Stratus Insight EFB User Reviews

Top reviews

Do not download !!!

ADSB does not work with Garmin GDL and I was charged $9.95 less than a week after downloading. Was not 30-day trial period.

Promising application

Good application with even better potential

No thanks

Not paying $9.99 per month

No support for Stratux

It used to support Stratux, now it does not!!!

Best Value

I’ve used every EFB out there. It is coded tightly, isn’t designed by committee and the dev is responsive to feature requests and bug fixes.

Can’t rely on

I have tried to use on IPad Pro, and it crashed, locked screen and even after rebooting and restarting Insight, only thing that comes up is same locked screen. I have cancelled subscription.

Scam

Beware
If you download this app, they will charge you for an ongoing subscription without you realizing it.
There’s no way to cancel this automatic renewal!
A real scam!
Don’t dare download the “free” trial!

Favorites lacking, storage hog

I’ve tried quite a few flight apps, most called EFBs despite the fact that most are far from an “EFB”. I like this one but it is a compromise because it lacks the ability to edit the favorites list or a method to save for a long term, a plan that one uses frequently. It is also not possible to edit a temporarily saved “favorite”, you have to name it something else. The favorites list as is, has little to no value to me.

More than 20 gig, yes, more than 20 gig of storage, how can that be?

Another problem I encountered is that after creating an IFR flight plan, if you try to edit airways after the fact, it draws airway lines all over the place which the only way to fix is to start over. I found myself going back to skyvector to create and file my flight plans because I know they will be correct that way.

Documentation is really poor, and that is a problem in itself.

I really like the price as it is reasonable, but improvements need to be made. I’m going to continue using this app as I watch for these changes. Hopefully I can edit this review as changes are made.

I uninstalled this app because it is not working for me, before the trial ended, yet I was still charge the annual fee. I would like refund.
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Response from developer

Thank you for trying insight. We do have the ability to both save and recall flight plans, finding this functionality can be a little tricky at first. Please contact us at support@appareo.com and we would be happy to help walk you through this. The storage space seems a little high. We recommend deleting the app entirely then reinstalling and downloading what you need. If you had a previous version around there may be a few database files still hanging around on the filesystem. It sounds like you had some issues with airway routing. The app tries to detect which direction you are going on your airway based on what you enter. It might be easier to enter the entire route in the search box instead of the FPL editor tool, this may help you. If you have a series of waypoints you enter that show up wrong please contact support as this may be a bug.

OK but needs improvement to compete w FF and GP

Overall very pleased with the product but needs some improvements. Been using for 2 weeks now and I have active FF and GP to compare to. Some comments :

1) The deal breaker — Synthetic vision screen severely lacks overlay options and is extremely glitchy. It’s hard to call this a feature when there is zero fluidness to the screen. Before you judge, I use apple mini 5 and I’ve also tried on Ipaad air - both have this major issue.
2) Needs graphical Leidos brief like FF does. Why is it that FF has full graphics like 800brief but no other product offers this? Something isn’t right with that.
3) Although you can add the approach plate, you don’t get option to add fixes to the flight plan - ie loading approaching. This is a must and needs attention to be competitive with FF/GP
4) Too many layers of menus. Menus at the top match FF (but why since imo this is the worst part of FF interface). On the lower screen there’s another menu. The lower one should be configurable, then completely delete the top one which is impossible to touch accurately on a bumpy flight. My preference is the menu method GP uses. Rich in color and highly visible in flight.
5) It would be nice to have Heading overlay arc on the plan view - the way aera796 does this (which I also own) would be amazing. No other iOS app does this and would be game changer for situational awareness. Btw the round compass rose approach is not a good solution as it clutters the screen.
6) Add HITS for full FP + loaded approach - There is no reason why any paying app should be without this feature. This coupled with approaches would be the best solution for 99% of pilots. I don’t like the auto glide slope as it does not match approach glide slope and can be very misleading. It should match the approach only when loaded.
7) Split screen similar to FF was the wrong decision. IMO the method GP uses is the best, offering small button to configure the secondary window that we want to activate. No one else comes close.
8)Vertical planning mode w weather is a valuable tool especially for icing and cloud layers.
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Status Insight great for VFR flights

The main reason I purchased the one month subscription of $9.95 (1 year/$100) was to try the ATC transcription service. Mainly to help with clearance delivery read backs and general read back ATC instructions. You do need the special wire adapter that you use with your existing headset for it to work.

The EFB is an added bonus to the transcription service.

Transcription service:

The verbal to written transcription service is overall pretty good, it does a very good job with numbers, which is probably the most important. It does have some difficulty with some terms. Accuracy is about 80%-90% Overall. It does do a good job of organizing the verbal transmissions, so if the text transcription does not make sense, you can always listen again to the original verbal message. It is like having a copilot next to you, where u can turn to him/her and ask “what did ATC say?”

It is also nice to be able to multi task in the cockpit, when there is a long 2-3 minute ATIS that talks about every NOTAM over the last 6 months, and you miss the most important part, the winds and barometric pressure, active runway and what letter designation is current (e.g. bravo) , it is nice not having to repeat and listen to it.

The strongest part of the EFB is actually the weather planning aspect of the Stratus Insight program. It can almost be a stand alone program by itself, it is overall all a pretty good weather planning tool.

Using the program for VFR flying and weather planning, is where the program is at its strongest. The AHRS is also very good, especially when used with the Stratus, which would be expected.

The program is a little weak in my opinion for IFR flying, as compared to ForeFlight, which is much more polished, but more expensive. For example, It is difficult to choose an IFR plate, while flying, if you have not loaded the plates already. Also the wind data is not incorporated with the active runway (no active head wind and cross wind data based on current conditions)

In conclusion, I think when used with ForeFlight ( or Garmin) it is a good adjunct program, especially for IFR flights. By using the transcription service, I am much more likely to file an IFR flight plan, mainly by helping me read back my clearance delivery without getting flustered during the read back. I use the middle cost FF plan, $199 per year. I do not think the $299 FF plan is worth the extra ($100) cost, compared to what you get. But I do think, putting the extra $100 per year toward the Stratus Insight EFB makes more sense, especially with the forward looking weather planning data.

If you fly VFR, I think Stratus Insight is worth it as a stand alone EFB, it has everything you need, and the weather part of the program is perfect for helping plan a more safe VFR only flight. There is also a flight log book, that keeps track of currency and airplane check lists also as part of the Stratus Insights EFB program.

If you do not want to spend the money on a Complete EFB like ForeFlight or Garmin, it is worth is as an inexpensive option, you can download the program and play around with it to get a feel of the program, but you do not get complete access to the whole program unless you sign up for the free month.
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