My personal experience update:

I decided to bite the bullet and get a Mini 5 for Foreflight (for years I've been using a Garmin Aera 510 w/ Sirius XM Wx/radio and Avare on my Android phone for backup). A while back I built a Stratux w/ external GPS, and never really like the hassle of an extra unit and didn't see any advantages over my Garmin gear. For the new iPad, I decided to rebuild/update the Stratux w/ AHRS and internal GPYes 2.0.

Yesterday was my first good opportunity to test the new iPad and Stratux on a flight from the southern Sierras to Tahoe. The iPad Mini 5 w/ Foreflight was great and it's internal GPS reported 3m accuracy throughout the flight until I decided to test the Stratux. Once using the Stratux I had ADS-B In traffic/Wx but was reporting 30m accuracy from the Stratux's GPYes 2.0 chip. I'm still not sold on the utility of ADS-B In (I immediately lost it once down low in the mountains) and my test yesterday indicated that the iPad's internal GPS performed better than using a Stratux for GPS (going back to the old Stratux external GPS may work better, but that's more wires and mess).

TL;DR
iPad Mini 5 internal GPS worked great for me, I like Foreflight. I'm still skeptical about the utility of ADS-B In. Not getting rid of my Garmin with Sirius XM.

I also use Foreflight with an Ipad mini and have a Stratux unit. I found the GPS chip with the internal attenna did nor work well at all. Bought a $15 ext ant/GPS unit and I consistently get 3M accuracy. Never got that on the Ipad mini, a 3 version which was 5M much of the time.

Yes, the ext ant small at 1.5x1.5" is a bit messy but it works very well.

a3holerman wrote:I also use Foreflight with an Ipad mini and have a Stratux unit. I found the GPS chip with the internal attenna did nor work well at all. Bought a $15 ext ant/GPS unit and I consistently get 3M accuracy. Never got that on the Ipad mini, a 3 version which was 5M much of the time.

Yes, the ext ant small at 1.5x1.5" is a bit messy but it works very well.

Holy cats, Man......five meter accuracy isn't good enough for VFR flight? Or IFR, for that matter?

Seriously?

MTV

mtv wrote:

a3holerman wrote:I also use Foreflight with an Ipad mini and have a Stratux unit. I found the GPS chip with the internal attenna did nor work well at all. Bought a $15 ext ant/GPS unit and I consistently get 3M accuracy. Never got that on the Ipad mini, a 3 version which was 5M much of the time.

Yes, the ext ant small at 1.5x1.5" is a bit messy but it works very well.

Holy cats, Man......five meter accuracy isn't good enough for VFR flight? Or IFR, for that matter?

Seriously?

MTV

An IFR approach certified WAAS GPS is required to be accurate to 3 meters! I doubt many pilots can fly better than 25' off their intended altitude and course, let alone under 10' (3 meters). To expect a consumer grade GPS to be more accurate than 5 meters (16 1/2 feet) is really expecting too much.

FWIW, non-WAAS IFR certified GPSs are only required to be accurate within 30 meters--that's about 98'.

Cary

I should have added a bit more to my post. I was talking about the Stratux.The internal chip was also loosing GPS connection much of the time. Did some research on the Net and found it was a common issue thats why I went with the external ant/chip.

And the weather radar resolution/display from a cell connection is far superior to any other weather radar source (ADS-B or XM), and why would I not want the best weather radar display. XM doesn't work up here in Alaska and ADS-B coverage is a joke. I was reminded of that when I flew over to Lake Hood with the GDL 39. On the Kenai Peninsula for a very short time I had coverage but by the time I neared the Turnagain Arm I no longer had Ground Antenna based ADS-B in (so no Wx display) even as I flew by Anchorage and into Hood.


Just curious about the weather you are receiving. Is this coming through the data connection with cell coverage inside foreflight or Garmin pilot? Or are you capturing weather some other way.

I watched this one closely as my original mini was needing replaced. I wanted it in hand prior to going on vacation north bound, although I have a panel mounted 796, I enjoy the redundancy. Based on Phil's findings I elected to buy a 4. At the last minute I switched plans and picked up the newer 5.

My findings concur with Phil's,
But if you are playing remotely close to vfr by the rules, or pushing the limits with some redundancy, I think you'd be hard pressed to get upside down with this unit.

FWIW my 796 quit, requiring a cool down and reboot half way between scoop lake and Watson lake, and I have always trusted that unit far more than an iPad.

So I guess they're all subject to letting us down.

Having said all that, I can't thank Phil enough for taking the time to explore this stuff and bring it to apples attention.
Pretty tough to expect improvement without someone out in the real world environment to provide feedback.

Take care, Rob

Rob, thanks for the kind words and sorry I missed getting together with you, was crazy busy ‘staging’ the cabin to get the highest appraisal possible so I can refinance it- and it worked.

Adam (I assume anyway), the weather display I like the best does come off the cell network, and even up here in Alaska I can get a signal frequently enough to keep up with weather. Kind like out where you are, just fly towards civilization till you get a cell signal if all else fails.

Flagstaff is a great city although I prefer Williams myself (probably because I always camped amongst an elk herd).

Thanks for the feedback! I feel like I may now need a cellular enabled iPad and an iPhone X+ in the cockpit. I want to see the ADS-B targets as I find myself dodging the flight school students frequently who are communicating on the “company frequency”, and oblivious to the idea that anyone besides their flight school could be transitioning the area. The ADS-B weather display is less than great here as there are not that many ground based towers.

