Advanced Tips

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.

One of the most under-appreciated features of the iPad is its fantastic battery life. But there are a number of things you can do to improve the performance of your iPad battery and keep it in top working condition.

Even with all of our modern aviation databases, sometimes you just can't beat a lat/lon coordinate. Let's review the basics of latitude and longitude and the different types of coordinates. Which one works on your iPad?

In addition to weather, today's iPad apps can also provide you with a wealth of data to assist in fuel planning. There are a lot of variables that come into play here, including winds aloft, airplane performance, airport service availability, and of course fuel prices. Here we're going to look at series of tips to help you use your iPad to make the most of this decision-making process and reduce your fuel expenses.

Here we're going to show you how to use chart annotations in several apps and offer tips on how to make make the most of them during your flying. They can really come in handy.

There are certainly important differences in how features are implemented in different apps, but there haven't been many truly new app features over the last year. One exception is Garmin's Emergency Mode, which was released this summer. It's simple, but thoughtfully designed and very useful. Here's how to use it.

The number one question we get on using an iPad for charts is whether it is “legal” for aviation use. The definition of “legal” depends on what type of flying you do and what you’re using your iPad for, so there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. To shed some light on the topic we've created a flow chart to help guide you through the process based on your flight operation.

The most recent iOS 11 software update for iPad and iPhone has been a success by all standards, with no major bugs reported since the public release. With that being said, there a few caveats pilots should be aware of after updating to iOS 11, related to GPS and the wireless controls in the new Control Center.

ForeFlight's helpful weight and balance tool allows you to quickly analyze last minute loading changes and will alert you if any parameters are outside your airplane's envelope. To help you get going we'll show you how to use this feature to create a custom aircraft profile and work through a typical calculation.

The Garmin Pilot app has become so feature-rich that it can be tough to keep up with all of its capabilities. A few of our lesser-known favorites are the Freehand™ route planning tool, personal minimums, minimum weather requirement warnings and the Nearest map utility. Here is a series of video tips showing how to use each one on your next flight.