By Senior ANN Correspondent, Kevin O'Brien

One of the things about going to Airventure as a reporter is that you never stop learning cool stuff to pass on. Sometimes, it takes days and weeks to get the information out to the public, but we keep plugging at it. Towards the end of the show, serendipity threw me into contact with a clever little gadget that can make life easier for pilots, especially instrument pilots, and extra especially those who fly in busy airspace (which is darn near all of 'em). AvTimer Plus is a little box that works as a timer that sounds in your headset, and it also incorporates a digital voice recorder and a cell phone interface.

On Monday, August 1st, the last full day of the show, I grabbed a burger and sat down to share a table with some other guys. You can meet some interesting folks this way, but these folks weren't chatty. The conversational gap was filled, however, when Bill Psaledakis (All Greek to you? It's "Sah-le-DAH-kis," kind of like "solid axis") joined us.

Bill is President and CEO of AvTimer Plus in Kingston, New Hampshire, and it turns out he and I have scuffed some of the same touchdown zones around New England. When he found out I was in the media (this is the point when the tar and feathers usually come out) he told me that I ought to check out his product, and his booth.

He even dropped the nuclear booth-visitation inducement: "Even if you aren't interested in my product, there are two beautiful women in the booth! My daughter, and her friend!" I'll tell you, this journalism gig is the most arduous thing I've done since stumbling out of Ranger School as "undistinguished survivor". To be threatened with beautiful women, I mean, really... of course, I visited the booth primarily because I knew you, dear reader, wanted to know about the product.

Here's a brief Q& A with Bill Psaledakis.

ANN: What is AvTimer Plus, Bill?

BILL: AvTimer Plus is a portable device for the pilot in the cockpit. It's an interface that interfaces between the headsets and the panel, and it has three functions. The first function is a digital timer, a countdown timer, which gives you a tone in the headset, ten seconds prior to the time elapses, to let you know that something's coming up -- you did something, and you wanna attend to it. And if you don't attend to it by the time, it gives you a constant tone in the headset.

Then you cancel it out, whatever you had set at that time, whether it be fuel tanks or approaches, or whatever.

The second function is a two minute digital voice recorder, to record clearances, amendments to your clearances, taxi instructions, anything, even voices in the cockpit. Anything is heard in the headset or spoken in the headset can be recorded.

And the third function is a cell phone interface, which happens to be boosted so it will work well with headsets. So you can use your cellphone normally in the air and speak through your headset.

ANN: Now, many of these features are being incorporated in intercoms.
Do you see your ideal customer as the instrument pilot who is flying an older aircraft, or who is not upgrading his intercom?

BILL: Well, some people have a headset that they're very satisfied with, and don't want to buy an upgraded headset. And some people are looking for a timer, for an individual timer. There really isn't any timer in the industry today, that I'm aware of, that gives you a tone in the headset.

And the digital recording part  this being a portable device, as opposed to a panel-mount device  is much less expensive. It interacts well with any headset that you have, and being a portable piece of equipment, you can transfer it from aircraft to aircraft.

ANN: So it would be ideal for the fellow who's a renter pilot, or who has multiple aircraft, and doesn't want to upgrade all the panels individually?

BILL: That's correct. And it also comes with a power supply for 12 volt, AND for 28 volt, so you can transfer it from one airplane to the other, without worrying about a power source. It also comes with a portable power supply, using two Double-A batteries; you can power it that way, and the battery life's between six and eight hours.

ANN: It's a versatile little device! How big is it?

BILL: Oh, it's about four and a half inches by two and a half inches.
It comes with a little velcro patch that you can stick to it, which allows you to attach it to your panel, or to your yoke or kneepad or whatever.

ANN: Any other selling features of the Av-Timer-Plus?

BILL: Well, it's great for students, for understanding clearances and so forth. There's lots of times, if you're in a busy environment, and you get a clearance, or taxi instructions, for example... sometimes the taxi instructions can be kind of convoluted. And the fellow in the tower giving you the instructions is busy, and he won't have a chance to get back to you if you misunderstood something.  Although you may read back the instructions that you got, and they say, "readback correct," sometimes you don't understand exactly what you read back yourself, even if you wrote it down. And this way you can play it back and review the clearance that you got.

ANN: So this'll put an end to the situation where you look at the other pilot and say

BILL (laughiing): Say, "What did he say?"

ANN: "Was that WITCH intersection?" and the other guy says, "I thought he said WATCH intersection!"

BILL (still laughing): That's EXACTLY it. This feature would alleviate THAT problem!

ANN: Well, I'll make a point of going by your booth and get a picture of your product. I think some of our readers might like it.

BILL: Well, it's something new, something different, and I think it's going to serve a good purpose to some pilots.

After interviewing Bill, I now was obligated to go find the booth. As you can see I got a picture of the AvTimer Plus; I can also say that the ladies in the booth were quite as attractive as he stated. He also *could* have mentioned that his daughter was an old aviation hand, having worked for Michael Goulian Airshows. I would have spent more time with the ladies, and the AvTimer Plus, but there is never enough time to see everything at a show. I have seen enough of the AvTimer Plus to know that it does what Bill says it will do. If you currently carry separate gadgets for timing, recording, and cell phone interface, of if you need to add one of those capabilities to your flight bag, check out the AvTimer Plus.

Sales are direct from the website or by telephone from sales-tax free New Hampshire. List price is $495 and quantity discounts are available.

FMI: http://www.avtimerplus.com