Garmin D2 Mach 2 Pro 🎛️, Starlink GA Plans 📱, FL ADS-B Bill 📋
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Garmin introduces D2 Mach 2 Pro smartwatch with LTE, Iridium (4 minute read)
Garmin's new D2 Mach 2 Pro adds built-in LTE and Iridium radios so the watch can send texts, place voice calls, and trigger SOS messages through Garmin Response without a paired phone. Connectivity runs $6.99/month for LTE and $7.99/month for Iridium, with battery life rated at 24 days in smartwatch mode and 59 hours in aviation mode. The watch keeps the existing D2 Mach 2 pilot toolkit — color moving map, HSI, pulse oximeter, barometric altimeter, and PlaneSync remote fuel status — though messaging is disabled above 30 knots, so connectivity is for ground use only.
Starlink Update: New Aviation Plans, More Data, and In-Flight Speed Limits Explained (3 minute read)
Starlink capped its Roam and Priority plans at 100 mph (87 knots) for in-motion use effective March 3, 2026 — below typical GA cruise — and rolled out renamed Aviation plans with 150% more data. The General Aviation Local 50GB plan now runs $200/month (down from $250) with 50GB included and supports up to 300 mph; the Global 50GB plan stays at $1,000/month but bumps included data from 20GB to 50GB and supports up to 450 mph. Overage data is now block-priced at $25 per 50GB on Local and $100 per 50GB on Global, and identity verification with passport and aircraft details is still required.
iOS Update Green Light program: iOS and iPadOS 26.4.2 (2 minute read)
Apple released iOS and iPadOS 26.4.2, a bug-fix update to the recent 26.4 feature drop that brought Apple Music's Playlist Playground (beta), Concerts artist discovery, an Offline Music Recognition Control Center toggle, and a new "Reduce bright effects" accessibility setting. iPad Pilot News reiterates the standard EFB advice: wait until ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, and other apps explicitly clear the build before updating. The 26.4 release also adds 8 new emoji, advanced image creation in Freeform, and improved keyboard accuracy for fast typists.
Master ForeFlight with New "Power Users" Training from Sporty's and ForeFlight (2 minute read)
Sporty's and ForeFlight launched ForeFlight Power Users Training, a $75-per-year course exclusive to the Sporty's Pilot Training app with over eight hours of scenario-based video covering Route Advisor, Procedure Advisor, Dynamic Procedures, 3D flight visualization, weight-and-balance, plate overlays, and inflight reroute workflows. The course includes lesson quizzes, a completion certificate, the full ForeFlight Pilot's Guide, sync across iOS and online, and qualifies for FAA WINGS credit. It's pitched at pilots who already know the basics and want to wire together a complete preflight-to-debrief ForeFlight workflow.
Tecnam Forms Alliance With Jeppesen ForeFlight (3 minute read)
Tecnam announced an alliance with Jeppesen ForeFlight at AERO 2026 in Friedrichshafen, Germany, that bundles a one-year ForeFlight Premium subscription plus Jeppesen NavData and Charts with new aircraft. Buyers select the new "Jeppesen Premium Plan" option to enable full integration with their Garmin avionics; Tecnam offers a G1000 bundle for the P2012, P2010, and P2006T and a G3X bundle for the P2008JC NG, P-Mentor, US/LSA, and MOSAIK59. The data flows directly into both panel avionics and the customer's iPad on day one of delivery.
Cirrus Offers Starlink Mini Mount for SR Aircraft (2 minute read)
Cirrus introduced the Flex SR mounting system that secures a Starlink Mini transceiver overhead near the rear window of SR-series pistons, providing in-flight Wi-Fi without battery packs by tapping a 100-watt USB-C outlet. The kit fits SR airframes from late G3 through the latest G7+, with prices ranging from $1,050 for G7+ models up to $1,600 for late G3 through early G6 — variation reflects installation complexity. It's available now through Cirrus authorized service centers, with final cost depending on regional tax and install requirements.
DeSantis Signs Florida ADS-B Fee Bill (2 minute read)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 422, prohibiting airports from using ADS-B data to calculate landing, departure, or airspace-entry fees for Part 91 aircraft weighing 12,499 pounds or less, with the law taking effect July 1, 2026. The bill — introduced by Sen. Tom Wright — joins federal proposals like the Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act (PAPA) and the ALERT Act, plus pending Arizona legislation, that respond to airports billing pilots from broadcast surveillance data. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford backed the privacy framing, telling FLYING that ADS-B is a "critical safety tool" and pilots making bad safety decisions to avoid fees is where "the FAA wants to throw the penalty flag."
NWS Proposes Shift From VOR Reference Points for Aviation Weather (2 minute read)
The National Weather Service is proposing to replace VOR-based reference points with three-letter airport identifiers in nationwide aviation weather products including SIGMETs, AIRMETs, Center Weather Advisories, and Meteorological Impact Statements (Alaska included). Public comments are open through May 15. The change tracks the FAA's transition to performance-based navigation and the resulting drawdown of VOR aids to a minimum operational network; NWS argues airport identifiers give broader, more consistent coverage — particularly in places like Alaska where VOR infrastructure is thin — and remain workable in voice/radio transmissions.
United Investment Arm Backs Cutting-Edge Personal Aircraft Avionics (4 minute read)
United Airlines Ventures made an undisclosed investment in Airhart Aeronautics, whose "first stage" digital cockpit is now available to order ahead of initial customer installs. The system pairs synthetic vision, full ADS-B, an advanced autopilot, and a fly-by-wire single-sidestick architecture (with a center-console bar handling speed, pitch, power, and ground brakes) to flatten light-aircraft workload — comparable to Skyryse's SkyOS, Reliable Robotics' Reliable Autonomy System, and Merlin Labs' Merlin Pilot. Airhart was founded in 2022 by ex-SpaceX Falcon 9 avionics engineer Nikita Ermoshkin and is targeting LSAs and other airframes under the FAA's MOSAIC rule, with production test flights underway at its Long Beach, California, design center.
SiFly drones now appear on ADS-B Exchange (3 minute read)
SiFly Aviation's cloud-connected Q12 drones now stream live telemetry into ADS-B Exchange, letting the public airspace tracker show participating drones alongside crewed traffic in a single real-time view. Unlike most aircraft that broadcast ADS-B from an onboard radio, the Q12 pushes telemetry to ADS-B Exchange via secure cloud connectivity — which SiFly argues is a faster path to scaling Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations than waiting on standalone unmanned-traffic-management systems. The Q12 is built for multi-hour public-safety, infrastructure-inspection, and emergency-response missions covering tens of miles per flight; CEO Brian Hinman and ADS-B Exchange chief product officer Greg Kimball framed the integration as a step toward "one sky, one picture" airspace awareness.
FlightAware's Role in Airspace Modernization (4 minute read)
FlightAware (a Collins Aerospace company) details how it stitches together a 43,000-plus FlightFeeder ground network across nearly 200 countries with Aireon space-based ADS-B and ATC feeds from 45-plus countries — plus ACARS datalink reports — into a single live picture of global air traffic. Its proprietary HyperFeed engine processes more than 10,000 aircraft positions per second, normalizes data across sources, and assigns each flight a persistent FlightAware Flight ID that survives identity changes from departure to arrival. FlightAware Foresight then layers neural networks over more than 3 petabytes of historical and real-time data to generate predictive flight estimates beyond traditional historical-average ETAs.
