While no single gadget is the perfect tool for everyone, some are we’ll suited to the fat section of the bell curve while others will appeal to the fringes. True Flights Flight Cheetahs 210-S portable GPS navigator falls squarely in the latter category. The system is really two components: the Flight Cheetah software, which can run on most any Windows-capable computer, and the 210-S hardware, which is a purpose-built box designed for the cockpit. The first thing you notice about the 210-S is that its big. Its roughly 8 x 5.5 x 2 inches and weighs 2.7 pounds without a backup battery. The screen is 6.5 inches, which is half an inch smaller than a Garmin 696, and there are several fat-finger buttons on the face for easy control in flight, even with gloves on. The hard drive is solid state, so it works at all altitudes. The next thing you’ll notice are all the wires. The Cheetah connects to an external GPS and XM weather receiver (which has its own box and antenna). The optional backup battery is not built into the unit, so thats another box. Add the optional external attitude gyro or Zaon traffic receiver, and you get even more boxes and wires. If you could leave all the accessory gear in the airplane, removing the 210-S and taking it home is a no-brainer. But we wouldnt want to deal with a 210-S if we were renting. True Flight experimented with Bluetooth, but felt the reliability wasnt good enough to count on.

One of the benefits of a light sport aircraft is that you can install non-certified equipment. All you need is the part, a willing shop and a letter from the aircraft manufacturer authorizing the installation. With this freedom there comes the risk that you’ll add some whiz-bang item thats about as reliable as that 73 Fiat Spider you once fell for. Luckily, there are several reliable vendors when it comes to flight instruments. Even Garmin is stepping in with announced plans for the G3X, a derivative of the G300 display they developed for the Cessna Skycatcher. Rather than look at all systems, we took the runaway leader in LSA EFIS, the Dynon D-100/D-120 combination, and did a fly-off against one of the most radically different EFIS systems out there, the TruTrak EFIS. We flew nearly identical Remos GX airplanes with both systems thanks to Tommy Lee of Adventure Flight, in Springdale, Arkansas, and Frank Maslakow of Sierra Foxtrot Aviation in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Unfortunately, there was no clear winner. Dynon broke new ground on homebuilt/experimental scene in 2004 with a truly affordable, big-screen EFIS. There have been several software improvements since then, which Dynon offers free to its customers. Dynons pricing and reputation has made them the default choice for an EFIS display in LSAs. We put the D-100 through its paces on a turbulent day and found it easily up to the task. The response rate is quick and graphics scroll cleanly, although less smoothly than a G1000 system that costs 30 times as much. Much of the performance in low-cost EFIS comes from how the system adjusts the data coming from the rate sensors, or digital gyros as they are sometimes called. Dynon relies heavily on airspeed for this, but we couldnt get the system to misbehave in slips, aggressive maneuvers, low-airspeed gyration or momentary control deflections-except for sudden rudder deflection where it overcompensated.

Fuel prices may be in a momentary decline, but the handwriting is clear: The cost of owning even a fixed-gear, four-place single is slipping away from more and more pilots. Light sport aircraft (LSAs) are heralded as a possible solution, but what happens when you need to go several hundred miles? Are these “hobby planes” up to the task? The question isn’t whether you can travel in an LSA-people have taken ultralights around the world, so, of course, you can. The question is whether they have reached a level of utility close enough to a four-seat single that the tradeoffs are minimal and the gains are worth it. In our view, this analysis comes down to four things: comfort, efficiency (for both fuel and time), payload and adverse-weather capacity. We asked owners and operators for their thoughts and then put our findings to the test. One January afternoon, we borrowed a new Remos GX from Tommy Lee of Adventure Flight in Springdale, Arkansas, and took off for a meeting in Houston, Texas, just shy of 400 miles away.

