This Year's Gadget Crop Was Amazing
Final Compilations by ANN Editor-In-Chief/Gadget Hound, 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 products, 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', products and
programs of 2009.
BendixKing/Honeywell AV8OR ACE
To many, the portable GPS/EFB market seemed to have been
"owned" by a single major company... until Honeywell's BendixKing
group decided to take on the market with a design that not only
keeps up competitively, but adds some new tricks to the works.
While the BendixKing folks are pretty sharp, the AV8OR ACE
surprised us a great deal.
Honeywell introduced the Bendix/King AV8OR ACE, at an
introductory price of only $1999, over the summer. Offering a
seven-inch display, the AV8OR ACE includes a sunlight-readable
touchscreen interface for easy viewing and usage; the “Touch
and See” capability allows users to simply tap on screen
objects, such as airports, VORs, and airspace boundaries, to
quickly access further information. Customers can use aviation
navigation in either portrait or landscape modes.
The lightweight design also features FAA IFR geo-referenced
charts, eliminating the need to carry paper charts in travel. The
AV8OR ACE dramatically increases situational awareness by providing
aircraft location display directly on High and Low en route charts,
approach plates, and airport taxiway diagrams. Customers can obtain
digital charts and approach charts from Bendix-King's vendor.
The AV8OR ACE includes a WAAS GPS system, automotive navigation,
regional databases, and flight guide airport services data
including fuel pricing, FBO information, and local facilities
guidance. The unit’s multimedia functionality and Bluetooth
capability allows for data linkage with Bluetooth-enabled phones,
alternative GPS receiver, and XM weather receiver.
The weather interface supports WxWorx, allowing the AV8OR ACE to
display real-time weather information overlaid in detail on a
moving map, including graphical METARs, AIRMETs, SIGMETS, and
PIREPs.
With a great screen incredibly usable interface and a jam-packed
featureset, the AV8OR ACE has become one of the best values in the
GPS portable market and proves that Honeywell's BendixKing design
teams still have the right stuff.
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