ForeFlight AI Connector 🤖, Garmin AXIS Displays 🎛️, Garmin Pilot Planning 📱
ForeFlight AI Connector: Your Flight Data, Now Available in ChatGPT (5 minute read)
ForeFlight launched the ForeFlight AI Connector, an integration that lets ChatGPT pull live data from a pilot's own account to answer plain-English questions about weather, aircraft performance, preflight briefings, and logbook entries. It's built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — the open standard for connecting AI assistants to external services — and is available now as an "Open Preview" for all subscribers with an active individual plan, enabled through the ForeFlight Mobile listing in ChatGPT's App Directory. Once connected and authorized by the user, ChatGPT can reach flights, current and forecast weather (METARs, TAFs, MOS forecasts, winds aloft), aircraft profiles, performance calculations, and logbook data without opening the app or tapping through screens.
Garmin Debuts AXIS Integrated Flight Displays for GA Panels (5 minute read)
Garmin unveiled AXIS, a new family of integrated flight displays for certified piston singles and light twins as well as experimental and light-sport aircraft, covered by an Approved Model List STC spanning hundreds of models. It comes in three sizes — an 11.6-inch landscape, an 8-inch portrait, and an 8-inch landscape — each configurable as a PFD, MFD, or engine display, with the 11.6-inch unit able to bundle a TSO-certified IFR GPS, a 10-watt/8.33 kHz comm radio, a nav radio, and a four-place audio panel into a single screen. A dedicated bezel emergency button provides Smart Glide, level mode, and a 180-degree turn, while the system adds 3D SafeTaxi, Runway Occupancy Awareness, synthetic vision, HDMI camera input, and ForeFlight/Garmin Pilot connectivity; Garmin says AXIS shares sensors and panel cutouts with the G3X Touch, needing only about eight connector-pin changes to upgrade.
Garmin Pilot App Simplifies Flight Planning With a Redesigned Flights Page (3 minute read)
Garmin Pilot's latest update rebuilds its Flights page to consolidate route entry, weight-and-balance, fuel planning, weather briefing, and flight-plan filing into a single step-by-step workflow. New widgets walk pilots through entering airports, departure time, aircraft, and altitude, while a Routes shortcut surfaces previously cleared ATC routes sortable by altitude, aircraft type, date, or popularity, and a Pack feature saves navigation databases and charts for offline viewing. The update also adds the FISK VFR arrival to Garmin's navigation and SmartChart database ahead of the Oshkosh trek.
New Free AWEROK App Helps You Navigate Oshkosh (2 minute read)
General Aviation News profiles AWEROK, a free companion app for Oshkosh 2026 (July 20–26), now available on iOS and Android. Built by pilot Brad Young, it pulls the full event schedule, a live GPS-referenced map of the grounds that shows your real-time location, food-vendor listings, and group-planning tools into one place, and its standout "On My Radar" feature runs a text-similarity engine across each session's title, description, and speakers to surface related forums and workshops an attendee might otherwise miss. The app also lists community meetups — users can request their own be added — already including favorites like the SOS Bros Beer Tent, and it's designed to expand to other aviation events. Free on the App Store and Google Play; details at Awerok.com/App.
Dynon Previews Integrated IFR Navigator for SkyView HDX (2 minute read)
Dynon is developing an integrated IFR GPS navigator for its SkyView HDX system that brings certified GPS navigation and approach guidance into the HDX display without adding a separate radio-stack box. Planned for both Dynon Certified and experimental SkyView HDX lines, it requires a new remote-mounted module, antenna, and current IFR database, and will support RNAV approaches, SIDs, STARs, and coupled LPV approaches through the Dynon autopilot. Legacy SkyView Classic and Touch displays won't be compatible; Dynon says flight testing and certification are underway, with pricing and availability not yet announced.
uAvionix Partners With Extra USA on AV-30 Upgrade (2 minute read)
uAvionix has partnered with Extra USA to offer its AV-30 as a factory-service-center-approved upgrade for Extra aircraft, covering the AV-30-C for certified aircraft and the AV-30-E for experimentals as replacements for legacy instruments including the AVMap EFIS. The unit fits a standard 3-inch round cutout, can be configured as a primary attitude indicator or directional gyro, and includes an internal battery backup rated up to two hours plus ForeFlight integration for transferring flight plans to the instrument. The upgrades are available immediately through Extra USA's primary service center.
FAA Establishes Certification Basis for Electra's Hybrid-Electric EL9 (2 minute read)
The FAA has closed the G-1 issue paper for Electra's EL9 "Ultra Short" aircraft, formally establishing the Part 23 certification basis for the nine-passenger hybrid-electric design. Electra filed its type-certification application in November 2025, and closing the G-1 after seven months sets the agreed requirements for the EL9's distributed hybrid-electric propulsion, blown-lift system, and fly-by-wire controls before the program moves into the G-2 means-of-compliance phase. The aircraft is designed to take off and land in 150 feet or less and carry up to nine passengers on routes of up to 330 nautical miles using a turbine generator, battery packs, and eight wing-mounted electric motors.
FAA/DOT eVTOL Integration Pilot Program Begins Operational Flights (2 minute read)
The FAA and Transportation Department's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) has begun operational flying, with Beta Technologies conducting the program's first electric conventional-takeoff-and-landing flights using its ALIA CX300 to move manufactured organs across Maryland and Virginia alongside United Therapeutics. The program selected eight projects covering 26 states in March — spanning passenger transport, cargo, medical response, and autonomous operations — and is expected to run at least three years while the FAA gathers data to write rules for integrating electric and advanced aircraft into the airspace. Beta was picked for seven of the projects and expects to operate in at least 10 states; its CX300 has demonstrated a 337-nautical-mile range.
MOSAIC Brings Big Changes to Aircraft Maintenance (5 minute read)
General Aviation News examines how the FAA's new MOSAIC (Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification) rules reshape who can maintain light aircraft and how. With MOSAIC lifting the old 1,320-pound light-sport weight limit, a much larger pool of legacy and new Light-Sport Category Aircraft can now be maintained under more flexible rules, and owners may use the established 14 CFR Part 43 standards for minor repairs without manufacturer approval even as many new aircraft are produced under ASTM International consensus standards. The piece walks through the A&P, Inspection Authorization, and Repairman certificate paths against a backdrop of A&P staffing shortages that MOSAIC's expanded fleet will further strain.
