Pilot Products

Scottevest RFID Travel Vest

We’ve reviewed Scottevest products before and loved the creativity and functionality of their products. The RFID Travel Vest is a recent offering that brings the utility philosophy to a comfortable light vest.

The vest includes 26 different pockets. There are spaces for everything from headphones to an iPad. Almost all are stitched internally, leaving the vest with a clean, professional look. With the exception of a headset, most of your entire flight bag will fit inside the vest. Or more likely, you’ll find the vest to be a great place to stash a snack, a pad of paper, pens, and your sunglasses.

The name refers to radio frequency identification, a technology that enables quick scanning of items such as your credit cards and passport. The vest includes a pocket that the company says can block someone from skimming your information without your knowledge. It’s a great thought, but there’s some disagreement about whether this is a theoretical problem or a real one. The vest is worth it, regardless. It comes in four colors, and a variety of different size and zipper options. —Ian J. Twombly

Price: $135
Contact: www.scottevest.com

Sporty’s Flight Gear HP iPad Bag

The brains at Sporty’s Pilot Shop are at it again, this time with the Flight Gear HP iPad Bag. The HP iPad is one of about a half-dozen bag options in the Flight Gear line.

The flight bag pendulum is starting to swing back from the extreme of slamming as many pockets as possible into every square inch to a more thoughtful design that considers the use habits of pilots. The HP iPad has clever pockets that can fit either a handheld radio or a Stratus, and the outside chart pocket has two sections, a small but creative touch.

Accessories are available that make it easier to keep track of cords and other small items, but they aren’t necessary. The HP iPad will hold most of what you need in today’s digital cockpit, and do it in a way that’s easy to access. —Ian J. Twombly

Price: $69.95
Contact: www.sportys.com

MGF Bottle

Yes, this is a review of a bottle. And for good reason. The My Go Flight Bottle is possibly the best drink accessory you will ever buy.

It seems impossible to improve on the water bottle. It’s cheap, simple, portable, and recyclable. But the MGF Bottle is better. The design is perfect for a cockpit. It doesn’t sweat with cold liquids, it won’t leak, and it fits in a standard cup holder. Best of all, hot liquids stay hot for hours. Let’s say you love coffee but fly early in the morning. Fill up the MGF Bottle and meter it out for hours afterward. Or chug it all within an hour of landing. Either way, your coffee will remain unbelievably hot. Or if it’s summer your water will be refreshing long after your fuel tanks run dry.

If there’s one drawback to the design, it’s that the opening is small. That makes it easy to drink from, but difficult to add ice and clean.

The MGF Bottle holds 17 ounces and features a nonslip-grip finish. And it’s worth every penny. —Ian J. Twombly

Price: $35
Contact: www.mygoflight.com

Radio Navigation Simulator Pro USA for iOS from Digital Aviation

An airplane is an expensive classroom, and that may never be truer than when you’re flying along while trying to figure out how to intercept a radial.

Simulators are ideal for learning the idiosyncrasies of radio navigation, so long as their setups conform to what you’re flying in the actual airplane.

Now comes Radio Navigation Simulator Pro USA for iOS from Digital Aviation. The app lets you practice navigation techniques on an iPad or iPhone. Choose from among five preconfigured panels, ranging in sophistication from an automatic direction finder (ADF) and VOR to horizontal situation indicator (HSI). Users will appreciate the variety of equipment, particularly if they are renting different airplanes, or curious about how an HSI works, or waxing nostalgic over ADFs.

Then pick a navigation exercise, or else you can load an open environment and choose a region where you fly; all the navaids, airports, and fixes are there, pulled from FAA data. Add wind velocity up to 99 knots to make things more challenging.

Don’t expect to jump right in; the app’s quick start guide and user manual should be digested before you start trying out its many functions. Otherwise, the app has benefits for students as well as instrument-proficient pilots. —Jill W. Tallman

Price: $13.99 for U.S. version.
Contact: www.digitalaviation.com