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 a voice checklist, camera fittings, aviation humor books 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.

LetsFly.org Adds Tiger Aircraft

LetsFly.org, a company that helps form cooperative-ownership and turn-key aviation business opportunities, has finalized a marketing agreement with Tiger Aircraft. According to LetsFly, this arrangement makes it possible to own and fly a brand-new, four-passenger AG-5B Tiger for an initial investment of $2900, with flight time cost of less than $49.00/hour.

By joining LetsFly.org, an aircraft owner can fly a new aircraft for less than rental costs and enjoy an excellent return on investment. Participation in commissions is also available for qualified LetsFly Cooperatives, which lowers the cost of flying even more.

The LetsFly organization plans to put 15 new Tigers in its cooperative ownership program in 2004, with deliveries increasing to 30 for 2005.

More information is available from LetsFly.org and Tiger Aircraft.

WingNuts Aviation Humor

If you need a humorous aviation fix, and AVweb's Short Final just isn't enough, you can read WingNuts, a collection of aviation cartoons.

Joel Muggins, a pilot and mechanic, has both a Web site and a book collection of his cartoons. The book is actually an electronic book: It can be downloaded from his website (for under $10; it's about 25 Mb); or you can order a CD-ROM at the same price plus $3 shipping and handling. The e-book is pretty sophisticated -- pages seem to physically turn (complete with sound effects) -- and has over 100 of his cartoons. Some of them are understood better by pilots and mechanics, but many are funny even to those who's only connection to aviation is seat 34B.

You can view some cartoons and order the e-book on the Aviation Cartoons Web site.

Checklist Injector

Pine Mountain Aerotech has introduced the Portable Checklist Injector. This is the third product in the Checklist Injector family. It is the size of a pager and, according to the manufacturer, runs for 60 hours on a single AA battery. Using the built-in microphone, checklists can be programmed anywhere -- only your headset is needed.

The Checklist Injector is a device that plays back, in your own voice, personally customized checklists directly through your headset without interrupting vital communications. They allow you to keep your attention focused where it needs to be, without the distraction of looking down to read a checklist. Five minutes of checklist storage allows for any number of normal and emergency lists and items per list. There are two independent reminders for items, such as switching tanks. No battery power is required to save lists or settings. Built-in vocal prompts aid in programming.

The List switch is used to step through list titles. To jump to emergency lists, press and hold the List switch. The Check switch is used to select a list and to acknowledge items or temporarily defer them to end of the list.

Both the panel-mount and remote-mount models allow all operations from a single yoke-mounted switch.

Contact Pine Mountain Aerotech for more information.

Cessna 206 Camera Fitting

StraightFlight has introduced another in its line of products for increasing visibility in aircraft. The STC for a camera fitting in a Cessna 206 is now available. They already have STCs to install bubble windows on several aircraft.

At 20-inches in diameter, the camera fitting allows the camera operator a large area to see out of, allowing air-to-air or air-to-ground photography.

The modification comes with a structural plug to cover the camera fitting when it isn't in use, allowing all six seats to be put back into the cabin or for the plane to return to a cargo configuration.

Contact StraightFlight for details.