The advertising for Xavion’s emergency landing guidance, synthetic vision, navigation, instrument panel backup, ADS-B weather, weight-and-balance calculator, runway takeoff planner and personal currency record app has seemed shrill to us. The claims that it could save your life should the instruments fail or the engine quit as we’ll as help you through a ramp check came across as over the top—so we tested it.
Bottom line—the ramp check claim is nonsense, but the rest of it is true. For $100 ($99.99), and a little practice with the app, the instrument display is good enough that you can probably rely on it to stay right side up while you get out of the clouds and the forced landing emergency feature—again, with a little practice—can significantly improve your chances of a good outcome.