FlyThePattern.com
When you plan a cross-country flight, you generally start with a sectional chart and a copy of the Airport/Facility Directory to get a sense of what awaits you at your destination airport. You will supplement that with a taxiway diagram, and you might go Web surfing for photos or videos of the airport environment.
Ron Burgher, founder of FlyThePattern.com, was just like you. "I just learned to fly four years ago," he says. "For my solo cross-country, my instructor told me to go to Riverside Airport (in California). I wondered, what are the reporting points, what will it look like?" Burgher went on Google Earth and YouTube and used Microsoft Flight Simulator for clues. But he wasn't satisfied with what he found, and decided to come up with something better.
FlyThePattern.com puts those visual tools-- photos, videos, chart segments, and airport diagrams-- on one page for a given airport, along with weather and airport information set off to the side. Pilots who fly in congested airspace will find reporting point photos an attractive feature: Pull up a chart segment and you'll see orange flags denoting reporting points. Mouse over one, and up comes a photo of that reservoir or that dam.
The Web site requires a yearly membership fee and, since it was launched just a few months ago, it has just 65 airports in the database, mostly in California. More are coming online, says Burgher. Airports in the database are "sponsored" by flight schools or other airport businesses that provide runway photos and video footage. In response to demand from individual pilots who want their airports included, Burgher said the company is devising a new membership category that will enable users to get free membership in exchange for providing photos and videos.
And yes, Burgher knows that you can go on YouTube and get videos free of charge. "YouTube has a few, but not in any organized fashion, and not that many. You work very hard to get a video some guy did two or three years ago and it's very spotty." He's betting you won't mind spending $1.25 per month to let FlyThePattern.com do the job for you.
Price: $15 per year
Contact: www.FlyThePattern.com
So you train in a later-model Cessna 172? If so, you're familiar with the process that is a part of each preflight: drawing fuel samples from several sumping points. That can add up to a lot of avgas in one receptacle.
Sporty's new fuel testing device called Multisump combines the smaller fuel testing cup that pilots are accustomed to using with a larger fuel reservoir that holds enough fuel for multiple tests. Multisump's small sampling cup at the top means pilots can visually check samples and then dump them into a larger area at the bottom to store tested fuel. The larger reservoir holds eight to 10 samples, enough for a newer Cessna. -- Ian J. Twombly
Price: $24.95
Contact: www.sportys.com;
800-776-7897
Portable georeferenced airport diagrams
few companies on the market already offer electronic versions of the NACO airport diagrams with georeferenced aircraft position as part of larger software packages. But Approach Systems is now offering its version called EasyTaxi for free.
The idea is simple-- download the software into your laptop, netbook, or any other Windows Vista/XP device and get a Bluetooth GPS. The software then places the airplane on the chart for an instant heads-up of the aircraft's location on the surface at all times. The major drawback is that airport diagrams are available only for around 700 airports, but since Approach Systems is offering the software for free, the only investment is a small handheld GPS. -- Ian J. Twombly
Price: free
Contact: www.approachsystems.com;
801-802-8079
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