Sporty’s Launches Second Generation Stratus with AHRS and ADS-B Traffic : Media Center

New ADS-B receiver raises the bar with new features

The second generation Stratus includes ADS-B traffic and a built-in AHRS.

Sporty’s Pilot Shop, along with partners ForeFlight and Appareo, released a second generation Stratus ADS-B receiver today at the 2013 Sun ‘n Fun Fly-in. The new Stratus retains all the pilot-friendly features of the original, but adds ADS-B traffic and a built-in AHRS.

“Stratus has been tremendously successful and practically invented a product category,” says Sporty’s Vice President John Zimmerman. “Now, just 12 months later, the new Stratus raises the bar even higher.”

Stratus features an advanced AHRS that aligns itself automatically before each flight; no pilot action is required. AHRS information is displayed on a separate Stratus Horizon app, which is available for free. The app shows a large attitude indicator that is updated 10 times per second, plus groundspeed, course, GPS altitude, and vertical speed.

“Keep your iPad on ForeFlight for weather and moving map; mount your iPhone in the window and run Stratus Horizon for a great backup,” says Zimmerman.

Dual band traffic is displayed in ForeFlight Mobile, and can be overlaid on a variety of maps, including sectionals, IFR en route charts and terrain. Targets are shown with ForeFlight’s unique TrafficTrend display–a data block that shows each aircraft’s relative altitude, climb or descent trend, tail number and direction of flight.

“We think this is the best traffic display available for iPad,” says Tyson Weihs, Co-founder and CEO of ForeFlight. “ForeFlight Mobile 5.1, when connected to a second generation Stratus, shows directional and non-directional traffic, relative altitude, whether the aircraft is climbing or descending, and our TrafficTrend™ feature shows where targets are heading.”

Even though the new Stratus has more capability, it features a 30% smaller case, better GPS performance, better ADS-B reception and the same industry-leading 8-hour battery life. Stratus is still totally wireless and incredibly easy to use, with just one button and virtually no setup.

“We’ve improved Stratus in almost every possible way,” says Jeff Johnson, Vice President of Business Development at Appareo Systems. “The second generation Stratus has an option for remote GPS and ADS-B antennas which gives pilots more mounting options. We’ve also made it more resistant to high cockpit temperatures so its more reliable than ever–and it’s still an unbeatable value.”

The new Stratus [#8217A] includes a glare shield mount and carrying bag, and is available for $899. Orders are being accepted now for late April delivery. The original Stratus [#7281A] is available at a reduced price of $699 and now receives single band ADS-B traffic. Stratus may be ordered at sportys.com or 1-800-SPORTYS.