The first step in making critical decisions is learning to manage the risks. Next is the consistency and steadiness that come from informed confidence. Practical Risk Management for Takeoffs and Landings, the latest interactive course from King Schools, aims to teach pilots how to apply superior decision-making and perceptual skills with each takeoff and landing.
The course begins with a review of the PAVE (pilot, aircraft, environment, and external pressures) and CARE (consequences, alternatives, reality, external pressures) checklists, which the Kings introduced in previous installments of the "Practical Risk Management" series that includes courses on instrument flight and weather.
In this context, the checklists make sense--and may help pilots to keep from flying themselves into a corner, where they may have to accept a landing in poor or dangerous conditions because they started a flight that never should have left the ground, or continued flying until they had no options left.
The Kings also share insights on crosswind mastery, tips for good landings, and keys to passenger-pleasing takeoffs and landings. The tips in these sections are great and draw from the Kings' many years of experience teaching landings to many students in a variety of airplanes.
Whether you're a student or a flight instructor (or somewhere in between), you'll find some information in the lessons to help you improve your landings--or help you to better teach the elusive art of landing well, consistently.
Practical Risk Management for Takeoffs and Landings consists of three CD-ROMs, which include video that runs 93 minutes and interactive questions. It took me just more than two hours to complete the entire course. Pilots who complete the course can record their completion for FAA Pilot Proficiency Program (Wings) credit, or for insurance credit through Avemco.
Price: $49. For more information: 800/854-1001; www.kingschools.com
What Every Pilot and Accident Investigator Should Know About Airplanes
From its lofty title, you might expect What Every Pilot and Accident Investigator Should Know About Airplanes to cover a lot of ground--and it does. Author Art Torosian, a former engineer for McDonnell Douglas and experimental test pilot, has put together a wide-ranging book that serves as a compendium for many of the physical and aerodynamic factors that work on airplanes in flight. Many common equations, covering concepts from horsepower to flutter, are explained and illustrated in a clear but spare manner.
The many illustrations sometimes suffer from a less-than-perfect printing job, and the text is rough in some places, but the overall effect is a reference that could find frequent use on a pilot's bookshelf. The soft-cover book runs 388 pages and is printed in black and white.
Price: $29.99. For more information: 480/563-2620; e-mail: [email protected]
World Directory of Leisure Aviation
You may be well familiar with the aircraft parked on the flight line at your local airport, but there are so many more aircraft--from ultralights to powered parachutes to kitplanes to production aircraft from other countries--out there to explore. The World Directory of Leisure Aviation is a full-color catalog of sorts that can help you do just that. Produced by publishers in four countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany), the World Directory of Leisure Aviation gives brief synopses of the latest currently manufactured aircraft from hang gliders to helicopters.
Its 284 pages include specs on more than 1,500 aircraft, plus contact information for flight schools, flying clubs, and equipment manufacturers around the world. Great for rainy-day dreaming, the publication can be ordered online or through dealers in the United States, including Ultra Flight magazine and the Experimental Aircraft Association.
Price: $14.99. For more information: 800/867-5430; www.ultraflight.com or 800/843-3612; http://shop.eaa.org
LightSpeed Mach 1 headset
It's almost as light a feather. LightSpeed Aviation has introduced a headset that weighs 1 ounce (not including the separate control box). The latest offering in the company's LightFlight series, the Mach 1 headset is basically two earplugs that contain tiny speakers and a "gooseneck" boom to pick up voice communication. The magnesium alloy construction makes the headset incredibly light, yet tough. The system provides 40dB of passive hearing protection. Like other LightSpeed headsets, the Mach 1 has a cellphone-headset interface so that on the ground you can make phone calls through the headset. Replaceable foam earplugs come standard.
Price: $525. For more information: 800/332-2421; www.anrheadsets.com
Davis Instruments WindScribe
Your instructor is nowhere in sight, and the automated weather observation system (AWOS) on your home airport is down. The only wind sock is at the far end of the field, and though it's hanging limp, you feel a breeze at your end--the approach end, as luck would have it. There's wind all right--but how much? And for how long has it been blowing?
A neat tool for measuring just such curiosities--well, you're a pilot, so they are more than curiosities!--is Davis Instruments' WindScribe, a precise, handheld wind meter (anemometer). In addition to registering the current wind speed, the WindScribe also measures maximum headwind, maximum tailwind, a five-second average wind, and a running average wind. Speeds can be displayed in both U.S. and metric units, and the unit also records temperature--useful for figuring out whether fog may form soon--and wind chill.
The WindScribe weighs 3.5 ounces and comes with a lanyard. A Velcro strap and mounting bracket are included.
Price: $129. For more information: 510/732-9229; www.davisnet.com
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