Why Buy Aviation Supplies Online?

The best reasons to buy aviation supplies online are price and convenience. In general, products that are offered on the Internet are less expensive than the same products offered in a brick and mortar setting. This is because online retailers have fewer costs than their brick and mortar counterparts. In our industry, frontage at the airport isn’t cheap and the local pilot shop must pass this cost on to his customers in the form of higher prices.

The advantages of buying online don’t stop at the bottom line. You can shop whenever and wherever you want. With tools like Yahoo Shopping and Google Base freely available, the convenience of comparison shopping on the Internet cannot be beat.
Online retailers value your repeat business more highly than you might think. It is difficult to stand out from other retailers on the Internet and the amount of advertising necessary to acquire a new customer is very expensive. As a result, many online retailers will provide an exceptional level of service to keep you as a repeat customer.

Here comes the shameless plug...
You can find great deals on pilot supplies at AviationLogs.com

Andy's Airplanes - Kids Who (Don't) Love Flying!

AviationLogs.com has been carrying aviation toys and gifts for a long time, but every once and a while a product comes along that is worth mentioning. While I enjoy playing with all things aviation, many children do not.

I can tell you that a love of aviation is not hereditary. None of my four children are aviation enthusiasts (yet). In fact, my daughter is the only one that doesn't roll her eyes when I offer a ride in an airplane. For an aviator dad, this can be a big dissappointment. My advice; don't force it. I believe that a love for aviation can be an aquired taste for some kids. A little exposure mixed with fun can go a long way towards creating a positive attitude about aviation. With each younger kid I do better. Starting with my second son, all plane rides end with ice cream or some other treat.

Even though my children are not aviation enthusiasts, Andy's airplanes proved to be a winner with them. I watched the 30 minute "Episode 1" of Andy's airplanes and was a bit dissappointed. Don't get me wrong, the quality is A+ and the animation is excellent. However, the story was a bit weak for my taste and I thought it should have had complicated lessons about navigation. However, my six year old daughter loved it and compared it with Jimmy Nuetron, which is a major complement. My older sons agreed that it was of surprisingly good quality, considering the subject matter...

If you're interested in Andy's Airplanes, you can get it here at AviationLogs.com.

WxWorx XM Weather for AvMap Geopilot II Plus and EKP-IV

I don't normally repost news releases on this blog, but I have had enough requests for this over the last six months that I figured that this should be an exception.

The long anticipated XM Weather package is now available for AvMap’s popular aviation GPS models, the EKP-IV, EKP-IV PRO and GeoPilot II plus!

AvMap has announced their partnership with XM weather. Retail price of the Wx Worx receiver is $599.00 (subscription cost not included).

WXXM Products currently available: NEXTRAD & PRECIPITATION TYPE, METAR, TAF, and more will come shortly!

You can get it now at AviationLogs.com

http://www.aviationlogs.com/pilotshop/proddetail.asp?prod=REWX9ID

Aircraft Maintenance Tools & Supplies

It has been a while since the last edition of Steve's Aviation [B]log. That's because I feel guilty that I am not posting pictures of recent flights. The unfortunate reality is that I just haven't had the time to fly much these days. I keep figuring out new ways to burn my time and money on AviationLogs.com.



My most recent "great idea" is to launch a new category (or category filled with sub-categories) for Aircraft Maintenance Tools & Supplies. This new section has all those little things that you just can't find anywhere else. Like safety wire pliers, or an APU...

















More to come...

IFR Training Materials & View Limiting Devices

In my time as a pilot, I often buy products based on the recommendations of other pilots I respect. Since my blog is often filled with shameless self promotion, I will understand if you don't believe the product plugs that follow. I can only say that I sell a lot of aviation products and the ones in this blog are the ones that I know and I am familiar with.

In aviation training, particularly IFR training, good cockpit organization is essential. I have found that having the right plates in the right place can make the difference between a harried, missed, precision approach and a nicely executed, precise, non-precision approach.

The IFR Flight File is a fabulous product. It is essentially a bunch of see through folders that are just the right size to store approach plates in. One of the coolest features is the fact that you can write on the folders in pencil, then erase your marks for the next flight. The back cover also has an erasable flight plan that will eliminate your dependence on those little paper sheets at the FBO.

View limiting devices are a necessary evil during IFR training. These things can really ruin your day. If you have temple crushing nose scratchers, you will be distracted. I have yet to find a wholesaler, or the manufacturer of the Hoodlamb (contact me if you know where I can buy these in bulk), but it is a great product.