Our first impression of the Brightline bag was that it looked like an escapee from a zipper factory. It had so many pockets it seemed to venture beyond basic organization and cross into obsessive-compulsive disorder. Then we used the bag for a few flights … and ended up buying it. The coup performed by Brightline wasnt simply adding a bunch of pockets-in fact, we don’t think it needs quite so many-it was how it used space. For example, the center compartment was designed primarily with a headset in mind, but headsets come in many sizes. The Brightline solution is just the right size for one bulky headset, such as a Lightspeed 3G upright or two David Clarks on their sides. Pull out one DC headset and you’ll find a complete bag for a GPS also fits in that spot. We even fit the new Garmin 696 and a DC headset in that space. If youre only using one headset, there is empty space in that compartment, so there are pockets on the inside of the compartment to take advantage of it. The whole bag is ripe with clever arrangements of pockets and space. In fact, when we loaded up the bag with a bunch of typical pilot supplies we were surprised by how heavy it was given that its not that big dimensionally. Then we realized it had somehow swallowed as much stuff as we fit in another bag nearly one-third larger in size. A cell-phone pocket and, separate, sunglass pocket are on the top of the bag for easy access. There is a two-part chart area that lets you keep all of your charts in a library area, but keep todays charts, or a thin kneeboard in an outer pocket.

Cirrus Design and Diamond Aircraft Industries are success stories in this business because they took chances. Diamonds DA20 opened the door for composite aircraft in certified, light GA, and then Cirruss SR20 and Diamonds DA40 blew it wide open. But the first generation of both the SR20 and DA40 were just starting points. Cirrus is now on its third generation SR20 (G3) and Diamond has been selling its refined DA40 as the DA40 XLS and CS. Both aircraft make good choices if youre looking for a new, budget, four-seat single. If you think “new” and “budget” shouldnt rest in the same sentence, we hear you. But there are good arguments for buying new if you can, and not everyone in that category wants to drop half a million on a high-performance speed demon. We looked at the concept of budget from three angles: mission flexibility, aircraft efficiency and options to buy just what you need, but no more. In this hard light, the latest SR20 is tough to beat.

Part of every piston-pilots preflight ritual is sumping the fuel tanks to check for water. Given that a modern Cessna has 13 of these fuel drains, wouldnt it be better just to keep the water out? Thats what Stay-Sealed attempts with a fuel cap to put in place over your existing fuel cap. The company offers covers that fit most single-engine Cessnas and Pipers. The covers arent interchangeable, so order the right type for your airplane. The cap is applied by pressing down and physically locking over the existing fuel cap. You need to pull up on the ring at the center to make sure its really in place. It shouldnt pop off. The company claims it will stay on in an 80 mph wind. It comes off with a slight pop when you pull from the corner with no scuffing to the paint. We tested the Stay-Sealed cover on two high-wing Cessnas by smearing a paste that changes color in the presence of water just inside the filler neck, closing the cap and then drenching the wing until there was standing water. We tried it with an unprotected fuel cap, a canvas aircraft cover and the Stay Sealed cover. (A big thanks to the folks at Cumberland and York Aviation in Biddeford, Maine, for their help with this.)

Task one in looking at logbook software is figuring out what you want to log and why. If youre not detail-oriented and only care about when your last BFR or IPC was, then anything more than a Post-It on the corner of your computer monitor is probably a waste. If you need to track duty time, watch the numbers for pilots and aircraft in a school or business, track time for tax reasons or are in the grind of pursuing higher ratings, logbook software can be a godsend. We reviewed over a dozen systems to keep the numbers in the right columns. Here are our top picks to meet the variety of needs out there. This website is geared mostly to corporate users and flight departments, but has a lot of utility for private aircraft owners as well. Its strength is in tracking aircraft time as it meets all the FAA requirements for electronic logbooks for aircraft-including electronic signatures. Why is this useful? First, if your shop is willing, they can access any of your aircraft records at a glance and cut down their admin time by signing you off electronically. Second, part of the service is scanning in all your aircraft documents and backing them up (you can also upload more on your own at any time). Also, ADs and Service Bulletins are automatically retrieved by the system, warnings flags for time-limited parts and inspections pop up automatically … the list goes on.

