The Best of the Best 2007:

Gear of the Year: Cessna Mustang

Being the best at anything whether its world class poker, table tennis or making the best headset requires a unique combination of resources, talent, circumstance and commitment. By far, the most critical ingredient in that recipe is the last: commitment. A determined competitor who may be short of talent or competing at a disadvantage can still prevail with sheer determination and undiluted will. And so it is with some of the products we review every year. Many of these come from small companies with microscopic staffs and limited capital, but with unlimited drive to succeed. In this report, our annual Gear of the Year focus on the best products and services we’ve seen during the 2006/2007 editorial year; it‘s our goal to illuminate those companies. Here with is a bakers dozen of aviation related products that we consider to be top drawer the best of the best or at least the top value among like products.

The Cessna Mustang stands out as a dignified exception.

Product of the Year:
Product of the year Cessna Mustang
Normally, our editorial world is defined by piston engine aircraft and related products. But the very light jet phenomenon has attracted buyers from the upper crust of the piston realm because VLJs represent what many see as the first affordable jets for the common man. That‘s why we think Cessna, with it's Citation Mustang, deserves recognition as our product/company of the year. In our view, it‘s not so much the airplane itself—although it’s impressive enough—but the achievement of producing it on time, on budget and on the numbers. Cessna did what it said it would do when it said it would do it. In a VLJ segment dominated by slipped schedules, over promised performance and a deafening cacophony of hype, the Mustang stands out as a dignified exception. Given Cessna’s depth of experience, none of this should be surprising, but Cessna still had to stand and deliver and its management team had to steer the project through the inevitable shoals without delaying it or larding it up with unnecessary add-ons. Moreover, Cessna’s marketing expectations appear to be realistic—it actually demurs on the VLJ moniker, preferring instead to think of the Mustang as a downward extension of the Citation line. Makes sense to us and so does awarding the company and the airplane our product of the year tip of the hat.

Best ANR Headset:
Bose Headset X
The very idea of a headset costing $1000 rankles some buyers, so in our exhaustive review of ANR headsets, we were prepared to find that Bose’s vaunted Headset X was an overpriced underperformer. Our lab and flight trials revealed quite the opposite.

The Headset X blew away its competition by a wide margin and given that it’s now about $200 more than its nearest competitor, we also think it’s priced right. Either way, in our opinion, Bose’s claim that it makes the very best ANR, period, is well founded. Contact www.bose.com and refer to the May 2007 issue for the full review.

Best Cylinder Life Extender:
Nickle Carbide
Deciding what to do about cylinders during an engine overhaul has the feeling of a crapshoot. New or overhauled? And if new, which brand? One thing that our owner surveys seem to say is a sure bet is nickel carbide treatment for the cylinder barrel surface. Only two companies provide this: ECI in San Antonio, Texas and Aircraft Cylinders of America in Tulsa. Engine shops using nickel carbide seem to report universally favorable results, so we think the treatment is worth the modest expense of about $120 per jug.

Nickel carbide seems to reduce wear and inhibit corrosion, the two leading enemies of long cylinder life which are aggravated by limited use. For a detailed report on nickel carbide, see the February 2007 issue.

Best Value In Charts:
Air Charts
For at least 10 years—maybe longer—we have been futilely predicting the end of paper charts and the arrival of the paperless cockpit. It hasn’t happened and we’re not sure you can even see it from here. So now we’re stuck with the worst of all worlds—the requirement for expensive electronic databases and the need for paper charts.

Of all the paper chart systems we’ve reviewed recently, Air Charts offers the top value. It’s neither the prettiest nor the fanciest, but if all you need are enroute charts and plates to find your way around, you can’t beat the price and ease of use. For more, see www.airchart. com and the February 2007 issue of Aviation Consumer.

Garmin GPSmap 496

Best Portable GPS:
Garmin GPSMAP
Garmin has so advanced the state of the art for portable GPS that buyers have come to expect extraordinary performance and capability. The GPSmap496, introduced a year ago as a follow-on to the hot selling GPSmap396, didn’t disappoint, adding such useful features as enhanced terrain, taxi maps and an AOPA airport directory. Ten years ago—heck, five years ago—we couldn’t have imagined this much capability in a portable navigator.

At about $2400 discounted, the 496 isn’t cheap, but it’s a fair value given its featureset. For more, see the full review in the September 2006 issue and Garmin’s Web site at www. garmin.com.

