Pilot Brad’s Flying Blog

This is probably one of those never ending debates among instrument rated pilots; Do you prefer NACO (FAA) or Jeppesen plates and charts?

For those that have no idea what I am talking about, there are two producers of instrument terminal procedures and enroute charts; the National Aeronautical Charting Office (NACO) a branch of the FAA, and Jeppesen.  While they both contain the same information, they present that information in slightly different ways, and some prefer the NACO way, while others swear by the Jepps.

Now that I have entered into the instrument procedures phase of my training, it is time for me to make a selection and purchase some charts.  My instructor Nick prefers the Jepp charts, and was encouraging me to go that route, but before I made a decision I wanted to do a bit of research and talk to some instrument rated friends.

Continue reading ‘NACO or Jeppesen?’

The other day (Monday) I blogged about AVNAC.com the aviation related video rental service, and I told you that I had rented my first video through their web site.  It arrived yesterday (Tuesday), only 24-hours after I had ordered it.  Now AVNAC.com is headquartered less than 20-miles from my house, so that explains the super short shipping time, but they did mail the DVD the same day I ordered it, which I consider speedy service.  Pretty cool… It looks like I’ll be ordering more videos from them.

While sitting in the AME’s waiting room, filling out the application, I noticed a stack of brochures on the table for a company called AVNAC.com. Maybe this is old news, but it appears to be a service similar to Netflix, but for those of us with aviation interests.  Their brochure says you can rent aviation videos with no monthly fee, no commitments, free shipping, free membership, all while paying as you go.  It sounds pretty good to me.

From what I’ve read on their site, it differs slightly from the Netflix model in that you pay per video rented, rather than a monthly membership fee, and you have 10 days to watch and return the video.  With my hectic schedule, I like the idea of paying per rental better than paying a flat monthly fee.  At first glance their list of videos seems fairly extensive, covering a wide range of aviation interests.  I’ve already found a bunch of videos that interest me, so it looks like this might be worth a try.  I’ll be sure to report back when I do.

Update:  OK, I just rented my first video, and I have some first impressions.   Their web site is OK, with user reviews and in some cases video samples.  After I created an account, while navigating the site I received a lot of warnings from my browser (IE) about components of certain pages not being secure.  I clicked “OK” to get past the warnings, and found I could eliminate them altogether by navigating back to their homepage and starting my search over, but this is something that could use some improvement.  My only other piece of feedback is about their prices; the FAQs state that videos rent as low as $4.49, but most every video I looked at was $9.49.  Not bad when you consider that buying some of these DVDs would run you $50 to purchase, but at $10 a pop I am not going to be renting 3 or 4 videos a week.  Anyway, so far so good.   The video I rented wasn’t immediately available, so I’ll just have to see how long it takes to receive… more soon.

Update to the update: I just received and email telling me my DVD has shipped.  Cool!  That wasn’t much of a delay.

A few weeks ago I broke down and bought a new headset.  I already have two headsets and I didn’t really need a new one, but I wasn’t going to let that get in my way.  OK, truth be told, I made a deal with myselfl.  If I could sell one of my older headsets for a good price, I would buy a new one.  It sold, so I bought. 

Continue reading ‘Quiet Technologies Halo first impressions’

A few posts ago I told you that I had purchased a Zaon MRX for use during training .  I’ve used it twice now and I thought I would give you my first impressions of it.

After just two flights, I am really glad I bought it.   Why?  Because it does exactly what Zaon intended it to do; detect and alert you to traffic in your vicinity.  What’s amazing is just how often it does detect traffic, and I am not talking about in the airport area.  We’ll be cruising along at 3,500′ and hear it beep, look up and see the word “Advisory”, followed by “4.0 nm +05^”, which means traffic has been detected, 4.0 nm (estimated) 500′ above and climbing, from your position.  My instructor really likes it and I constantly hear him saying things like, “There he is!” as he spots the traffic the MRX has detected. 

Within its user selectable (range and altitude) detection window [see diagam below], the MRX issues two levels of threat; an Advisory and an Alert.  I won’t go into the specific differences between them, but in general the Alert is a more serious threat than an Advisory and indicates that traffic in closer proximity (than an Advisory).  When you hear the 4-beep indication of an Alert, you really need start paying very close attention because traffic is extremely close.   Typically, traffic will first be reported as an Advisory, and as it gets closer, if it gets closer, it becomes an Alert as it crosses the alert threshold.  For specific information on the detection window and the Advisory and Alert thresholds, please consult the Zaon MRX manual available on Zaon’s web site.

Continue reading ‘Zaon MRX first impressions’

My PCAS MRX from Zaon Flight Systems arrived today.  PCAS stands for Portable Collision Avoidance System, and it is intended to alert me (the pilot) to traffic in my vicinity.  It does this by issuing visual and audible traffic advisories and alerts, as well as displaying a range and relative altitude information for the most significant threat.  Pretty cool, huh?

I bought this for one reason and one reason only, safety!  I’ll be under the hood for the majority of my instrument training, and while my instructor is tasked for watching and listening for traffic, sometimes he is busy doing what he does best, instructing.   Since I live in a fairly large metropolitan area with a lot of GA and airline traffic, I thought the MRX would be a good investment that would assist him in his traffic monitoring duties.  When I told him that I had bought one, his response was an enthusiastic “Thank you!”.   He went on to say that he thought they were a very useful tool that will help him greatly in identifying relevant traffic, and that he appreciated it (the purchase) very much.  That was nice of him to say, and vaildated my decision to buy one.

I won’t go into a full review or the features of the MRX here and now, you can read about them on Zaon’s web site, but I will tell you that upon opening the box I was immediately impressed.  The packaging and presentation are incredibly well thought out and the manual is the nicest manual I’ve seen for any device I have ever purchased.  While all of this means nothing if the MRX doesn’t function as advertised, it is at least an indication that Zaon seems to have thought a lot about the details.  Before deciding to purchase the MRX, I did my research and I found the overwhelming majority of reviews and/or user comments to be positive, so I have little concern about its ability to deliver. 

Sitting at my desk in my office I couldn’t resist the urge to install the batteries and turn it on, and again my first impression is good.  I found the display to be sufficiently bright, even at it’s middle setting, and I should have no problem reading it in direct sunlight.  Anyway, that’s about all I can say about it for now.  I am scheduled to fly on Friday afternoon, and I will give it a thorough shakedown and report back.