The Hangar - 2014-01-05 (page 1 of 4)

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12:09 AM

not as much as it's costing me :-)

all put together it's probably worth another 8k on the hull - doing a lot of performance mods while everything is taken to bits

and the transponder is probably worth 1k (and gonna cost about 4-5k all installed & checked out) but no more laying in the co-pilots lap to turn the stupid knobs

(seriously I have the worlds biggest radio stack & some idiot avionics shop put the transponder all the way on the right side, behind the co-pilot's yoke -- WTF is up with THAT?)

lol, indeed... they wouldn't move it for you?

I'd have to re-certify the transponder

so I put it off until this year when the transponder & pitot-static checks are due :)

and since I'm moving it anyway I may as we'll replace it with one that will talk to the GPS (when I get around to THAT)...

ah I see... how do you remember what maintenance needs to be done?

Do you have a schedule or something in your manual?

I have only one consolation in all the time my 49-year-old plane spends in the shop: every time I call the A&P is bitching about yet another shiny new cirrus being in pieces because it needs something :-P

most of the maintenance requirements are in the FARs. I put the big ones (transponder, annual) on my calendar so I can bug the shops well in advance and they know to expect me :)

haha nice. on the maintenance thing: at some point, I really want to make some maintenance software

12:22 AM

some of them are things I just do - in my plane every 7 years you pull the fuel tanks out and check the wing spar for corrosion, replace all the flexible fuel hoses, etc. - you don't have to (I was the first guy in this plane's life who did it) but it's a good idea

I used to work on maintenance software for the shipping industry, before working for myself

And I'm a lot more interested in planes than ships

heh, Mike Busch beat you to it: savvymx.com

but he could use some competition :-)

yeah that's probably something like it

but more for airlines

to pull together all FARs/ADs/schedules/etc

They use eBIS for the work orders at the shop I use - they even tried having it generate logbook entries but oh god did the mechanics hate that :-)

the task cards question of mine made me think.... WTF

have you seen that question?

12:24 AM

oddly task cards are probably the best way to do it still

on paper?!

why

natural locking

what do you mean?

you pull the card everyone knows that phase is in progress

so you mean if the card's missing...

that can still be automated

12:25 AM

ideally you'd put the checklists on the cards too so they go back in the rack with a pass/fail/repaired on them

have a look at the video in the answer here: aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/69/…

exactly... paper everywhere

surely there's a better way

oh sure you could do the same thing electronically - at least one shop here does it electronically

you're just modeling the paper workflow

I mean, come on, that's British Airways... walls upon walls upon walls of task cards

yeah exactly

I know a guy who just retired from United - their stuff is all paper too

you see, I'm a programmer, but I love planes.... and I've worked on this kind of software before

12:27 AM

My paper is all backed up electronically - I'm working on sorting that system out a little better

I think it'd be a great way to learn more... and I think it's something that could be used

my AFM & all the planes logbooks got scanned the day I took delivery :)

I guess your AFM's a lot shorter than big jets' though?

I believe Boeing issue theirs on PDF

I've nicked a few PDFs off the internet like that

well mine is actually an AFM - the whole thing is maybe 30 pages

the task cards for a 737 was about 12k pages

12:30 AM

an actual POH for a modern PA28 is around 200 pages I think

wow! unbelievable

ah ok

the maintenance manual and parts catalog aren't big either, I have them on my ipad. <looks>

to be honest with you, a couple of my questions on the site have been so I can figure certain things out, in respect of information I'd need to be able to create some software like this

The AFM is 44 pages (including YEARS of weight & balance updates, and all the STCs). The maintenance & parts books are funky numbered and I can't coax out a page count from foreflight :-/

ADs are the hardest part IMHO - the FAA interface to search them BLOWS. Every shop has some kind of software that keeps track of it

exactly.... I've searched for hours on the internet for software like this. I can't really find any

I've found the odd piece of software, but they're not "complete", out-dated etc

So, that's my plan for this year... to gradually start writing some proper software to manage maintanence

based on ADs and everything else

a tall order...

but I'm very interested, and it definitely beats working on ship maintenance software

12:37 AM

bonus points if it's either web-based or iPrecious/android friendly

lol @ iPrecious!

iPad though is one thing that's definitely in the forefront of my mind

I can see it now... iPads on walls everywhere in maintenance shops, instead of bloody paper

if you have something the shop mechanics can use on the floor electronically (like say completing the inspection checklists for an annual/100hr/progressive check) it's a big win

lol... I can dream anyway ;)

exactly!

