Synthetic vision

[Rik]

Thanks, this is exactly what I wanted to know. Well other than who sells the gps for <$100  

[Hank]

Bad Elf GPS is pretty inexpensive and plugs into the bottom of the ipad. I've had good results in flight with my old Samsung wifi tablet builtin GPS and free Avare. If FF won't work, that's an alternative for much less outlay.

[jlunseth]

I have flown with an iPad with GPS for several hundred hours. Actually, I have been through the original iPad, an iPad3 and now have a 4. I have read that the GPS reception is not dependable, but I think those are all second or third hand reports. I can honestly say that I have never had it fail. I keep it on a knee board and maybe it gets a good look at the sky that way. I know it is fairly useless inside a commercial airline. You can buy an add on GPS puck instead of the built-in GPS. The cool thing about the GPS enabled iPad, aside from its uses in the aircraft, is that I can take a long trip somewhere, grab the rental car, but my destination in "Maps" and get specific turn by turn instructions from the same iPad that was telling me where to fly in the aircraft. Makes any trip seamless. I also have a Navionics software that does the same thing on the water.

[Jim Peace]

Bad Elf GPS is pretty inexpensive and plugs into the bottom of the ipad. I've had good results in flight with my old Samsung wifi tablet builtin GPS and free Avare. If FF won't work, that's an alternative for much less outlay.

NOTICE: iPad Users.

Do not upgrade to iOS8.3 if you use DUAL XGPS150/160, Bad Elf, and Garmin Glo* GPS. 

Apple's new iOS8.3 release has a bug in it that makes the DUAL GPS150/160, Bad Elf, and Garmin Glo GPS units inoperable. This affects all apps (and not just FltPlan Go or FltPlan Legacy). This is an Apple iOS8.3 issue, and not a problem with DUAL, Bad Elf or Garmin.   Apple has been made aware of this problem, and they will hopefully correct this in their next release. 

Please see the Apple discussion board at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6991643

    * Note Garmin has fixed the issue with a firmware update to 2.7. 

      Please consult Garmin on how to get Firmware 2.7 

 

Once again, it is a good practice not to update to a newer Apple iOS version, until it has been made public for at least several weeks.

[midlifeflyer]

Thanks, this is exactly what I wanted to know. Well other than who sells the gps for <$100  

 

A number of companies, the three most popular being Dual, Bad Elf and Garmin. There are a few others. An early entry was the GNS series from a German company. It was rock solid but a weird on/off switch mechanism upset a lot of people and the company fell out of favor. All are available on Amazon as well as other retailers. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a used one from a reliable source.

 

I think Bad Elf still sells a plug-in model at that price point. The others are Bluetooth enabled. Reports vary about things you plug into the iPad as opposed to things you toss on the glareshield

 

If you look at Garmin, you are looking at the Glo unit that is GPS-only; Garmin's more expensive ADS-B solution is for Garmin Pilot and Garmin's handhelds and is not compatible with anything else. 

 

If you want ADS-B weather as well and are going with ForeFlight, Stratus is your only option. Stratus includes GPS capability but with a catch - even that part of Stratus only works with ForeFlight. That means if Stratus is your sole source of GPS location data, you would not be able to get location data  on any other app without at least a WiFi connection (whether WiFi gives your app enough location data to be happy varies). 

 

That btw, is where my attitude toward having a WiFi-only iPad modifies a little. If you are going to go the Stratus route to start with, I think it may make more sense to spend the extra $100 on internal GPS for the iPad instead of yet another piece of external GPS hardware if you are going to use location services on the road with other apps.

[carusoam]

Another issue...

Sunlight sensitive iPads turn themselves off after being in the sun.

GPS receivers get shadowed when the iPad is down low (kneeboard style).

Something to keep in mind if going with the internal GPS or plug-in variety.

Nothing like looking at an IPad that is challenged by giving unhelpful data.

Nice to have...

ADSB-in, dual frequency (weather and traffic)

ADSB-out (triggers other plane's transponders)

WAAS based positioning source (helpful for real T/O landing distance measurements)

AHARS back-up attitude info (helps keep the clean side up while the vacuum AND electric systems are going awry)

Wi-fi or BT connected

Battery back-up, USB plug-in

I currently have a four year old Skyradar unit that works. Next one will likely be an installed version that does the entire list above...

Day dreaming of upgrades,

-a-