Not that long ago, I was introducing some folks from Cirrus Design to the Maine delicacy known as the lobster roll, having just finished a flight in their new Cirrus SR22 Perspective. We were talking about growth of our industry called general aviation and how niche projects usually work and grand visions almost always crash and burn. Ive flown most iterations of the Cirrus from the vacuum-system SR20 through the SR22 Perspective. An SR20 in 1999 was billed as Lexus quality, but it had the fit and finish of a 1979 Toyota Corolla. Those days are long gone and the Perspective is every bit a Lexus. The thing is: Whos buying these things and will they keep doing so? The SR22 is a capable machine, but starting at $590,900, with another $70K in options, its an exclusive club even within a niche. A clue came from a friend of mine who just flew the Perspective and is likely to buy one-just as soon as he can sell his MU-2. A Mitsubishi MU-2 to a Cirrus is a big step down, especially considering his usual trip is more than 1000 miles. But the savings in fuel, insurance and training make it worth the hit for him.

Lets be clear right away as to our criteria here. We only looked at new aircraft, as classic LSAs were covered in our January 2008 issue. We also looked for aircraft that suited the fat part of the bell curve of pilot interest. Amphibious aircraft and open-cockpit breezers were put aside for now. We demanded predictable handling with positive stability. Points were awarded for comfort, crashworthiness, durability for training, ergonomics, baggage capacity, maintenance and our assessment of the company behind the aircraft. While your perfect bird might not be on this list, wed wager that 80 percent of the folks searching for a new LSA would find one of these five aircraft the right LSA for them.

The first thing we noticed about the SmartDeck is that its just looks great. Our flight tests proved that this beauty was more than skin deep. Subtle shading and thoughtful grouping of information meant we were rarely searching for something on the screen. This is not the case with other, more widely used integrated cockpits. That attention to detail and the pilot interface is, perhaps, both SmartDecks greatest attribute and its greatest flaw. L3 took its time putting this thing together-perhaps too much time. The current SmartDeck began as a clean-sheet design in 2003. It was certified for the Cirrus in May of 2008, and an improved version with synthetic vision and full, datalink weather will be released this fall. Highway-in-the-sky (HITS) and other improvements are in the works but have no committed timeline.

One thing from our survey was crystal clear: Most pilots love their current headset. An astounding 90 percent of the over 900 pilots who answered our survey considered their headset to be a good value after using it in the field for some time. Considering the majority of respondents had their headset for more than four years, thats saying something. When asked if, knowing what they know now, would they go out and buy the same headset again, 86 percent said they would. Several of the “no” votes were just because they wanted to upgrade to active noise reduction (ANR), Bluetooth or a cell phone interface. Such rosy-cheeked satisfaction isn’t what we usually see on these surveys. Does it mean you’ll be happy with whatever you buy? Hardly. Performance is largely in the eye of the beholder. If there’s one takeaway from this survey, its that the best headset for you depends on your mission, your wallet and, most importantly, your head.

Sometimes it seems like success in this industry is about finding the niche market within the niche market. Or perhaps its about creating niche markets where they didnt even exist. Heres one Im coming to believe exists, but I don’t see anyone aggressively hunting: The LSA for serious transportation. The idea practically runs afoul of the whole point of light sport, which is primarily recreational flying, but this idea makes sense down in the trenches. Im seeing it with my local flight club that owns a 30-year-old Cessna 172 thats in need of some significant refurbishment. Putting a pencil to the numbers, we realized we could dump a bunch of bucks in the Cessna, buy a late-model steam-gauge Cessna to replace it, or buy a new LSA. We looked hard at what the plane was used for and found it rarely had more than two people aboard and was used for training, local breakfast flights, and short-haul visits for family or business.