This Year's Gadget Crop Was Amazing

Final Compilations by ANN Editor-In-Chief/WAAS Enabled, Jim Campbell

When it comes to the people, planes and products of the aviation business, ANN firmly believes there is no such thing as an embarrassment of riches. 2009, as usual, saw a spate of new programs and 'gadgets' designed to separate a pilot from his flying dollar... fortunately, the vast majority of them are quite worthy of foregoing the occasional $500 hamburger or two.

In fact, for 2009 (even more so than last year) we really had to struggle with the list in order to pare it down to a manageable assembly and if we hadn't, we'd have easily had to increase the size of our annual 'Best Of' list to several dozen, or so, to accommodate them all.

From established products that continue to impress, to new and exciting developments across the range of general aviation... here, to our eyes, are some of the most worthy 'gadgets' and programs of 2009.

As previously noted in our review of Max Trescott's GPS/WAAS book; we've spent considerable time checking out the state of IFR-oriented educational materials over the past year -- both for our own interests as well as for a solid look into the current state of the art as far as teaching one of aviation's most complex subjects. It pains me to admit that I earned my IFR ticket and my CFII DECADES AGO (ouch, damn it, OUCH!)... and in the interim, much has changed and keeps changing -- both in terms of the equipment, its capabilities and the system we work within.

The workload has never been more complex and the capabilities never so impressive, but I have to admit that its getting harder and harder to keep up... especially with the other job I have... namely keeping ANN on the straight and narrow. As I looked over the current crop of materials available, two tomes kept my attention and impressed me with each consult... so, this is the other book that I was writing about previously:

Rod Machado's Instrument Pilot's Handbook

While Max takes a very specific area of study and drills through it, this is aviation's IFR encyclopedia... though this will be read again and again... and enjoyed each time. It's more than a compendium of what it takes to be an IFR pilot in today's OH-SO-COMPLEX flying world, it is a genuinely readable book that does the nearly impossible task of documenting the horrendously involved study of one of man's most involved and potentially hazardous undertakings... and makes it understandable, learnable (TWO different things altogether) and surprisingly fun to read.

And again, this is a book that you will be consulting for years to come... if you know what's good for you.

Machado is known far and wide for his sense of humor... as are a number of other CFIs of some stature... but I have never seen or read where Rod has sacrificed the accuracy or integrity of the material he is working with for a cheap laugh.

While it is fun to read, the book is truly epic in scope and deserves to be read alongside some of the other seminal works in the IFR world (Richard Taylor's works, Collins' 'Flying The Weather Map' and Robert Buck's 'Weather Flying' -- among others). I'm insanely jealous of the work that's been done here... truly wishing I had the time and the knowledge to do something of this caliber... but I'm pleased that it's available and once again, if you fly IFR (or are learning to), you MUST have this book in your library or (tell me you've heard this before...) you're nuts.

The massive book is soft covered and numbers 624 pages -- in full color. It is also available as an e-book, and is priced $64.95 for the physical edition and $39.95 for the digital ebook. This book has our highest recommendation.

FMI: www.rodmachado.com