Louisiana ADS-B Ban 📋, Garmin Daily Weather 🌧️, AI Traffic Prediction 🤖
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AWEROK Is Live: The Oshkosh App I Always Wanted to Build
The app is here—free on iOS and Android. AWEROK is a modern companion for EAA AirVenture Oshkosh: the full event schedule with day/type/interest filters, a live map of the grounds with your real-time location, a "Happening Now" live mode that surfaces sessions starting in the next two to four hours (sortable by distance), and "With Friends" shared planning for your crew. The standout is On My Radar, which reads each session's title, description, and speakers to surface genuinely relevant forums—real semantic relevance, not keyword matching—so you stop missing the talk you'd have loved. Built solo on nights and weekends since the first commit on February 20, with Claude Code. Download free at awerok.com/app. See you at Oshkosh.
Louisiana Governor Signs Bill Banning Use of ADS-B Data to Bill Pilots (2 minute read)
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed HB 730 into law, making Louisiana the third state to bar the use of ADS-B data to bill pilots; the statute takes effect Aug. 1, 2026 and covers Part 91 aircraft under 12,500 pounds. It passed the state Senate unanimously and cleared the House 91–8, and AOPA's Jim Coon framed it as stopping a safety mandate from being "exploited for economic gain." The signing lands amid a parallel federal push—a House-passed bill responding to the January 2025 Reagan National mid-air collision would prohibit using ADS-B to collect revenue from pilots without consent, with NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford both testifying that ADS-B should be used only for safety.
Garmin Adds Daily Weather and Turbulence to Garmin Pilot App (2 minute read)
Garmin has brought its Daily Weather feature—previously exclusive to Garmin Pilot Web—to the Garmin Pilot app on Apple mobile devices, adding a Daily Weather tab with forecasts up to six days out and an hourly breakdown for each day. A visual timeline shows whether conditions will be VFR, MVFR, IFR, or LIFR and works as a draggable slider, so pilots can pick the best window to fly. Garmin also added a new turbulence layer to both mobile and web that overlays forecast turbulence on the map, available in the U.S. from the surface to FL450 (45,000 feet MSL) and rolling out globally from 11,000 feet MSL to FL450.
Listening to Radio Calls Helps Drones Better Predict Where Human Pilots Are Flying (3 minute read)
Researchers at Georgia Tech have trained drones to "listen" to pilots' CTAF radio calls at non-towered airports, inferring intent to predict where human pilots will fly—cutting average trajectory-prediction error by more than half, from roughly a kilometer (0.6 miles) to about 400 meters (0.25 miles). Lead author Sundhar Vinodh Sangeetha, a robotics PhD student, presented the work in June 2026 at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, arguing that autonomous aircraft should adapt to human radio procedures rather than the reverse. Because nine of ten U.S. airfields lack active control towers, the team notes the same approach could become a backup collision-warning system that monitors radio traffic to alert pilots before accidents at uncontrolled fields.
Deadly Display Potential in the Cockpit (7 minute read)
Max Trescott uses a fatal 2024 Epic E1000 accident at Steamboat Springs, Colorado (KSBS) to dissect a subtle avionics trap: a "+V" advisory glide slope on an RNAV (GPS) approach looks and feels identical on the PFD to an obstacle-protected LPV glide path, yet following it below the minimum descent altitude offers no terrain protection. The turboprop—equipped with the latest Garmin G1000 NXi—appears to have flown the RNAV (GPS) Z RWY 32 approach, whose 9,100-foot MSL MDA sat just 180 feet below the cloud layer and well above the 1,600-foot ceiling reported two minutes before the crash. The piece is a pointed reminder to level at MDA on a non-precision approach and not descend until the runway environment is in sight, no matter how convincing the advisory vertical guidance looks.
FAA Picks ASI for Air Traffic Management Software (3 minute read)
The FAA has awarded Air Space Intelligence (ASI) a 12-year contract—valued at roughly $875 million, per Reuters—to deploy new air traffic management software aimed at easing congestion before flights depart. The deal covers Flow Management Data and Services (FMDS), which will replace the FAA's existing Traffic Flow Management System, plus a SMART capability (Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories) that ingests airline schedules, weather, and airport capacity to flag congestion early, with initial SMART operations planned for this fall. ASI says its Flyways AI platform—already in operational use with Alaska, Delta, United, and the U.S. Air Force, backed by nearly $100 million of its own investment—underpins the system.
How to Connect Your PJ2 GPS Radio to ForeFlight (2 minute read)
Sporty's walks through pairing its new PJ2 GPS handheld radio with ForeFlight so the radio can feed GPS position straight to the app—a backup navigation source if your iPad lacks built-in GPS or the panel goes dark. The how-to notes the link requires no firmware update and no additional subscription: you enable Bluetooth on the PJ2, pair it from the radio's MENU, and ForeFlight reads its position. The all-in-one unit combines a comm radio and GPS navigation in a single handheld pitched as panel-failure insurance.
