The Smart Aviator

Even before the Air Canada CRJ 900 and a fire truck collided at New York's LaGuardia Airport killing two pilots this past March, the FAA has been committed to equipping airport vehicles with ADS-B transmitters. For starters, the agency is investing $16.5 million to equip its tech ops and other vehicles with ADS-B hardware, primarily uAvionix VTU-20 (20 watts) UAT units. Designed for an easy installation on nearly anything that drives on the airport surface, the VTU-20 shares tech that's also built into the company's budget-friendly skyBeacon and tailBeacon ADS-B Out systems for small GA airplanes. AvBrief's Larry Anglisano talked with Cyriel Kronenburg at uAvionix to learn about the interface.

Longtime aviation author and retired airline captain Les Abend joins AvBrief’s A-list editorial team with a focus on take-it-to-the-bank advice for safe, affordable, and smart airplane ownership.

Answering the overwhelming reader demand for new content focused on IFR training, technique and proficiency, AvBrief is delivering The Instrument Aviator. The premium fresh content (not reheated material found elsewhere) written by familiar authors/educators is dedicated entirely to instrument flying and caters to a wide variety of instrument pilots—from seasoned pros to students. As Instrument Aviator regular contributor and CFI-I Elaine Kauh and AvBrief's Larry Anglisano discuss in this episode of the Smart Aviator podcast, the timing is right to get serious with deep-diving, hard-hitting scenario-based IFR articles and AvBrief is bringing it strong.

As more users look for alternatives for flight planning and cockpit tablet navigation apps, a program called 8Flight Aviator EFB has been getting a lot of attention for its competitive and fast-growing feature list, plus its reasonable subscription price that’s lower than some of the leading programs. But as 8Flight EFB founder Matt Guthmiller explains in this episode of the Smart Aviator podcast on AvBrief, creating a full-featured EFB app from the ground up —with the features that demanding pilots expect—is no easy task.

The full-featured, well-respected ForeFlight Mobile iPad app has been in the spotlight lately with some loyal users pondering other options—of which there are plenty. But switching apps (and taking the plunge to an EFB if you've never used a tablet app in flight) can be a major, difficult decision. As Smart Aviator on AvBrief ventures on an in-depth aviation tablet app review, we sat down with John Zimmerman at Sporty's for some guidance on how you might go about the decision.

While media praised the recent Garmin Autoland King Air save, the installer—Blackhawk Aerospace—also deserves credit. Installing aftermarket Autoland and autothrottle is complex, and full testing is impossible without an in-flight emergency. On this podcast, Blackhawk’s Conrad Theisen discusses the install and the real-world save.

Cockpit smoke emergencies in air carrier and commercial jet ops are more common than you might think. So common that a company called VisionSafe developed the EVAS—for Emergency Vision Assurance System. Its deployment has been responsible for lots of safe landings in everything from airliners to corporate jets to freighters.

Avionics buyers want options. With roots planted deeply in the experimental aircraft market, Dynon Avionics has been gaining sizable momentum in the current market with a wide range of avionics products for both experimental and certified aircraft.

Flight1's advanced sims offer G1000 NXi realism for Cirrus and Piper pilots—ideal tools for avionics mastery outside the cockpit.

At AirVenture 2025 at Oshkosh, Nighthawk Flight Systems got a lot of attention when it showed a clean sheet integrated avionics suite called Guardian. The Guardian was an attention getter with its tight graphics, thin displays, a liberal IO that works with a large variety of third-party analog and digital avionics, plus a price tag that was said to be under $40,000. Nighthawk Flight Systems (it bought Sandel Avionics a few years ago) promised to start shipping FAA-approved (via an AML-STC) as early as December 2024. Since that's just a couple of months away, we followed up on the project with company CEO Paul Martin, who not only promised a seamless installation and high-level field support, but set aggressive goals for the system's initial certification and growth.