I am a native to flagstaff. There’s something magnetic about this mountain (or likely something defective about me), but I just can’t seem to leave. If you’re ever back in this area let’s connect up.

Williams is pretty cool, but I miss the trees when down there. Flag has the trees.... and the Californian's
Parks....half way between the two... that's where at.
Sold the cabin I built there in a weak moment and still haven't found a reasonable piece of dirt to try and re build on

Unfortunately a transplant down the road tried to sneak in a helipad and the neighbors immediately filed suit upon suit... so Williams, it just may be.

So I just bought another Mini 5. I noticed my Mini 4 was starting to be a little slower with both Foreflight's and Pilot's display changes. Haven't had a chance to fly with it yet. Figured if there is still a problem I'd permanently mount the GDL 39. And then I was reading Garmin Pilot's latest manual and saw for the first time (I must have skipped over this before) that my inReach can supply it's GPS to the Mini via bluetooth. So I paired them up sitting at my desk. The Mini 5's GPS accuracy is 60m (at my desk). With the inReach on a window sill and blue toothed to the Mini 5 the GPS accuracy is 10m.

So I turned them both off, headed to the plane, and when I powered up the avionics the Mini and inReach both powered up and the bluetooth connected without an intervention by me (as I hoped it would). This is exciting for me as now I won't have to install the GDL 39. Will go flying tomorrow and report back what I find.

Phil,

Thanks for exploring all this stuff and posting for the rest of us. Technology is wonderful, compared to the old days, but it can be frustrating.

When I moved to the lower 48, I subscribed to Sirius XM Weather, and never looked back. It’s not cheap, but much more reliable than FIS-B in the mountains and remote areas. I can’t recall the number of times it’s helped me get somewhere and/or kept me from painting myself into a corner.

Especially during thunderstorm weather.

MTV

For sure.

Wish we could use XM Wx up here.

So, my final report on the iPad Mini 5 GPS issue.

Yes the problem still exists. And it exists in the iPhone 11 models as well. Flying back from the Kenai Fjords today and 25 miles out, over the Chickaloon Flats so no potential mountain interference and both the 5 and the 11 on their own built in GPS had no idea where they were. In fact my iPhone had me still at my place. The cheesy China GPS in these new devices has problems everywhere just not as severe as up here in Alaska. Over the winter I was driving through Orlando Florida using the GPS map for navigation on my iPhone 11 Pro and a number of times it completely lost track of where it was. My truck's built in GPS never got lost. I experienced this in every state I was in.

The good news is the inReach is providing an excellent GPS source that unwaveringly shows 5 meter accuracy. I'm good with that. And the bluetooth between these two devices connects flawlessly on its own every time. The Mini 5 definitely handles Foreflight (which is getting a bit bloated) better than my Mini 4, and both of them have maximum storage capacity.

So I'm closing the books on this issue and I don't expect Apple to fix it in a future product release, but I've got a workaround solution.

Does the Inreach provide satellite data to ForeFlight? I was under the impression that only worked with Garmin pilot.

Good to know anyway. I haven’t had any issues with mine but often run with an Inreach paired.

I picked one up hesitantly, but my mini 2 went swimming, so I was left with little choice. Took it up today/yesterday and never had less than 10M GPS accuracy, on airplane mode too. Maybe they updated newer production lots, or maybe I got lucky...

I’ll keep watching it

In your opinion is the screen noticeably brighter? That is really my only complaint with the previous generation that we currently have.

The apple pencil function would be nice, I have the iPad Mini 4, just not enough difference to warrant upgrade based on the specs I'm seeing. When they shrink the bezel and go edge-to-edge I'll definitely upgrade.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about from today's flight. I'm running Foreflight on my iPad Mini 5 that is blue toothed to my inReach for its GPS signal.

The second example is Garmin Pilot on my iPhone 11 Pro running on it's own internal GPS. The iPad Mini is showing my correct position.

It's not a Garmin Pilot or Foreflight issue. I could pull up Apple Maps and see the same thing.

Annoying.

Hi,
Im have the GDL 52 on top of panel and I run my android phone for looking up airports and whatnot, then I have the Ipad mini 4
for ADS-B in, and all running on Garmin my pilot, and my phone will say 1850MSL when the Ipad mini will say my correct Alt of 2250MSL ??
Also annoying

TopGun777 wrote:Hi,
Im have the GDL 52 on top of panel and I run my android phone for looking up airports and whatnot, then I have the Ipad mini 4
for ADS-B in, and all running on Garmin my pilot, and my phone will say 1850MSL when the Ipad mini will say my correct Alt of 2250MSL ??
Also annoying

I have no experience with Android devices so no experience there, but what you experienced sucks for sure- especially since you are connected to a WAAS GPS.

I've also noted another annoying behavior, and I need to see if this is a Foreflight issue or something else. Two flights now, in different directions, on different days, Foreflight has failed to log an entire leg. First was flying from my place to Talkeetna which takes me right past Anchorage and probably a hundred other airports. Even though "ownship" and route appeared in Foreflight the entire trip, Foreflight didn't start logging the flight until I reached Willow. Crazy.

Then again yesterday. Foreflight logged my over hour long flight to the Kenai Fjords, but none of the flight back- again "ownship" displayed fine.

Next few times up I'll switch to Garmin Pilot and see what it does with flight logging.