The Hoodlamb is old news, but still a great solution to a vexing problem. This device never touches your temples or your nose. The view limiting device attaches to your headset and simply flips up out of the way when you "break out of the clouds". I don't sell it yet, but you can find it at tagpilotsupply.com

Kneeboards are also a must have. In general, most manufacturers put these out in VFR and IFR flavors. The primary difference between IFR kneeboards and VFR kneeboards is the length. The VFR kneeboard is a bit longer to accomodate sectional charts.

I have the VFR version of the Jeppesen kneeboard. I cannot imagine why you would not want to go with the longer kneeboard. It has served me quite well and the velcro kneestrap can be used to close it up to a tidy little mass of charts to be stored in the flight bag.

If you decide to avail yourself of these products or any other aviation training materials, I hope you'll keep AviationLogs.com in mind. At AviationLogs.com, we specialize in low cost aviation training materials and free online logbooks.

WWII Bomber Pilot's Funny Story

When I was traveling a lot for work in the late 1990's I made sure to be as much of an aviation tourist as possible. Usually, that means getting a C172 rental checkout wherever and whenever possible. If the fates do not allow that, the next best thing is to find aviation museums and pester the old timers that work at them for aviation lore.

The days of running into old timers that flew during WWII are, unfortunately, coming to an end. Partly for this reason, I plan to post some of their stories here in my blog and also on my website http://www.aviationlogs.com./ I am very interested in any aviation stories, and old logbooks. If you have aviation stories, and / or old logbooks, contact me. I would like to digitize that information and post it where it will be publicly available. I think it would be very interesting to post links to old WWII logbooks (or the entire flying career of a lifelong pilot).

Anyway, about that story...

I was at the Boeing Museum of Flight where I met a volunteer who had been a B24 bomber pilot during WWII. I can't remember his name right now, if I remember I will fix the post, but for now I'll call him Mac. Mac had some great stories to tell. He told me how, when he was first assigned an aircraft, his was given a bill of lading and told to "go get your plane". There was definitely a twinkle in his eyes when he told me about walking down a line of brand spanking new B24s looking for his "ship".

Soon after getting his new aircraft, and with fewer than 200 hours of flight time, he was on his first bombing mission. His first mission was a high altitude bombing raid over a distant target after a long flight. Mac and his crew got over the target and when ordered to start his bombing run, found that he couldn't open the bomb bay doors. Mac called the flight leader and told him he couldn't participate in the bombing run, because the doors wouldn't open. The flight leader exclaimed; "You [went to the bathroom] out of the relief tube, didn't you!" then said "Drop the [expletive] bombs! The doors will bust open!"Mac said that despite his misgivings, he did as he was ordered and the bombs "safely" broke through the doors. The open doors resulted in an uncomfortable ride home, partly because the broken door was banging against the plane, but mostly because it let in a wind storm carrying air that was -35°F. Mac and his crew had indeed relieved themselves using the relief tube. I should probably mention that the relief tube on a B24 was designed (albeit poorly) for this use. Apparently, the cold air at 20,000 feet over Europe was enough to freeze anything coming out of the relief tube over the bomb bay doors.

As a result of their experience, Mac and his crew had learned not to use the relief tube. Instead, they relieved themselves into their flak helmets. During a later mission, where Mac had to descend to a lower level to make his bombing run, he started to take heavy flak. At this point you may see where this is going...

He said the flak sounded like a hail storm on the skin of the plane. It was at this point that his training and survival instincts took over. He reached under his seat and quickly put on his flak helmet...Fortunately for Mac, the temperature in the airplane was well below zero and had frozen the contents of his flak helmet. He told me that the helmet was standing 6" off his head and looked very amusing to the co-pilot, who made sure everyone on board knew what was going on.

Please share any of your interesting stories on the forum section of:
www.AviationLogs.com/forum

Who Uses Air Traffic Control More?

Air Transport Association president James May continues to lobby for general aviation user fees. May accuses general aviation (GA) of overburdening the air traffic system.

I don't know about you, but I have never seen 50 general aviation airplanes converge on an airport all at once. In 16 years of GA flying I have been put in a hold for traffic fewer than a dozen times. If you were to eliminate airline flights, there would be plenty of capacity in the current system to double or triple the number of GA flights.

