Cockpit Accessories

You just got a new cellphone equipped with a slick Bluetooth headset. You love the wireless freedom and you idly wonder if the same technology could alleviate the tangle of wires from your portable cockpit gadgets. While you dream of this luxury, you realize that your cellphone headset doesnt always work quite right and you question if Bluetooth in the cockpit is the best idea. Youre right in both views. Bluetooth wireless is one of those great ideas that works we’ll most of the time and can be quite useful, especially with a hands-free cellphone headset. But its tender enough to cause frustration for some users, especially if the equipment isn’t we’ll designed or there’s electromagnetic interference where you happen to be. (These days, that can be everywhere.)

Not so long ago, when using oxygen in the cockpit graduated from being a nice-idea to the must-have phase, the equipment took a quantum leap forward. In case you havent looked recently-and we have-state-of-the-art oxygen gear is better than ever, so good, in fact, that it may be time to toss that converted medical junk and upgrade.But what to buy? To find out, we recently scanned some of the latest offerings from the top oxygen suppliers in general aviation. What we found was more choices in regulators, flowmeters, cannulas, masks, conservers and monitoring devices, all at competitive prices. In fact, since we last reviewed oxygen equipment in our August 2001 issue, the industry has almost reinvented itself, due in part to advances in the medical market.

If your older airplane is like ours, its powerplant and electrical system gauges resemble what was left behind on the factory floor when GM built its last 1937 Buick. Until recently, though, if we wanted to upgrade our factory instrumentation from what Beech or Cessna decided was adequate, we were stuck figuring out how to install round or square gauges from companies like UMA and Mitchell into rectangular holes. Those gauges are excellent products, but feature few bells or whistles. And few aftermarket engine monitors are equipped or approved for the primary-read “only”-display of information like oil pressure or how much fuel remains in the left tank.

For a couple of hundred bucks, a handheld VHF radio is cheap insurance against a comm failure and its useful for obtaining clearances on the ground or just monitoring ATC. As we reported in our October 2005 mega-review of VHF handhelds, the would-be buyer has plenty of options. In our previous wrap-up, we picked the Sportys SP-200 and ICOM IC-A6 as our top choices. Since then, Vertex Standard has introduced the VXA-710 Spirit and the VXA-220, touted as improved versions of the previous models. Are these good enough to knock Sportys and ICOM off the VHF pedestal? Unfortunately, we don’t think so. If anything, at least one of the models may be a step backward, in our estimation.

With the exception of GPS, hardly any segment of the GA gadget and accessories market lacks for competition. Thats especially true of headsets, where there are dozens of models to pick from in both active and passive noise reduction designs. There are so many, in fact, that its impractical to test them all. So for this article, we picked seven popular passive headsets and wrung them out, both in the audio laboratory and in an impartial, focus-group aircraft test.Interestingly, our lab findings and inflight results diverged dramatically on some of the headsets. It turns out that just because a headset has good lab numbers doesnt mean its a go-to model in the airplane. Comfort and perceived audio quality can and should rule the decision.

There are three reasons why more airplanes don’t have air conditioning: Its expensive, its heavy and saps payload and no matter how hot it is, you usually don’t need it above 5000 feet. So most owners just go without and swelter through the hot months. As an alternative to sweat and bear it, a cottage industry has sprung up offering portable coolers for the cockpit which circulate air through block or crushed ice stored in a modified picnic cooler. Weve seen these products at trade shows and on the Web and our reaction is always some version of this: They cant possibly work, can they? Actually, they do work and although not practical for all owners, they offer a limited alternative to the cockpit steam bath

If our conversations with fellow pilots are typical, many of us are looking for a practical electronic alternative to paper charts in the cockpit. But it remains an elusive goal, hampered by technology thats frustratingly close, but not quite there. But how about tablet computers pressed into the electronic flight bag role? Weve heard about and seen a handful of these. Can they work?

The electronic age is here, but not everyone is embracing it yet, especially when it comes choosing between paper and electronic IFR charts and plates. Four out of every five pilots still prefer paper for aeronautical charting, even though paper charts are heavy and tablet computers and other viewing devices have simplified electronic chart viewing.

The $270 (ulp!) Surefire U2 is the worlds uber flashlight but the UK Zoom 4AA does the job at one- fifth the price on cheaper batteries.

One owners trek through the EFB jungle reveals three winners: a tablet PC, NavAir software and a pocket printer for printing plates on the fly.

The Avidyne/Ryan merger has dropped the price of active traffic systems to $10,000. Flexible display options sweeten the deal.

One owners trek through the EFB jungle reveals three winners: a tablet PC, NavAir software and a pocket printer for printing plates on the fly.