Appareo Aviation is acquiring electronic flight bag (EFB) developer Aerovie in a move that will give the manufacturer of the Stratus range of portable ADS-B receivers the ability to offer a complete hardware and software package, North Dakota-based Appareo announced yesterday.

“All of us at Appareo Aviation are excited to work with Bryan Heitman and the Aerovie team to incorporate their exceptional EFB into the Appareo family, and offer a complete hardware and software solution,” Appareo president Kris Garberg said. “We plan to build on the success of Aerovie by adding many new features that will increase safety in the cockpit.”

The first generations of Appareo’s Stratus were integrated with ForeFlight Mobile. In its fifth iteration, Stratus 3, it was designed with open ADS-B mode, allowing integration with any EFB app using GDL 90 protocol. That’s when Appareo became acquainted with Aerovie. “I started flying with the Aerovie app and Stratus 3 last year, and I was so impressed with the features and user experience that it became my ‘go to’ EFB,” Garberg added.

Planned enhancements to the Aerovie EFB include support for earlier generations of Appareo’s receivers: Stratus 2, 1S, 2S and 2i. Current features of its EFB include attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) and synthetic vision, VFR sectional, IFR low/high, and geo-referenced approach charts.