SkyLinked Airport Data Service

A few months ago, I had the very good fortune to hear from some of the guys over at Flight Schedule Pro about a new product they were introducing. They asked me if I'd be interested in working on the mobile portion of the project (you know, being a pilot and a .net developer). I jumped at the opportunity and the application has since gone live.

The service is an online logbook called SkyLinked. To be sure, I'll be writing about the logbook and its many wonderful features, but for now I'd like to write about the Airport Data service. Earlier this month, a friend of mine and I jumped into the Super Decathlon and cruised up to the lake to do some aerobatics. Just north of the lake, Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (KGVL) was hosting the Cracker Flyin, so we decided to take a quick visit.

The only problem was, we didn't have our charts on us and we needed frequencies and runway data to get in safely. We descended to cellphone range and he pulled SkyLinked Mobile up on his iPhone. Sure enough, using the airport data service, we were able to get all of the airport data we needed including communication frequencies and runway information.

To get to the airport data section, go to the SkyLinked Mobile Homepage and click Airport Search. That'll bring up a page that looks like this one:

Put the ICAO airport code in the search box and hit the Search button. If you search for KPDK, you'll get this screen:

From this menu, you can get to just about any airport data you need. There's an information page for communications and there's an information page for each runway or helipad on the field. Here are a few screenshots of these pages:

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

I really appreciate comments so please feel free to comment on my posts. Whether you agree or disagree, I'd love to hear from you. Also, feel free to link back to your own blog in your comments. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed of the comments on this thread.

© 2008 — , D. Patrick Caldwell, Vice President for Research and Development, Emerald Software Group, LLC

How Aviation Ruined Shopping

I'm not really all that frugal. I put a little money into savings from time to time, but I don't save a whole lot; yet, I somehow never seem to accrue any possessions. I think I've figured out why this is. It's because Aviation Ruined my Life.

Similar to the widespread adoption of the Euro (formerly European Currency Unit or ECU) throughout the European Union, many pilots have adopted the GACU or General Aviation Currency Unit commonly known as the Pilot (pronounced pahy-loh). Exchange rates vary widely, but generally fall between .6 Pilots per US Dollar and .3 Pilots per US Dollar; however, I have made exchanges as low as .24 Pilots per US Dollar.

Although generally accepted by the pilot community as a recognizable currency unit, most people are yet unaware of the Pilot so many aviation enthusiasts refer to the Pilot in UFT or Units of Flight Time. For example, someone who usually flies a Cessna 172 may be expected to pay $125 per hour of flight time (1 hour = 60 Pilots). When his fiancée says, "honey, I really like this purse and it's only 75 dollars," he will think to himself, "but that's 30 Pilots!" though he will tell her, "but babe, that's 30 minutes of flight time."

Another common example is when the A/C breaks on your car and costs 1,250 dollars to fix. As you sorrowfully pay the bill, you think to yourself, "there goes another 600 Pilots;" however, your fiancée is unaware of the GACU so when you get home you'll sit on your couch and pout until your fiancée asks whats wrong at which time you'll tell her, "I'd much rather have spent 10 hours in a plane."

The problem comes in when you take into account that most aviators would rather spend a Pilot than a dollar. Therefore, like many aviators, I squirrel away my money until I can afford to exchange it for a useful chunk of Pilots and I forgo many of life's little luxuries like that xbox 360 I wanted to buy for 120 Pilots or the final season of wings for 15 Pilots.

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

I really appreciate comments so please feel free to comment on my posts. Whether you agree or disagree, I'd love to hear from you. Also, feel free to link back to your own blog in your comments. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed of the comments on this thread.

© 2008 — , D. Patrick Caldwell, Vice President for Research and Development, Emerald Software Group, LLC

Solo Aerobatics in the Super Decathalon

As you may know, I recently made my first solo in the Super Decathlon. Since then, I've had a few opportunities to go up and do some solo aerobatics. It's very neat to be able to take a tailwheel aerobatic airplane out all by my lonesome and try my hand at loops, rolls, and other basic techniques.

On my second trip, I found a cool way to mount my camera to the support rods in the cockpit. Well, I didn't find it. My instructor told me about the Pedco UltraClamp so I ran out and bought one. I took a few videos and here they are:







Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.

I really appreciate comments so please feel free to comment on my posts. Whether you agree or disagree, I'd love to hear from you. Also, feel free to link back to your own blog in your comments. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed of the comments on this thread.

© 2008 — , D. Patrick Caldwell, Vice President for Research and Development, Emerald Software Group, LLC