NH:Press 7/23/04

ByDanJohnson.com Launches New Features:SpecCheck, Pros & Cons, and PlaneView
ST. PAUL, MINN. – The Web’s largest resource for ultralight & Light-Sport Aircraft pilot reports, ByDanJohnson.com, recently launched new features aimed at improving a site member’s experience. The new features are SpecCheck, Pros & Cons, and PlaneView. Another eagerly-awaited feature, PlaneFinder, remains in development.
SpecCheck helps visitors compare specifications of multiple aircraft without having to page back and forth through printed buyer’s guides. Members select airplanes from a long list of aircraft presented on the site, denoting them as “Favorites,” and can then compare the wingspan, empty weight, and much more for each aircraft in tables created instantly by this database-driven Web site.
Pros & Cons is a popular an element of pilot reports appearing only in Ultralight Flying! magazine. The new Web site feature lets visitors contrast the positives and negatives of various aircraft in nine different categories. This a quick way to review what attributes you may like or wish to avoid and no other Web site, magazine, or book offers this resource.
PlaneView allows a pilot to pull up photos of any aircraft reported on the site. You choose the airplane from the long list available and ask for all photos to be displayed. You see a thumbnail view and can click those you want to enlarge. When enlarged a photo legend will accompany most photos.
PlaneFinder is a question-and-answer system aiming to guide buyers to aircraft that interest them. This work appeared in print for in three issues of EAA’s Experimenter. It was prepared with the Web in mind and will ultimate work to help buyers narrow down a large field of interesting aircraft to the several that fit the answers they provided. “This project has proven more technically challenging than we thought,” said Johnson on behalf of his development team. “We want it to be right when released so we’ll hold back for now, but we are pleased to bring online SpecCheck, Pros & Cons, and PlaneView.
Site membership is required to access the new features. Members pay $29 a year and get more than a dozen pilot reports free. Members also get full and unlimited access to SpecCheck, Pros & Cons, and PlaneView. Visitors can register for free and view plenty of free material. They can also buy articles one at a time but only Members have access to the new specialty tools.
ByDanJohnson.com is a source for literally hundreds of pilot reports on a wide variety of light aircraft, accompanied by thousands of photos and specifications of these aircraft. Dan’s work to create pilot reports dates back into the mid-1970s and covers a large fleet of ultralights and light-sport aircraft made in the USA or abroad. ByDanJohnson.com is updated at the rate of 40 new aircraft reviews per year.
Dan Johnson is a well-known aviation writer submitting monthly to Ultralight Flying!, Kitplanes, EAA Sport Pilot, GA News, and Hang Gliding & Paragliding. He has published pilot reports on over 280 light aircraft. Johnson is the 1999 winner of USUA’s Moody Award, the 2001 recipient of the Spirit of Flight Award from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, and was awarded the 2003 Outstanding Leadership Award from ASTM International. Dan narrated the 1998 FAA/EAA video, First Flights in Your Ultralight / Lightplane. Two books plus an annual calendar have exclusively featured his flight reports.