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.

FMI: www.niborex.com