Portable/Handhelds

Stop by your favorite general aviation airport and you are likely to find pilots in a spirited discussion, defending the merits of low-wing versus high-wing airplanes, or north-up versus track-up on a moving-map display. It didn’t take long after the Wright brothers’ first flight for pilots to form strong opinions in aviation, and today you […]

If we’d written this story a few decades ago, the list of weather resources for pilots would have been rather short — a flight service station briefing either in person or perhaps by phone, and the evening weather report on TV or the radio. Pilots thought they’d really made progress when the direct user access terminal system […]

ForeFlight’s Sentry portable ADS-B receiver was the talk of Oshkosh after the product, developed in partnership with uAvionix, made its debut at AirVenture in July. A sister product to the Scout portable, Sentry adds a whole slew of additional features that can be accessed through the ForeFlight Mobile iPad app while also upping the price. For […]

Garmin has acquired Connecticut-based flight-planning, scheduling and trip-support services company Fltplan.com, a company many pilots rely on for a decidedly self-serving reason: Aviation charts and many features in the FltPlan Go app and Fltplan.com website are free while other app developers charge subscription fees. Garmin says that won’t change. FltPlan has risen to become one […]

Personal tracking devices like Garmin’s inReach Mini provide peace of mind not only to the person carrying it, but also to those who depend upon the inReach user. Weighing in at 4.23 ounces, the impact- and water-resistant device makes a perfect addition to any flight bag. Whether on the grid or off, the inReach Mini […]

A new version of the Garmin Pilot app for iOS out just in time for the start of the spring and summer flying season adds several new features that pilots should appreciate. Garmin Pilot Version 9.3 adds weather enhancements, airspace alerting, traffic display and runway extended centerlines, among other enhanced features. A new flight profile […]

Tracking devices can provide peace of mind for both pilots and family members, and, like most electronic devices, these portable units have become smaller as technology has progressed. Garmin recently introduced the inReach Mini, a pocket-size satellite communicator that is small enough to fit in a pocket and weighs only 3.5 ounces. The inReach Mini […]

ADS-B. It’s an acronym only an engineer’s mother could love. Three letters followed by a hyphen and another letter hanging off in la-la land. What does it stand for again? Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast. What in the world does that mean? Not only is ADS-B confusing, but it’s expensive too. When all is said and done […]

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 […]

At Sun ‘n Fun, Sporty’s and ForeFlight announced big enhancements to the Stratus 2 ADS-B receiver/AHRS unit. The Stratus 2 is a joint production of manufacturer Appareo, iOS app developer ForeFlight and founding partner Sporty’s. The new firmware for the Status 2 — there are no hardware changes — utilized a number of new strategies […]