PILOT PRODUCTS
Trim Aviation watches
Timepieces for solo status
By Jill W. Tallman
The first time you solo is when you can really call yourself a pilot, and that’s an emotion shared by many. Caroline Foss and her brother, Charlie Hettinger, are pilots and the owners of Trim Aviation, and they have designed a wristwatch that celebrates the milestone.
“That’s the moment a pilot is born,” Foss said.
Each Solo watch can be engraved with the pilot’s initials or N number, plus an airport identifier and diagram. If you look at the diagram with a jeweler’s loupe, Hettinger said, you can read runway numbers, VASI/PAPI markings, and displaced threshold markings. He’s right: We have a jeweler’s loupe in the office, and we were able to see the engraved airport diagram complete with runway numbers and more.
The Solo has a Swiss movement and a sapphire crystal lens. It has nine jewels. The outer bezel and blue Zulu hand display Zulu time. Foss and Hettinger said they sought a Zulu conversion feature but did not want a digital display that would detract from the watch’s aviation heritage. The luminosity on the dial is used on dive watches and is exceptionally bright, Hettinger said.
Constructed of 316 stainless steel, the watch is meant to be durable as well as stylish, Hettinger said. He and Foss designed the linked wristband, which is adjustable.
The watch’s owner’s manual is designed to look like a pilot’s operating handbook.
The Solo is available in three styles: black, silver and black, and silver and gray. Each style is available in two sizes: 39 millimeter or 41 mm. “We had this idea to make a watch that was proportionately made for large or small pilots, [as opposed to] for boys or girls,” Foss said.
Trim Aviation has produced a limited edition of 600 pilot watches. Each is priced at $895. For more information, see the website.
Email [email protected]
Weather, traffic at your fingertips
Garmin GDL 51, 52 connect easily to ForeFlight
By Alyssa J. Cobb
Garmin, SiriusXM Aviation, and ForeFlight have been working together to create an easy way for pilots to access weather and traffic information on their mobile devices in flight. The portable options they have developed worked seamlessly for me on two flights. I use ForeFlight on an iPad Mini 4, and when I launched the newest version of the electronic flight bag, the SiriusXM Aviation subscription appeared, and I connected to the GDL 51 and 52 (on separate flights) via Bluetooth.
Garmin’s portable GDL 51 and 52, launched in July 2017, are small—4.9 inches wide by 1.3 inches tall by 3.4 inches deep—and weigh less than a pound. They can stow nicely in a flight bag and don’t take up much room when sitting on top of the instrument panel. The GDL 51 is a SiriusXM receiver, so a subscription is required to pull weather information into ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, or other Garmin portable devices. I tested the GDL 51 on a flight from Florida to Maryland in my Cessna 170B. The skies were perfectly clear, so I didn’t use the Nexrad imagery, but the time-stamped METAR information proved useful. I like to check the winds at my planned destination to see if they remain as forecast or if they have changed in direction or velocity so that I can find an alternate with more favorable winds. The GDL 51 does not provide traffic data.
I used the GDL 52 during a flight in the Cessna 170 from Maryland to Tennessee. The GDL 52 pulled in free Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) weather and traffic as well as subscription-based SiriusXM Aviation weather, and ForeFlight labeled the source of the information displayed. For example, METAR data for airports near the airplane were provided by ADS-B In, while data for airports farther away on my route were provided by SiriusXM Aviation. (ADS-B weather data relies on ground-based stations that have limitations, including line of sight, based on altitude and the aircraft’s location, but SiriusXM Aviation’s data is delivered by satellite and can show data from locations farther away.) The weather information from both sources was time-stamped.
I had planned a southerly route to Tennessee to have more favorable surface winds, which I kept an eye on with the GDL 52. The southerly route also kept the flight in clear skies. Marginal VFR ceilings over the mountains just north of the route matched what was shown on ForeFlight’s flight category overlay. Up-to-date winds aloft information made altitude planning en route easy as I crossed mountains and then descended over lower terrain.
Traffic information is helpful, as long as ForeFlight’s “hide distant traffic” function is enabled so that your screen isn’t covered by black targets (airliners) that are tens of thousands of feet above you.
The flight to Tennessee took six hours, and the GDL 52 lasted about five hours, matching the battery operating time listed on Garmin’s website. A warning pops up on the ForeFlight screen when the unit’s battery is down to 20 percent. It wasn’t a problem to continue without the GDL 52 because I was in VFR conditions, with no weather between me and my destination near Nashville. However, had I been deviating around weather, I would have needed to alternate charging the GDL 52 and my iPad Mini 4 in my Cessna 170’s one power port.
Both units provided a level of luxury in the Cessna 170 that I’m not used to. Being able to check weather changes while en route, plan alternatives, and spot traffic (with the GDL 52) provides more time to make decisions and alter plans as needed. After flying with the units, particularly on long routes, it’s hard to go back to a cockpit without that information.
The GDL 51 costs $699, and the GDL 52 costs $1,199. (SiriusXM Entertainment subscriptions are sold separately but work with both units.) In addition, AOPA members can enjoy a two-month trial of SiriusXM Aviation Weather and Entertainment through December 31, 2019. Members who buy a new SiriusXM Aviation subscription or eligible receiver can receive a free one-year AOPA membership; that offer has been extended through December 31, 2019, as well.
PRICE: GDL 51 $699; GDL 52 $1,199
CONTACT: www.garmin.com
Email [email protected]
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