In a hardened insurance market that's causing grief for pilots of complex and tailwheel models, Maryland-based SkyWatch Aviation Insurance has been gaining attention for its modern approach to assessing risk. Using AI models to better match a pilot to a policy, the company has a website utility where pilots enter their information and the program shops for coverage with a variety of underwriters, and buyers can often score coverage on the spot. SkyWatch is credited for working with AOPA to create a senior pilot insurance program to help aging pilots get liability insurance in hopes of stretching their flying careers. To learn more about the company and for an update on the current market (and for tips on aircraft upgrade decisions with insurance in mind), we talked with SkyWatch's senior underwriting manager, Alon Admi.

We continue to wreck airplanes for the same reasons we always have, but there are plenty of things we can do to survive—if not avoid the mistakes in the first place. Respected aviation author Rick Durden and Larry Anglisano talk about tailwheel airplanes, twins, and jet safety considerations, and a bit about the Cessna 340 in episode 5 of the Smart Aviator Podcast.

While not exactly turbochargers, superchargers are air compressors directly driven by the engine via a belt, gears or the crankshaft. Forced Aeromotive, with its bolt-on belt-driven supercharger mod, took an interesting approach in boosting engine power for increased performance. These systems work, and ones we’ve flown boost cruise speeds by up to 20 knots over a normally aspirated models. But the real appeal is that climb rate goes up as much as 500 FPM. But with the passing of Forced Aeromotive founder Rod Sage last year, owners are reporting a halt in parts supply and engineering support. That means abandoning an otherwise good-performing system at a sizable cost in performance and investment.In this video, supercharged-modded Cirrus SR22 owner Alexander Wolf shows us around the modded Continental engine on his Cirrus and explains the situation he faces with an AOG airplane that needs replacement parts.

The FAA's CPDLC Data Communication program delivers air-to-ground textual data that eases radio congestion and can reduce both controller and pilot workload. It's not exactly new technology and for airlines and corporate jet ops the system has been in play for a while. But Garmin recently released an upgrade for the GTN 750Xi navigator, along with the GDR 66 data comm transceiver, which is expanding the technology to more airplanes. But it's still limited to high flyers. In this episode of the Smart Aviator podcast, airline captain and Smart Aviator contributor Sy Pinkert talks through the technology with Larry Anglisano.

You've spent years building your experimental kit aircraft and it's finally time for its first flight. Of all the milestones in a build project it's the most serious and carries the most risk. But with the right approach and mindset, you can reduce at least some of those risks. In episode three of the Smart Aviator podcast, Larry Anglisano sat down with Paul Dye—a highly experienced experimental aircraft builder, EAA Technical Counselor, FAA Designated Airworthiness Inspector, and the former and longest-serving NASA Flight Director for the Human Space Flight program—for tips on surviving the first flights of a newly built plane.

It's a dilemma at a lot of airports—you score the airplane of your dreams, but soon realize that sourcing a hangar to keep it in safe storage is nearly impossible. Long lead times for occupying cookie cutter T hangars, expensive and restrictive arrangements in a community hangar, and the red tape of building your own hangar on a state airport only scratch the surface of hassles. A company called High Flying Hangars has been successfully populating its premium-priced, custom-built hangars around the country, and built with amenities seldom found in a basic T hangar. To learn more about the model, Smart Aviator's Larry Anglisano sat down with High Flying Hangars' Lisa DeFrees for a report on Episode 2 of the Smart Aviator podcast.

There are plenty of good reasons to make informed decisions when investing big in a pair of eyeglasses for flying. Think of protection in case of a birdstrike and crash, optical clarity for using glass displays and tablet computers, and in the case of correcting vision and the inevitable aging eyes—your prescription. In the Smart Aviator Podcast Episode 1, host Larry Anglisano talks it through with Flying Eyes founder Dean Siracusa, plus they talk about the rare and interesting Meyers 200-series airplanes.