Equipment Reviews

The folks who created the world’s most popular personal digital assistant may have been prescient when they called them Pilots (and later, PalmPilots). Several versions later, the Pilot part of the name is gone, but these ubiquitous palmtop computers lead a not-so-secret life as great tools for aviators. Software for devices based on the Palm […]

Journalism school educators, real-world experienced though they were, couldn’t hold a candle to the mercilessness of a crusty, curmudgeonly desk editor dryly intoning: “Where’s the story? I’m through the second graph and don’t know why I should read this.” So here it is: Bill Sandman and his gang at M-20 Turbos LLC have a winner […]

Somany pilots forget, or never knew, that the earliest heavier-than-air birdspretty much all flew beak-first. But check out any photo of the Wrights’earliest machines and some built by their followers … the canard. Strange thatthe canard never really became an industry standard, long ago overshadowed by”backward-built” airplanes, those with the tail surface in back, inone […]

Myfirst Aerostar, a 1974 600A, came equipped with a Wulfsberg Flightphone I. Thiswas a manually-operated early model — “New York operator, this is QM-2602I’d like to call 215-555-5575 please…” — and was only half-duplex. Thatmeant only one person could speak at a time; “I’ll be home at 6:30 …over,” I’d say to hear my wife […]

Quick Links Little John, Lady J Adapter Brief Relief #1 Travel John Recommendation Quick Links Little John, Lady J Adapter Brief Relief #1 Travel John Recommendation Quick Links Little John, Lady J Adapter Brief Relief #1 Travel John Recommendation Onceupon a time, there was an entrepreneur-pilot – let’s call him Herb – who, after decadesof […]

Anytimea vector takes me across the scene of a hot-rod show or an ad hocdrive-in gathering, memories of weekend nights spent idling through hometowncruising spots nearly always sweep me back to my teenage years. That neverhappened with an airplane, though. Until, that is, those same hot-rod imagesflashed back to me upon my first glimpse of […]

Rare is the movie or TV show that presents an accurate portrayal of anything aviation. Rarer still is a stage production about aviation, let alone an accurate one. But Charlie VictorRomeo, a new play that captures the human drama that occurred in the cockpit during six real-life airline accidents, does a very credible job of […]

When Bose introduced thefirst active noise reduction (ANR) headset to the aviation community at Oshkoshin 1989, pilots who visited Bose’s big black trailer and tried the headsethad two distinct reactions to it: Reaction A: “I just can’t believe how quiet and comfortable this headsetis! I’ve simply gotta have one!!! I don’t care what it costs.” […]

  Also see Mike Busch’s review of LightSPEED’s newest headset, the 25XL.   When Bose introduced the first active noise reduction (ANR) headset to the aviation community at Oshkosh in 1989, pilots who visited Bose’s big black trailer and tried the headset had two distinct reactions to it: Reaction A: “I just can’t believe how […]

Also see Mike Busch’s review of LightSPEED’s lower-priced ANR headsets, the 15K and 20K. LightSPEED 25XL I was really excited when I first discovered the LightSPEED 20K headset in June, 1997. After decades of flying with green headcrushers from David Clark, I was definitely looking for something that offered more quiet and comfort. I’d flown […]