Pilot Products

When it's time to begin instrument training, the pilot has some choices in view-limiting headgear. Familiar to most of us are the plastic hoods that resemble a visor shaped somewhat like a curved shoebox lid, and Foggles -- glasses with frosted lenses that have small, clear viewing segments on either side of the nose opening. Now there's a new entrant resembling a cross between a pair of black sunglasses and an eyeshade. It's called the ViBAN.

We tested the ViBAN recently while conducting some basic instrument maneuvers in a Cessna Skyhawk with a safety pilot on board. You wear the device as you would a pair of sunglasses, and it comes with an adjustable lanyard that helps to snug it securely to your head. (If you ordinarily wear corrective lenses, the manufacturer encourages you to order a ViBAN without an attached nosepiece to enable you to place the ViBAN over your glasses.)

We found the ViBAN to be lightweight and comfortable (it weighs just one ounce), and it stayed firmly in place, even though we didn't use the provided lanyard and weren't flying in completely smooth air. On our test flight, the ViBAN's streamlined design permitted a small amount of peripheral vision to intrude on our scan, but our forward vision was effectively confined to the instrument panel. The device is sold in a zippered crush-proof container to protect it from being mashed in the bottom of your flight bag. -- Jill W. Tallman

Price: $24.95 plus shipping and handling. For more information: www.ViBAN.com

Youth Pilot Training Program

Cleo Chamberlain, of Chamberlain Aviation in Rodeo, New Mexico, has developed a primary flight-training program designed for use with student pilots of middle-school and early high-school age. The concept behind the program is that people in this age group have some time to kill before solo, and they may also need to have some training subjects broken down into chunks more appropriate to their experience.

The result is a program that hits the mark -- but also may prove worthwhile for any student pilot who wishes (or needs) to take more time at each step along the presolo path than the average syllabus allows.

The program is divided into 12 sections (nine flight sections and three ground-school sections), each with a separate, stapled workbook for the student to study prior to the lesson. Since younger students may schedule flights only once a month (because of limited parental budgets -- or the simple fact that they want to spread the training over years instead of months), the workbooks bridge gaps between lessons and reinforce key concepts.

Within the workbooks lie some real gems that would be helpful to any student struggling with a particular task, because of the broken-down nature of the information. Chamberlain's style is clear and free of jargon, but manages not to talk down to the age group he targets. The program design is spare but clean, and it's priced appropriately at $45.

The Youth Pilot Training Program also comes with brochures for instructors to use when approached by a younger prospective student. It makes a fantastic tool for instructors to use with young people as well as to glean tips for their own regular lessons. And if you're having trouble getting the hang of the presolo maneuvers, you may find the light here. Price: $45. For more information: 505/557-2343; e-mail [email protected]