King Schools' new interactive video course, Flying the Garmin 430/530, includes hundreds of video lessons to demonstrate use of the 430 and 530, along with interactive questions so that you can practice what you just learned. The course covers all aspects of the system, including best practices, moving maps, flight plans, "Direct To" usage, page groups, nearest airport, navigation aids, what to do when there is an in-flight problem, approaches, course reversals, holding, missed approaches, terrain features, system customization, and how to handle possible malfunctions.
The course includes seven CD-ROMs and runs about four hours, not including the interactive questions.
Price: $249
For more information: 800/854-1001; www.kingschools.com.
Flight1 Avidyne FlightMax Entegra EXP5000 PFD Interactive Courseware
Flight1 Aviation Technologies, a division of Flight1 Software, provides world-class flight simulation programs for general aviation applications, including flight schools and pilot training. You might also recognize the company as a contributor to several past AOPA sweepstakes projects: Flight1 has designed and produced the software add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator of AOPA's sweepstakes aircraft--and it will do so again this year with the Catch-A-Cardinal airplane (for more on the project, visit www.aopa.org/sweeps).
The latest development from Flight1 Tech is its Avidyne FlightMax Entegra EXP5000 PFD Interactive Courseware, a DVD-based program that helps pilots of aircraft with Avidyne's glass cockpit primary flight displays (PFDs) to understand the system. The course focuses on the EXP5000 installed in various Cirrus, Columbia, and Piper aircraft models.
Avidyne FlightMax Entegra EXP5000 PFD Interactive Courseware assumes the user is already a pilot, but students also should find the program useful, especially when used with an instructor's guidance. The course makes for an excellent ground-school session--or several--as well as home study.
The course progresses through a system overview, use of the PFD in various flight regimes, and the PFD's failure modes and emergency operation. Through video and audio, the course covers the smallest details of the PFD in depth, and tests the user at the end of each segment. You must answer eight of the 10 questions correctly before you can proceed in the course. A certificate of completion can be printed out upon finishing the course.
Price: $149.95
For more information: 877/727-4568; www.flight1tech.com
Sporty's Pilot Maneuvers Guide for Airplane Single-Engine Land
Thank the people at Sporty's Academy for the latest offering from Sporty's Pilot Shop. This flight school has developed its own maneuvers and procedures handbook, which is now Sporty's Pilot Maneuvers Guide for Airplane Single-Engine Land.
This illustrated guide includes maneuvers for the recreational, private, and commercial certificates, and the instrument rating--airplane. Each entry follows a standardized format, with the objective, standards, and conditions relating to the maneuver, a description of the maneuver, an illustration (if appropriate), and a listing of common errors. A pre-maneuver checklist is also included to aid your basic airmanship development, and help you set up right for the maneuvers during practice, as well as during the practical test.
The guide is also quite valuable for budding flight instructors, whether preparing for the initial flight instructor practical test or setting up their own curricula. The guide comes in a three-ring binder sized to fit in your flight bag along with approach plates and pilot operating handbooks, and it's printed on glossy paper that will help to resist spills and tears.
Price: $39.95 for all three guides in a single binder; $16.95 for a single guide
For more information: 800/776-7897; www.sportys.com
Rich Stowell's The Light Airplane Pilot's Guide to Stall/Spin Awareness
2006 National Flight Instructor of the Year Rich Stowell specializes in spin and upset recovery training. And he saw a need for a comprehensive text that would address spins through aviation history, take a hard look at the accident data and training curricula, and come to conclusions about what we need to do to ensure our safety and proficiency vis-�-vis stalls and spins in airplanes. The result is Stowell's creation, The Light Airplane Pilot's Guide to Stall/Spin Awareness.
Stowell begins with a historical perspective, giving an overview of spins and how they have related to aircraft certification and aeronautical knowledge for pilots throughout the century of powered, controllable flight. Then he delves into accident statistics, including detailed studies of stalls and spins over the years; Stowell draws from many of them to make his case--that pilots need to take charge of their spin education, because the current flight training curricula given in the United States doesn't adequately address the problem.
Stowell helps you to explore the spin envelope with a section on spin research (there's the math if you want it) involving several popular makes and models of aircraft, plus the physiology and human factors relating to spins, and spin flight-test requirements. You'll learn stall and spin dynamics, procedures, and the PARE spin recovery checklist (power--off; ailerons--neutral; rudder--full and opposite direction of spin; and elevator--through neutral) that may save your life someday.
Stowell also discusses spin-resistant designs, such as the Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing and Cirrus Design aircraft, including some of the most complete information on how these aircraft were certificated that I've seen published anywhere. This follows with appendices with the published spin data for several aircraft, including a special section on the Piper Tomahawk (a training aircraft introduced in the 1970s); information on spins in light twins; and the full text of FAA Advisory Circular 61-67C, Stall and Spin Awareness Training.
A more complete education on spins has not been conducted in one book, available to you as you sit in your armchair.
Price: $34.95
For more information: 800/869-6627 or 805/525-2037; www. richstowell.com
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