Niborex Puts Flight Data On Handhelds
General aviation just became safer
for our nations pilots. Niborex, Inc. today officially released its
Portable Electronic CoPilot product for the Pocket PC platform.
This product allows a pilot to create, organize, and view on their
Pocket PC device all the information necessary for a safe and
successful flight. It is meant to assist the pilot from pre-flight
to shutdown. Operation is based upon a fully user-customizable
"talking" organizer. It incorporates any item a pilot may wish to
bring with them on a flight: custom checklists, text (for NOTAMS,
TFRs, etc.), graphics (for weather images, runway diagrams, etc.),
video (for educational information, videos, etc.), customized HTML
applets (allowing the user or others to create custom functions),
and much more.
A recent FAA review of the National Transportation Safety Board
accident data revealed that during the period of 1983 to 1993,
approximately 279 aircraft accidents occurred in which a checklist
was improperly used or not used at all. "Unfortunately this
continues to be a serious problem for pilots today. Many pilots
only use a checklist to get the aircraft off the ground. After
that, it is put away until the next flight," said David Lane,
Niborex President/CEO. "Even if a checklist is used, often times an
accident occurs because an item was overlooked, the pilot was
interrupted, or it was the wrong checklist entirely."
The Portable Electronic CoPilot is fully customizable so that it
can be adapted to the pilot, his/her aircraft, and a particular
flight. Only the information required and in the format desired is
presented. For safety, a single press of a button will retrieve all
defined emergency procedures. Having this information readily
available adds a critical dimension of safety to every flight.
The workload for single pilot operation can be overwhelming. It
is very easy to overlook simple tasks that can ultimately lead to
disaster. For example, forgetting to switch fuel tanks while in
flight. Fuel starvation incidents can be deadly. Now with the
Portable Electronic CoPilot, the device can remind you to change
fuel tanks, check engine parameters, and even alert the pilot to a
possible low fuel situation. Every message is custom defined by the
pilot and can be scheduled to occur at a designated interval, after
a specific length of time in flight, or even the time of day.
Another unique feature of the product is its ability to include
custom written HTML applets. "We fully expect a community to
develop based upon sharing these applets among pilots," said Mr.
Lane. "If the product does not include a feature you desire, you
can just create one yourself or trade with another pilot that has
created it."
An interface to the AOPA Flight Planner software even provides
complete weather text and graphical information. General aviation
pilots without expensive weather computers can now see in flight
all the information upon which they based their flight plans.