New ADS-B Portables: Price for Every Purpose

With the remorseless ADS-B deadline about to cast the unequipped into NextGen no-man’s land, we figured the portable choices would dry up. But, surprise. At midyear, along came the three new entries we’re reviewing in this issue.

This tells us manufacturers sense latent demand for portables, either because some owners just aren’t going to equip with ADS-B before the deadline-or at all-or enough are contemplating the cheapest Out-only solution and may be trolling for a portable to do the In part.

Since our last mega review of the ADS-B universe in the May 2017 issue, 10 portables have either gone from the market or been displaced by new models and four new entrants have stepped into the fray.

The result? There’s more price stratification and capabilities have been marginally improved, especially battery life. It’s thus more realistic than ever to snag the free weather and traffic with a portable and either do without the Out solution entirely or wait it out for something cheaper. (uAvionix, we’re looking at you.)

New Players

The two new players in the portable market are Dynon Avionics and ForeFlight. The latter requires some clarification. Heretofore, ForeFlight had teamed up with Appareo Systems to market the Stratus 1 and 2 portables. These played only with ForeFlight and appeared to be strong sellers.

The Stratus is still out there, but now in its third generation and with open architecture so it works with other apps. ForeFlight’s new product is the $499 Sentry, a diminutive box that combines a dual-band ADS-B receiver with a carbon monoxide detector, plus AHRS. uAvionix – they’re the guys everyone is waiting on to deliver the wingtip- and tail-mounted ADS-B Out units-designed and builds the Sentry for ForeFlight. Once again, it works only with that app. In concert with its push to establish a market for mid priced panel-mount avionics, Dynon showed up at AirVenture 2018 with the DRX, which clearly aims to anchor the bargain end of the price spectrum. No frills on this one; just the dual-band receiver and a little case for $349 discounted, $395 list.

As Garmin scoops up most of the ADS-B panel-mount business, Appareo has been competing favorably with its Stratus ES and ESG transponders. The company leveraged that into the third iteration of the Stratus portable called the-what else-Stratus 3. At $699, it’s what we would call a full-featured portable, to include the usual AHRS and a new wireless feature.

Sentry

Not to snark it up too much, but none of these gadgets win prizes for design aesthetics-they’re all some variation on a bland little white box. By a few fractions of an inch, the Sentry, at 3.25 X 2.25 X 1.25 inches, misses being the smallest. But uAvionix shows its chops as a maker of miniaturized drone avionics in the Sentry’s light weight. It weighs only 4.2 ounces, compared to 6.8 for Dynon’s DRX and a hefty 10.3 ounces for the Stratus.

Not that weight really matters much, but lightweight avionics evidently consume less power because two of these gadgets-the DRX and Sentry-have longer battery life than the first-generation portables did. The Sentry claims 12 hours and we believe it. It’s barely warm to the touch when operating.

Mechanically, there’s not much here. Just the white box with a power button, charging port and three monitoring lights for ADS-B, GPS and the CO detector. The Sentry sports a RAM suction cup mated to a purpose-made bayonet mount that’s easy to use and quite secure. Just make sure the suction cup gets good purchase or you’ll be fishing the thing off the floor.

The Sentry provides the usual suspects, including FIS-B for weather and TIS-B for traffic, plus the onboard AHRS gussied up with ForeFlight’s version of synthetic vision. It has calibration capability so it can be mounted vertically on a window or perched on the glare shield.

The Sentry is equipped with sufficient internal memory to record for playback the past 20 to 30 minutes of weather and a future upgrade will include a flight data recording function. For the time being, you can record flights with ForeFlight’s track logs feature.

The CO detector-which alarms aurally and by display through the app-is sensitive down to the required 50 PPM. It can also be silenced when necessary.

Stratus 3

Six years ago, when ForeFlight was making inroads as a popular flight planning and navigation app, the company joined with Appareo Systems and Sporty’s to offer the Stratus portable ADS-B receiver. It worked only with ForeFlight. That product evolved through a second and now a third iteration, but the Appareo marriage didn’t do as well.

While the Stratus 3 still plays with ForeFlight, it’s no longer limited to that app and will function with nearly a dozen more using the GDL90 data protocol.

Given the popularity of ForeFlight, we suspect Sporty’s sold a pile of the earlier Stratus models, but it was due for an update. Appareo did itself no favors by declining to support earlier models that needed battery changes. At $699 retail, the Stratus 3 is $200 cheaper than the 2S model it replaces, yet it adds a few features. It’s still the biggest and heaviest, however. It measures 5.8 X 2.5 X 1 inches in a rectangular format that’s reminiscent of household wireless telephones. In the box are the usual charger and a non-slip gel pad for the glare shield. For $20, Sporty’s offers a RAM suction cup for a window mount, but these have proven tender, popping off the glass even before you find the first bump.

