Advanced Tips

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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. It's simple, but thoughtfully designed and very useful. Here's how to use it.

View the recording from the recent webinar from iPad Pilot News here. The presentation covered a wide range of practical topics on flying with the iPad, like how to develop your own iPad standard operating procedures and how to use it effectively as a digital copilot.

Stratus 3 was released over the summer and for the first time offered compatibility with apps like FltPlan Go, WingX Pro, FlyQ and Aerovie, in addition to ForeFlight. Here we'll show the steps required to connect it to Aerovie and how to access the ADS-B weather products in the app.

There's little question that the digital chart revolution and subscription-free ADS-B weather led to the iPad's success in aviation. But in addition to weather, today's iPad apps can also provide you with a wealth of data to assist in fuel planning.

ForeFlight's 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 weight & balance calculation.