Iowa Farm Boy

I've got an iPad 2 but need to get a GPS receiver. Which do you guys recommend- Bad Elf or the other, and why? Also FAA is requiring us to have a backup battery. I see all kinds available, any recommendations there?

Thanks in advance!

pilotgolfer

Sorry...the differences were quite obvious after looking at both apps.

pilotgolfer

I recently started using Jepp FD on an older ipad 1 with the 3G built in GPS. I have had a few questions come up:

1. The first day I used it, the GPS signal would be lost above 2000 feet. Tried it again a few days later and it worked just fine at all altitudes. Do the newer iPad 2 and 3 work better than the older 1 models?

2. When entering the route, I can't get it to accept a STAR. I entered it exactly as its listed on its title, but it isn't recognized. I had to manually type in the waypoints. Any way to fix this?

Thank you for any pointers. Would buying a new iPad correct all these problems?

BoilerUP

#1 - haven't had any GPS issues with my 16GB ATT 3G iPad 1; works great on ground, at 10,000' and FL450.

Jepp Mobile FD is buggy and VERY slow on my iPad 1 though, seems bloated (just like FlightDeck for Windows)

#2 - SID/STARs are not supported by Jepp FD at this time; they are saying "soon" for an update. We'll see...Jeppesen moves at somewhere between glacial and government pace for software improvements.

pilotgolfer

Thank you Boiler!

NowCorporate

Yes. We just replaced our iPad 1's with the new iPad just because of this.

Jepp FD was so slow we considered it unusable on the old units, now its fairly good - useable at least. Its still a terrible program IMO. Boiler nailed it with his comments on their innovation.

Also - very large PDFs are much easier to search through and read with the new iPad. Well worth the upgrade.

As far as Bluetooth GPS we have a "DUAL" brand unit. Works fine in a Falcon...not quite sure of the usefulness but it was cheap and provides a bit of entertainment on long legs I suppose...

Behay20

Has anyone used the Foreflight with the stratus ? Our flight department got them for each of our planes and all I have to say is this thing is great.

Stratus™: Portable In-Flight Weather for ForeFlight - Sporty's Pilot Shop

I know the $799 price tag is expensive, but I say its worth it and is a great tool to have along and is very accurate.

wrxsteve

I'm at a 141 school and about 70-80% of students are using the ipad for training. About 95% of our instructors use them. Its blowing up fast. I plan to transition in about 2 months. Fore Flight seems to be the #1 choice but its all about preferences... with stratus its awesome, but you have to justify the high price for it ( just like the whole Bose headset situation ). I have seen about a 50/50 on the gps receivers.... mainly the problem with bad elf is the connector sucks and it can disconnect from time to time esp if you move around a lot or turbulence situations. In addition, your bad elf gps might get disconnected because of its line of sight from where you are sitting. The Dual gps is great because you can give it that better receiver location in the aircraft but dont forget to have it charged, that would be the only downside.

As far as kneeboards go I personally love the mygoflight pro c kneeboard ( I would pay the extra money for it ). Sportys would be my 2nd choice. Also dont forget to get an anti glare screen, that can be a huge problem.