that's basically the idea

idk that iDevices are the right choice because capacitative touch screens are a bear when your hands are dirty /in gloves

true

12:39 AM

but everyone loves their apple iPreciouses

you can get capacitive stylus' though

those suck

they do!

no doubt you'll see plenty of maintenance questions on the site from me in 2014 ;)

you find out very quickly that iDevices have SHIT screen calibration and even worse resolution - I got one to use for writing in the foreflight scratchpad & I gave up after 1 flight and went back to paper & pencils

hmmm.. I'm sure some tablet would be good though

not necessarily Apple

12:42 AM

I can't even copy taxi directions and all I usually have to write there is "R1 D->G"

web based would be a big win - works on any tablet and the shops computer

hmmm.. didn't think the calibration was so poor!

AJAX it up a bit for extra fancy points

lol

well I'm definitely going to make something... it's just a case of when

atm I have a couple of big projects coming to an end

then I have a couple of tiny ones to do

after that I need to get over to India and setup a website shop over there

and after that I think I'm gonna start "Zeus"

yea iphone screens are pretty bad: phandroid.com/2013/10/25/iphone-display-inaccurate

wow!

I use a HTC One X... never noticed bad calibration on that either

(phone)

12:46 AM

my iPhone 4S isn't terrible

but like I said when you use a stylus you notice it's really bad

yeah

I was asked to write an Android app in a company I was at a couple of years ago for their truck drivers to use as a proof-of-delivery system for customers to sign

It was a lot cheaper buying a ton of cheap Android phones than the off-the-shelf ones

but the quality of signatures wasn't great with the styluses

it was essentially a glorified Paint app

it's not great on any stylus-signature system honestly

also true

credit card terminals have gotten better in the last 3 years though

!!weather kjfk

Aviation Chat Bot

12:50 AM

@DannyBeckett KJFK 042351Z 22011KT 10SM FEW220 BKN260 M03/M11 A3036 RMK AO2 SLP281 4/007 T10281106 11028 21056 56012 $

link works now ;)

"It's cold. The birds are frozen to death at the runway threshold."

hahahaha

!!weather kfrg

Aviation Chat Bot

@voretaq7 KFRG 042353Z 00000KT 10SM CLR M07/M12 A3034 RMK AO2 SLP276 T10721122 11039 21072 56015 $

12:51 AM

> "$" is an indication the sensor requires maintenance

seems to show up on most

because it's cold.

ah

if I do say......

!!weather kmia

Aviation Chat Bot

@voretaq7 KMIA 042353Z 07006KT 10SM FEW020 SCT150 OVC200 24/19 A3010 RMK AO2 SLP193 60000 T02390194 10244 20228 51008

!!weather EGGP

Aviation Chat Bot

12:52 AM

@DannyBeckett EGGP 050020Z 20008KT 9999 FEW030 04/02 Q0994

that's where I am ^

Miami's equipment isn't all screwed up

because its 24C

I'm roughly between JFK and FRG right now

nice and cold here too though

I don't suppose you feel like explaining how to interpret that METAR data?

12:53 AM

nonsense your temperatures are above freezing!

lol!

it was like 60 degrees here last week

!!convert 60 farenheit celcius

Aviation Chat Bot

@DannyBeckett Confuse converter with farenheit, receive error message

now.... freeze.

12:54 AM

....15C

about 15C you metric swine :)

:D

3 countries in the world use farenheit

I'll grab a snippet of code I saw in the bot to show you... pretty funny

we tried to go metric.

it didn't work.

//to help our dear American friends, also include fahrenheit
		if ( fahrenheitCountries[data.sys.country] ) {
			temps.fahrenheit = ( temps.temp * 9/5 - 459.67 ).maxDecimal( 4 );
			ret += '{fahrenheit}F ({celsius}C, {temp}K)'.supplant( temps );
		}
		//and to those of us with one less insanity
		else {
			ret += '{celsius}C ({temp}K)'.supplant( temps );
		}

Americans don't believe in sensible units

12:56 AM

(from the original !!weather command)

lol @ it didn't work

people have gotten big fines over here

for using imperial

...seriously

e.g. selling 1lb of potatoes

vs. 500g potatoes

....BUT we do share one thing in common: mph

if you can't convert reasonable Celsius temperatures to Fahrenheit in your head to within 5 degrees or so I worry that you shouldn't be flying an airplane... like seriously how do you do fuel calculations? those aren't much more complex....

heh, the airspeed indicator in my plane is marked in MPH. Freaks my instructor out

lol!

looks like you're going 500 kts?

