Bought a Stratus II -- It's Awesome

LevelWing

LevelWing

Pre-takeoff checklist
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LevelWing
I bought a Stratus II and took it on a flight today to test it out and it worked great. I didn't see any traffic but aside from that it was nice to be able to look ahead to my destination airport and check the weather along with any other information I needed from the air. I've been a ForeFlight subscriber for a while and this is a really nice addition to it. I paired it with my iPad Air. I haven't really used my iPad in the cockpit a lot (I've used my iPhone instead) and think I'll need to get a Ram mount for it now. Very happy with the purchase and it'll definitely get some use.
 
Very cool device! We've got them in the company planes, and they really work great with foreflight.

What altitude were you using yours at? Did you have any troubles pairing it or starting it up the first time?
 
TheTraveler said:
Very cool device! We've got them in the company planes, and they really work great with foreflight.

What altitude were you using yours at? Did you have any troubles pairing it or starting it up the first time?
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I flew at 9,500 MSL on the way out and 10,500 MSL on the way back and picked up between 2-3 towers while in the air depending on where I was. I didn't have any issues pairing them; it was very simple the first time I paired them and now anytime I turn the Stratus on it automatically connects to the iPad.
 
LevelWing said:
I flew at 9,500 MSL on the way out and 10,500 MSL on the way back and picked up between 2-3 towers while in the air depending on where I was. I didn't have any issues pairing them; it was very simple the first time I paired them and now anytime I turn the Stratus on it automatically connects to the iPad.
Click to expand...

I heard a few friends who had problems the first time pairing them, but no problems afterwards. We use ours frequently cruising at 20,000 and it still works great.

The only negative I have ever experienced is with the devices that link to it, not with the unit itself. On the ground...if you forget to turn off your WiFi, the unit is still powered up, and you're standing next to the plane, you may wonder why you're not getting any internet.
 
It is a very nice addition to the cockpit. I've done some pretty long trips with them and you get spoiled real fast.
 
If you aren't picking up traffic then maybe check FF settings. At a minimum I always pick up random high altitude (airline & freight) traffic.
 
Clark1961 said:
If you aren't picking up traffic then maybe check FF settings. At a minimum I always pick up random high altitude (airline & freight) traffic.
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I didn't see anything in the settings that would allow me to change preferences for traffic. I did see the traffic section and it shows the last time it was updated. I didn't check that during the flight though.

As a side note, when the Stratus is connected to the iPad it will eat the battery quickly. Luckily I have an adapter in the plane that allows me to charge it while in the air.
 
There are a couple FF settings. The first is the basic traffic display selection and is accessed the same as picking radar display. The second setting filters for local traffic vs all traffic. I always set it to show all traffic.
 
Foreflight traffic only works if you are ADS-B Out equipped. It is an ADS-B thing, not a Foreflight thing.

If you are seeing traffic, it is because someone near you is ASB-B Out and you are seeing their "packet" of traffic.

Traffic was useless for me until I installed ADS-B out
 
LevelWing said:
As a side note, when the Stratus is connected to the iPad it will eat the battery quickly. Luckily I have an adapter in the plane that allows me to charge it while in the air.
Click to expand...

Make sure your cellular data is turned off in flight. That will drain the battery faster than foreflight
 
Shawn said:
Foreflight traffic only works if you are ADS-B Out equipped. It is an ADS-B thing, not a Foreflight thing.

If you are seeing traffic, it is because someone near you is ASB-B Out and you are seeing their "packet" of traffic.

Traffic was useless for me until I installed ADS-B out
Click to expand...
That might explain why I wasn't seeing any traffic then.



Shawn said:
Make sure your cellular data is turned off in flight. That will drain the battery faster than foreflight
Click to expand...
I have the Wi-Fi only iPad. But it's a good tip for those that have the cellular enabled ones.
 
