The PCAS XRX (PCAS stands for portable collision avoidance system) uses transmissions from the transponders of nearby aircraft to locate those aircraft and determine if a conflict exists with your own aircraft (it uses signals from its transponder as well). The XRX works by detecting the transponder replies generated when a transponder is queried or "pinged" by air traffic control radar or the collision avoidance systems generally found on larger aircraft. Therefore, the system works best in busy areas near large airports in Class C and B airspace, and where airline and business jet traffic is prevalent.
The targets are displayed on the unit's small screen through the use of a directional arrow, distance, and relative altitude. These cues tell you where to look to see the traffic. There are four arrows, pointing to the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions; if an airplane is closer to a 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, or 10:30 position, the two arrows bracketing that position illuminate, effectively giving the display directional fidelity to 45-degree increments. The unit orders multiple traffic targets so that the most threatening traffic (by relative altitude and distance) is shown first, and two other traffic targets can be shown as well.
It takes some practice to understand the traffic depiction, because there can be some lag between when the device picks up the traffic and when it displays it on the screen. This is most noticeable when traffic is coming from the opposite direction and the closure rate is high. There's not much to it, however; you simply look through a slightly larger cone to acquire the traffic. The most lag I saw put the traffic about 30 degrees behind where it actually was--but I still saw the traffic within a few seconds.
The XRX can be ordered directly from Zaon Flight Systems, and it comes with a power adapter, carrying case, and audio cable.
Price: $1,795. For more information: 800/496-9430; www.zaonflight.com/
The Finer Points podcasts
The proliferation of iPods and other portable media devices gives budding pilots another opportunity to supplement their training when they can't be flying. Jason Miller has developed a "podcast" series of audio programs that users can download onto iPods, or listen to on a personal computer using QuickTime and other media playback programs. Miller is a flight instructor in the San Francisco Bay area.
The podcasts are posted weekly on Thursdays and consist either of educational lectures or interviews. On the last Monday of each month, a "Safety Session" is posted; these are discussions meant to "improve safety in the community," according to Miller. The podcasts speak well to student pilots, but also provide interesting topics for certificated pilots--such as a recent podcast on mountain flying, and a close call that Miller had when he was a beginning flight instructor.
Best of all, the podcasts are free--and you can burn them to CDs and share them with your friends, listen to them in the car, or save them for your own CFI to use. The podcasts are sponsored by Zuluworks, a manufacturer of pilot accessories.
Users can download podcasts through Apple's iTunes Music Store, or via the company Web site.
For more information: www.thefinerpoints.net/
Fly Jake DVD
How would you like to be the subject of a home-movie documentary while you're learning to fly? It happened to teenage pilot Jake Smith, who soloed on his sixteenth birthday and passed his private pilot checkride the day he turned 17.
His father, Bill Smith--who was a teenage pilot himself--is a television news reporter, and he edited Jake's early aviation experiences into a 2.5-hour DVD titled Fly Jake: The Adventures of a Teenage Pilot. The DVD began as home video footage from the back seat of a Cessna 172 during Jake's first flight lesson (at age 13), so that he could review each lesson after he got home. It conveys the young man's enthusiasm for flight, which he likely acquired from his mother, a retired flight attendant, and father.
The product is not a how-to-fly video; rather, the DVD chronicles the adventure of learning to fly. Except for a couple of from-the-ground scenes that would have benefited from the use of a tripod, the video quality and production are very good; it employs a generous quantity of in-cockpit footage complete with intercom audio.
Although it chronicles a teenager's experiences and would be appreciated by any young person learning to fly--or looking forward to that experience--this DVD should prove inspirational to student pilots of any age. For somebody not already hooked on flying, however, the 2.5-hour length might seem daunting; a shorter, fast-paced 20- to 30-minute version would be a better tool for selling the adventure of flight to somebody who had not previously contemplated the possibilities.
Today, Jake is a commercial pilot with instrument and multiengine ratings who is beginning his junior year at an East Coast college where he's pursuing a bachelor's degree in aviation. And he's still a teenage pilot--at least until later in August, when he will turn 20.
Price: $19.95, plus $2 shipping and handling (and sales tax for California residents). For more information: www.flyjake.net/
A Field Guide to Airplanes
Have you ever been in the traffic pattern at a towered airport and been told to follow another aircraft--but you weren't familiar with the model and had no idea what kind of aircraft you should be looking for? If reader e-mails are any indication, this happens pretty often.
Houghton Mifflin's recently released A Field Guide to Airplanes, Third Edition, includes descriptions and black-and-white sketches of more than 400 aircraft likely to be encountered at North American airports--whether single-engine, multiengine, or helicopters; civilian or military, regardless of vintage. Business aircraft are covered, as well as smaller general aviation aircraft and commercial airliners. The expanded and updated 304-page guide, by M.R. Montgomery and Gerald Foster, includes some 80 more aircraft than the 1992 edition.
This publication is very current, including such new models as the Symphony 160, Liberty XL-2, and Diamond Star DA40. Text descriptions--and arrows accompanying the black-and-white artwork--point out key differences between aircraft models with similar appearances, like the Beech Skipper/Piper PA-38 Tomahawk (the Tomahawk has a wraparound rear window and its vertical tail extends slightly above the horizontal stabilizer) and New Piper Archer III (a new cowling with circular air intakes distinguishes this from older versions of the PA-28). Only the emerging light sport aircraft and popular homebuilt models are missing.
Although it appears to be published primarily for aviation enthusiasts and plane spotters, this publication could be very useful to pilots as well. Like the Peterson Field Guides to nature subjects, aircraft are grouped according to their type and visual similarity for ease of identification. While it could be carried aloft and used in the cockpit, we believe that pilots will benefit more by reviewing the book periodically between flights--or after encountering an unfamiliar model.
Price: $18.95. For more information: www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com
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