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Showing posts from 2015

How to build a complete cockpit audio recording solution for $43

Update , I Just found a $38 solution that does the same thing! Look here . Building it from scratch There are $100 kits on aircraft spruce, but you can build your own cheaper using parts off amazon. This solution below either plugs into an unused headphone jack or splices into an in-use headphone jack. Should be obvious what i"m doing here. This will let you record to an IPhone (3.5mm) or into a GoPro. ems shipped from  Amazon.com Hosa Cable CMS105 1/8 inch TRS to 1/4 Inch TRS Adapter Cable - 5 Foot $5.20  Sold by: Amazon.com LLC Quantity:  2  Change quantity of Hosa Cable CMS105 1/8 inch TRS to 1/4 Inch TRS Adapter Cable - 5 Foot from 2 Add a gift receipt and see other gift options Hosa YPP118 1/4 TRS To Dual 1/4 TRS Female Y Cable $6.05  Sold by: Amazon.com LLC Quantity:  1  Change quantity of Hosa YPP118 1/4 TRS To Dual 1/4 TRS Female Y Cable from 1 Add a gift ...

20,000 mile humanitarian flight in SR22, circumnavigating South America

On November 14th, a sole SR22 will set out on extraordinary 20,000 mile journey through 18 countries to ignite awareness for Multiple Sclerosis across the Americas with focus on Latin America. Our journey will be documented on our facebook page, twitter and instagram, see details about plane and pilots and journey at http:// www.flyms.org . The organization is Fly For MS, an american 501(c)3. USA NEW YORK CITY USA MIAMI USA PUERTO RICO USA PUERTO RICO DOMINICAN REPUBLIC SANTA DOMINGO COLOMBIA CARTAGENA COLOMBIA SANTA MARIA COLOMBIA MEDELLIN COLOMBIA BOGOTA COLOMBIA CALI ECUADOR QUITO ECUADOR GUAYAQUIL PERU MANCORA/Chiclayo PERU LIMA PERU CUSCO PERU SANTA ROSA CHILE ANTOFAGASTA CHILE SANTIAGO ARGENTINA BUENOS AIRES URUGUAY MONTEVIDEO PARAGUAY ASUNCION BRAZIL FOZ DO IGUACU BRAZIL FLORIANAPOLIS BRAZIL SAO PAOLO BRAZIL RIO BRAZIL PIRASSUNUNGA BRAZIL TRANCOSO BRAZIL FERNANDO DE NORONHA BRAZIL FORTALEZA PANAMA PANAMA CITY COSTA RICA SAN JOSE HONDURAS SAN PEDRO SULA GUATEMALA GUATEMALA CITY...

2 asteroids near miss on Halloween 2015!

Not one, but TWO asteroids will rip past the Earth on Halloween, one at mere 1-lunar distance. Next time you stand outside and admire the beauty of the night sky - try this for an exercise. Realize, I mean truly realize and try to ACCEPT the sheer HORROR that there is _nothing_ between you, and yes - THE FRICKEN UNIVERSE. No magic force field, no glass dome. If you can comprehend this reality, the terror of this paralyzingly simple Truth, staring back at you, you will not b e able to sleep that night. You will lie in bed, paralyzed with fear thinking about how fragile and temporary our existence is. When a (relatively small) 10km Chicxulub rock smacked into Yucatan, Mexico 65m years ago, 80% of species on the planet were eliminated instantly, and the ones that survived suffered tremendously on a scorched planet (global firestorm, skies black with smoke) for 1000 years before atmosphere was restored to normal. 12 generations being born and dying without a sun or fresh air. ...

Super rapid technique to become fluent in a new language

Here's my dilemma: I need to learn fluent Spanish really fast, in a month. I'm going to be chief pilot on an 18 country humanitarian flight through Latin America and none of us speak Spanish. Not yet. I've been going through various Spanish courses, trial and error to figure out most effective way to learn. There is big money behind learning languages, so of course there is a lot of crap out there. I finally came across what I believe is the fastest most effective technique. 2 categories of language instructions Course based (sequential, building blocks, repeat previous material in new block) Somewhat random (throw nouns and verbs and phrases in, no real course outline) (1) is much harder to implement so lots of the online stuff is (2). Avoid (2) at all costs, human brain does not learn well without a sequential course. 2 types of course based products The ones people like  The ones that are actually effective in teaching This may seem obvious, but...

