High-Flying Digital Homes

At Dirk Leeward's home in the Leeward Air Ranch gated community in Ocala, Fla., a Sonos whole-house audio system sports a channel that's considerably different than Rhapsody music streaming. The source is an analog aircraft radio, which is plugged into the Sonos system's input port, digitized, and then made available throughout the house. It's one of the ways that digital technology for home and aviation cross paths in the estimated 400-plus residential airparks in the U.S.

Residential airparks are exactly what they sound like. If you can imagine an airplane parked in front of your home, you can imagine an airpark. They're largely concentrated in Florida and the Southwest (California is also home to about two dozen), and can vary from families sharing a simple landing strip to subdivisions with direct airport access. (And yes, you can imagine plane and cars sharing extra-wide roads.)

Leeward asserts that in his home, the Internet infuses both home automation and aviation technology. Software updates for both entertainment servers and aircraft GPS systems come through the same home PCs, for instance.

Leeward also uses that PC to monitor his aircraft's critical engine performance parameters, such as fuel flow rate and usage, temperatures and voltages, which a program graphs and stores for him. His Garmin model 496 with XM satellite weather monitoring capability travels back and forth between his aircraft and the house. Like many digital home owners can now do when they pull into the driveway, when Leeward lands, he can remotely open the doors to the hangar (which is attached to his home) from the aircraft as he taxies in from the runway...