Portable/Handhelds

Garmin this morning launched a portable SiriusXM receiver designed for use with its handheld GPS navigators that the company says offers up an array of in-flight weather data that was previously available only to purchasers of higher-tier subscriptions. The new GXM 42 brings a full complement of weather information to the cockpit, including Nexrad graphics, […]

The march of integration at Garmin continues, and the latest piece in the high-tech toolbox is the company’s update of its portable datalink receiver, the GDL 39, which now tacks “3D” onto its name. The new box is identical in appearance to the previous model but boasts a high-quality solid-state attitude sensor to go with […]

The Garmin Pilot mobile app just got a whole lot better with the rollout yesterday of a portable Garmin ADS-B and WAAS GPS receiver with an integrated attitude sensor that greatly expands the application’s capabilities. Garmin says the new GDL 39 3D portable unit brings ADS-B traffic and weather information to the Garmin Pilot app […]

Perhaps the most interesting portable in our lineup is the SkyGuardTWX, a small and powerful ADS-B transceiver that combines a dual-band 978 and 1090ES receiver with an ADS-B transmitter. A free app lets you update the send information with your personal identification data, including your N-number, so other airplanes can see your info on their […]

There were products that came before it, but the Appareo Stratus was one of a couple of portable ADS-B receivers that set a new standard for the marketplace as an affordable, compact, reliable and high-performance model that integrated with a particular app (in the case of Stratus, ForeFlight) to give users excellent access to the […]

Aviators will have a chance to check out the inReach personal satellite communicator for the first time at AirVenture this week. Produced by DeLorme, a company that started producing maps in 1976 and has grown into the GPS and satellite communication business, the inReach was developed for outdoor enthusiasts, but its application in the aviation […]

Ever wished you could have synthetic-vision capability on your iPhone? Hilton Software, maker of the WingX Pro7 app for the Apple iPad, has just added support for the device, including 3-D synthetic-vision capability and optional AHRS and ADS-B integration. We haven’t had the chance to try it out yet, but company founder Hilton Goldstein says […]

(January 2012) I pulled the radar-detector-size electronic device from my flight bag, set it on the glareshield and frowned. Electrical and audio wires dangled across my lap as I plugged the first cord into the power receptacle on the far-right side of the cockpit and the others into my David Clark headset, which I then […]

All you wanted for Christmas may have been the new Garmin 750 for your airplane. If you were lucky enough to get the new touchscreen avionics or if you’d simply like to play around with the new system, you can at the very least try out Garmin’s new GTN 750 iPad 2 training app, which […]

The release by Apple of a new operating system for the iPad, iOS 5, has raised concerns among aviation app providers that pilots’ iPads might lose charts or even entire applications without the user’s knowledge. The issue has to do with Apple’s decision to let the new operating system delete files at its discretion if […]