New flight planner offered
Flight Planning company Seattle Avionics and DTC DUAT have teamed up to offer pilots a new option. The new DUAT Voyager product is a subset of its Voyager flight planner, which is a feature-rich, subscription-based flight planner and electronic flight bag. The free DUAT Voyager version graphically depicts TFRs, airspace, and charts. It includes an autorouting feature for optimized routes and interacts automatically with DTC DUAT to overlay weather products and provide a complete and FAA-approved weather briefing, as well as electronic flight-plan filing. Users can print kneeboard versions of the route for in-cockpit use. Like the full-featured Voyager product, DUAT Voyager includes Seattle Avionic's Web Synch feature, which allows pilots to access their stored routes via an Internet-based mobile device. The routes can be updated with the latest weather on the fly. Flight plans can be exported to Google Earth for realistic 3-D flight previews.
Veteran's flight-training assistance signed into law
Legislation providing veterans with new financial aid for flight training received an overwhelming vote of approval in the House of Representatives. The bill, S.3447—the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2010—passed the House on a 409-3 vote and was signed by President Barack Obama on January 4. It broadens the provisions of 2008 legislation by allowing veterans to pursue educational programs including flight training, certificate programs, apprenticeships, on-the-job training, and correspondence training. Qualified military personnel who have served three years on active duty since September 11, 2001, will be eligible for educational funding previously available only for programs at institutions of higher learning.
Flight Design lowers glass cockpit price
Flight Design has lowered the price on an avionics package that comes with two 10-inch Dynon Skyview screens with synthetic vision and a big-screen Garmin 696 GPS. The package includes traffic information service (TIS) via a Garmin GTX 330 Mode S transponder, and is now offered at $12,075.
