Training Cost Tool 📱, Radio Altimeter Rule 📋, Avidyne DFC110 🎛️
New Tool Calculates The True Cost of Flight Training (2 minute read)
PilotBound is a free cost-planning tool built by CFI/CFII/AGI Samip Shah that projects what a certificate actually costs using DPE completion data compiled by Designated Pilot Examiner Jason Blair — roughly 72 hours for a typical Part 61 private pilot, not the 40-hour FAA minimum most quotes assume. Shah's 2026 Flight Training Cost Report puts a private certificate at about $17,925 at median published rates over that 72-hour completion, and the site returns a personalized range in about 30 seconds from your own rates, region, and flying frequency. A free iPhone app tracks real spending against the projection and flags the month a budget is projected to run out. PilotBound also publishes free directories of 250 flight schools across 48 states with each school's own published rates and verification date, 60 accelerated academies, 37 collegiate programs, and 62 scholarships carrying at least $438,200 in combined top awards.
Avidyne Introduces DFC110 Autopilot And Vantage Software Update (2 minute read)
Avidyne has introduced the DFC110 autopilot with vertical navigation, a slide-in upgrade for the DFC90 and legacy S-TEC 55 that brings coupled VNAV to Cirrus aircraft running Vantage 12 with dual IFDs. The companion Vantage 12.1 release adds approach minimums on the PFD and upgraded nationwide VFR charts, and it opens large-screen Vantage displays to Entegra-equipped Cirrus owners flying GNS WAAS or GTN navigators — meaning owners can upgrade displays first and swap navigators for slide-in IFDs later. Pricing runs $14,276 for a new DFC110 installation or a $2,000 exchange for existing Vantage/DFC90 customers, with Vantage GNS/GTN Enablement at $3,500 and free for a limited time to customers who register in advance and take delivery before Dec. 15, 2026. Both the DFC110 and Vantage 12.1 are expected to be certified and available in the fourth quarter of 2026.
How to File an IFR Flight Plan in ForeFlight: A Comprehensive Guide (9 minute read)
Most pilots start planning on ForeFlight's Maps screen, but filing IFR happens over in the Flights section — tapping the "send-to" button at the bottom left of the Route Editor carries your work across instead of retyping it. The guide covers entering ETD in local time or toggling to ETA to work backward from a landing time, which requires a Performance Plus subscription and lets ForeFlight compute the departure time and auto-update it whenever the route or aircraft changes. It also walks the Alternate Advisor, which ranks candidate alternates by time and fuel to reach them, forecast conditions, available approach procedures, and whether you've filed that airport as an alternate for the same destination before — with a reminder to check Alternate Minimums in Airports or Plates before filing. Rounding it out: the Routes button for recommended and recently cleared ATC routings, the Altitude Advisor for optimum altitude from aircraft performance and winds aloft, ICAO equipment codes in the aircraft profile, and the ICAO form type now required for all U.S. flight plans — plus the Amend button, since a filed plan can no longer be edited.
FAA Sets Radio Altimeter Upgrade Deadlines (2 minute read)
The FAA has signed a final rule requiring aircraft operating in the contiguous U.S. and Washington, D.C. to use radio altimeters meeting new interference-tolerance standards, addressing wireless services in the Upper C-band immediately below the radio altimeter band. Part 121 aircraft and larger foreign airliners must comply by Dec. 30, 2030; radio-altimeter-equipped aircraft operating under Part 91 — along with Parts 125, 133, 135, 136, 137 and 194 — have until Oct. 31, 2034. The rule does not require owners to install radio altimeters in aircraft that don't already have them, but replacements are expected to run $80,000 to $120,000 per airplane including installation and about $40,000 per rotorcraft unit, with total Part 135 compliance costs estimated at $675 million to $970 million. The FCC has established a rebate program funded by spectrum auction winners, though amounts and eligibility remain to be set and foreign operators will not qualify. The rule takes effect 60 days after Federal Register publication, which occurred July 31.
iOS Update Green Light program: iOS and iPadOS 26.6 (1 minute read)
Apple has released iOS 26.6 and iPadOS 26.6, carrying security updates plus background preparation for the coming transition to iOS 27. As always with the Green Light program, the recommendation is to hold off until your EFB app and accessory developers have had time to test and confirm there are no compatibility issues. Worth remembering before you let your cockpit iPad update itself on the ramp.