Best Anti Theft Device:
Prop Club
Aircraft thefts have taken a dramatic nosedive since the mid-1980s, when they were all but commonplace. Still, if you’re flying to Mexico or the Caribbean islands, do you really want to park your airplane at a remote airstrip sans security? Probably not.

One thing that might add a measure of peace of mind is the Prop Club, at $189.95 to $196.95 from www.aircraftspruce.com. The Prop Club is well made, easy to use and covered in durable plastic to prevent prop damage. Read the review in the November 2006 issue for the details.

Air Chart Systems - IFR Atlas

Best Lightweight Headset:
Lightspeed Mach 1
As headset testers, we sometimes forget that having a rubber-lined plastic vise clamped over an ear with the force of a hydraulic ram isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. Thus, we have lightweight headsets, which fit into rather than around the ear.

These are, to be sure, an acquired taste, since they don’t have ANR capability and you have to tolerate having stuff stuck in your ear. Nonetheless, lightweight models enjoy a following and our trials revealed that LightSPEED’s $499 (discounted) Mach 1 is the top performer. It’s comfortable, has good audio quality and is exceptionally well made. (See the August 2006 issue more and www.anrheadsets.com.).

Best Dry Vacuum Pump:
Aero Accessories Tempest
As our April 2007 report revealed, there’s more competition and R&D in the vacuum pump business than you might realize aimed at producing better pumps and Aero Accessories has done much of it, yielding the Tempest line of vacuum pumps which pioneered the idea of the wear port. It allows a visible inspection of the pump vanes for proactive wear assessment.

Tempest pumps are expensive and not always the best choice for an airplane that isn’t flown much or isn’t flown in serious IMC. A rebuilt Rapco pump, for example, may be the best economy choice.

But Tempest pumps do represent the ultimate refinement of the pump builder’s craft and they’re designed with longevity in mind and for many owners, that’s more important than price. See www.aeroaccessories.com for more.

Best PFD Value:
Crewfit 150N
Between the aviation and marine markets, there are dozens of personal floatation devices to pick from. For our October 2006 review, we sampled products from both markets, the logic being that unless a marine model has autoinflation, it should work as well as any aviation PFD at the simple task of keeping a person afloat after a ditching. That turned out to be true. Our top choice for performance and value is the Crewfit 150N, a marine design that, although it lacks Coast Guard approval, is perfectly suitable for aircraft use. We found it comfortable to wear in the airplane deflated and with plenty of buoyancy and comfort in the water when activated. At $150, it’s mid-priced. (See www. crewsaver.com.)

Best Smokehood:
Parat C
Fire in the cockpit is one those terrifying things most of us would rather not think about, but those of us who do think about it probably want to prepare for it with a smoke hood. There’s not much competition in the field but of the three hoods we tried, the high-priced ($198) Parat-C from Draeger performed best and did a good job of protecting against deadly carbon monoxide. Contact www.saferamerica.com and read the review in the November 2006 issue.

Best Paint Shops

Best Paint Shops:
Dial Eastern States
KD Aviation/Reese
Try as we might, we couldn’t pick just one best paint shop. It’s a dead tie for first between Dial Eastern States in Cadiz, Ohio and KD Aviation/Reese in Robinsville, New Jersey. We’re not equivocating here, it’s just that we’ve seen work from both shops and, frankly, the quality is to die for.

Neither shop is cheap, but customers rave about the results and we haven’t heard so much as a whisper of a complaint about either shop. For more, see the December 2006 issue, www.kdaviation.com and www.desapi.com.

Best G1000 Trainer:
King Schools
Garmin’s G1000 all but dominates the world of OEM glass panels, but no one we’ve talked to who has flown it has called it readily learnable. Pilots with Garmin experience—GNS430s or 530s—have an easier time of it, but that’s not to say easy in the absolute. Several companies have developed multi-media training programs to teach the G1000 and after trying them all, we found that King Schools’

Cleared for Flying the Garmin G1000 is the best, most complete program, although at $249, it’s not the cheapest by any means. For more, see www.kingschools.com and the December 2006 issue of Aviation Consumer.

Best Engine Dehydrator :
Engine Saver
A couple of times a year, we get e-mails asking about engine dehydrators, those quirky little devices that purport to reduce engine corrosion by pumping dry air into a stored engine. Can these possibly work?

Yes, they can and they do. We were quite impressed with how dry these gadgets keep the guts of the engine. Even in our humid Florida hangar, the Engine Saver yielded desert-like dry conditions in the engine’s cylinders, crankcase andexhaust. For $285, it’s a relatively cheap accessory. See the September 2006 issue for more and contact www.flyingsafer.com.