The ForeFlight Sentry Plus is a capable portable avionics unit that combines ADS-B In reception on both 978 MHz UAT and 1090 MHz ES frequencies with an integrated AHRS suite, providing attitude data — pitch, roll, and yaw — to the ForeFlight app in real time for synthetic vision rendering. The device streams this data over a local WiFi network using the GDL90 protocol with AHRS extensions, meaning the raw sensor output is technically being broadcast continuously during flight. The question raised in this discussion — whether that high-fidelity AHRS stream can be captured and exported independently of ForeFlight's track log — is a technically legitimate one, and the short answer is that ForeFlight's native track log export does not currently include full attitude data at the sample rates the Sentry's AHRS sensor produces. The exported track log captures GPS-derived position, altitude, and ground speed at relatively coarse intervals, which is insufficient for the kind of frame-by-frame maneuver replay that aerobatic analysis platforms like AcroWRX are designed to deliver.
The underlying architecture of the Sentry Plus does leave a potential pathway for third-party data capture. Because the device broadcasts its data over a local network using a documented protocol, a device on that same network — a laptop, a secondary tablet, or a Raspberry Pi-class computer — could in principle log the raw GDL90 AHRS packets directly from the WiFi stream during flight. Several open-source tools exist for parsing GDL90 traffic, and some have been extended to handle the AHRS extensions used by ForeFlight-compatible hardware. Whether the Sentry's AHRS outputs true high-rate inertial data suitable for aerobatic analysis, or whether it down-samples internally before broadcasting, is a more difficult question to answer without direct hardware testing or ForeFlight's internal documentation — and ForeFlight has not publicly disclosed the native sample rate of the Sentry Plus AHRS output as it appears on the WiFi stream.
For aerobatic and upset recovery training contexts, the distinction between a purpose-built AHRS logger like the AcroWRX unit and a general-purpose portable avionics device matters significantly. Dedicated aerobatic data loggers are typically optimized for high-g, high-rate maneuver environments, with gyroscopes and accelerometers calibrated for full-envelope attitude excursions well beyond the normal flight envelope. The Sentry Plus is designed primarily for IFR situational awareness and synthetic vision in normal category operations, and its AHRS performance in sustained inverted or high-angle-of-attack flight is not a documented use case. Pilots considering using portable AHRS hardware for serious aerobatic debrief work should verify that the unit's sensors are rated for the attitudes and g-loads they intend to record before assuming equivalence with a purpose-built solution.
The broader trend this discussion reflects is the growing pilot expectation that portable avionics ecosystems should expose their underlying sensor data for third-party analysis and integration. Flight data monitoring programs — long standard in Part 121 operations and increasingly adopted by progressive Part 135 and corporate Part 91 operators — depend on access to high-fidelity, multi-parameter flight data. As portable devices like the Sentry Plus bring AHRS capability to a much wider population of general aviation and business aviation pilots, the demand for data portability and open export formats will likely increase. ForeFlight and similar EFB ecosystems have commercial incentives to retain data within their own platforms, but the pilot and operator community is increasingly sophisticated about the value of raw sensor access, and the aerobatic training sector represents a concrete use case where that access has direct safety and training value.