Setting Your Limits
More often that they'd like to admit, pilots have scared themselves as the result of making a bad decision. Most, especially new pilots, would have welcomed a set of guidelines that would have helped them avoid the scary situation in the first place.
King Schools has created a new 69-minute video that may be the solution - Making Your Own Rules: Developing Your Personal Minimums Checklist. Developed in cooperation with The Ohio State University and the FAA Aviation Safety Program, the video uses a dramatic in-flight scenario to help pilots design their own personal minimums checklist.
The video is worthwhile for pilots of all experience levels because it helps them to periodically reevaluate their personal minimums and make changes accordingly. For more information, contact King Schools, 3840 Calle Fortunada, San Diego, CA 92123; 800/854-1001 or 619/541-2200.
Make Me A Quiz
Part of learning to fly is taking tests that evaluate a pilot's knowledge. Creating unofficial, howgozit tests can be a challenge, but ASA has introduced a new program that should make the process easier. QuizMaker is an add-on to ASA's Exam Software series of computer-based training and study programs.
QuizMaker gives instructors (and students) a ready-made tool that generates complete tests, pop quizzes, or subject reviews. It can also create testing, answer, and a master answer sheet that overlays the answer sheet for quick, easy grading.
In "Study Mode," the user can create tests by picking questions individually or by subject-matter groups. Subject groups can correspond to the current area of study or something learned earlier. In "Testing Mode," QuizMaker creates an entire test based on a certificate's or rating's knowledge exam, choosing from all available questions at random.
QuizMaker's suggested list price is $49.95. The Exam Software it works with also is $49.95. Programs are available for recreational, private, instrument (including CFII questions), commercial (including military competency exam), CFI (with flight, ground, fundamentals of instruction, and designated pilot examiner questions), flight engineer, airline transport pilot/dispatcher, and aviation maintenance technician general, airframe, and powerplant.
For more information, contact ASA, 7005 132nd Place SE, Newcastle, WA 98059-3153; 800/426-8338; 425/235-1500; www.asa2fly.com/asa.
Compact Communications
A handheld communication transceiver is a nice insurance policy to have in the event of an in-flight electrical failure or avionics problem. If you're thinking about adding one to your flight bag, consider ICOM America's new IC-A4. It's a one-of-a-kind, low-cost, lightweight, and rugged unit designed for the entry-level user.
The handheld receives all 760 VHF communications channels. You use up and down keys to change channels, and it also will scan through the channels for an active frequency. The memory holds up to 19 channels for easy recall, and a five-character label can be attached to each one. The LCD screen is easy to read (it has backlighting for use at night) and shows the IC-A4's status at a glance.
The IC-A4 comes with a rechargeable battery that ICOM says will give six hours of operation. An optional longer-life rechargeable battery will give nine hours of use, and the optional battery pack, which holds eight AA batteries, will give 10 to 12 hours of operation. The optional headset adapter accommodates standard headset plugs, and the unit has a side tone so pilots can hear their transmissions.
The IC-A4 has a one-piece, die-cast aluminum chassis and polycarbonate front panel. Its suggested retail cost is $400. For more information, contact ICOM America, 2380 116th Ave. NE, Bellevue, WA 98004; 425/454-8155; www.icomamerica.com.
Just For Fun
Some days just aren't meant for flying, but that doesn't mean you can't have an aerial adventure, or try your hand at a new aircraft, by flying a computer. Flight Unlimited II, from Eidos Interactive and Looking Glass Studios, gives you unlimited flight time in a Beech Baron, Piper Arrow, P-51D Mustang, a Cessna 172, and a deHavilland Beaver on amphibious floats, for just $49.95.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can visit 45 different airports, fly VFR or IFR, and work with ATC. More than a game, but not an FAA-approved personal computer aviation training device, Flight Unlimited II includes other realistic features such as other traffic (and the possibility of midair collisions), unexpected engine and electrical failures, and getting blown off the taxiway by an airliner's jet blast (I can assure you it's an embarrassing event).
Other options you control are whether you're invulnerable, or have to deal with engine torque, turbulence, collisions, and gear damage. You also can control such things as weather conditions; time of day; whether the sun or moon glares off the water and other objects; and whether or not there are cirrus clouds. Naturally, you decide on the perspective - the instrument panel and out the windshield, or to the left, right, or behind you - or whether you're even in the aircraft.
The outside graphics are superb if you have a good graphics card in your computer. You can see other aircraft and surface objects, such as ships on the ocean, in fine detail. Lighthouses flash their rotating beams, the Golden Gate Bridge's anticollision lights wink red, and when you fly in rainy weather, the lightning and rain effects are a sight to behold.
The program, and its on-line and 300-page "Pilot's Handbook," enable you to learn about such "serious" skills such as flight planning, reading the instrument indications, dealing with emergencies, flying basic and advanced maneuvers, navigation, reading the mini flight manuals for each airplane, flying an instrument approach, and logging your "flight time."
But Flight Unlimited II also is about having fun, and it gives you 25 (five per aircraft) different "missions" to fly in the "Adventure" mode. On one you fly a band (suspiciously like the Rolling Stones) to the infamous concert at Altamont. "Turkey Drop" is another adventure, but "Escape from Alcatraz" was my favorite (and I'm not going to give it away). Many of them have event and/or location driven "triggers" that give you an unexpected and often funny turn of visual or aural events. If you feel creative, you can also create your own adventures.
To run Flight Unlimited II you'll need at least a Pentium 120 with 16 MB of RAM, 190 MB of free hard disk space, Windows 95, a 4X or faster CD-ROM, and DirectX-compatible video and sound cards. The program works more smoothly on faster machines. It supports all Thrustmaster and CH Products yokes, joysticks, and rudder pedals, including the force feedback models.
If you've got the computer, the program's $49.95 price makes it hard to beat for some flying fun. For more information, contact Eidos's at www.eidosinteractive.com.
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