Bret Koebbe

In late July, I flew a Cessna 182 on an IFR trip from Cincinnati to Charleston, anticipating an uneventful flight under a high-pressure system. But as I approached the destination, spotty storms near Charleston added complexity to the arrival. With the help of my Sentry ADS-B receiver and ForeFlight, I carefully tracked the evolving weather and made adjustments along the way. With each Sentry Story, you’ll see how Sentry ADS-B Receivers can be used to make flying safer and easier, plus you’ll learn some tips for flying with datalink weather. Want to share your story? Email ipad@sportys.com for a chance to be featured in one of our Sentry Stories.

In each “Sentry Story,” we’ll describe an actual flight and share the view out the window and ForeFlight mobile app screenshots. You’ll see how Sentry ADS-B Receivers can be used to make flying safer and easier, plus you’ll learn some tips for flying with datalink weather. Want to share your story? Email ipad@sportys.com for a chance to be featured in one of our Sentry Stories.

Did you ever fly out of Meigs field in downtown Chicago before it closed? It’s one of those airports you will never forget if you were lucky enough to visit before the painful closure in 2003. Beyond its reputation as a scenic and convenient access point to downtown Chicago, it was just as memorable to many pilots for a different reason. Ask just about any pilot today who learned to fly in the late 90s or early 2000s and memories will flood back to the view from the departure end of Runway 36 at KCGX, preparing for takeoff in Microsoft Flight Simulator. For many, including me, this was the first introduction to the excitement and freedom of general aviation.

More and more pilots are flying with action cameras like GoPros to record their flights. While these tiny devices record stunning video, they are not the easiest products to use. To help you feel more confident shooting in-flight video, we asked Bret Koebbe, an active pilot and flight instructor who leads Sporty's video department, what he's learned after a decade of shooting with GoPros. This detailed article includes his suggestions for getting started, choosing camera settings, mounting a GoPro, and much more.

With over 90,000 subscribers, Sporty's YouTube channel is an essential resource for pilots of all levels. In 2023, we posted over 150 new videos, including training tips, product reviews, webinar recordings, and fun facts. Here were the 10 most popular from the last year.

I’ve gone through the familiar high-altitude and hypoxia training many times during recurrent training events and could recite the facts as well as anyone to impress an examiner or check airman. But, yawn, why should I really care about this on my personal cross-country flights at or below 12,000 ft.? My views changed on this drastically after talking with another pilot at my home airport who flies a non-turbo Cirrus SR22 at altitudes between 8,000 and 12,000 ft. and routinely uses supplemental oxygen. His general take was that it drastically improved his comfort level, both during and after the flight, and his SOP is to use it on any flight over two hours above 8,000 ft.

Earlier this summer my wife and I flew to the Santa Rosa Beach area along the scenic 30A highway, which is east of Destin, Florida, in a 1963 Piper Aztec. As with any flight, no matter how long or complex, one of the keys to success (and comfort) is preparation. This preparation paid off immensely, as it was one of the more challenging single-pilot IFR flights I’ve flown in recent years, thanks to the need to cross three different weather systems churning between Ohio and Florida. I wanted the best for this flight so I went out on a search for what I considered the ultimate pilot gear, looking for the best combination of quality, convenience and safety features.

Did you ever fly out of Meigs field in downtown Chicago before it closed? It’s one of those airports you will never forget if you were lucky enough to visit before the painful closure in 2003. Beyond its reputation as a scenic and convenient access point to downtown Chicago, it was just as memorable to many pilots for a different reason. Ask just about any pilot today who learned to fly in the late 90s or early 2000s and memories will flood back to the view from the departure end of Runway 36 at KCGX, preparing for takeoff in Microsoft Flight Simulator. For many, including me, this was the first introduction to the excitement and freedom of general aviation.

The next wave in small camera technology takes aviation videography to a new level, thanks to the 360° recording capabilities of the GoPro Max camera. Think of it as two GoPro cameras joined back to back, allowing it to capture literally everything around you, including the cockpit and the views outside, while keeping both perfectly exposed. Here's what pilots should know about this incredible vamer