Seems lilke you could no longer spot a pilot by the lenght of their left (or right) arm... The big, honkin' watch syndrome that lead to these elongated appendages seems to have fallen out of favor but never fear. You can quite often still spot your fellow aero-addicts by the computers they carry around.

Seems that pilots are more inclined to using Tablet PCs than most folks. Today wasn't the first, and probably won't be the last, time that I've been approached by someone interested and knowledgable about Tablets only to find out they were also a pilot. While trying to squeeze out some work before work at the local Starbucks, a gentleman named Albert came up to chat with me when he saw me banging away on my HP TC1100 tablet.

Turns out he is a Citation pilot flying out of CRQ as a company pilot. He is a Fujitsu guy but as any good aviator would, he is looking for the Next Big Thing in little computers. His primary use is as an EFB, coupled with a Bluetooth printer that allows him to print out approach plates as necessary. Pity he doesn't have a TAA like our Cirrus<G>. Turns out this high flying jet still has "steam" gauges for much of the panel. Well, sounds like the company he flies for is planning on stepping up to something with more range to make trips to the owner's home in Hawaii easier. Life is rough but I can certainly imagine making a 5 1/2 hour commute with nothing to look at but whitecaps might get boring after a while...

Who am I kidding? Of course I would jump at the chance to fly for a living like this!