Holy Micro! has released its SkyVoice Glassy Guide 400 following the success of its SkyVoice Alert 500.

With floatplanes and seaplanes, take off and landings involving glassy water can be especially dangerous due to the lack of visual surface features and observation points. This calm water provides a challenging environment even for experienced pilots to estimate the height from plane to water. When confusion occurs regarding height above the water, pilots often experience spatial disorientation with sensory conflicts, illusions, confusion and a lack of balance. Humans are designed to maintain spatial orientation on the ground. According to the FAA, five to 10 per cent of all general aviation accidents can be attributed to spatial disorientation, 90 per cent of which are fatal.

The SkyVoice Glassy Guide 400 and SkyVoice Alert 500 are inventions by Holy Micro! president Frank Kunnumpurath. Ten years ago he was a student pilot who struggled to determine the height to flare, which occurs between the final landing approach and touchdown of a fixed-wing aircraft.

“It took over 95 hours and many hundreds of landings before I could solo,” he says. Kunnumpurath is currently a private pilot with his instrument rating and more than 600 hours of flight time. He sees the SkyVoice products as digital co-pilots to improve safety in the 400 to 500 feet range of airspace near land or water where most aircraft accidents happen.

These struggles led to the development of SkyVoice Alert 500, a take off and landing height announcer with gear warning approved to install in all general aviation aircraft under the FAA's Non-Required Safety Enhancing Equipment (NORSEE) programme.

The company has now introduced a new FAA-approved product named the SkyVoice Glassy Guide 400, which uses radar instead of LiDAR. The company's HMR400 radar is designed for both water and ground. This technology is also suited for rain, snow, fog, dust and other harsh environments.

The SkyVoice Glassy Guide 400 provides height announcements and reminders from 1ft to 400ft. The four reminders from 400ft to 100ft can be used for specific checks at varying height intervals: 400 gear check, 300 checklist, 200 flaps and 100 speed as well as many other options. Following the 100ft announcement, the pilot will hear height announcements at 70, 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 to help ensure an efficient, smooth and safe water landing. The tool helps prevent the pilot from accidentally descending, turning or contacting the water. Pilots often stall the plane from too high or slam into the water too fast.

When taking off, the height announcements come in the reverse order as described in landing. As these announcements occur up to 400ft, the pilot can ensure a positive and consistent rate of climb. During take off from the glassy water, the water is difficult to reference after becoming airborne. Also, water pilots often worry about the retracting gear after take off from land and can use the reminders from 100ft to 400ft to check gear.

The SkyVoice Glassy Guide 400 brings an advanced technology solution to water take offs/landings and removes the reliance on an historical tool. One common technique for seaplane pilots is to determine the height with sticks and stones. Stones are thrown into the water to create small ripples, which translate to estimated heights above the water. This tool removes the height guessing and brings 21st century precision to an important issue when flying an aircraft near water.