Best iPad 2026 📱, Garmin GFC 600 🎛️, AircraftIQ Launch ✈️
📣 From AWEROK
Planning Oshkosh? Bring Your Crew Into AWEROK
With AirVenture just weeks away, the hardest part isn't picking forums—it's getting everyone on the same page. AWEROK's With Friends lets your whole crew build a shared Oshkosh plan: mark the sessions you each want to hit, see where your schedules overlap, and coordinate who's going to which forum without a tangle of group texts. Pair it with the live grounds map and the "Happening Now" mode, and splitting up to cover more of the show, then regrouping, actually works. Free on iOS and Android. Download at awerok.com/app and set up your crew before you launch for Wittman Regional.
PIREP Newsletter
What's the Best iPad for Pilots — 2026 Edition (8 minute read)
iPad Pilot News published its annual best-iPad-for-pilots guide, breaking down Apple's current lineup for EFB use. The iPad Pro 11″/13″ (refreshed October 2025 with the M5 chip) is the only model with an OLED screen, Face ID, and an optional nano-texture anti-glare coating, while the March 2026 iPad Air (M4) and entry-level iPad (A16) step down to Touch ID — and the base iPad loses the anti-reflective coating entirely. For tight cockpits the 7.69″ × 5.3″ iPad mini 7 (A17 Pro) fits aircraft as small as a Cessna 182, though the guide suggests holding out for a rumored fall-2026 mini refresh before upgrading.
Garmin GFC 600 Autopilot Certified for Air Tractor AT-802 (2 minute read)
The FAA has issued a Supplemental Type Certificate for Garmin's GFC 600 digital autopilot in the Air Tractor AT-802 and AT-802A. The system adds altitude preselect, indicated-airspeed hold, and vertical navigation (VNAV), plus underspeed protection, a dedicated LVL wings-leveling button, and — when paired with compatible Garmin avionics — Smart Glide engine-out assistance. Air Tractor president Jim Hirsch said the certification was driven largely by the aerial-firefighting fleet, whose crews frequently ferry aircraft cross-country; the autopilot is available through Garmin dealers or as a factory option on new AT-802 orders.
Emergency Landing Inspires Launch of AircraftIQ (4 minute read)
AircraftIQ, a new maintenance-management platform aimed at GA owners, partnerships, flight schools, clubs, and mechanics, has launched out of Orange County, California. Co-founder and CEO Brad Smith — a corporate-jet pilot and CFII — conceived it after a renter dead-sticked his Cessna Cardinal onto the sands of Huntington Beach in late 2025, exposing how fragmented aircraft records are across logbooks, spreadsheets, and notes during the recovery and return-to-service. Prototyped first as "WrenchBud," the platform unifies records, logbooks, maintenance tracking, calendars, and shop communication into a single system, which Smith and co-founder/CRO Bill Forelli pitch as fixing a coordination problem every owner and maintainer runs into.
When GPS Fails: Lessons from a Fatal Air Ambulance Crash (4 minute read)
Flying's Meg Godlewski unpacks a preliminary NTSB report that points to military GPS signal jamming as a factor in a fatal air-ambulance crash, using it to argue that pilots must keep robust situational awareness when satellite navigation degrades. The piece ties the accident to instrument-flying fundamentals — losing the horizon in IMC and the partial-panel technique taught by covering a "failed" attitude indicator — as a reminder that GNSS is not guaranteed. With jamming and spoofing increasingly reported near conflict zones, it's a timely prompt to brief GPS-loss procedures and stay proficient on backup instruments.
No-Fly Zones for Drones: Understanding the FAA's New UAFR Proposal (4 minute read)
The FAA has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking creating the Unmanned Aircraft Flight Restriction (UAFR) — a "virtual no-trespassing sign" banning unauthorized drone flight from the surface to 400 feet AGL within a protected facility's property lines. Standard UAFRs (year-round or up to 290 consecutive days) would cover 16 critical-infrastructure sectors such as chemical plants, energy facilities, dams, amusement parks, and prisons, while stricter Special UAFRs guard sensitive federal and military sites; qualifying facilities must be able to receive Remote ID broadcasts. Trusted operators flying under Part 107, Part 135 delivery, or Part 91 public-aircraft rules could still transit a Standard UAFR while continuously broadcasting Remote ID, and approved restrictions run five years after publishing in the Federal Register for at least a 30-day comment period.
