With insurance premiums skyrocketing—especially for pilots of complex, retractable-gear airplanes—the last thing you need is a gear-up landing because you were distracted. Aftermarket audio and visual alert systems can help, while some can even monitor the status of cabin and baggage doors and other systems. While there are retrofit systems that focus entirely on monitoring […]

So many buyers are removing their vacuum system in favor of all-electronic instruments, but neglected electrical systems—including the battery—are the weak link. Reliability isn’t helped when the typical lead-acid model sits for long periods in harsh temperatures. Meanwhile, battery tech for the consumer electronics market has changed for the better, and that includes smart lithium-ion […]

When I started flying in 1994, there certainly wasn’t the need for accessory power in the cabin. These days it’s an entirely different story and the number of portable devices I carry grows by the month. Who thought you would have to charge your sunglasses? That’s why the market is being bombarded with panel USB charging ports. These are generally FAA-certified devices that mount either on the instrument panel or in interior components, and connect with the aircraft’s electrical bus for voltage.

A variety of upgrades and accessories are available, which quickly grow the price. There’s a rolling backpack ($89.95), dual spring leather seat with LED taillight ($44.95), universal cross grip smart- phone mount ($24.95), LED front light ($44.95) and the Accessory Pack. It includes a backpack, leather seat, front LED light and a smartphone mount ($179.95). The seat upgrade, which has dual springs, is much wider and softer than the standard seat and is we’ll worth the money, in my view.

Globalstar’s LEO (low earth orbit) constellation forms a network with 24 ground stations that serve as a bridge to traditional terrestrial telecommunications networks on six continents, providing communications to over 120 countries. The current-generation LEO satellite constellation delivers low-speed bandwidth (72 Kbps), not dissimilar to fast dialup modems-good for voice calls, text messages, short emails and textual websites. Don’t plan on downloading videos and other big files. That level of performance is best left to the more expensive geostationary satellite-based terrestrial broadband networks.

Now the standard cabin connection protocol, Wi-Fi provides a more stable connection than Bluetooth. Plus, Wi-Fi is more tolerant of electromagnetic interference (EMI)-and there’s plenty of it generated by charging systems and magnetos. But wireless connectivity is another challenge. The WingBug pod creates concurrent point-to-point Wi-Fi connections to multiple tablets or smartphones at once. But consider when multiple Wi-Fi devices like ADS-B receivers, satellite hotspots and action cameras are fighting to connect to the pilot’s tablet in a point-to-point peer connection. In a peer-to-peer connection, only a single device may be connected to a tablet or smartphone, requiring the user to manually select the device (in Wi-Fi settings). A portable Wi-Fi access point provides the fix, but the devices and applications must be able to support access-point connectivity. Not all do.

SpotX is assigned a telephone number for your appropriate country during activation. This allows contacts in the same country to send SMS messages to your SpotX without incurring any additional fees. There are four key components to the SpotX product: the SpotX hardware, its activation and service plan, its configuration through the website and the SpotX Device Updater application used to synchronize account information and update firmware. As weve learned from other satcomms, setup and activation can be a chore. For the SpotX, it begins with setting up an account on the FindMeSpot website from a Mac or PC, requiring a credit card for payment and information about your hardware.