Pilot Products

SureCheck Aviation, manufacturer of a broad line of aircraft checklists, now offers a series of avionics checklists designed specifically for handheld GPS units. The company says it now has checklists for Garmin handhelds, including the GPSMAP 496, 396, 296, and 196. Checklists for the GPSMAP 295 and 195 are forthcoming. Each checklist ranges from 30 to 40 pages and includes full-color guides to every screen function. The spiral-bound checklists are printed in color with black-and-white inserts and are laminated with a non-glare finish. SureCheck products are sold by a variety of pilot shops and fixed-base operators.
Price: GPSMap 396 and 496 checklists are $29.95; the 295 and 296 are $24.95; and the 195 and 196 are $19.95.
For more information: www.surecheckaviation.com

Old Foggies

It's a fact for many aspiring instrument pilots: You need a view-limiting device that allows you to read your charts at the same time. Unfortunately, Mother Nature has slowly taken away your ability to read up close without reading glasses. But how do you fit your normal reading glasses under the view-limiting device?

Old Foggies addresses this concern by incorporating reading lenses into the clear lenses on the bottom half of the view-limiting glasses. The customizable lenses come in several diopter ratings, and in three different lens colors: clear (in power ratings of 1.0 to 3.0), tinted (power ratings of 1.5 to 2.5), and light mirrored tint (power ratings of 1.5 to 2.5). Old Foggies have rubber non-slip nose grips and temple pads, and a scratch-resistant polycarbonate lens.
Price: $29.95
For more information: 888/259-7788; www.ifrglasses.com

Planning and Flying Your Solo Cross-Countries

Flying your first solo cross-country is a prospect that's both exhilarating and daunting. Of course, before you're turned loose, you'll have had some practice runs with your flight instructor, and he or she will have taken you step by step through the flight-planning process. But it's still a lot to process, and it requires much more multitasking--timing your trip legs, watching your groundspeed, adjusting your course for winds, marking off checkpoints--than you've previously experienced. And you won't have your flight instructor sitting next to you, offering gentle hints about where to look for those checkpoints, or to remember to switch fuel tanks. No wonder some student pilots get sweaty palms at the very thought!

A thorough and well-executed plan will go a long way in easing your worries--a notion that R. Douglas Collins understands and communicates throughout his book, Planning and Flying Your Solo Cross-Countries. Collins, a Gold Seal flight instructor and aviation medical examiner, manages to pack a lot of useful information into 86 pages. Not only does he walk you through the flight planning process, he also shows you how to plan and "fly" a cross-country trip using pilotage and dead reckoning, VOR, and GPS. Simple black-and-white illustrations are particularly effective in the sections dealing with VOR navigation.

Sprinkled amongst the lessons are some real-world considerations like reviewing forced landing procedures and what to do if the weather seems to be deteriorating. And for those who are never sure they sound professional on the radio, Collins includes suggested verbiage for every phase of flight. In the final chapter, the author uses cross-country trips from his experience to show you how to make good go/no-go weather decisions. He encourages readers to discuss these scenarios with their flight instructors to get an even broader perspective.--Jill W. Tallman
Price: $24.99
For more information: www.pilotmall.com; www.amazon.com

Sporty's Air Facts GPS Techniques DVD

Ask a roomful of flight instructors about when the best time to introduce GPS in private pilot training would be, and you'll get as many different ideas as there are bodies in the room. No matter what your CFI's bent is, you can supplement your navigation training with one of the latest DVD updates from Sporty's Pilot Shop.

Two of the programs from Sporty's Air Facts series have been updated and expanded to include new footage and combined into a single DVD, GPS Techniques. The GPS En Route program looks at the ways in which any GPS unit can be used in both visual and instrument conditions--from handheld units (which are not approved for use as primary or sole means of navigation under instrument flight rules) to IFR-certificated panel-mount units. The footage includes a VNAV (vertical navigation) demonstration, showing how this tool, found on many handheld and panel-mount units, can help you fly a stabilized approach to a runway.

The GPS Approaches program features a new section on WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) approaches, which include a new kind of precision approach using a more accurate GPS signal to create an approach path much like the glideslope you find on an instrument landing system (ILS) approach. Units shown on the DVD include the Garmin G1000, GNS 430 and 530, GPSMap 396 and 496, and the Bendix/King KLN 94.

The DVD includes both programs; you can also download each program separately from Sporty's Web site, along with the rest of the set of 32 Sporty's Air Facts programs. Files can be downloaded in Windows Media Player (MP3) or iTunes (MP4) format for use on a PC, Mac, or iPod.
Price: $25 for the DVD; $9.95 for each program via download.
For more information: 800/776-7897; www.sportys.com.