David,
Welcome! Nice stuff over at your place! Not familiar with Apple products, but the easiest answer, is to see if you can add a monitor to your laptop. My old android allowed another screen. AND if you can, then go with something like 24-27". I have two, hooked up to my desktop and really like that setup, 2-27" monitors. Have a good ASUS and HP, both under $200, probably closer to $150 on sale and fine for this kind of work. Color close enough for uploading to FAA....
Rich