What's New -- Products and Services

Each month, AVweb will bring you a quick survey of the latest products and services for pilots, mechanics and aircraft owners. This month we have an Ag Plane mod, a flight timer, a new book and more. In some cases, AVweb has actually examined the product; in other cases, we are just letting you know it exists.

If you know of a new product or service other AVweb readers should hear about, please send us a note.

Toy Cat

Got an unused agricultural sprayer gathering moss in a hangar? Want something that looks like a Pitts but is twice as big and dances even better?

Ag-Viation in central California is working on an aerobatic mod of the Grumman G164 Ag-Cat crop-duster biplane. With a 450 hp Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial engine and enclosed seating for two (or three if the passengers are friendly), the company is coming up with a good use for an older ag plane that has been superceded by monoplanes.

The original fertilizer hopper is replaced by the passenger seat; the alloy-panel fuselage is dropped in favor of fabric; and the paint job is definitely not right off the farm.

For more info, contact Ag-Viation.

Flight Timer

If you're still using an analog clock on the instrument panel to time instrument approaches or determine the amount of flight time left in your fuel tanks, you might be ready to step up to a digital flight timer.

The new flight timer from ASA has all the necessary features because it was designed by pilots for pilots: three simultanous timers, current time in am/pm, 24-hour, or UTC mode; a digital notepad that can record squawk codes or frequencies, and more.

When you set the timers, you don't have to push buttons over and over to get the hours/minutes/seconds you want; instead, spin the dial and click it in to set each quickly and accurately.

In a noisy cockpit? Then you can make use of the visual alarm representation instead of the usual beeping.

More information is available from ASA.

Prop Ice Inhibitor

Ice is one of those flight hazards that gets enough press to start to sink into our thick pilot heads, so most of us are starting to at least look at our leading edges when we're getting into potential icing.

Unfortunately, two places on the plane we can't see as well are the places that acquire ice faster than the leading edge of the wing: the stabilizer and the prop. Ice on the prop cuts your thrust significantly (just when you need it most), and if it builds up but then sheds unevenly, it could take your prop and engine significantly out of balance.

Oregon Aircraft Design has developed a product called Ice-Away that is designed specifically for propellers. Applied before a flight, it can last for several hours in icing conditions or up to 20 hours in dry conditions. Each can is good for over 50 applications on a regular 2-blade prop. It is safe for paint, plastic, rubber and metal.

Check it out at Oregon Aircraft Design.

First World Flight: The Odyssey of Billy Mitchell

Sometime in the next year, Steve Fossett may attempt to fly around the world non-stop and solo; if successful, he would become the first person ever to do it.

This makes for an interesting time to read about the very first time anyone tried to fly around the world at all -- in 1924 -- the year the U.S. Army sent four seaplanes westbound out of Seattle, taking 50 times longer to circle the globe as a team than Branson hopes to do it.

Spencer Lane has written a book about the flight, including the story of Gen. Billy Mitchell and his involvement in the flight. Fifteen years of research have brought out details lost in the mists of time, describing the daring and the chutzpah of the pilots and leaders; the cooperation and competition between the military services; and decisions that influenced the future of both the Army and aviation itself.

Details about the book and ordering information are available here.