Cockpit Accessories

No bottles or batteries required. Aithre’s aircraft-powered oxygen maker generates breathing oxygen for two users at altitudes up to 15,000 feet.

This new composite fan-equipped iPad case saves weight and offers flexible mounting options, but only works with Apple iPad Mini tablets.

Well-run avionics shops know how to manage the time-burning and important task of building custom panels. And demand is so high—and schedules so far behind—that many shops sub the work to third-party panel builders. The benefit to the customer is a finished metal panel that’s highly custom, even sporting slick styling that nicely complements interior […]

In a connected world with everyone wearing earbuds, it’s logical to consider an in-ear headset for the cockpit. Although they aren’t for everyone, if you haven’t tried them, you should. While flagship ANR models from Bose and Lightspeed deliver big on comfort and performance, we’ve long appreciated the freedom and decent audio quality from a […]

Engines, exhaust systems, propellers, cabin vents and aging door and window seals are just a handful of sources that can make the typical aircraft cabin a miserable place to spend hours on end. It’s also a path to irreversible hearing damage. How do you know if your cabin is too noisy? Fly in a comparably […]

Keep a straight face. Couldn’t do it, could you? This subject is proof positive that every pilot’s idea of humor effectively stopped developing as a four-year-old making potty jokes.  We’ll go further than making fun of discomfort and express our concern that the pressing need for a bathroom may we’ll be a safety of flight […]

If you think those features are a recipe for building the ultimate futuristic flight deck, you have it right. And even in a world where everything is connected over the internet, you might not expect to be able to remotely connect to the cockpit anytime, anyplace. But you can.    That’s exactly what Honeywell has […]

The SP-400 is ably manufactured by Japan Radio, but for the PJ2, Sporty’s found a new vendor called Rexon, a Taiwanese company with a modest line of portable radios, including a VHF aviation model. Because Sporty’s didn’t like the operating logic of Rexon’s off-the-shelf RHP-530, despite its $40 lower retail price, it commissioned Rexon to build a clean-sheet design for its new radio, says Sporty’s Doug Ranly. “No one knows about it [RHP-530] because it’s not very user friendly. That’s one reason we didn’t want to sell it because of complications in programming and using it,” Ranly says.

One otherwise clever feature that’s been dinged by some users is the ANR circuit’s tap control. Double-tapping a finger on either one of the earbuds puts the set in a talk-through mode, which works when the headset is in the medium or high noise-canceling profile. The idea is to enable better communications outside of the headset. Maybe it’s for talking with a flight attendant, gate agent or passengers, but the talk-through feature means you don’t have to take the buds out of the ear to talk with someone off the intercom. We’ve heard of (and experienced) some situations where the tap-through is activated uncommanded during landing and even on the takeoff roll on bumpy runways. Bose said the Series II has been tweaked so the mode is more accurate and more responsive.

When I started flying in 1994, there certainly wasn’t the need for accessory power in the cabin. These days it’s an entirely different story and the number of portable devices I carry grows by the month. Who thought you would have to charge your sunglasses? That’s why the market is being bombarded with panel USB charging ports. These are generally FAA-certified devices that mount either on the instrument panel or in interior components, and connect with the aircraft’s electrical bus for voltage.

We asked uAvionix about this and were told that it released a skyBeacon firmware field update in March 2019 and the company has been shipping new units with that updated firmware in place since the February 2019 timeframe. There isn’t firmware specific for 24-volt aircraft, but the updated firmware resolves a compatibility issue uAvionix observed when installed on 24-volt aircraft. The company also issued a service bulletin for the requirement and posted it on the company website.

To understand the significance of the J-3 Cub look all the way back to Piper’s Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, heyday, where William T. Piper was rightly seen as a visionary. But no one could have imagined how enduring that vision would be, to the extent that over 80 years later, several companies are building brand-new Cub clones that clearly trade on the mystique of the old yellow classic. Two that are front and center in the market are Legend Aircraft and CubCrafters. We think both companies nail the quality and support.