Think of it, you are in the clouds, IFR, and ATC calls you with a complicated reroute. Are you ready to drop it all (well, turn on the autopilot first), grab a pen and copy? And then, after that, are you ready to punch buttons and twist knobs on your GNS 530 to reset your flight plan?
“It’s one of the toughest things for pilots to do, and really gets the sweat going,” said J. Scott Merritt, founder and president of VoiceFlight Systems, which has designed the VFS101unit, a TSO’d interface that sits between the GNS 530/430 cross feed behind the panel. It does not interrupt the flow of information between units, but, after nearly a decade of research and development, what it does do is nothing short of magical.
“Push the button and speak to the unit, reading your clearance in Morse Code alphabet, with the command enter, and watch what happens,” said Merritt. So I did. The GNS 530 took my routing via voice without hesitation, typing as fast as I talked, having never heard my voice before. It was amazing. We gave it a victor airway routing and the GNS 530 immediately populated the flight plan with all the required waypoints in the system.
So how much does that kind of magic cost? Expect to pay a little less than $2000 for the unit, plus installation. For more information go to www.voiceflight.com or visit them during AirVenture 2012 at booth 4026 in Hangar D.