:p

oh wait, I thought there was a big difference between kts/mph

apparently not

it's really not a big difference but on landing it always looks like I'm 5kts fast (which in the cherokee means you're floating)

1.21 miles to a knot IIRC

ah I see

or 1.12? I used to know this shit when I had a boat

1:00 AM

1.15

fuck it. I'm remarking the airspeed in furlongs per fortnight.

haha!

acres per month sounds good too

something important is 1.21:1 - I don't remember what :-p

that's gonna haunt you one day

:p

I know my tach hour meter ratio is 1.3:1 (give or take)

1:03 AM

I'm gonna go start translating these METAR readouts...

I'll keep the original command too

it was good talking to you :)

no doubt we'll talk again soon ;)

yup I'll probably be around again tonight at some point

sounds good!

!!weather ENSB

Aviation Chat Bot

@DannyBeckett ENSB 050050Z 13022KT 9999 DRSN FEW020 M13/M18 Q1015 RMK WIND 1400FT 11026KT

that is cold ;)

1:20 AM

!!weather BIRK

Aviation Chat Bot

@egid BIRK 050100Z 06018G28KT CAVOK 04/M04 Q0983

That's not bad at all

1:32 AM

you're a CFI? that's cool!

I was talking in the Super User room about chatbots and someone came to the testing room with a good idea for a command:

Groom Lake

You're probably looking for The Hangar; this is a separate roo...

> have it index a list of VOLMETs and links to it in websdr.org

What is a VOLMET?

and yeah, former full time CFI

Still active but very randomly

!!wiki volmet

Aviation Chat Bot

VOLMET, or meteorological information for aircraft in flight, is a worldwide network of radio stations that broadcast TAF, SIGMET and METAR reports on shortwave frequencies, and in some countries on VHF too. Reports are sent in upper sideband mode, using automated voice transmissions. Pilots on international routes, such as North Atlantic Tracks, use these transmissions to avoid storms and turbulence, and to determine which procedures to use for descent, approach, and landing. The VOLMET network divides the world into specific regions, and individual VOLMET stations in each region broad...

2:19 AM

!!will the TSA delay me today?

Aviation Chat Bot

@DannyBeckett Definitely

lmfao

!!is the weather good in Florida?

Aviation Chat Bot

@DannyBeckett Yes, absolutely

!!will we soon get clearance Clarence?

Aviation Chat Bot

@DannyBeckett I expect so

Anonymous

2:41 AM

@DannyBeckett by the way, do you get this joke?

Anonymous

user image

yeah lol.. talk in the testing room though. we want to keep it to aviation talk here

Bleh. Cold.

Double Bleh. Gentoo.

Anonymous

@DannyBeckett damn i chose the wrong room... lol anyway

Anonymous

@voretaq7 by the way, are you a mod here too?

2:47 AM

@PatoSáinz I'm a mod on SF, so I have modlike powers on chat.stackexchange.com

(but not chat.stackoverflow.com, which is "special")

Anonymous

special children... i know

Anonymous

@voretaq7 you mean, by having mod on any in the Triforce sites... you get them in the smaller ones?

no, chat moderation is.... well I'll be polite and say "interesting"

you see the one the other day from the bridge?

if you're a mod on any Stack Exchange site and you associate your chat account with that site you get moderator powers on chat (all rooms)

2:48 AM

the one with the suggested video on YouTube... lol

and that includes seeing all of the Bridge flags, yes. But I got to see those long before I became a mod 'cuz I was a 10K users on SF.

If you have 10k total network rep you also see the flags I think

yeah that

they've gotten better in The Bridge though. They're no longer the flagging problem children raising a dozen a day. They've learned to put on their internet pants and use the [IGNORE USER] button.

(or to just shut up and ignore people they disagree with. Either way, I'm happy.)

Anonymous

@DannyBeckett please provide link

I will do, but in the other room

Anonymous

2:52 AM

also, oh yea now i remember, for example, Mike Pennington coming to The Comms Room... damn the chat mod system is sorta broken

So apparently the good people of Santa Monica are trying to shut down their airport {now,again,still}.

I really don't understand when people move next to something loud (like an airport, or train tracks) and then scream and cry and carry on trying to get it shut down.

exactly....

Anonymous

@voretaq7 honestly, how many dramas and flags come from The Bridge in a per-month basis...

