Garmin GDL 50 Portable ADS-B Receiver

I'm a private pilot that flies a lot on the weekends and usually I'm flying out of and into non-towered airports.Some of the C172s that I rent do not come equipped with ADSB-In capabilities. I've had one too many close calls due to other fellow pilots not announcing themselves on a approach, so I needed to make an investment in a receiver and I don't know how I managed to fly without one for so long.The GDL50 fit with my budget, works fantastic, and exceeded all of my expectations. I was a little concerned about the reception the receiver would get due to some of the reviews I've read, so I took it with me to work a few times and placed it on the dash of my car. It picked up GPS signal right away, no issues there. I've flown twice with it thus far and it picks up ADSB right away as well, no issues. I just wanted something to aid my situational awareness by being able to see traffic on my tablet and this by far is the best way!I'm a Android guy with a Samsung Tablet using Garmin Pilot and Garmin Pilot is only compatible with Garmin products. I can't speak on the battery life yet since I haven't used it much while flying, but I fully charged it when I received it. I used it many times while driving and then once while flying in the matter of a week or two and it's currently on 67%.Last thing, I had a little trouble connecting it to my devices. Completely user error. When you connect it via bluetooth to your actual device, you THEN have to go into Garmin Pilot and choose the GDL50 on the app! I spent 20 minutes trying to figure that out thinking it was defective, ha! Don't be like me!

I am not an iPad kinda pilot. I have Android (Samsung) everything. I learned to fly on a Garmin 750 and after investing in a share of a 172 with a Stratus EFX I chose to go with the Garmin Pilot App on my Samsung Tablet and then added the GDL50 because the Pilot app only works with Garmin devices. The GDL50 is rugged, simple to understand, simple to pair with the App using the CONNEXT capability, and worked right out of the box. The battery life is as advertised and was plenty for me a full 400 mile cross country flight. I strongly suggest buying the Garmin mount with suction cup for the GDL50 and a cigarette lighter charger for the USB cable just so you have a belt and suspenders approach to your power. I chose not to purchase the Sirius weather + XM GDL52, as most of my flying is local, but I could see this as a path in the future... that or an Avionics upgrade.Summary: Garmin quality and ease of use brought me peace of mind in the cockpit in very busy airspace. If you are an Android tablet user this is a more expense and highly reliable solution for you with a world class EFB.

Ordered this from Gulf Coast Avionics via Amazon. It was delivered quickly and without issues. Pairs perfectly with my iPad and Garmin Pilot. I haven't tested it in flight yet. GPS acquires signal quickly and even inside my house, AHRS works great, ADS-B reception from planes flying overhead is excellent, even from indoors. Overall I am very satisfied. You get what you pay for with Garmin - not a cheap unit, but very well engineered.

Unit performed great except when I went to unplug the charge cable the ports “fitment” that is integral with the unit came out with the cable.

Garmin makes a solid product but they are not afraid to charge you for it (plus a little extra). I am currently flying a De Havilland Beaver on floats and the Garmin GDL 50 does not easily fit above the glare shield. Garmin support is just OK. I had to leave a message and get a call back in two days to come up with a placement solution. They try everything in there power to direct you away from talking to a human and to try and find complex aviation answers on their website....frustrating. Anyway, my support question was eventually answered and the unit is working well with my iPad.

Ease of setup and compatibility with AERA 660 and Garmin Pilot

Robust stand-alone ADS-B in device for use with tablet or smartphone. I've been using it for about a year with the ForeFlight app running on iPhone or iPad mini. I move it from plane to plane in my instructor role and use it mainly in watching for traffic. With the "Hide Distant Traffic" turned on the display is uncluttered but local traffic near my altitude shows up well and appears in correct direction and relative altitude.My only gripe has been the battery charge level is hard to determine from the panel LED. I use a 1A rated USB charger, as the manual suggests, and that should slow charge it to full overnight. It does not always do so. I found an external USB power brick is a more useful power source for the GDL50 via the supplied short cable.The GDL 50 has survived being moved between planes dozens of times per month with no problem.The internal AHRS works well, though the GDL 50 box has to be fairly carefully aligned with the longitudinal axis of the plane for best accuracy, and the GDL 50 has to be tightly mounted so it does not move or the AHRS setting will be invalidated.

While very initial results were positive, the unit failed after the second use. The Bluetooth connection would not maintain and dropped repeatedly after a minute or two. I tried all the steps to correct including re-establishing the BT connection, resetting the unit with associated BT connections and even attempted a firmware upgrade. The firmware upgrade failed as well because the BT connection kept dropping.I even tried it on another mobile device with the same result. Likely a bad unit but very disappointed overall — don’t think I’ll give it another go.I’ve been a user of Garmin aviation products for decades (GNS 420, 430 and 530 among others) and they’ve always been very reliable. Their portables, however, have never lived up from a quality and reliability perspective.