AV8OR ACE: Charts And Plates In A Portable

If there’s an established trend in portable navigators, it’s buyers asking for-or at least manufacturers providing-approach plates and charts in electronic form. Bendix/King joined the club Sunday at AirVenture with the new AV8OR ACE portable, a follow-on to a product it introduced last year. The ACE has the same basic software platform as the previous AV8OR product, but the hardware is physically larger, with a 7 inch diagonal screen compared to the 4.5 inch used on the earlier navigator.

If there's an established trend in portable navigators, it's buyers asking for-or at least manufacturers providing-approach plates and charts in electronic form. Bendix/King joined the club Sunday at AirVenture with the new AV8OR ACE portable, a follow-on to a product it introduced last year. The ACE has the same basic software platform as the previous AV8OR product, but the hardware is physically larger, with a 7-inch diagonal screen compared to the 4.5 inch used on the earlier navigator.

The AV8OR ACE features FAA NACO approach plate and charts which are, uniquely-at least for portable-geo-referenced, so you can see your miniature airplane motor across the airway and onto the approach. AVweb got a look a demo at the press unveiling and we noted that the ACE's screen is bright and the charts are sharp enough to read, if not super sharp. They're based not on vector graphics but on scanned PDFs of the FAA original. Other features include multi-channel Bluetooth interface, airport guide data and a fuel price finder utility. To scoot around the page, you can both zoom and pan, using your finger in an IPhoneish sort of way. Initial price for the AV8OR is $1995. We'll have a video on the this device later in the week.