GarminPilot or ForeFlight?

[patrolpilot]

Thanks for the info, David! I, too, wonder what changes Boeing will bring to ForeFlight. Having flown their products, I always found them way behind the avionics technology curve vs. the corporate jets I flew. Time will tell, and I will remain optimistic. For my patrol work, I don't think you can beat FF.

I'm up and flying with Garmin 210 interfacing with the 430W and FF. "Oh My!" is all I can say. There is no more knob twisting on the NAV side. It is making short work of IFR clearances change. I live and fly in a non-radar environment, so there is a lot of NAV work immediately after take-off and with approaches. I would say that the FF-210-430W interface reduces the workload by 90%.

My 337 uses a GTX330/GDL-82 as the out. It would have been nice if a GTX-335 or 345 had been installed to meet the requirement, but I, sure enough, understand funding the changes the previous owner needed to consider. That will all work out in the wash as I would like a second transponder as well and would keep what exists.

I use the Stratus 2S on the patrol plane. My 337 came with a Stratux by Merlin, and I didn't think much of it and planned to change it out with a current Stratus. However, after using the Stratux, I like it better than the Stratus. What I like best is the user interface through the IP and the ability to perform updates. Mine was near a decade behind, but it was easy to bring up to speed at no expense. With the ability to access the Stratux through the IP address in flight, it adds a second AHRS display via the iPads browser or even your phone.

I took a heck of a hit on patrol last Monday as I crossed a frontal line. It would have been helpful to look at the Stratux's G-meter to see how bad it was. That's not possible with the Stratus 2S.

When I bought the airplane, the Stratux was on the glare shield, up against the windscreen with the antennas flat against the glare shield. Very much a poor setup for reception and heat, especially from the defroster.

I found a 3D Printed suction mounted case (pictured) on eBay which has been outstanding. It pairs the EasyACC6000mah battery that came with the Stratus in separate, but joined boxes with cutouts for the cooling fan and any cables. I do run the Stratux off the battery and battery is always connected to USB power. I've run the battery and Stratux on Patrol, it does offer a full 4 hours of power and the four indicator lights sequence down with the remaining power. So, if the Skymaster power goes off line, the battery delivers power for four hours.

I did want to get the Stratux box off the window and ran into to some products from Open Flight Solutions. I purchase the remote GPS and Antenna Mounts along with the High Gain Antennas. My plan is to mount the 3D box on the side of the center pedestal. All the cables will be behind trim and panel overlays.

The latter part of this might have been better in an ADS-B In topic, but it seems timely here. I will post a picture of the OFS products once installed.

[Learjetter]

I have used Foreflight but keep a subscription to WingX.

[patrolpilot]

Hey Learjetter! I flew a 25B-CIII and 55 for 17 years!

To update my posts above, I'm sticking with FF and upgraded from the Performance to the Performance Plus. I'm also keeping the Stratux for now. I looked at several options but will keep it for now as I'm sinking enough into the airplane with this maintenance cycle.

I've been a bit "aggressive" asking support questions, by aggressive I mean constantly via email, as the documentation leaves out the details of a lot of features. The FF responses typically come within minutes, an individual answering my question. They always will point out more features, kind of an "if you like this, you will really like this" type of thing. That and getting ready to move into the C414A spurred on to the Performance Plus subscription.

I'm working on my CFII-ME add-on and having the performance of most ME aircraft available from FF is a plus.