Shawn said:
Make sure your cellular data is turned off in flight. That will drain the battery faster than foreflight
Click to expand...

I learned that the hard way a month ago. I nearly burned through my battery on a 2.6 hour round trip flight.
 
FF picks up some of the traffic without being ADSB out. It is limited however.
 
frfly172 said:
FF picks up some of the traffic without being ADSB out. It is limited however.
Click to expand...

Yup, anybody who is "squitting" (1090ES). With the filters turned off in FF a lot of airliners show up.
 
Shawn said:
Foreflight traffic only works if you are ADS-B Out equipped. It is an ADS-B thing, not a Foreflight thing.

If you are seeing traffic, it is because someone near you is ASB-B Out and you are seeing their "packet" of traffic.

Traffic was useless for me until I installed ADS-B out
Click to expand...

I listened to a speaker from bendix at a mooney conference. He called it leaching.
 
Clark1961 said:
Yup, anybody who is "squitting" (1090ES). With the filters turned off in FF a lot of airliners show up.
Click to expand...
I didn't see any traffic and I'm not sure what filters/settings are being referenced. It would be nice to see the traffic while on longer flights.
 
go to More:Settings:Traffic:Hide Distant Traffic and make sure that is turned off so anything will show up. Visual and audible alerts can be selected there too.

I'm assuming you know about turning traffic on with the drop down menu on the map page. It seemed to me that the first time I selected traffic it didn't stay selected. Not sure how I screwed it up but it hasn't happened again.
 
I just got back from a long trip and the Stratus did great. The battery lasts quite a while, essentially an entire day's worth of usage. The only real issue I had was with the iPad battery not wanting to make it the whole way. I was able to plug it into the plane to keep it from dying. I tried dimming the brightness on it as well. It's not a cellular enabled version so that wasn't a factor.

The traffic worked as well. It was good to see what else was out there flying even though it didn't show everything.
 
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LevelWing said:
I just got back from a long trip and the Stratus did great. The battery lasts quite a while, essentially an entire day's worth of usage. The only real issue I had was with the iPad battery not wanting to make it the whole way. I was able to plug it into the plane to keep it from dying. I tried dimming the brightness on it as well. It's not a cellular enabled version so that wasn't a factor.
Click to expand...


Some things I do which really help with this...

-Disable bluetooth
-Turn off automatic time zone update
-Turn off all other apps in the background
-Turn email fetch to manual

It sounds like a pain, but it really does work in extending the battery life.
 
TheTraveler said:
Some things I do which really help with this...

-Disable bluetooth
-Turn off automatic time zone update
-Turn off all other apps in the background
-Turn email fetch to manual

It sounds like a pain, but it really does work in extending the battery life.
Click to expand...

Another quick way to do much of this with fewer taps is
  1. swipe up to get the grey control panel,
  2. Turn on airplane mode,
  3. then turn back on wi-fi and reconnect to stratus.
Airplane mode turns of many of the power consuming functions an antennae you don't need while flying (like BT, Cell tower connection, GPS, etc). Step 3 gets you back to the Stratus which provides it's info.

Another power saver is to reduce the screen brightness to the minimum you need to make out the detail.

And I've developed the habit of putting the iPad to sleep and only wake it when I need it.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Another quick way to do much of this with fewer taps is

  1. swipe up to get the grey control panel,
  2. Turn on airplane mode,
  3. then turn back on wi-fi and reconnect to stratus.
Airplane mode turns of many of the power consuming functions an antennae you don't need while flying (like BT, Cell tower connection, GPS, etc). Step 3 gets you back to the Stratus which provides it's info.



Another power saver is to reduce the screen brightness to the minimum you need to make out the detail.



And I've developed the habit of putting the iPad to sleep and only wake it when I need it.
Click to expand...
I do this and it likely helps a little but ForeFlight and Stratus together still drain the battery pretty quick. I do turn the iPad off when I don't need it to help save some of the battery.
 
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