Garmin Pilot

Review by eFreeware

Garmin Pilot is an aviation app from Garmin, filed on Google Play under Weather, and it is free to download with in-app purchases available. The developer describes it as a suite of tools for general aviation and corporate pilots, covering flight planning, filing, charts, weather briefings and navigation in a single app. The main reason to consider it is that breadth: instead of assembling a briefing from several sources, you get weather, charts and route tools in one place.

It has been on the store a long time, with a release date of March 27, 2012, and the install figure sits above 500,000. The average rating is 2.8 from 2,612 ratings, which is a modest score for a product this established. The developer offers a 30-day free trial, so a pilot can judge the fit before committing to anything.

A preflight-to-inflight toolkit in one app

The app follows a plan, file, fly and log structure, and that order roughly matches how a trip comes together. Planning starts with weather: NEXRAD radar, visible and infrared satellite imagery, METARs and TAFs, AIRMETs and SIGMETs, PIREPs, NOTAMs, winds and temperatures aloft, TFRs and lightning data are all part of the picture. Those layers can be drawn on top of the app's charts, so weather and route are read together rather than side by side.

Garmin's own NavTrack feature shows weather along the planned route, and text-based weather widgets are available for the conditions a pilot checks most often. In the air, the moving map carries en-route navigation with ETE, ETA, cross track error, distance to the next waypoint and current position. The developer says the interface mirrors the newest Garmin touchscreen avionics, which suggests the aim is to keep the app feeling familiar to pilots who already fly behind that equipment.

The scope is genuinely wide, and that width is the selling point. A pilot working through a route can move from a radar loop to a chart to a filed plan without leaving the app.

Charts and airport information

Charts include airport diagrams, approach procedures and both VFR and IFR en-route coverage. That is the kind of feature that matters most at an unfamiliar field, where finding your way on the surface is its own task.

The AOPA Airport Directory is included as well, giving airport information a place alongside the charts and weather rather than in a separate reference. Weather data is supplied by the National Weather Service and Environment Canada, which is worth knowing if you fly on either side of the border.

For a pilot who flies a mix of local and cross-country routes, this is the part of the app that earns its keep: charts, airport details and weather in the same view.

Filing flight plans and keeping the logbook

Flight plan entry uses pre-loaded forms, and the app lets you save and reuse details for routes you fly often, which cuts down on retyping the same tail number and city pair. Once a plan is ready, filing, canceling and closing are handled inside the app, with filing available through Lockheed Martin and DUATS.

The logbook is the other half of the record-keeping. It syncs with flyGarmin, generates entries from GPS data gathered during the flight, tracks currency, accepts manual entries and endorsements, and produces reports. For pilots who need to show recent experience or produce a summary, having that built into the same app as the planning tools avoids keeping two sets of books.

The latest release, version 26.10.0, fixed several practical problems: a sync issue that blocked trip creation, a fault that appeared when leaving weather imagery, intermittent freezing, and a missing navigation bar location in the Charts search. Fuel prices were also restored on the airport pop-up.

What it asks of a pilot

This is a specialized tool aimed at general aviation and corporate pilots. The weather products, chart types and filing routes assume a working knowledge of aviation weather and procedures. That is not a flaw, but it does mean the app is not a general-purpose weather viewer for anyone curious about the sky.

The app is free to download, carries no ads, and offers in-app purchases. The developer also advertises a 30-day free trial, which is the sensible way to find out whether the tools match how you fly before spending anything. The rating average of 2.8 from 2,612 ratings is worth weighing against that trial: it is a large enough sample to be meaningful, even though the reviews give no detail on what sits behind it.

The recent change list is a reminder that a tool this dense needs upkeep. The fixes in version 26.10.0 target sync, crashes and freezing, which are exactly the sort of problems that would interrupt a pilot mid-flight-plan.

Built for pilots flying real routes

The clearest fit is a general aviation or corporate pilot who plans, files and flies regularly and wants the weather brief, the charts, the route and the logbook in one app. If you fly IFR, the en-route charts and approach procedures are central; if you fly VFR, the sectionals, TFRs and radar layers carry more of the weight. Either way, the workflow is the same.

It also suits a pilot who already uses Garmin avionics, since the app's interface mirrors those touchscreen units. That consistency between what you see on the panel and what you see on the tablet is a real convenience, and it is the sort of thing that only shows up once you are using both.

For someone who flies occasionally and only needs a quick look at the radar before a local flight, the breadth here is more than the job requires. The app is built around the full cycle of planning, filing and logging, and that is where its value sits.

Whether Garmin Pilot is worth installing

Garmin Pilot is a serious aviation app with a serious feature set: weather briefing products, VFR and IFR charts, optional geo-referenced approach and taxi charts, flight plan filing through Lockheed Martin and DUATS, a moving map with en-route navigation, and a logbook that syncs with flyGarmin. For an active pilot, that combination covers most of what a flight requires from the ground to the air and back.

If you fly regularly and want one app to plan, brief, file, navigate and log, this is built for exactly that job. If your flying is occasional and your needs are simpler, the depth here is likely more than you will use.

What's new in version 26.10.0

Version 26.10.0 includes: - Resolved the issue requiring sync to create a trip - Restored the navigation bar location when using the search bar in Charts - Fixed the crash when using the back button in weather imagery - Resolved intermittent freezing of the app - Restored fuel prices on the airport pop-up