Scout Dual-Band ADS-B Receiver for Inflight Weather & Traffic - Made for ForeFlight by uAvionix

Delivery was prompt, packaging excellent, and setup/installation was incredibly simple. It took longer to unbox than it did to setup and get connected with ForeFlight. Quick, simple, and it worked the first time. My first test was at the house, simply attaching to a second floor window and immediately picked up traffic - that evening I enabled ADS-B filtering within ForeFlight and out for a test flight in the Cessna. There was hardly any traffic in the immediate area, which is always nice but what a great tool, detecting an ADS-B equipped aircraft passing parallel to me three miles east. The Scout is a fast affordable way to get more familiar with ADS-B, experience the benefits, improve situational awareness, and at this price point a perfect way to get started. I'm excited to see what else uAvionix has in development as I research a complete ADS-B solution for my aircraft. My sincere congratulations to the uAvionix team - great job ...

I bought the Scout to use in the company's Pilatus PC-12 and Gulfstream G200 to see if it would be a quick and easy solution to access in-flight weather. It works perfectly and the price certainly can't be beat. The iPad Minis that we use have a built-in GPS that work well in the PC-12 and G200 so the Scout was all we needed. I simply stick it on the cockpit side window and plug it into an inexpensive little dual port battery back that I also purchased on Amazon that powers the Scout and also keeps the iPads topped off. Easy, peasy - if you want to add some very worth while capability to your ForeFlight app, it just doesn't get any simpler than this. There is also the matter of customer service... Last week, after a flight, I noticed that I had lost the suction cup that holds the power cord. It's not a big deal, you don't even actually need it, but I contacted ForeFlight and uAvionix to see if I could buy a replacement. They shipped me 3 or 4 at no charge and I had them in a couple of days. Great product, great customer service - it doesn't get any better than that. I gave the Scout and ForeFlight / uAvionix 5 stars and if I could give them 10 or 20 I would.

Since its major competitor costs around $800 (It does, unlike the Scout, have a built in WAAS GPS and an AHRS), I was initially skeptical about the $199 Scout. Seeing its diminutive size made me only more wary. But, following the simple instructions, I plugged it in and went flying. It is amazingly good! Seeing other traffic in this very busy part of the world (the Pacific NW) is incredibly useful. I almost always avail myself of VFR flight following with ATC or simply file IFR, but even when they call out traffic to me, having a geo-referenced bearing on the traffic presented on my iPad helps me to spot other aircraft I probably would never have seen previously. I've only begun taking advantage of the weather features, looking up METARS, winds aloft, and ceilings along my route while in flight. Once we get into autumn, seeing where the heaviest precipitation is located will be very useful. I highly recommend this product. Dan. ATP/CFI, CFII, MEI

This product was amazing, and was extremely helpful. It did everything as expected. It helped me many times showing traffic on my iPad, or if I wanted to see weather ahead on my route of flight. The suction was underpreforming but after many attempts, I could eventually get it stick. But now, 11 flights later, ~25 hours, it will not show up on ForeFlight. It will turn on and connection via Wifi to my iPad, but will not connect to ForeFlight. I am in contact with ForeFlgiht team currently, but it seems there is no trouble shooting. So far they have advised me to use my warranty.

