Using your iPad on a Caribbean flying trip

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Today you can confidently navigate the islands with everything you need right on your iPad, including geo-referenced VFR and IFR en route charts, airport and airspace databases, synthetic vision and even ADS-B weather in certain spots. Here we're going to take a closer look at the ForeFlight Mobile and Garmin Pilot, since they offer the most comprehensive resources for Caribbean-bound pilots.

Annual maintenance checklist for your iPad

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Pilots trust the iPad because it is easily the most reliable and functional tablet available today. Even with this reliability, it's important that you periodically take time and dive deeper into your iPad's settings, apps and accessories to make sure everything is configured properly to ensure peak performance. Here's a list of tasks you should consider performing once a year to keep it running at peak performance.

Using ForeFlight’s new 3D view

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ForeFlight version 11 is now available, and it includes a number of interesting additions as usual. For Performance Plus and Business Performance subscribers the new 3D airport preview tool is the most interesting. Here's how to use it.

Garmin Pilot: How to use the document viewer and advanced weather products

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Garmin Pilot is one of the most advanced and capable aviation apps available to pilots today, but it can be challenging at times to keep up with all that it can do. Here are 3 quick video tips to show how to use the new Document viewer, Model Output Statistics (MOS) weather forecast and storm cell movement.

Use iPad audio to make your flying safer

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The iPad is an engaging visual tool, but many pilots forget about its many audio uses. Especially for those pilots who worry about spending too much "heads-down" time with the iPad, it's worth understanding how apps use audio to make flying more efficient and safe. Let's look at some of the options, and how to set up an audio connection to your headset.

Using all the features in the ForeFlight Edit box

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ForeFlight offers one of the most comprehensive set of flight management features, accessible from the Edit section of the Route Editor on the Maps page. This small, but feature-rich drop-down window allows you to enter aircraft performance data, enter/modify flight plans, add arrival/departure and instrument approach procedures to your route.

How to use pre-departure clearances and digital ATIS in ForeFlight

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Among its many updates late last year, ForeFlight added the ability to get pre-departure clearances (PDC) and digital ATIS (D-ATIS) via the app. We've used it on some recent flights and really like how much time and hassle it saves; at a busy Class B airport anything that saves calling clearance is a good thing. As easy as it is, though, there are a few important steps to follow. Here's a look at the process.

How to customize the Control Center on your iPad and iPhone

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The hidden Control Center screen remains one of the most useful features on iPhone and iPad, allowing you to quickly access commonly-used settings and apps. It's especially useful during iPad preflight, allowing you to quickly optimize wireless and network settings before takeoff without the need to leave your EFB app.

ADS-B Out installed? Check your system’s performance

While ADS-B Out avionics are pretty simple to operate (they're basically just upgraded transponders), it is important to ensure your system is working properly. Simply choosing the wrong setting during installation can lead to significant errors, and we've heard a number of stories where this has happened. Fortunately, it's free and easy to check.

Video tip: Using the iPad as your digital copilot

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Pilots have lots of flexibility when it comes to integrating the iPad into the cockpit. It can be especially helpful when flying single-pilot in challenging weather or in busy airspace, assisting you with IFR route planning, clearances, airspace alerts, traffic avoidance and surface monitoring while taxiing. 

Trying out ForeFlight’s new content packs feature

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Starting in version 10.6, ForeFlight now offers something like a modern version of the TripTik, although with an whole bunch of additional features. They call it Content Packs, and these allow pilots to import their own maps, waypoints, documents and even procedures.

Using Stratus to record and play back flights

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By default, Stratus 2, 2S, and 3 are always recording during flight, logging position, speed, altitude, and AHRS-driven attitude - up to 20 hours at a time. Once the flights are logged, there are a variety of options for playing back a flight. Let's review the options.