Share your track log and get entered to win a $200 Sporty’s Gift Card!
Stratus is the most powerful ADS-B receiver you can buy, delivering in-flight weather, traffic, GPS position, and backup attitude to ForeFlight. Stratus also includes a flight data recorder, which automatically logs all of your flights, complete with GPS position and attitude. These track logs are a great way to review a training flight or relive a memorable trip, and can be viewed on ForeFlight’s website or in the CloudAhoy app.
Now your track logs could win you a $200 Sporty’s Gift Card and other prizes. Just share your most interesting flight with us: your first solo, a flight to Oshkosh, the perfect S-turn, a unique instrument approach, or whatever else you found memorable.
The prizes
We’ll pick a new winner every week, beginning August 29 and ending October 3. Each week, the pilot who submits the most interesting track log will win a $200 Sporty’s Gift Card.
At the end of those six weeks, we’ll match up all six winners head-to-head and let pilots vote on the grand champion. The pilot with the most votes will win a Stratus Power TSO’d charging plug, plus a free subscription to Sporty’s Takeoff app - worth over $400!
How to enter
To enter, just email your favorite track log to stratus@sportys.com, along with your name and home airport. Entries can be emailed directly from ForeFlight or CloudAhoy; just make sure your track log was recorded on a Stratus, not just with GPS (see details below).
How to use flight data recorder
Stratus 2 and 2S are always recording your flights, up to 20 hours at a time. To access these logs, turn on Stratus and connect it to your iPad. Then open ForeFlight, tap More, then Devices, then Stratus. At the bottom of the Stratus Status menu, tap on the line that says Track Logs to view all your recent flights.
From here, you can choose a specific flight and tap the download symbol at the right to transfer the track log from Stratus to ForeFlight.
Once you’ve transferred a flight to ForeFlight, it will appear in the Track Logs page (also accessed from the More button). This will probably show a combination of track logs recorded by your iPad (GPS only) and by Stratus (which includes more data, like attitude). Tap on a track log to view details, then tap the arrow at the top right corner to share the track log.
Choose Mail to send the flight to stratus@sportys.com and enter in the contest.
Three debrief options
There are three great options for debriefing your flight: ForeFlight.com, CloudAhoy and Google Earth. Each of these options requires you to export your track log to another program, but that's quick and easy, and can be done directly from ForeFlight.
The fastest and easiest option is to choose ForeFlight.com from the share menu shown above. This allows you to view any track log on ForeFlight’s website for a nice summary of the flight, complete with an interactive map.
For the most detailed post-flight debrief, we like the CloudAhoy app. To share a flight from ForeFlight to CloudAhoy, tap the same arrow button at the top right of ForeFlight, then choose Open KML in... then select CloudAhoy from the list of available apps (make sure the app is installed on your device).
Once the track log is open in CloudAhoy, you can play back the entire flight, from GPS track to pitch and bank. There are powerful options for overlaying your flight on aviation charts, satellite images, and even a glass cockpit view. The app will also auto-detect flight segments for you, perfect for approaches or landings. CloudAhoy does require a subscription, but you can download the app for free and try it for 30 days.
To email a CloudAhoy track log, tap the Share button at the top of the screen, then choose email.
This video gives a great overview of how CloudAhoy works:
The last option is Google Earth, a free app for iPad. From the same Share menu in ForeFlight choose Google Earth (again, make sure it's installed on your device). You can review your flight path and turn on 3D mode to see your climbs and descents.
For more information about Stratus, visit sportys.com/stratus
Winners
Week 1 - congratulations to Arie Friedman, who is the first winner of a $200 Sporty's Gift Card! He used his Stratus to log a training flight around Waukegan Airport, north of Chicago, then uploaded his track log to CloudAhoy for debriefing. The app's automatic segmenting tools picked out David's steep turns, stop and go landings and more. Check out the screen shots below - you can see his bank angle and the shape of the steep turn (nice job!) and the distance it took on his landing.
Steep turns:
Stop and go:
Week 2 - congratulations to Ron McCormick, the winner of our second $200 Sporty's gift card. He shared a flight from May 22, 2017, which was an Air Safaris flying tour of the UK and Ireland. As Ron says, "This flight is unique in that we departed Enniskillen Northern Ireland and had to clear customs in Donegal, Ireland. There were troughs of low pressure rolling through producing IFR conditions. One came through as we were a few miles out of Donegal and we detoured out over the coast where we circled 7-8 times (at 500 ft AGL) waiting for weather to clear. Had ForeFlight on Linda's iPad and I used SkyDemon on my iPad mini for navigating using the local waypoints to see local sights. I like to have ForeFlight on one device since that is what I comfortable using and use in stateside flying. The new Jeppesen data bases make ForeFlight usable all over. Having tracklogs on stratus allows us to go back and see flight on Google Earth and get the names of castles, lighthouses, etc. Would recommend Air Safaris air tours to everyone. Flying in foreign country is great way to see a lot of country. Have been on Air Safaris Australia tour and loved it."
Here's a screenshot of Ron's track log in CloudAhoy, where you can see his circles over the coast. Click on the image for a full size screenshot.
Week 3 - congratulations to John Schmotzer, who's based at Blake Field in Delta, Colorado. He's the winner of our third $200 Sporty's gift card. He shared his Stratus track log of a skydive run to 14,000 feet, "complete with a power-off 180 for good practice." Not your typical flight profile!
Week 4 - congratulations to Mark Slayton, based at Millington, Tennessee. He's the winner of the fourth $200 Sporty's Gift Card. Mark shared the Stratus track log from his recent flight, and it was an interesting one: Key West, Florida, to Havana, Cuba. The screenshot below, from CloudAhoy, shows his trip across the Straits of Florida and his arrival into Cuba (click on image for full size).
Week 5 - Jeff Carlson of Ohio is the winner of this week's $200 Sporty's Gift Card. He shared a Stratus track log from his private pilot checkride on July 2, 2017. You can see the takeoff, the landings, and all the maneuvers in flight. The multiple views in CloudAhoy and the attitude playback from Stratus makes for a complete debrief.
Week 6 - Our final Stratus FDR winner is Al Friend from Michigan. He went up for some IFR proficiency flying, and captured the track logs. These are great for debriefing an instrument flight, as you can see the airplane's airspeed and altitude on final approach, and even overlay the final approach course on the map. In the screenshot below, you can see Al just right of the localizer, but correcting back towards it as he approaches the final approach fix. You can also see the glideslope and his attitude (logged by Stratus) on the right side. It's a fantastic tool for determining just how precisely an approach was flown. Click on the image for full size.