I've only had this for a few days but so far it looks promising. I have a fixed base type external antenna for listening to traffic and ATC on my portable aviation transceiver (for when I want to listen to what's going on around me while at home). I mounted the Scout to the outside of one of my glass doors and was able to track traffic on approach to KGSO which is 9 nm away. I used an old Aztech 1800 mAh backup battery as the power source and it kept the scout running for 6 hours, that's roughly 300 mAh per hour, it's an old battery so I'm sure it's not as good as a new one. I "could" measure the actual power consumption but it's not that important really. 6 hours from an old 1800 mAh battery is more than enough for me. BTW, the small 1800 mAh battery pack fits in the Scout case if ya use a short USB cable instead of the long one that came with it. I listened to the communications between the aircraft and ATC at KGSO and the Scout seemed to be keeping up with tracking in real time. The aircraft finally dropped off of my screen when it was at 400 ft AGL and that's 9 nm away while sitting at my house. I haven't had enough time with it in-flight yet but so far it looks like it will pickup close traffic pretty well. Even if it picks up just one aircraft that I'm looking for in the pattern, that's better than none, at least I may have a better idea of where to look for it. There are several towers in my flying area and the Scout picks those up very well even without the big rubber ducky type antennas, I was pleasantly surprised about that. My iPad has a good GPS module and a good Barometric Pressure Sensor, the GPS works great, that's been tested many times, the Baro sensor has been accurate to within +/- 60 ft. every time I've tested it, so I'm happy with that as well so I don't really need an extra GPS or Baro sensor. AHRS is just a backup so I don't miss that part either. The Scout not having it's own battery doesn't bother me, I'd rather use an external battery anyway. My iPad obviously has it's own battery but I still use a 15,000 mAh Mophie Powerstation while flying, it keeps the iPad from overheating and shutting down. I learned that the iPad overheating issue comes from the internal battery but with an external battery, it never overheats and never shuts down. The airplane has a cigarette lighter type power source but I don't use it cause it has a small amount of distortion (probably from the ignition system), the external battery pack is as clean of a power source as you can get. :-) As for Foreflight, the only reason they came up with the Scout is because they were losing customers to iFly and others since they would not allow systems like Stratux to be used on their app. There are good features on all of the apps I've tested but Foreflight has features that others don't have like "Distance rings" and the "Projected flight track" that show up in the distance rings (as much as 100 nm if I have it set for that distance, I usually use 5, 10 & 25 nm for the distance rings), I can tell what my flight path is at a glance even if the heading and course differ due to crosswinds . I'm not sure if you can file, amend, activate and close flight plans directly from the app in other apps but Foreflight has that feature as well. I'm disappointed that Foreflight has three levels of features, with each one being $100 more than the lower plan, why not have just one plan for a fixed reasonable price and be proud to offer that same level of safety for all pilots? (Like hazard and terrain in synthetic vision for example). Why does it have to cost more to have approach plates and airport diagrams on maps?, to me that's a major safety feature that should be available to all subscribers! The airport diagrams overlaid on maps helps a lot when at unfamiliar airports and I can tell where other aircraft are at on the ground, that's a good way to help prevent taxiway and runway incursions IMHO. You know it doesn't cost "That" much to make a Stratus 2, so why set the price so high that most weekend rental pilots can't afford it? I could buy the Stratus 2 but I'd have to put it on a credit card and make payments on it, so it's either use that money for flying or.....buy the device and admire it while sitting on the ground for awhile. Jeeze!. Most of us know that a "really" good AHRS and GPS unit can be bought for around $100 and that's already built and programmed, they have precise accelerometers as well (not referring to cheap RC type, some RC or Remote Control models are great as well, like those used in Drones), receivers for weather and traffic cost no more than $75 already built and programmed. iFly was offering Stratux units already built with AHRS and GPS for $150 during OshKosh (regular price is $250). I do like Foreflight but I my ranting about it won't change the way they put a price on safety. I may come back with an update after I've had enough in air time with this little unit. The small size makes it easy for cockpit placement. That's nice! I would give the Scout five stars but I haven't used it enough yet. I recommend the Scout if you already have GPS and Baro in your iPad or if you're not concerned with those features.

I have had the chance to use this ADS-B receiver sold by ForeFlight using either my iPhone or iPad - in either casual VFR flights in a Citabria as well a few IFR flights in a Cessna 172 (small/cramped cockpits). Setting up the Scout is a piece of cake (as is upgrading its firmware via ForeFlight); plug it into a power source, select the wifi endpoint on the iPhone/iPad, and that's it. It picks up weather and other traffic in no time. It's tiny enough that it's unnoticeable even in a cramped cockpit; The Scout doesn't have a built in battery, so I use the same 10000mAh battery I carry to extend the battery life of my iPhone/iPad when flying (the KMASHI 10000mAh Portable Power Bank with Dual USB Ports 3.1A Output and 2A Input - Black ; an aux power output would be ideal but not always available in rentals. The Scout has no built-in GPS either nor does it have an AHRS; for one thing, the GPS built into my iPad/iPhone works fine, and I am not sure how useful - would I trust it? - a portable AHRS would be; it does however offer ADS-B weather and dual band traffic, in a really tiny package and much cheaper than other commercial alternative. I know about the Stratux project, and actually did put one together, but it's kinda unwieldy (at least my setup is), especially compared to the Scout which is IMHO far more usable and practical. Beware though that the iPhone screen might be too small to fully take advantage of the scout, as it can ad quite a bit of clutter - an iPad is a far more practical platform in that case. Also, this product is ForeFlight specific. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone using ForeFlight.

I work for company the operates Gulfstream aircraft and have been very interested in this technology. The department purchased a stratus unit and I've had the ability to compare this unit and the stratux unit Chris spoke of. I've been using the stratus unit for almost three years and have a good base of experience with it, utilizing it to assist in strategic weather planning airborne. A significant majority of my experiences for the past 10 years has been in the 40,000+ foot altitudes. That being said, that is where I'm basing the following. The stratus has worked consistently after finding the best location and orientation for its antenna. I have used the stratux through numerous software iterations and multiple antenna trials. Same trial and error with antenna location/orientation. But I've been less successful with the stratux. I do believe the stratux will ultimately work, but it's hard for me to continue that pursuit. The scout I bought will be returned. I was hopeful, but I tried it in numerous locations and orientations and had little success. I was able to make direct comparisons with the stratus in real time and real weather. It's got a ways to go for real use in a high altitude, high performance jet. For now I'm heading back to the stratus.

Recently used Scout for a VFR cross country flight to Mackinac Island. It proved invaluable when navigating through Detroit class bravo. Even tho I do not have ADS B out on my aircraft yet it still received nearly all the traffic around me and displayed it on my iPad. I was constantly noticing other traffic prior to controllers notifying me during Flight Following. While flying through rural mid Michigan I still was receiving at least one tower but usually 3 towers while at 6,500msl. Two of the towers were more than 150 miles away. A popcorn storm cell developed just east of the island prior to departure. Scout had it on my screen and I was able to route away from it on departure. I have a 10,000mah USB power pack that I purchased from Amazon awhile back. It ran Scout for the whole trip (4.9 hrs total) and I was still able to give my iPad a full recharge while still having 50% charge left in the power pack. Scout uses very little power. I am so glad I had Scout along for the flight!