Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2015 i Plane & Pilot

Avidyne Releases iPad Demo App For IFD540 And IFD440 A new version of Avidyne Corporation’s (www.avidyne.com) IFD-Series FMS/GPS/NAV/COM iPad app is available on the App Store. The updated app provides fully interactive, free-play demonstration capability for the new IFD440, as well as adding new IFD540 functionality that’s representative of Avidyne’s soon-to-be-certified Release 10.1 software. Release 10.1 (R10.1) is Avidyne’s latest software upgrade for IFD540-Series FMS/GPS/NAV/COMs. R10.1 is also the baseline software for Avidyne’s first release of the smaller-screen IFD440 FMS/GPS/NAV/COM. The R10.1 version of the IFD540/IFD440 iPad App is available now as a FREE download from the App Store. A PC-based version of the IFD540 Demo is available from the Avidyne website. The IFD540/440 R10.1 version of the PC Demo is expected to be available by the end of July…

A local pilot who reads these columns recently called me for advice. He’s looking at avionics upgrades for a Cirrus, including ADS-B equipment to meet the 2020 FAA mandate. We wound up talking for more than an hour, and what seemed at first to be an obvious upgrade changed into something very different. That conversation got me thinking about why there are two separate data link options for ADS-B. The system of Mode-C altitude reporting transponders we have today goes back to the 1950s. From an air traffic control perspective, it’s severely limited by the number of squawk codes; that’s why you have to check in and announce your N-number each time you change from one sector to another. An obvious improvement would be to code the N-number (or airline…

Pilots and the aviation community are recognizing the safety benefits of Angle Of Attack (AOA) indicators, which provide a visual display of the AOA, or the angle between the chord of the airfoil and the relative wind. An AOA indicator’s ability to present an incipient stall visually, and a recent spate of accidents AOAs might have helped prevent, led the FAA last year to ease the pathway to certification for AOA products, and several manufacturers have since introduced theirs. Aspen Avionics previewed an AOA display for its Evolution primary flight and multifunction display screens during Sun ’n Fun this year. Not a moment too soon for James Buck, who formerly flew Beechcraft T-34Cs as a Marine Corp flight instructor. “In the military, AOA in the fixed-wing community is part of…

Aviation Truths Plane & Pilot contributor Marc C. Lee recently wrote a blog post about why he chooses to fly. It generated a lot of reader interest on our website and Facebook page. “What The Public Doesn’t Know” explains the facts on flying that dispel many misconceptions about aviation life. To read the blog post in full, go to www.planeandpilotmag.com/blog/marc-lee. Here are some of the lively reader comments about Marcs piece. Great article, Marc! I’m also a pilot and safety person that gets sick and tired hearing about how “dangerous” flying is! Driving is a heck of a lot more dangerous for sure! I really liked your take on flight plans—the media does have a tendency of blowing not having a flight plan out of proportion. I can’t count the…

Flying down from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, your course line slowly merges with Australia’s east coast as you sneak in from the left. The angle is so slight, you may not even notice the land of Oz until you’re practically feet dry. The country seems to simply materialize in the stark beauty of the Coral Sea. If your destination is Brisbane, you’ll spot the coast from two hours out, as the ocean below becomes shallower and begins to justify its name. NASA tells us the Great Barrier Reef is the Earth’s largest living feature that may be seen from space, and you begin to understand the enormity of the reef as you look down at the menagerie of color below. The 1,200 nm reef runs along most of the…

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued a Safety Alert to pilots emphasizing the importance of not forgetting about an old-fashioned, low-tech approach to maintaining separation from other aircraft, even while adopting advanced technology throughout the cockpit. The Safety Alert (www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-alerts/Documents/SA_045.pdf) carries the title “See and Be Seen: Your Life Depends on It.” It states, in part, “All pilots can be vulnerable to distractions in the cockpit, and the presence of technology has introduced challenges to the see-and-avoid concept. Aviation applications on portable electronic devices such as cell phones, tablets and handheld GPS units, while useful, can lead to more head-down time, limiting a pilot’s ability to see other aircraft.” The Safety Alert includes a series of suggestions for what pilots can do to be sure adequate visual lookout…

Recently, the NTSB came out with its 2015 “Most Wanted” list of transportation safety improvements. At the top of the list was “Loss of Control.” I found this a little surprising, not because we pilots seem to be losing our basic airmanship skills, but because of the terminology. We’re so used to hearing about “upset training,” “unusual attitudes,” “spin training,” etc. that we forget the bottom line end result of poor training and lack of currency is actually “loss of control” or “LOC.” Rich Stowell, the well-respected authority on LOC prevention and recovery, wrote in 2012: “Forty percent of the fatal accidents during the period 2001-2010 were categorized as LOC-I, outpacing the number-two fatal accident category, Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), by a three-to-one margin. LOC-I events were further subdivided…

THE INITIAL IDEA FOR THIS ARTICLE WAS TO PICK THE 10 best airplanes under $100,000, but the immediate response was, “You’re kidding, right? That’s impossible! And more than a little suicidal.” This is because: a) $100,000 is an unobtainable number to a lot of folks; b) the adjective “best” is almost indefinable in this application, which leads to c) as soon as you attempt to compile any list like this, Plane & Pilot’s email is going to be clogged with nastygrams saying, “You guys are ignoramuses for leaving out the best airplane ever, the Blow Fish Mk.Vb!” There’s absolutely no way to approach the subject and not offend someone—or a bunch of someones. So, we restructured the concept to make it more affordable and went out of our way to…

Your watch shouldn’t cost more than your car. It should look and feel like a power tool and not a piece of bling. Wearing it shouldn’t make you think twice about swinging a hammer or changing a tire. A real man’s timepiece needs to be ready for anything. But that’s just my opinion. If you agree, maybe you’re ready for the Stauer Centurion Hybrid. Use your Exclusive Insider Promotional Code below and I’ll send it to you today for ONLY $59. This watch doesn’t do dainty. And neither do I. Call me old-fashioned, but I want my boots to be leather, my tires to be deep-tread monsters, and my steak thick and rare. Inspiration for a man’s watch should come from things like fast cars, firefighters and power tools. And…

I hate repeating myself in print, but I got an email last week on which the subject line simply said, “Don Typond.” I didn’t have to open it to know what it was. After you’ve reached a certain age, when you get an email with a friend’s name in the title, you know that the news is never good. And it wasn’t. Don was gone, which considering I hadn’t communicated with him since sometime in the late-’70s, hit me harder than I’d have expected. That’s because he was one of those people in life to whom you desperately want to give a wholehearted “thanks,” but always seem to wait too long. My very first few minutes with him are the reason I happen to be sitting at a keyboard this…