Entries by John Zimmerman

Top 12 tips for flying with Stratus

The Stratus ADS-B receiver has become the most popular weather receiver for the iPad. While the basics of operation are pretty simple, there are a few tips that can help you get the most out of your investment. Let’s review the top 12 most helpful things we’ve learned after a few hundred hours flying with Stratus.

5 Fltplan Go tips beyond the basics

Fltplan.com has been a popular flight planning website for over a decade, and their Fltplan Go app has steadily added features to become a powerful in-flight companion. Beyond the basics of moving maps and weather reports, there are quite a few features that make the app more powerful and easier to use. Here are five of our favorites.

Video: how to use SXAR1 and Stratus in the cockpit

There have never been more options for receiving and displaying in-flight weather on your iPad, including both SiriusXM (satellite-based and subscriptions) and ADS-B (ground-based and subscription-free). In a recent webinar, Sporty’s John Zimmerman and ForeFlight’s Scott Dennstaedt reviewed the most popular weather receivers for ForeFlight and shared dozens of tips for making safer in-flight weather decisions. The hour-long video also includes five real world scenarios that show datalink weather in action.

ForeFlight and SXAR1 – flight test report

About a month ago, ForeFlight introduced support for the SiriusXM Aviation Receiver, also called the SXAR1. We’ve had the chance to fly with it on numerous trips now, and overall we’ve found the SXAR1 to be reliable and useful. Here are some notes from a recent cross country flight.

Aerovie update shows how Apple Watch is slowly becoming useful for pilots

With the release of watchOS3, Apple’s latest operating system for the watch, performance has improved dramatically. Perhaps more importantly, app developers are giving the Apple Watch a second look, enhancing their watch apps with new features that are actually helpful. The latest example is Aerovie, maker of a popular Electronic Flight Bag app.

Trying out the surprisingly useful GPS Coordinate Converter app

No matter how sophisticated your avionics are, latitude and longitude still have a central place in aviation. As we’ve mentioned before, sometimes there’s no substitute for the good old lat/lon coordinates: for filing flight plans, creating user waypoints or programming an FMS. A new app, GPS Coordinate Converter, aims to make GPS coordinates easier to manage.

7 ways to get the most out of ForeFlight logbook

ForeFlight introduced a digital logbook feature late in 2015, and anecdotal evidence suggests it has been very popular. More and more pilots are using the app to log flights and track currency, but there’s more to this feature than just basic flight logging. Here are seven ways to get the most out of your new logbook.