I mean it's not like they built the airport yesterday. Did you not know it was there? Did you somehow MISS the aircraft flying around when you went to look at the house?

@PatoSáinz not many anymore. But they were such a problem a long time ago that everyone is hypersensitive now. Human nature.

e.g. "Someone crashed planes into buildings. WE NEED THE TSA TO KEEP US SAFE FROM SOMEONE BRINGING A THUMB TACK ON AN AIRLINER FOREVER AND ALWAYS!"

Anonymous

@voretaq7 care to describe any, i'm curious

2:56 AM

lol @voretaq7

@PatoSáinz GnomeSlice used to be so universally disliked in there that literally anything he said would get flagged. Like he could say "Hey guys, what's up" and someone would flag it as offensive. It got to the point where even I broke the "don't stomp on another site's chat" rule and went in there to yell at them to stop being annoying.

Anonymous

@voretaq7 (how long ago?) also, and a good job you did, if it bothers people that don't have anything to do with the bridge, then you are in all your right to tell them to cut their shit

lmao

where the hell is the bridge?

can't find it on the list

@PatoSáinz like a year or two

they've been really good over there - I can't remember the last flag-fest that wasn't actually legit

@DannyBeckett The Bridge is the chatroom for Arqade

ahh

3:00 AM

and as is wont to happen in the gaming community, there was a drama hurricane

actually I'm really pleased with Information Security - I would expect a chat room full of security people to quickly devolve into a disaster of people dissing each other and making threats, but they keep their house in good order.

(arguably better order than we keep The Comms Room in :)

Reading about KSMO reminds me that we're getting a new state senator whose district includes the airport I fly out of. I suppose I'm going to have to pester another elected official now. This last one was actually USEFUL too :-/

@voretaq7 well, part of the problem is the real estate industry often does sheisty things to sell homes

there's a ton of drama going on about naval air station whidbey increasing operations of the EF-18G Growlers

@egid like only showing homes near a busy training airport on low-IFR days? :)

yeah

the Whidbey NAS issue is that the navy had a low period of usage during the downturn

when a ton of homes suddenly leapt onto the market

i read a comment from somebody which was pretty priceless, imo... "if you're seeing ocean-view property for $250,000, you better start asking questions."

but most buyers just look for deals

Airport owners sometimes do stupid things too

goo.gl/maps/NFjoc

then get mad about ${publicWork}

3:13 AM

That shopping mall west of 1/19 used to be tiedowns.
Then again the grassy area between 1 & 32 used to be houses so.....

try this one: google.com/maps/…

count the schools!

@egid We have a perfectly good train line here on long island that, by executive order of the state governor, is only allowed to be used by the circus. Because it runs through Garden City (they're rich) & even though the railroad has been there since the 1800s they screamed and cried to close it down.

@egid actually I've always thought schools & airports are a natural combination

I like Kingston-Ulster though. What idiot thought THAT would be a good spot for a housing development? I hope all the people who bought houses there are local pilots.

Anonymous

@voretaq7 i can't think of any more hilarious truth than that, gg

Incidentally @BretCopeland if you ever want a semi-boring cross-country hop, Kingston-Ulster (20N). There's nothing up there except cheap avgas, but both approaches are fun.

boring boring, try North Dakota!

3:26 AM

@egid It's winter. I don't fly, drive, walk, or otherwise travel to anywhere with "North" in the name :-)

its cold enough here in New York!

i got all my advanced ratings at UND. winter flying is fun/interesting/terrifying

depending on when and where you go

winter driving, on the other hand, is always terrifying

@egid only because of the other people

that's true until you're somewhere completely desolate

I vastly prefer aviation to driving. Even on the ground taxiing around I can predict what other pilots are going to do. Driving? Ain't no predicting what those nutcases are gonna do!

then it's terrifying because there are no other people.

3:29 AM

@egid Nobody to skid, spin, and smash into me? I'm good.

Just me and the plow line.

see, that sounds like new york talking

you folks got you some money

plow line! you make me laugh!

I have 5 years of BMWCCA autocrosses under my belt, and I've taken my car to - and past - its limits on a skid pad.

:)

Suburban Soccer Momma in her $80,000 Luxury SUV thinks "all wheel drive" means "all wheel stop", has no idea where "the limit" is, and drives like the gas pedal is an on/off switch.

seriously, we've had ONE snow storm this winter. I saw two wrecks so far. Both SUVs, both backwards into the guard rail.

