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The site has a growing library of short videos that are "designed to take you beyond the basics and help fill in those gaps in knowledge and touch on areas you have yet to explore." Most of the workshops are based on scenarios from real or theoretical flights.
Topics range from TAFs and convective outlooks to cloud types and air mass modification. While the majority of the videos run between eight and 18 minutes, the Web site currently offers a two-part series on ice that runs more than four hours, and a piece on the skew-T log that is more than two hours.
--Ian J. Twombly
Price: around $10 (individual video); $99 (yearly subscription)
Contact: www.avwxworkshops.com
Qref avionics checklists
It's a daunting task to write a reference book that decodes what, to me at least, has always been one of the most capable but thoroughly frustrating and confusing pieces of avionics ever devised for general aviation: Garmin's GNS 480/CNX 80.
Granted, I've only flown GNS 480-equipped airplanes irregularly. I usually manage to load an IFR flight plan successfully on the ground. But with seemingly constant reroutes along the East Coast, I often end up cursing the box as it rejects my modified flight plans; sends annoying, green-shaded "discontinuity" messages; and unintentionally creates multiple flight plans overlaying one another like so many strands of spaghetti.
On a recent IFR trip in the right seat of a 480-equipped airplane, the Qref book turned out to be a godsend. It fits easily onto a kneeboard. Its pages and binding are thick and robust enough to stand up to the cockpit environment, and most important, its instructions are concise and clear enough to use on the fly.
Time to load a GPS approach? Find the IFR tab, and the first page gives a numbered, button-by-button sequence to follow. It doesn't explain why the switchology is the way it is-and that's fine. I'm not looking for an explanation at this point. I just want to know what buttons to push, in what order, to load and activate the approach. Qref doesn't give me a bunch of fancy color graphics or explanations here. It cuts to the chase. And that's exactly what a quick reference guide meant for use in the cockpit should do.
It'll be a constant companion on my future trips in 480-equipped airplanes.
Qref also offers books on virtually every piece of popular panel-mounted and handheld avionics.
--Dave Hirschman
Price: $29.95
Contact: www.qref.com
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