Since it also makes certified ADS-B Out solutions, Appareo is positioned to pair its portable with the panel product. For example, if you buy either the Stratus ES or ESG 1090 Out transponder, the Stratus 3i version of the portable can be tucked under the panel to provide the In data your tax dollars bought. The portable has jacks for remote ADS-B and GPS antennas and power.

Otherwise, new features include an auto-shutoff, the expanded app coverage mentioned above and what Appareo calls Smart Wi-Fi. It allows a cellular-equipped tablet or phone to use that capability without disabling the wireless link to the Stratus. Doesn’t sound like much, until you realize it saves you the nuisance of going back into settings when you need to browse or check email.

Like all of the latest receivers, the Stratus 3 is dual-band and it has an onboard AHRS, so it has to be oriented forward for the gyros to initialize and calibrate.

Appareo says it functions with ForeFlight synthetic vision and will add new weather products coming through the FIS-B feed, including cloud tops, icing and turbulence forecasts. The Stratus 3 has an eight-hour battery and note that the charging cable is USB-C, not a micro or a mini. Lose it and your junk cable box probably won’t have a spare. (The Sentry has the same cable fitting.)

Dynon DRX

Dynon’s aesthetic variation on the pale white box is actually blue and gray for the DRX. It’s the smallest of the bunch and the only one with an external antenna, a 3.5-inch whip that’s articulated to tuck in parallel to the box for carrying purposes.

It has a power button, a USB micro jack for charging and three tiny annunciators for power, GPS and ADS-B lock. It also has a cooling fan that came alive after about an hour of run time and ran sporadically thereafter.

Dynon says the battery is sufficient for a “weekend’s use” but that’s hardy specific enough to suggest a number. Our guess is that it’s about 16 hours. Dynon says the DRX will work with ForeFlight, but we had trouble keeping the two talking to each other. ForeFlight’s device manager confirmed the connection, but did not offer data on battery status. The DRX performed seamlessly with WingX Pro, displaying traffic and FIS-B data.

Flight Trial

We perched the DRX and the Stratus 3 on the glareshield of a G1000 Cessna 182. Using the RAM mount, the Sentry went on the copilot-side window, mounted vertically so the AHRS could orient. The Sentry and ForeFlight easily danced cheek-to-cheek and it delivered all the promised features.

The latest iteration of ForeFlight’s synthetic vision is all but indistinguishable from the G1000’s depiction, with good graphic detail and alerting. It locked onto the ADS-B feed at the foot of the runway and climbing through 100 feet, we saw the first traffic alert, matching the G1000’s performance perfectly. (The 182 was equipped with ADS-B Out, so we benefitted from the local traffic package.)

The AHRS utility can be left to its own devices to orient correctly through an auto zero pitch/bank function or you can calibrate it manually by nudging the bank and pitch. Both worked well and gyro response, while not glass-panel smooth, would be adequate as a backup. The Sentry has a pressure sensor so in a non-pressurized aircraft, the tape depicts pressure altitude or cabin altitude in a pressurized airplane.

The device manager has a tab to test the CO alarm, but not the sensor itself. The alarm is piercing all right, but it doesn’t feed into the audio panel. In flight and through noise-cancelling headsets, one of us heard the test alarm, one didn’t.

ForeFlight has added a weather playback feature that scrolls a playback of the previous 20 to 30 minutes of radar data. This function also works when using the Stratus, but only with the ForeFlight app.

We found that the Stratus 3 performs similarly to the Sentry, although its AHRS calibration is slightly different. We mounted the Stratus on the glareshield in the provided non-slip gel sleeve. But if we were buying this product, we would recommend the RAM suction mount for a window. Operating on their own, these receivers become just warm to the touch, but in direct sunlight on the glareshield, they become almost too hot to handle and Appareo says the Stratus will shut down at 140 degrees F. Better to keep it in the shade. Appareo offers its own app for the Stratus called Stratus Horizon Pro, which is limited to calibration and display of the AHRS. In Beta, is an additional utility that connects to the audio panel and automatically transcribes radio transmissions. We’ll try this when the hardware is available.

Last, Dynon’s DRX performed well with WingX Pro, but spottily with ForeFlight, perhaps due to inference issues in the cockpit. On the ground, it connected reliably, albeit without receiving any tower data, although it did sporadically track high-altitude 1090 targets.If battery life drives the decision, the DRX seems to be the Energizer Bunny. A charge lasted for at least 16 hours.

Recommendations

For ForeFlight users on the hunt for full-featured portable ADS-B, the Sentry is the best choice, in our view. It’s $200 cheaper than the Stratus 3, has better battery life and it’s smaller. We found no warts in its performance. For a minimal ADS-B In solution for ForeFlight only, Sporty’s still sells the Scout at $199. It has no internal GPS, no battery and just basic FIS-B/TIS-B. It is dual band.

Users of other apps might consider the Stratus 3 since it’s relatively multilingual, albeit pricey in the current market, at $699. For half that price, the DRX does as much, unless the AHRS feature is a must-have backup. That may be true for owners who fly real-world IFR.

