New weather features, airspace alerting and more added to Garmin Pilot iOS

Garmin has added several new features to the Garmin Pilot application for Apple mobile devices.

Garmin Pilot 9.3 incorporates several new weather enhancements that aid in identifying storm cell movement and icing levels, as well as airspace alerting.

With the latest version for iOS, pilots can also view improvements made to the display of traffic, runway extended centerlines, and more, Garmin officials said.

Flight profile view adds icing

When viewing the flight profile view alongside a flight plan within Garmin Pilot, pilots can view the probability or severity of icing and overall icing potential. Within the Flight Profile view, light green, yellow and red shading indicate an increasing probability that icing may occur at a particular altitude.

Storm cell movement

The radar overlay on the moving map has been enhanced to include the projected path of a storm cell. An orange circle paired with a line that extends from the strongest storm cells display the potential path of that storm cell and where it’s predicted to be located in 15, 30, 45 and 60-minute intervals.

If hail or tornadoes are present, a corresponding icon will also be displayed alongside the particular storm cell line. By selecting the storm cell icon on the radial menu, pilots can view additional information within the storm cell, including speed, direction and more.

Airspace alerting

Garmin Pilot 9.3 adds airspace alerting to notify pilots before entering select airspace segments. Pilots can select airspace alerts within the settings page and choose individual airspace types they want to receive alerts for while in-flight.

SiriusXM Surface Analysis

Pilots who use a GDL 69, GDL 51 or GDL 52 and also have a valid SiriusXM Aviation Weather subscription can now view the surface analysis layer on the moving map.

Isobars, pressure systems, fronts, troughs, ridges and more can be viewed alongside flight plan information to easily determine whether a frontal system may impact a particular flight.

Traffic enhancements

Pilots can now use pinch-to-zoom gestures on the traffic page to zoom in and out to view traffic targets when Garmin Pilot is paired with an ADS-B In receiver.

Pilots can also select whether traffic information is displayed in relative altitude (altitude relative to own ship) or absolute altitude (altitude relative to the ground) so it’s easier to identify traffic targets that may pose a threat, Garmin officials noted.

Additional features

• Extended runway centerlines have been improved to display mile marker segments so it’s easier to determine distance from the runway while on final approach.
• Garmin Pilot has been optimized to support the high resolution, all-screen design of the Apple iPhone X.

Additions to the aircraft library

The Garmin Pilot aircraft library has grown to include new aircraft performance profiles for Cessna, Mooney, and Piper.