Scanner Command: Mapping Incidents from Live Radio Calls and ADS-B to Airband Voice with AI (4 minute read)
Benjamin Blood has built Scanner Command, a self-hosted system that turns a radio scanner into a live AI incident map — and its most interesting feature for pilots correlates ADS-B tracks against airband voice. The hardware is deliberately cheap: a Uniden SDS200 with ProScan handles the trunked P25 Phase II public safety side, while two $45 RTL-SDR dongles do the rest, one running readsb for ADS-B and one capturing VHF airband transmission by transmission. Everything is transcribed locally with Whisper; an AI extraction pass determines what happened and where, and about 30 seconds after a call ends, it lands as a color-coded pin with one-click audio. Location matching is explicit about its own confidence — an exact intersection match gets a solid pin, an area-only match a dotted one — and the system builds its own gazetteer of local streets, unit callsigns, and talkgroup names while online, caching map tiles and geocoding so it keeps working when the grid is down.
Van's Aircraft Delivers the World's First MOSAIC-Certified Aircraft (3 minute read)
The world's first MOSAIC Part 22 airworthiness certificate was issued at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2026 to Tom Snow's RV-12iS, delivered July 24 — the same day the FAA published its amended light-sport rules — and signed off by DAR Bill Kanino. The airplane left Oshkosh in Cub Yellow and went straight into flight training with Crystal Air Academy in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The headline capability is legal operation in actual IMC, which Van's Marc Cook calls what flight schools have wanted at this price point for a long time; pricing starts at $246,200. Notably, it isn't a clean-sheet design: the MOSAIC-certified RV-12iS keeps the Rotax 912iS and Garmin G3X Touch avionics (with AXIS coming), adding redundant electrical capacity via an auxiliary alternator plus an upgraded radiator and oil cooler. Van's is currently building roughly one SLSA RV-12iS every four days, with demand driven almost entirely by flight schools.
Final Unleaded Avgas Transition Plan Is Here (3 minute read)
The FAA released its final Transition Plan to Unleaded Aviation Gasoline, a 72-page document responding to the unleaded avgas requirement in the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act and holding the goal of eliminating leaded avgas outside Alaska by the end of 2030, with Alaska getting two additional years. Phase 1 covers fuel approvals and head-to-head comparison of the three high-octane candidates — GAMI G100UL, Swift Fuels 100R, and LyondellBasell/VP Racing UL100 — and is projected to complete in spring 2027; Phase 2 expands market use and operational experience through mid-to-late 2028. The FAA has not set firm dates for Phase 3 (national transition) or Phase 4 (Alaska), and will define those in a revised plan expected in late 2027 alongside a public FAQ and a separate document explaining how it handled comments on the January draft. Federal Register publication of the plan followed on August 3.
Avtopia Launches (2 minute read)
Avtopia has launched as a new aviation community platform combining industry discussions, searchable business listings with verified reviews, and real-time AOG support. Its first operational service, Avtopia AOG, connects aircraft owners with maintenance providers when an aircraft is unexpectedly grounded, aimed at cutting response times and downtime. Co-founder Doug Taylor frames the problem as relationships and resources scattered across disconnected social groups and isolated silos — the platform is the attempt to consolidate them. Available now at Avtopia.com.
New ICON Sense Improves Landings (2 minute read)
ICON Aircraft, working with Avilution and Skytron Avionics, has introduced ICON Sense, a gear-configuration safety system built specifically for the amphibious A5. It fuses GPS, high-resolution water topography databases, and a precision radar altimeter, and Avilution's modular eXtensible Flight System (XFS) software processes that data to predict whether the pilot intends to land on water or hard surface — alerting only when the gear doesn't match, with nuisance alerts deliberately minimized. The package adds Landing Proximity Assist radar altimeter voice callouts and surface proximity tones, System Status Audio Alerts for Landing Gear Failure, Flaps Failure, Low Fuel and Dry Bilge Pump, and distinct audible prompts paired to the existing annunciator panel cautions. Pre-orders are open now with availability expected in the fourth quarter of 2026; pricing will be announced closer to release.
