Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts
I had forgotten about Orbis until I saw an advert for it recently in The Atlantic Monthly. What a great idea. A converted DC-10 acts as a flying eye hospital and teaching centre. The objective of the charity is to help the blind in the poorest parts of the world.
The New York Times recently (March 14) ran a story profiling Ken Hill, a professional airplane repossession specialist (Foreclosing on a Plane, Then Flying It Away). Given the state of the economy, Hill is working flat out making his way from one airport to another with the tools of his trade: A propeller lock, a portable radio, hand-held GPS device and a fanny pack stuffed with hundreds of keys. 
According to the Times, Hill normally reposes about 30 planes a year (everything from propeller-powered Piper trainers to luxury Gulfstream business jets) but last year he reposed 50 aircraft and this year it could be 100. His clients? primarily banks that specialize in aircraft loans. Hill is also an aircraft dealer but if he can’t retrieve a plane’s log books, he will unlikely be able to sell the plane for what its worth.
Blogger Jon Ostrower of Flightglobal recently recounted his visit to Honeywell (complete with a photo album) for an in-flight demonstration of the Primus Epic avionics platform which are being installed on the company’s Gulfstream G550. This software based system designed for business and regional aircraft features large liquid crystal flat panel displays that are scalable and thus allow maps and charts to be resized with 2D and 3D graphic capabilities. In addition, the system monitors weather, terrain and other air traffic.
Jon has also published a more detailed four part series (Ground School, To The Sky, Go-Arounds and Wildfires and The Return Home) about the Honeywell/Gulfstream system early last year.
goFLYING has a couple of useful features. The first is a mashup that lets you plan flights using Google maps and then input wind direction and speed, fuel burn and so on to generate a navigation log. It will save these out in A4 or kneeboard format for use in-flight. Thanks to Google’s satellite maps, it’s very easy to pick out waypoints and the database seems to have all the airports in it, so you can just search for, say, Denham, and it’ll make it a waypoint.
This is likely to be most useful for VFR pilots, helicopter pilots trying to find landing spots and for familiarising yourself before a flight. However, it is very easy to use and could be a good substitute for commercial VFR flight planning software. It is, after all, free.
You can also import your GPS track file and see your actual flight track superimposed on the map.
The second is a tool that calculates sunset and sunrise in different places at different times of year. This is very handy for working out official night.
The London-based auction house Bonhams will offer a completely air worthy two-seater Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire for auction on April 20 at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon (near London). The plane will be the first two-seater to reach public auction in more than 20 years.
Luxury online retailer CoutureLab is offering a bespoke line of pilot trolleys:
This trolley is perfectly designed for modern day travel, holding more than enough for a long weekend. Design details include hidden wheels, royal blue cotton lining and a chrome padlock with the correlating key nestled in its own matching leather cover. Your contents will be further protected by two additional buckled flaps made from the same black granulated leather.
Size: 46 x 37 x 24 cm
The pilot trolley comes in a choice of black, brown, cognac, red or honey and retails for £1,294 (or approximately €1,385 / $1,812)
