Appareo Introduces Electronic Flight Bag App

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With the new Stratus Insight app, Appareo has jumped into the EFB market currently dominated by ForeFlight and Garmin’s Pilot apps. Now offering an all-in-one app, Insight adds full mapping capabilities to features previously available on its Horizon app, which include an EFIS display using the attitude information inside a Stratus transponder and transcription of radio messages. “At its core, Stratus Insight is a full-featured EFB designed to make pilots’ lives easier and to provide enhanced situational awareness in the cockpit. Stratus Insight’s weather tools were designed to give pilots a deeper understanding of weather for improved preflight planning,” says the company at the product launch. “Think of it as a digital copilot.”

Insight includes VFR sectional maps, IFR low/high en route charts and geo-referenced approach plates. It also includes terrain warnings and synthetic vision. Like the Horizon before it, the Insight includes radio transcription, which requires an audio-cable connection from the aircraft to the iPad. (The app is available only on Apple’s IOS.) 

In addition, the Insight app includes weather products with “Vertical Weather Profile, Radar Forecast, and Smart Flight Plan.” Smart flight planning helps ensure the pilot has enough fuel for the flight but also can provide a graphical set of en-route refueling choices. The Insight also has an alternate-planning tool for IFR pilots that displays airports within fuel range and with the weather minimums for filing as an alternate. Also as part of the flight-planning feature is a tool called vertical weather profile that presents aggregated data in profile view along the planned route; it’s a way to see if you’ll be clear of weather at your chosen altitude. Finally, radar forecast allows the pilot to forecast from current and recent-past radar returns to make an educated guess on future weather.

Appareo says the Insight app “supports integration with all generations of Stratus receivers, which provide subscription-free weather, WAAS GPS information, and ADS-B traffic to the app during flight.” New to the app are automatic downloads of nav data. The Insight app is available for download now and runs $9.99 a month or $99 a year with a 30-day trial available on download. 

Marc Cook
KITPLANES Editor in Chief Marc Cook has been in aviation journalism for more than 30 years. He is a 4000-hour instrument-rated, multi-engine pilot with experience in nearly 150 types. He’s completed two kit aircraft, an Aero Designs Pulsar XP and a Glasair Sportsman 2+2, and currently flies a 2002 GlaStar.

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