Cosmic Unveils Four-Seat Electric Airplane (2 minute read)
Colorado's Cosmic Aerospace has unveiled Cosmic One, a four-seat electric airplane it intends to certify under the FAA's MOSAIC rules, which took effect July 24 and expanded the light-sport category to electric propulsion. The design puts six independent electric propulsors in the wing and targets 250 knots, 250 nm of range plus VFR reserves, better than two hours of endurance, a 2,000-fpm climb, and a 30-minute recharge, at a 4,400-pound MTOW on a 49-foot span. Centennial Flyers, a Colorado flying club operating 42 aircraft, is the first announced U.S. launch customer, and reservations for the first 100 aircraft are open with a fully refundable $2,500 deposit for Founder Series positions. Cosmic targets a 2028 prototype first flight and 2029 deliveries, following the 32-motor CX-2 demonstrator that first flew in February 2025.
Wisk, NASA Test Single Ground Operator for Three Autonomous Aircraft (2 minute read)
Wisk Aero and NASA have completed a simulation testing whether one ground-based supervisor can oversee three autonomous aircraft simultaneously while coordinating with live air traffic controllers using existing ATC procedures. The exercise linked Wisk's Autonomy Lab in Mountain View to NASA's Future Flight Central facility at Ames, flying predetermined IFR routes between Moffett Federal Airfield and San Martin Airport alongside conventional traffic. Researchers measured communication response times, task delays, situational awareness, and cognitive workload using NASA's Task Load Index and the Bedford Workload Scale, across both routine and contingency scenarios. The work falls under a five-year research agreement on autonomous IFR operations in the National Airspace System, part of NASA's Pathfinding for Airspace with Autonomous Vehicles program.
Sling Announces MOSAIC-Compliant 2M Trainer (1 minute read)
Sling Aircraft North America has announced the Sling 2M, a version of its NGT trainer built to the new MOSAIC light-sport standards, with production aircraft ready to ship and customer deliveries scheduled to begin in August. Maximum gross weight is 1,540 pounds with a useful load over 600 pounds — enough for two adults, a whole-airframe parachute, and fuel for more than eight hours — and the aircraft may be flown IFR when properly equipped by an appropriately rated pilot. Garmin's AXIS flight system is standard equipment. Sling also launched the Sling Safety Network for the roughly 20 North American flight schools operating the NGT, providing standardized training documents, safety-management tools, and flight-debriefing resources.
How DoorDash Plans to Build Drone Delivery Business (8 minute read)
DoorDash has obtained FAA Part 135 air carrier authorization for DoorDash Air — becoming just the eighth drone operator to hold one, after a five-phase certification process covering airworthiness, maintenance programs, and safety procedures — and will fly aircraft it designs itself rather than relying on partners Wing, Flytrex, and Manna as it has since 2024. Harrison Shih of DoorDash Labs, the robotics group behind the Dot sidewalk robot, leads the effort, and the stack goes well past the airframe: order processing and loading, dispatch, routing algorithms, real-time inventory reconciliation, and "universal handoff systems" for drive-throughs and rooftops, all coordinated by DoorDash's Autonomous Delivery Platform. The scale is already meaningful — Wing alone reports well over 1 million commercial deliveries and is targeting 270 Walmart locations by 2027, while the FAA counts more than 800,000 registered drones and 480,000 certificated remote pilots. Worth watching from the cockpit: both ALPA and AOPA have raised safety concerns about how fast this traffic is growing in low-altitude airspace.
King Schools Adds Multiengine CFI Course To Cessna Training System (1 minute read)
King Schools releases its "Cleared for Multiengine Flight Instructing Course" in August 2026, completing the airplane CFI set alongside Single-Engine CFI and Instrument CFI within the Cessna Part 141 Flight Training System. The course covers emergency procedures, multiengine aerodynamics, flight operations, and takeoff/landing instruction, and integrates with the Cessna Course Tracking Application so schools can follow an instructor candidate's MEI progress in the same system as the rest of their training. CEO Barry Knuttila frames it as one consistent curriculum from zero time to a first professional job, with a multiengine instructing stint as the way to build that critical multi time. Like the other Cessna courses, it includes lifetime access, free automatic updates, and integration with King's study apps.
