Getting a GPS, need opinions

OUTTIE

OUTTIE

Well-Known Member
So I'm in to get one of these and need opinions from people. Got some cash to burn from tax refund. If your a CFI, should you get Sporty's Stratus ADS box or a Bad Elf Pro? Need help on which to get. One will cost an arm and a leg and one will cost just an arm.

Thanks JC'ers!
 
Sporty's Stratus ADS box or a Bad Elf Pro?
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Apples and oranges.

One (Stratus) is a GPS/ADS-B receiver that only works with ForeFlight. The Bad Elf Pro is a GPS (not ADS-B) box will work with all iPad EFB apps.

What's your goal? What iPad EFB apps do you like? Are you looking for weather capability? Does your iPad have an internal GPS that is insufficient?
 
OUTTIE said:
So I'm in to get one of these and need opinions from people. Got some cash to burn from tax refund. If your a CFI, should you get Sporty's Stratus ADS box or a Bad Elf Pro? Need help on which to get. One will cost an arm and a leg and one will cost just an arm.

Thanks JC'ers!
Click to expand...

Honestly? If I were going to buy a handheld, or some electronic navigation accessory - I'd buy a 296, 495, or a 496. Yoke mounted GPS like this gives you moving map in a whole host of airplanes that don't otherwise have it, and is easy to plumb into the aircraft's electrical system for constant power. Ever airplane my company has has a handheld in it. If you have a complete and total electrical failure, you can even fly off of the tiny little "digital 6-Pack" that is included. Great system, approve very much.
 
I'd probably buy neither, save your money. I don't see you needing either as a CFI.
  • If you are instructing primary students, you should be teaching them to fly, and not messing around with gadgets.
  • If you are instructing instrument students, you should be teaching them to fly with what's in the aircraft.
I think iPad charts are great, seeing the little airplane right on the plate, good aid to SA. But students should really be learning SA without the digital aids first.
 
Drunkenbeagle I see your point and you're 100% correct on when you're instructing, but eventually he's going to get a student that wants to fly a 1000 mile trip or coast to coast sometime or he'll get a random ferry to BFE Louisiana and IPAD with all restricted areas, TFRs and notams right there in front of you the whole time is key to being safe and not getting violated. Plus with the real time weather you can get on it life gets pretty good in GA.

...but having said that, I have seen a decided downturn in quality preflight planning and a lot more just hop in and go attitudes.
 
Well I'm mainly using it for foreflight pro and don't have gps on it. Maybe once or twice in a while, probably do a 250 NM or so max XC trip. I don't need another portable garmin as the plane already have some 430s. THanks for the input.
 
Goldmember said:
Drunkenbeagle I see your point and you're 100% correct on when you're instructing, but eventually he's going to get a student that wants to fly a 1000 mile trip or coast to coast sometime or he'll get a random ferry to BFE Louisiana and IPAD with all restricted areas, TFRs and notams right there in front of you the whole time is key to being safe and not getting violated. Plus with the real time weather you can get on it life gets pretty good in GA.

...but having said that, I have seen a decided downturn in quality preflight planning and a lot more just hop in and go attitudes.
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I was under the impression that the weather was NOT truly realtime and should only be used for planning purposes and not in lieu of an actual radar.
 
OUTTIE said:
Well I'm mainly using it for foreflight pro and don't have gps on it.
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Then your choice is Stratus for $700-$900 (less for a used Gen 1) if you want en route weather and TFR updates or any of the iPad-compatible GPS units that run from less than $100 on up (don't need both; a Stratus includes a WAAS GPS).
 
killbilly said:
I was under the impression that the weather was NOT truly realtime and should only be used for planning purposes and not in lieu of an actual radar.
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You don't get ADS-B weather until you are in the air (the common report is about 1500' up) so, for planning purposes, a WiFi or 3G connection on the ground is even better.

The weather is subject to a delay - can be up to 15 minutes or so for radar. It's not on-board radar. But that just means to use it in-flight strategically to give storms a wide berth; never tactically to try to just skirt around or get through a line of cells.
 
I haven't read a good/reliable source of information on the data flow for ADS-B weather yet. Marketing stuff usually says "real time" but I haven't seen anything explain what that really means. What are the primary sources and how often are they updated? How is one advised of an outage or delay?

While I wouldn't want to try to navigate around thunder storms in IMC without good on-board radar... for basic SA and in-flight planning, I've been amazed at how good the Nexrad overlays I get via 3G on my Android tablet are. The precip areas, even the light showery stuff, have virtually always been dead on.

For that reason, the built in GPS receiver which gets good coverage 95% of the time and the 3G weather updates have been great for all my CFI'ing needs. Of course I'm usually in low flying singles within 8,000' AGL, so it works for me

I actually use digital weather quite often, much more than I would've thought.
 
rframe said:
I haven't read a good/reliable source of information on the data flow for ADS-B weather yet. Marketing stuff usually says "real time" but I haven't seen anything explain what that really means. What are the primary sources and how often are they updated? How is one advised of an outage or delay?
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Pretty basic information, but there's a table in the AIM describing the FIS-B weather products and their normal update period.

FIS-B Table.jpg

The outage/delay notifiation issue is, for the most part, left to the hardware/application. For example, ForeFlight has a small badge in the upper left below the flight plan bar that tells you when various overlay information was last updated by the app. The Stratus Box has an ADS-B indicator light that doesn't light up unless it's received an uplink signal within the past 3 seconds.
 
I had an Aera 560 which I gave to my Dad and purchased an iPad with Foreflight. The iPad is a lot more practical for me and works really well.
 
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