I was sitting on the back patio last Sunday morning with my girlfriend idly browsing the internet when a story popped into her feed that caught her eye. It was a story about a pilot flying rescue puppies to their new home, and she thought the puppies were adorable. Smelling a chance to get her back in the air I explained that it’s an organization called Pilots N Paws where volunteers fly dogs around the country. She loved the idea, so I decided to make the jump and sign up. Four days later I was flying my first set of adorable puppies, a flight neither of us would soon forget.

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With the implementation of ADS-B in the United States there’s suddenly a lot more information available for pilots to consume while in the air. Previously you’d need a subscription to something like Sirius XM weather to get updates on what the clouds look like along your route but now the FAA is providing a service that is just as good if not better and completely free of charge through something called FIS-B (Flight Information Service Broadcast). Over the last couple months I’ve been enjoying the benefits of that through a Garmin GDL-39 and without a doubt it has changed the way I fly for the better. One specific flight a couple weeks ago really showed where having FIS-B available is a major benefit.

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I haven’t been flying very long, but over my short life in aviation I’ve watched as tablets and their aviation apps have exploded in popularity. When I started flight school the older pilots regarded my Garmin Pilot enabled Android tablet as not much better than a shiny toy, but these days even the crustiest of the old guard have begrudgingly accepted that a good electronic flight bag (EFB) might be the single mot important piece of safety equipment that a pilot can bring with them in the air. For those who haven’t made the jump and invested in an EFB just yet, there’s a choice to be made which can have a massive impact on their experience and the capabilities of their device: should you get an Android or Apple iOS tablet?

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Garmin Pilot is the only real option for a full featured navigation suite on the Android platform, but it looks like they aren’t resting on their laurels. In the last major update they added train and obstacle identification into their database, and while 5.0 doesn’t have many big new features it does sport a brand new user interface. Gone are the huge buttons on the screen, replaced with a more Android-esque hamburger menu and other nice UI improvements that do make it easier to navigate around the app while in the air.

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