These August 2003 Accident Reports are provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, they are intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others. Aircraft: Piper Cherokee. Location: Clarkfield, Minn. Injuries: 1 Fatal. Aircraft damage: Destroyed. What reportedly happened: The pilot had filed a visual flight rules flight plan, […]
DARCorporation unveils new website and online store
DarCorporation, which has provided airplane design software, books and engineering consulting services since 1991, has a new website and online store at DARCorp.com. To celebrate, the company has discounted its best-selling Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary 50% off retail with every book purchase (one per customer please, quantities are limited).
Proxy Aviation Systems debuts SkyWatcher UAV
Proxy Aviation Systems, Inc., a company dedicated to developing autonomous, unmanned aircraft systems, has unveiled SkyWatcher, a long endurance, low and medium altitude, multi-payload unmanned aircraft system. SkyWatcher is designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The system consists of four main components: autonomous air vehicles; a primary mission-management ground control station; mobile ground control […]
Get weight and balance-and more-on your cell phone
Smartsoft has released a new version of Flight WTK 2.1, its weight and balance software for mobile phones. Flight WTK enables pilots to perform weight and balance on their cell phones in as little as 40 seconds. Flight WTK, which uses the mobile phone as a computing device, also gives pilots the ability to download […]
Finger Lakes Sales and Service launches new online inventory system
Finger Lakes Sales and Service, a brokerage firm for commercial aircraft parts and components, recently unveiled a major redesign of FingerLakeSales.com, incorporating its new Online Request For Quotes (RFQ) system. The new RFQ system allows customers to search by part number and description, as well as track and confirm RFQs and see a full inventory […]
USDA Forest Service taps Iridium for automated flight-following
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) has fitted 200 primarily contract aircraft with equipment from Iridium Satellite. The aircraft are part of the interagency Automated Flight-Following (AFF) program and are mainly helicopters and fixed-wing airtankers used for wildland fire fighting and other natural resource agency missions. The agencies use Iridium for flight-following as […]
US Door introduces windlock door
The new Model 652 Windlock door by US Door and Building Components Inc. is designed to resist hurricane force winds and is compliant with most coastal building code requirements. The Model 652 includes the new UHM Nylon windlocks, which allow for smooth and quiet operation without metal-to-metal contact. In addition to windload resistance, the door, […]
New software tool predicts risk of obsolete parts
ARINC Inc. has a new product company officials say can extend the life of complex electronic and mechanical systems built into aircraft, vehicles, military weapons, and communications equipment. By predicting when electronic parts and other components may become obsolete, the ARINC Logistics Assessment and Risk Management (ALARM) System helps identify high-risk components, suggests alternatives and […]
Glass cockpit systems introduced
Peschges Variometer GmbH has introduced two new glass cockpit systems: VP-EFIS and VP-EMS. Both are based on a 10-inch transflective TFT display, which provides best readability in bright sunshine, beneath dark clouds or at night. A weight of less than 2 lbs. each and a low power consumption of about 0.7 Amperes each makes it […]