FACEBOOK GROUPS ARE BROKEN, DO NOT USE THEM FOR YOUR COMPANY OR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION

For over a year now I've been unable to create a facebook page or join the facebook page of my OWN NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION. When I try to create a page, I get the error "You have been temporarily blocked from performing this action." I have ever only created one other Page in my 10 years of an avid facebook user, and have never been blocked for nay kind of spam. My NPO page for flymslatam.org  is here . When the owner tries to add me as admin, I get this error: This is not effecting just me, but everyone in our NPO for Multiple Sclerosis. I pushed for using Facebook as our primary blog, I regret this decision now. I have reported this problem to facebook countless times, including directly emailing engineer friends who work at Facebook with details on how to reproduce the problem and screenshots, but whoever at Facebook is in charge of Pages does not seem to care about these bug reports. So my warning to you: DO NOT USE FACEBOOK PAGES, find some altern...

What the FAA doesn't teach about flying thunderstorms

I want to understand thunderstorms better. I stared learning about limitations of storm scopes which led me to more insights. Before  you attempt to fly close to, or through a front, learn about your front. Some fronts you can safely fly through, some you cannot. Thunder cheat sheet Preflight Tools Radar - locate active fronts, size, and direction of movement Sigmets - If your front is in a convective sigmet, you probably cannot fly through it. Airmets you generally can. Lightning - Look at  lightningmaps.org  to see how much "in past hour" and 'current" lightning there is. If there are no strikes or few strikes, even if you see heavy or severe precip, it's just lots of water, not much turbulence, likely not a powerful storm. Infrared Satellite  -  wunderground.com  see how cold the reflection is. If temperature is -70, it's a very vertical storm, probably cannot fly through it. NOAA soundings - http://rucsoundings.noaa.gov/  to le...

How to brief an instrument approach plate

I brief the approach in the order I will fly it. First the “check and forget” items Avionics setup Next I highlight important bits on the plate Next look at the step-down fixes Study final segment and runway “sight picture”, determine VDP Review airplane configurations needed One-time verify and forget (2 items) Verify Plate accuracy (airport, runway, published date) Verify minimums and notes (can you even fly it?) Avionics Setup (instrument panel flow clockwise) Correct altimeter settings on all altimeters Check all Garmin waypoints agree with plate Tower frequency & navaid frequency Approach course Set Highlight high alert items on plate (foreflight has highlighter built in) (4 items) Final approach course on plate MAP on diagram First segment of Missed Approach procedure (ie: climbing right to 3000') MDA/DH of category (B for SR22) *Localizer / navaid frequency on plate (*ILS ONLY) Brief the flight i...

Why a non precision approach is the most dangerous IFR flight segment

I believe non-precision approaches are the most difficult and dangerous segment of a flight, especially at night to an untowered airport with a short runway.  I will talk about A/P (autopilot) coupled approaches only here, we already know how to hand fly them.   For example look at   KHTO RNAV 10 . The final segment is just 2.4nm from threshold and starts 805' agl. If weather is to minimums as is frequent (evening ocean haze) you must dive aggressively at LAZYE to the MDA or you quickly find yourself looking straight down at runway lights, still 500' agl. Hand-flying vs autopilot coupled non-precision approaches I believe autopilot coupled approaches are more difficult than hand flown approaches because you should not start using automation until you've mastered hand flying. For this reason, they are also more professional and safer if done correctly . And for the same reason, they can be extremely dangerous if used by inexperienced pilot as a crutch . Only use a...

How to turn on your AC with your IPhone for $20

For $20 you can turn on your air conditioner from your IPhone on the way home so the apartment is ice cold by the time you open the door. Order the ORVIBO WIFI SOCKET from amazon ( amazon ink ) Install the WiWo App on your IPhone (IPhone or android) ( install link ) Plug the wifi socket into the wall Hit the button on the front until you get blue light Connect to "WiWo" WIFI network with your IPhone Open the WiWo app and go into AP config mode, it will find your wifi network, and you tell it the password. Disconnect your IPhone from wifi. Now you can control the wifi socket from your IPhone from anywhere. I made this video. This is better than magic. This is better than telepathy. This is REMOTE AIR CONDITIONING.

How to get free prorated rent with a math rounding error

Hypothetical example, you are moving in July 9th. Monthly rent is $5000. What's wrong with this math? Tenant days are July 9 to 31. 31-9 = 22, so 22 days. $5000 * (22/31) = $ 3548 This is wrong. Proof if you move in on the 1st the math would show 30/31 days. It's actually 31/31 days. if you move 31st the math would show 0 days. really, it's still 1 day remaining or 1/31. The correct formula is to offset the day by -1 first. You're counting 0..30 instead of 1..31. monthly_rent * ((day_of_month - 1) / days_in_month) So now it's: 8 to 31, 23 days $5000 * (23/31) = $ 3710 You can save $162 or 1/31 of the monthly rent if your landlord can't do math. I looked at various websites on prorated rent calculation they all do it like this, totally incorrectly. i couldn't find one that does it correctly. Why does this work? July 1st is the " first day of the month ". For rent calculations we want to ask " h...