New products aim to perfect pilot performance

PilotWorkshops announced the release of its Pilot Exercise Program, a new entry in its Pilot-Friendly Manual series offering 15 in-flight exercises designed to improve the flying skills of any pilot while creating a fun, scoreable challenge.

“The Pilot Exercise Program gives pilots a reason to go flying—with a purpose," said Nashua, New Hampshire-based PilotWorkshops’ founder Mark Robidoux. “This program offers a variety of interesting exercises you can fly with a friend or instructor, that challenge you while improving your physical piloting skills."

Going “way beyond” slow flight and steep turns, the program integrates basic skills into new flying challenges that require forethought, divided attention, and precise stick-and-rudder control, resulting in “flying workouts that are fun, challenging and repeatable.”

Scoresheets that use a simple scoring system help track progress as pilots perfect the maneuvers and master the challenges. The program includes demonstration videos shot from a variety of camera angles, along with flight instructor commentary on the exercises.

Details and samples may be seen on the PilotWorkshops website.

Pilots who subscribe to CloudAhoy can now make use of automatic scoring of their flying performance with CFI Assistant, one of several features included in the newly introduced Pro version of pilot debriefing product CloudAhoy 6.0.

CFI Assistant, available after two years of development, is one of several advanced features that have been added to the release by the Lexington, Massachusetts, company.

"Automatic scoring of pilots’ performance has been in our vision since the very beginning of CloudAhoy. We believe that data-driven, objective, automated scoring of a pilot’s performance provides valuable feedback to any pilot at any level, for flight training and for proficiency of experienced pilots,” said Chuck Shavit, CloudAhoy’s founder and CEO. “The CFI Assistant certainly does not replace a human flight instructor—flight instructors are indispensable—but specific aspects of pilot performance and proficiency are objective and measurable, and that’s where the CFI Assistant comes in.”

CFI Assistant scores individual maneuvers as well as the entire flight. The user interface and visualization enable drilling down and highlighting areas for improvement, using smart graphs and visualization. The system is based on data from thousands of flights, and “valuable feedback from beta testers in the military, flight schools and individual pilots.”

Other CloudAhoy Pro capabilities added include detailed analysis of instrument approaches, and advanced display of gauges, when data is available, for power settings, G force, flaps, and landing gear.

CloudAhoy is running a ‘6.0 Special’ until Oct. 23, giving a one-month free subscription of CloudAhoy Pro to every CloudAhoy user, and an extra month for every purchase (12+1).

A CloudAhoy Pro subscription is priced at $150 per year. The price of CloudAhoy Standard remains unchanged at $65 per year. Discounts are available to members of the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) and the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE).