable devices and experimental airplanes. Like Sporty’s Stratus and Garmin’s GDL 39, the portable Pathfinder provides subscription-free, real-time weather and traffic through the ADS-B system, a network that the FAA recently announced has been completed across the country. The Pathfinder, which is a single-band, 978 […]

In the third week of November 2011, a Rockwell 690 made a night VFR round trip from Safford in eastern Arizona to Falcon Field in Mesa, just east of Phoenix. On the return leg, the pilot turned right immediately after taking off from Falcon’s Runway 04R, remained at 4,500 feet until emerging from under Phoenix […]

In their older years, my parents were cheapskates. When I visited them in their Southern Texas retirement community, they always were delighted to share their favorite places, those with senior discounts, dollar-breakfast specials and cheap all-you-can-eat buffets. The same proved true when buying unleaded: I thought it odd they would drive six miles round-trip to save $0.05 a gallon. After my father filled his tank, I asked how much he had put in. Twelve gallons, he answered; he just saved 60 cents. I pointed out it took us 15 minutes to save 60 cents, so he was paying himself about $2.40 an hour…just a little observation. His answer was: 1) he’s retired, so he likes saving money, 2) polite people keep their math to themselves, and, 3) nobody likes a smart ass.