Aviation Products for the Whole Family

In June my life changed considerably with the birth of my twins, Peter and Sarah. Over the past month, despite sleepless days and nights, these new additions have brought endless amounts of joy to my wife and me.

One thing my wife and I have learned thus far about parenting infant twins is that we are lucky if in a given day we can accomplish one non-care based chore or project. As a result, my time to fly, read about flying, blog or twitter has been drastically curtailed as of late. Though with each week that passes and as our parenting confidence and experience grows, I find myself realizing I am getting closer and closer to carving out enough time to get out to Palwaukee to go flying.

In the meantime I am enjoying merging my newest joys, Peter and Sarah, with my joy for aviation. I have recently become a big fan of Etsy, a site that connects sellers of custom crafts with buyers globally. I searched Etsy for "Airplane Products" and then filtered by products for "Airplane Products for Children" and have found tons of neat products for my kids and for gifts for friends of ours. Some of my favorite products thus far have been Airplane Onesie in Green - $12.99 (as seen on Sarah in the photo above - left), Personalized Airplane Onesie - $17.99 (as seen on Peter in the photo above - right) and M'liss Lil Airplanes Burpy - $4.95.

Speaking of aviation products and gifts for kids I have to say it is interesting to note that in three instances we have been blessed to be given gifts from friends or family where the gift for my son featured an airplane and for my daughter featured a flower or some other "more girly" design. I guess that is why sites like "Girls with wings" as a resource to let girls know they to can be pilots. Luckily Sarah has a father that will be sure to share aviation with her equally as I do with Peter.

New G1000 DVD Training Course Released from Sporty's

Sporty's recently released Garmin G1000 Checkout ($89.95) a 2-Disc set dedicated to helping pilots transition from flying traditional steam gauges to flying the Garmin based Glass Cockpit. Having recently reviewed four other G1000 products I was interested to see how this latest entry into the G1000 training market would fare.

Included in the package is a DVD training video and a copy of the PC Software Simulator. The DVD is hosted by Airshow Announcer and frequent Sporty's Training DVD host Rob Reider. If you have used other Sporty's DVD products this course will feel familiar right from the start. I preferred this product over the previously reviewed Sporty's Air Facts: Flying Glass Cockpits which split its time between the G1000 and the Avidyne FlightMax Entegra. The Garmin G1000 Checkout provided some great scenario-based training as you fly along on two VFR flights and one IFR cross-country flight.

I enjoyed that this product came bundled with the PC Software Simulator. As expected after watching the video I wanted to jump in the cockpit but I did the next best thing and used the G1000 Simulator to try some of the steps shown in the video. Repetition is one key to learning and retaining lessons and tips learned from the DVD.

I strongly recommend this product as it is a great resource for pilots planning to fly the glass cockpit. However, the one shortfall of all DVDs is they are limited in what they can cover, and follow a pre-determined path. I suggest complimenting this DVD training course with Max Trescott's G1000 Glass Cockpit Handbook which will give you an in-depth resource that will help you to continue to learn while also leveraging your new G1000 simulator.

There is still some debate as to whether or not glass cockpits make flying safer. Either way, they sure are fun to fly. So use these DVDs to learn how to enhance your flying experience.

Jeppesen VFR+GPS Charts and AOPA Flight Planner Review

In preparing for my last cross country flight I took advantage of some newer tools. I started my planning with the new online version of the AOPA Flight Planner powered by Jeppesen. I have used the software based version of the flight planner in the past and enjoyed checking out their web-based version. It was fairly intuitive and only took me a few minutes to build my desired route. I was able to add GPS waypoints and airports simply by clicking on the appropriate icons on the online chart. I also wished to add one custom waypoint for the Arlington Park racetrack which was easy enough to do with a right-click.

After you select your route if you have aircraft entered into the system it will generate a navlog with the appropriate speeds. As you get closer to flight time you can run weather reports for the route of flight and then the AOPA flightplanner updates your navlog with the appropriate speeds and headings accounting for the winds. If you plan on filing a flightplan you can do that too from the system. All routes your create can then be saved for future reference. If you are an AOPA member I highly recommend you check it out.

For this flight I brought along my traditional sectionals but left them in the backseat. Instead the Jeppesen VFR+GPS Great Lakes (GL-3) Chart sat in my lap for most the flight. I first learned about these maps while at AirVenture this summer. Most of my flying takes place in northern Illinois and throughout Wisconsin which would require a few sectionals. With this chart I could fly from Champaign, IL to Cherryland Airport in Door County, WI with a single chart.

These new charts have ditched the greenish color we all are familiar with from our sectionals and instead is white allowing colors used for airspace, airways and airports to pop more. I feel they have made these charts easier to read. One major improvement was the very clear markings of ceilings and floors of airspace. These charts took into account that so many pilots are using GPS in flight and are designed with that type of flight in mind.

Many pilot shops are starting to stock them but if you can't find them at your local shop you can purchase one directly from Jeppesen. I now keep one in my flightbag for all flights.

Flying with an E6B on My Wrist

I celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago. I was blessed to receive a wonderful gift from my lovely Wife. She gave me a Torgoen T06 Pilot Watch. The watch includes an additional hand to track Zulu time and also comes with an E6B Flight Computer.

I have to admit it has been years since I picked up a traditional E6B flight calculator. I do most of my flight calculations with the Sporty's Electronic E6B Flight Computer. But on many flights I forget to pull it out of my flight bag before storing it in the backseat. So I have a feeling having an E6B on my wrist will come in handy. The watch also gives me a great excuse to relearn how to use the traditional E6B and to become familiar with doing calculations or adjusting calculations on the watch while in the cockpit.

My Grandmother, a frequent MyFlightBlog reader, was generous and sent me a check for my birthday. I used that to order the Amod AGL3080 GPS Data Logger. Peter over at FlyinginChicago recently recommended it to me after he took it on a flight and used it to capture the flight track and then add it to a map after the flight. It can also be used to geotag photos which should be fun. I am looking forward to taking this along on my next flight and sharing my route here on MyFlightBlog.