Back in 2015 a student pilot was preparing for his PPL Skills Test. Needless to say he was very nervous about the exam. Especially about the navigation part when you are required to divert from your pre-planned route. And can you blame him? It is frustrating enough to fly an aeroplane with an examiner sat next to you. On the top of that being rubbish at doing maths in your head does not help at all.
What it did help, was to put marks on the pencil every 5 nautical miles and pre-calculate the flight times at different speeds on a separate piece of paper.
It worked! He passed the Skills Test. Then, a lightbulb moment. Can this piece of paper be wrapped around the barrel of a pen? You use one anyways when flying, why not be able to use it as a navigation aid too?
This marked the beginning of the “4P Pen” Project on KICKSTARTER. Yes, we know that “4P Pen” is a dull name, but you got to give him that he was not the brightest. After all he couldn’t tell you how long will take him to fly 23 miles at 110 knots… The name AVRUL comes from Aviation Ruler. It was given by the Legend and gentleman Captain Tom Rule. Many thanks Sir!
From struggles in maths, pencil and piece of paper, the AVRUL idea became reality thanks to the great help from many fellow pilots around the world who chipped in to fund the project on Kickstarter.