I hate to make this argument, because it makes GA pilots sound irresponsible. But, few GA pilots fly in "the system". Most GA flights are VFR point to point flights that are unscheduled and flown without filing a flight plan or using ATC services. When GA pilots use ATC services, it is usually for training, currency, or safety reasons.

If safety is the goal, then charging people for using services is a mistake. Charging user fees will encourage folks to avoid using ATC to save money. This will result in an increase in accidents.
It is the scheduled airline flights that max the system out during peak periods at major airports.
The United States has the most vibrant aviation industry in the world. User fees just don't make sense. The system should be paid for by an increased tax on aviation fuel so everyone in aviation pays and no one has a reason to avoid ATC.

The Air Traffic Control system should remain a public asset like roads and bridges.

Aviation GPS - For Cars

GPS has come a long way in the last few years. I can remember the first GPS I ever saw. It was an old Honeywell GPS in a Navajo back in 1992. I was impressed, that unit could display your lat and long in near real time. By todays standards, that device would be considered useless. You still needed a map!

One of my favorite innovations in aviation GPS is the handheld that can be taken out of the plane and used in the car. My store carries the AvMap GeoPilot II Plus which is just such a unit. The unit is provided with a Jeppesen database for navigation in the air and a Tel Atlas database for the car. The GeoPilot II Plus was born for aviation but has all of the features you'd expect in a good street GPS, such as voice driving directions. My one gripe is that it does not have a touch screen. But, I am not sure I would want a touch screen on a bumpy day in the airplane.

To find out more about the AvMap line of GPS, you can visit my store at the link below:
http://www.aviationlogs.com/PilotShop/avmap.asp?cat=45

If you just want to compare GPS models, AOPA provides this handy guide.
http://www.aopa.org/pilot/handheldGPS.pdf

Finally, AOPA's air safety foundation has a nifty course to help you get more than "Direct To" functions from your GPS (though you don't have to be a member, and the course is free, they do require you to sign up):
https://www.aopa.org/asf/osc/loginform.cfm?course=gps_vfr&project_code=&

Aviation Software Laboratory

AviationLogs.com has just begun "Log Labs". Log Labs is a proving ground where we try out new stuff that might be useful or interesting for aviation enthusiasts. We hope that you'll try out some of these components and give us some feedback. We are always looking for new ideas.

Social Networking for Pilots

In the news:

AviationLogs.com has now launched "social networking" features for the Online Logbook. Please click the logo below to check out my online logbook. Feel free to throw some comments onto my online logbook! (Yeah, Yeah, I know. I’m not even current to carry passengers.) What do you expect, I have a website to run!

Check out Steve’s Online Logbook:

You too can share your logbook like this. You can even provide RSS feeds to your logbook so that your friends know when and where you fly! Best part is, the online logbook is FREE.

I hope to see your logbook in our Top Ten...

Steve

Aviation & Economic Downturns

I started out in aviation in 1992 as an A & P mechanic and pilot during one of aviation's worst periods in the United States. Since that time I have tried to turn my passion for aviation into income. For once, I am not participating in this economic downturn. I have opted out.

In October of 2007 my business partner and I started selling pilot supplies and aviation goodies on AviationLogs.com. Since then, AviationLogs.com has taken off like a Lancair IV with Jet Assist (if you know where I can get one, let me know). Since October I have been hanging onto the stick working as hard as I can to level off at a safe altitude.

Initially I thought the launch would be something more manageable, like a fully loaded 172 or maybe even a 182. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great, I just don’t have time for anything else anymore (like flying and blogging).

One of the best parts of this business is the people I talk to and work with. Recently a would-be air traffic controller called me with a major problem. He had ordered test prep materials to study over the weekend for his test on Monday, but he had made the mistake of ordering his training materials from someone other than AviationLogs.com. Well, they hadn’t arrived yet.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the book to him in time either, so I called Wing Aero. They had them in stock and since they were nearby they could drive one to his house to save him the cost of overnight shipping! Now that is going above and beyond the call of duty. In what other industry do you find that kind of support?

My customers are also a great bunch of people. I have heard a lot of great flying stories. I recently spoke to a guy who was buying a GPS to take with him on a trip from California to Florida to see his son graduate in Pensacola. He was going to try to beat his wife to Florida flying his RV-8 while his wife took a commercial flight with stops. Not much security boarding your own plane. I wonder who got there first...