PIREPs

The team at Laminar Research has long been working on improving the X-Plane platform and just recently the newest version debuted, X-Plane 12. Everything from wake turbulence produced by wide body aircraft to supersonic flight has been critiqued and fiddled with until it was ready for the community. But what good is a flight simulator if you don’t have great aircraft to fly? Enjoy a quick review of the aircraft changes from X-Plane 11 to X-Plane 12.

Aviators find themselves using oxygen as they explore higher altitudes in non-pressurized cockpits. This brings up an important question: what are the differences between the different grades of oxygen? Fortunately, it’s not that complicated. There are three main types of oxygen.

This year is a milestone for the EAA Young Eagles program, and Sporty's is joining the celebration. The program was launched 30 years ago at Oshkosh 1992, and since then more than 2.2 million kids have received a free airplane ride to discover the wonder of flight. It's the most successful youth aviation program in history—but we're just getting started.

Some aircraft were manufactured with built-in oxygen systems. These are commonly found in high performance aircraft with turbocharged engines. When these aircraft were made, each manufacturer could pick which connector to use in their system. Portable manufacturers entered the fray and used different connectors. What we are left with is a whole lot of connectors without much consistency. You might think it will take a special decoder ring to figure out what connector you need for your 1972 Cessna T210 (PB-2 for the record), but it doesn’t have to be that hard. There are six main connectors to consider.  

Earlier this summer my wife and I flew to the Santa Rosa Beach area along the scenic 30A highway, which is east of Destin, Florida, in a 1963 Piper Aztec. As with any flight, no matter how long or complex, one of the keys to success (and comfort) is preparation. This preparation paid off immensely, as it was one of the more challenging single-pilot IFR flights I’ve flown in recent years, thanks to the need to cross three different weather systems churning between Ohio and Florida. I wanted the best for this flight so I went out on a search for what I considered the ultimate pilot gear, looking for the best combination of quality, convenience and safety features.

The Honeycomb Bravo throttle is an amazingly capable hardware piece that, once configured correctly, leads the pack in flight sim throttle options. The downside of all these options is that it can be intimidating to program all the commands and levers to operate as we would like. For that reason, the flight simulation department at Sporty’s put together a configuration map for running the Honeycomb Bravo with X-Plane 11. We cover how to configure the throttle for single engine GA, single engine GA complex, multi-engine GA, two-engine jet, and four-engine jet aircraft.

During the month of July, Sporty’s will be hosting a celebration of general aviation across our website, social media, at Oshkosh, and at our store in Batavia, Ohio—what we're calling Fly July. The goal is to get out and fly this summer, whether it's to start flight training, get current, or take that big cross country you've been dreaming of. Sporty's has the gear and tools to help you achieve your goals and have fun.

At the conclusion of every quarter, we like to reflect on some of the more notable products that joined Sporty’s offering. Here are the top ten new products we’re excited to offer to our customers from the second quarter of 2022.  

How well did you fly your last traffic pattern or instrument approach? Most pilots will respond with something vague: “pretty good” or “the outcome was never in doubt.” That might be enough for a quick logbook entry, but with some new tools it is now possible to be much more data-driven in your post-flight debriefing sessions. The result is improved pilot skills and safer flights. 

With much of our student population under the age of 20 years, we knew we needed something modern, exciting, and easy to access. After a bit of research, Sporty’s seemed to be lightyears ahead of their competitors. They appeared to offer exactly what we were looking for: a solution that was easily accessible across multiple platforms and offered modern, up-to-date content.