Buyers looking at the Appareo Stratus transponders as Out solutions might naturally consider the Stratus 3 for the In half. On the other hand, given what some saw as Appareo’s foreshortened support of its original Stratus units, we’re a little leery of recommending it for a long-term installation.

Buying Logic In An Illogical World

Even using my toes, I lack the ability to count up all of the ADS-B products-portable and panel-mount. How to make sense of any of this?

The starting place, in my view, is how much real instrument flying you do, if any. If you do enough hours a year, especially in actual IMC, you’ll want two things that the portables provide: near real-time weather and AHRS backup.

But if you’re flying real IFR, you’re going to need ADS-B Out and real soon-like about a year from the time you read this. That argues for an end to the procrastination and a check to the avionics shop for a panel-mount Out setup. Many of these solutions combine In/Out-see the chart beginning on page 9-and obviate the need for a portable.

If IFR isn’t on your plate, the buying logic smoothes out a little. It’s not irrational to decide to (a) skip ADS-B Out entirely or (b) just limp along with a portable until well past the 2020 deadline and see how things shake out. If you don’t fly in or near the mandated airspace, which is basically where you need a transponder now, you might not miss having ADS-B Out.

But portables are so cheap that even if, as a non-IFR pilot, you use the weather and TFRs two or three times a year, you’ve earned back the investment. There’s another minor pot sweetener here.

Heretofore, traffic depictions from portables haven’t been especially useful because they haven’t seen all of the nearby UAT targets.

However, as more aircraft are equipped with ADS-B Out, traffic performance of portables will improve because pilots using them will be more likely to be in range of Out-equipped aircraft that are getting the full broadcast package from the ground stations. If this sounds like a parasitic arrangement, it’s exactly that. To help you get over the shame of that, just think about the five grand you didn’t have to spend. That should ease the pain. -Paul Bertorelli

ADS-B: The Crunch Looms

As we go to press this month, the ADS-B deadline for mandated airspace is 420 days away, give or take a day or two. At this juncture, two things are evident: No one is quite sure how many aircraft are equipped thus far and the long-awaited installation logjam is beginning to materialize.

In June of 2018, MITRE Corp. estimated that only 25 percent of the GA piston fleet had installed ADS-B, based on observed data from ATC and the system’s 800 or so ground-based towers. MITRE found that 41 percent of the turbojet fleet had equipped.

But Ric Perri of the Aircraft Electronics Association thinks those proportional numbers are too low because the number of eligible aircraft has been overestimated. Subtract the hangar queens and derelicts still on the registry, the non-electrical-system aircraft and airplanes that simply don’t need ADS-B, says Perri, and AEA believes as many as two-thirds of the GA piston fleet may now have ADS-B.

But that still leaves a lot of airplanes to be equipped, possibly as many as 40,000 during the next year running up to the deadline. There’s no argument that many owners are procrastinating, either not wishing to spend the money or waiting for that killer $1200 hardware. Still, shops are beginning to see the installation logjam everyone feared and they expect it to get worse after the first of the year.

“Toward the end of this, when most people figure out this is really gonna happen, I think you’re going to see a backlog. I know a lot of my customers are holding out for the wingtip solution, but we don’t know what’s going to happen with the Garmin suit,” says Stacey Jordan of Palm Beach Avionics. He’s referring to the wingtip- and tail-mounted nav light replacements uAvionix introduced some months ago. The company is still working on STC approvals for these devices but market delivery may be delayed at least partially because Garmin has sued uAvionix over patent infringement.

Even ignoring that, say shops, ADS-B installations consume far more shop time than most had planned for the simple reason that few owners opt for just the ADS-B hardware.

“To be honest, I expected to be scheduling three- and four-day jobs, but right now I’m tackling major overhauls,” says Gulf Coast Avionics sales manager Matt Schloss. Customers are opting for mapcomms, glass displays, engine monitors-in short, complete panel redos.

While that’s a nice problem to have, it also means that techs are tied up on a single airplane four weeks, not four days. And some shops are having trouble finding qualified techs to do the work. That may get worse in 2019.

“I have no doubt there will be a lot of people grounded,” says Chuck Gallagher of Cincinnati Avionics, Sporty’s avionics arm. When we spoke to him in October, his shop was scheduling work as far out as February or March 2019 for major jobs and he expects that to telescope to midyear or beyond. Other shops we contacted reported modest backlogs of two to three months.

Shops also report that the current system of choice is the Garmin GTX345, primarily because it plays well with GNS430/530 navigators, of which there are thousands still in the field. (See the chart starting on the next page for details.)

Appareo’s ES/ESG 1090 transponders are a popular second choice, since one includes a WAAS GPS position source. L-3’s Lynx transponders are also finding some sales because they’re unique for offering an all-in-one solution.

Click here to see a video review of portable ADS-B!