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A retired Air Force pilot and current airline first officer has developed an online tool that can help pilots recognize and manage the risks of flying.

Trig Avionics has launched its TT23, the latest evolution of its line of compact transponders. The company, which is a unit of Dynon, said the new design is smaller and up to 15 percent lighter than the popular TT21 and TT22 models that preceded it. Because the TT23 is a certified Class 1 Mode S […]

California-based Nighthawk Flight Systems has been quietly developing a modular cockpit avionics system called Guardian. It has a high-res display available in 11.6-inch and 7-inch touchscreen configurations, realistic synthetic vision, and a smart IO that can interface with a variety of existing aircraft systems, including third-party autopilots. The company said it will initially be available […]

uAvionix announced skyAlert, the first wearable traffic alert system for UAV operators.

For fair-weather flying and practicing approaches, drop-in uAvionix instruments and a Garmin GPS add just enough utility without breaking the budget.

WEIGHING IN ON UNLEADED AVGAS After reading your commentary on unleaded avgas in the April 2023 Aviation Consumer, I can only say, as we did in the sixties, “right on!”  It’s hard to even tell who’s on our side in this fiasco. I recently read Mark Baker’s editorial in AOPA’s magazine to the effect that […]

GARMIN GNS NAVIGATORS Chopping the master switch and watching the Garmin GNS 430W power down after a recent trip through the clag and an RNAV approach, I couldn’t help but think of the good utility these units offer—even though the first GNS was introduced over 25 years ago. Yes, the display technology shows its age […]

The good thing about old airplanes is also the bad thing about old airplanes. Some airframes seem immortal, but the companies that built the instruments for them are anything but. Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics sees market potential in that conundrum and its solution—like everything else—is driven by rapid advances in display and processing technology. As […]

The PC-12 turboprop single turned out to be more versatile than perhaps even Pilatus envisioned. Thats because it works just as we’ll hauling dirt bikes (were talking motorcycles, by the way) as it does corporate executives and charter passengers, thanks to a posh rear cabin thats configurable in several seating arrangements. Formed in 1939, Pilatus is hardly a newcomer to the aircraft market and the PC-12 has been to market since 1995. That means there is a healthy selection of used PC-12s to choose from.

The Sporty’s Learn To Fly course covers Private, Recreational and Sport Pilot certificates. It uses a modular format, with each of the six main sections focusing on a different phase of training. The main sections are further divided into short video lessons ranging from one to 30 minutes. Most lessons have an associated review quiz that can be retaken as desired. Students can click on the “Explanation” link in the quizzes to jump directly to the part of the video that addresses each question.

As we reported in the June 2019 Aviation Consumer, Garmin also earned an STC for installation of the G3X Touch integrated avionics suite in over 500 aircraft models, is nearly completed with the G5000 integrated avionics suite for Cessna Citation XL/XLS jets (the system was recently certified for Beechjet models), plus Garmin designed and earned a TSO and STC for a new series of standalone GPS navigators. This is the GPS175 and the GNX375-a navigator with built-in mandate-compliant ADS-B Out.

HUDs are simple in concept, but not so simple to engineer and install. They’re basically an optical projector that displays an informationally compressed flight data display on a glass screen called a combiner. The idea is that the pilot can look through the display and see critical data such as attitude and airspeed while avoiding the distraction of looking down at the panel. The display has to be engineered in such a way that the data appears almost at infinity, so as to be an aid, not a distraction.