Ok, I know the ipad has been talked about everywhere and if I look hard enough the info I'm after is probably archived somewhere. That said, I have some questions. My lovely wife is getting me an ipad for Christmas and I have some choices to make, so what are you guys using/liking. I know I want the mini.

Is the mini retina display worth the extra cost over the standard mini? Does it help with glare in the cockpit?
What is the best reasonably priced external GPS for it?
What mounts/docks/kneeboards/etc. do you like?, do these fit the ipad with the gps installed?

Thanks guys! Merry Christmas to me!

You don't need the external gps - get the cell enabled one and it works great. I would save up for the stratus II and get foreflight. That stratus has a built in gps as well as a ADHRS (solid state attitude ref) on top of the adsb weather and traffic.

Don't know about the mini or retina - but I've used the ipad 1 and 2 since they come out - fly all the time with it strapped to my knee. Glare isn't a huge problem - you can turn up the display brightness to suit. Still not as good as a garmin - but way more other advantages.

I wouldn't think the retina is any brighter (better for daylight). It just has much higher resolution - which won't help you much with the crappy FAA charts. But your photos will look a lot better.

Go with the Retina! The display is much nicer and the text or items on the screen are more crisp. If you zoom in real close on a sectional you want to have it nice and crisp. Also just as Soy said, get the one that is 3G or 4G....the cell one..and you don't have to pay $25 a month to use the GPS feature just the cell coverage, although it's features are bettered with the 3G. I wouldn't change a thing. I also just got the Air...Love it!

Definitely get the one with the GPS in it, I have a mini and have it mounted at the far left side and low in the 210 and have never had a problem with reception, have not been lots of places but from 300 miles west of Fairbanks to home in Washington St. it never blinked the whole way, and my 430 lost it twice on the way for about 5 minutes total.
The only complaint I have is that it does not dim as much as I would like for landing at night?

Jeredp wrote:Is the mini retina display worth the extra cost over the standard mini?

I have both, and although I can't really tell the difference between the two when looking at sectionals, the retina display version comes with a 64 bit, faster processor. So for that reason alone I think it's worth the extra money.

Jeredp wrote:Does it help with glare in the cockpit?

Both are the same. As long as you mount it vertically there won't be a glare problem, at least there never has been for me.

Jeredp wrote:What is the best reasonably priced external GPS for it?

Buy the mini with the internal GPS. I've never had it fail.

Jeredp wrote:What mounts/docks/kneeboards/etc. do you like?

I use a ram mount and have it mounted where the whiskey compass used to be.