@egid plow lines around here are 3 plows. Left-Center, Center-right, and shoulder. People still try to drive around them.

also I just realized you can sort-of see my plane in that satellite shot of Republic

hah

you can definitely see mine, tiny as it is

3:36 AM

...and both of our EMAS beds!

that's gotta be a pretty recent satellite shot.

they just finished the R32 overrun area this fall

which of these is normally used?

> Pressure (altimeter): 30.35 inches Hg (1027.9 mb)

30.35" Hg or 1,028 mb?

@DannyBeckett depends on where you are :)

ah ok

thx

in the US altimeter settings are always read in inches of mercury, I think most of Europe uses milibars

(again, we tried to go metric. It didn't work :-P)

ah interesting, thanks

3:42 AM

maps.google.com/…

y'all get addresses? :)

heh, technically

the airport named its roads, and then google mapped them

Swanky!

goo.gl/maps/IUuW7 - you can see the orange stripe from the current (hideous) paint job.

I actually like the scheme - but oh god, the colors :(

haha

60s and 70s aircraft paint jobs were amazing

user image

3:46 AM

ours is pretty subdued but might not be original

OH GOD, THE COLORS :(

an option for American AA-1s in the early years was camouflage.

from the factory.

this is a lacquer repaint from the early 1970s. Not pictured: Great big section of paint missing on the stabilator. Not visible: The fact that whoever did this painted right over the "CHEROKEE 180" decals on the cowling (seriously?!)

rattlecan? :)

user image

this is an original paint scheme

not aftermarket

naw it was disassembled and compounded properly - but it's lacquer over the factory lacquer and it's like 40 years old

3:48 AM

tail flash maybe

Still looks pretty good when you're on the other side of the ramp though :)

I'm #2 in line at the paint shop finally so weather and scheduling gods permitting she goes in to be painted this month

nice

hah somebody snapped our photo at KOSH this year

(paint and wingtips, tailcone, dorsal fairing, LED beacon, probably some interior work while Ed has her in pieces.... I'm not going to like this bill am I?)

@egid Are those the RMD wingtips with the embedded lights?

they're stock

so i have no idea

really? The AA1 came with embedded lights from the factory? slick!

just keep showing off with your bonded aluminum no-rivet wings and your fancy drag-reducing lights.... :P

3:51 AM

yep. ldg in nose, rec in wingtips.

ours has strobes and no beacon, but that's an aftermarket setup i think

The AA5 I was looking at had solid tips

yeah, i'm not sure how that worked

I have a genuine Grimes rotating beacon on my tail. I despise it.

Mostly because it draws like 7-8 amps when I turn the stupid thing on.

Hey all.

actually, ours might be aftermarket too

i take that back

3:52 AM

IT WILL BE REPLACED

when I'm done the only light bulbs left will be the wingtip lights (and a belly strobe). I haven't decided whose LEDs I want to put in the wingtips yet.

never mind, enough of the photos on the internet show faired in strobes

we have a whelen PAR36 (?) landing light

it is fucking great

Mostly I'm not sure if I want to keep the belly strobe or just to tip strobes.

we were going through halogens like every 25 hours

@egid yeah I have one in my box for "when the stupid light bulb burns out"

the nose mount is pretty wobbly

3:55 AM

The 2 halogens I put in lasted about 15 hours each. I put this one in and bought the Whelen figuring "In another 15 hours I'll just change it forever" and the damn thing has lasted.... I think we're going on 35+ hours now

Which Whelen LED did you go with - the "Landing or the "Taxi" version?

@chatty Ohai

How's everyone doing tonight?

the landing version

i taxi dark

@chatty I'm quietly hoping the warm weather arrives and thaws my plane out for me so I don't have to shovel :P

nav, and i blip the landing if i need to see

@egid I... can't do that at Republic :-)

Our airport lighting is kinda shit

3:57 AM

that's how i was taught, it was SOP at the university

like the ramps have NONE :)

hah

night vision

;P

only if there's a moon

:P

@voretaq7 Yeah. It's 'warmed up' up here since the deep freeze last week. Now only 10°C below zero...

also people are REALLY BAD about wearing a lamp/glo-stick at night, I yelled at the fueling guy about it once because he wasn't even wearing a vest

@chatty ...why do you people live in that frozen wilderness again? )

3:59 AM

@voretaq7 The health care... :D

@chatty We have GREAT healthcare! Now will that be Visa, MasterCard, or should we just remove your kidney while we're in there?

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Jan '145

The Hangar

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