News

The new Stratus weather receiver generated a lot of interest at the recent Sun 'n Fun Fly-in in Florida. One of the questions that comes up first is, "when will my area get ADS-B coverage?" The good news is that the FAA is rapidly building out the ADS-B ground network, and 16 ground stations just went live.

The FAA originally stated that on April 1 they would begin charging pilots for digital chart data. That date has come on and gone, and there is still no system in place for them to collect the fees. Read on learn the latest about the FAA's plan.

Sporty’s has introduced the Stratus, a portable weather receiver specifically made for the iPad. It combines an ADS-B and GPS receiver into a single unit that wirelessly streams NEXRAD radar, text weather, TFRs and aircraft position to the popular ForeFlight Mobile app for iOS devices.

Sporty's Pilot Shop has offered training courses for over 20 years, beginning with VHS tapes and then DVD and online training products. Last week, the company introduced the latest version of its course, and for the first time there is a dedicated app for iPad/iPhone. Let's take a look at some of the features.

Apple today announced a new iPad model, featuring significant improvements to the device's hardware. The most notable feature is the new Retina display, which now has a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels - four times that of the iPad 1 & 2.

While you might think the military would be pretty skeptical of consumer technology like the iPad, the reverse is actually true. The US Air Force has just awarded a contract to buy up to 18,000 iPads for use by their pilots worldwide.

The big new feature in this update is the new Documents tab. Tapping this brings up an impressive catalog of FAA documents--everything from the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge to the legend pages from approach plate books.

Sporty’s now offers a free app for the 2012 International Women in Aviation Conference to be held in Dallas, Texas, from March 8-10, 2012. Get instant access to show schedules, seminars, travel information and exhibitors on your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Pilots in Europe have, until now, not had the full-featured aviation apps that US pilots have come to love. There simply is no WingX or ForeFlight equivalent. But the latest iPad app from SkyDemon may change that.

Last week Garmin released a big update to their popular Pilot My-Cast iPhone/iPad app, and most notably added support for XM Satellite Weather.