Pilot Life: Utilizing ForeFlight and Stratus

This morning, I embarked on a solo flight, the first one I've had in a little over a week. Although I would've loved to have someone join me, I couldn't find someone to who could tag along in time. But it's nice to go up to be alone with your thoughts in the airplane every once in a while too... Today's flight was on one Platinum Aviation's Katanas that's equipped with a Strutus WiFi router; I've started utilizing the ForeFlight app on my iPad just a few months ago and I've been using it for flight preparations on the ground. But I've never used it in-flight before and I figured I should give it a try today, since I scheduled myself in a plane equipped with a Stratus WiFi router.

I took N968CT up today because it's equipped with a Stratus WiFi network where I could connect my iPad to use ForeFlight during the flight.

After doing a cold pre-flight, I pulled the airplane away from the hangar, hopped in and got started up. The stratus booted up with the rest of the avionics and I was able to establish a wireless connection to my iPad; ForeFlight automatically detected the Stratus and it was now showing me the position of my aircraft in real-time while in movement! After doing run-ups, I taxied out to the runway and took off. Once airborne I turned to the south to fly around the valley for a bit; I didn't go too far because there was an inversion layer over the ground. Every once in a while, I glanced over at ForeFlight on my iPad; I was getting real-time in-flight information, which was cool! ForeFlight showed my current position and even showed where other aircraft equipped with ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) equipment were. When I first started using ForeFlight, I thought it was a handy tool and it still is. But I've become even more of a convert to it!

After flying around in the southern part of the valley a little bit, I decided to head to Provo to practice some touch-and-go landings at tower-controlled airport like I did when I took my sister flying three days ago. I did three touch-and-goes in the Provo traffic pattern before heading back to Spanish Fork, where I'd land and call it a flight, and a fine way to spend a Friday morning! And I certainly look forward to utilizing ForeFlight a whole lot more in furthering my flight training!