Runner lights!

When Tim did my interior I had him add a little extra splurge and install LED runner lights.  He installed them along the base runner at the top of the carpet, but didn't hook them up because they don't really do electrical stuff.  I waited until the annual and had Chris and the guys at TriValley aviation LVK hook up the wiring and install a runner lights switch in my panel.  The result is really awesome, the night look now is like a brand new BMW.

Happy new year!

2015 was my best aviation year yet.  Here is my year summary from Pilotica.

Yowza, 474 hours!  Happy new year!

Simulators everywhere

The flight school I teach at just bought an Allsim 200MCC which is one of those monster simulators with the full wrap around 120 degree field of view projection screen in an almost real cockpit.  As a sim geek I'm excited to start teaching in it, especially for IFR.  Here is what it looks like:

The panel is configurable but will most likely be set up like a 172.

I've also been inspired to improve my home sim.  I've been learning more about electronics and how to interface custom components with the computer through Arduino micro controllers.  I bought a custom GNS 530 that was built this way and I also ordered some components to start playing with.  My goal is to eventually have a totally custom Baron panel with mostly real hardware instead of the Saitek stuff which is plug and play but feels like a toy.  Here is my panel as of now...

A little bit haphazard but it's a work in progress.  

The non-copeland masterpiece

Today I few my friend Alex down to Arizona to pickup his A36 which has been down for some time for new paint.  He didn't go with Don Copeland, but Master Aircraft Service at Wickenburg did a mighty fine job.  We were scheduled to leave this morning but on Friday up at Sacramento I hopped in my Baron and found a vacuum gauge reading zero and my backup AI toppled.  Doh... double vacuum pump failure?  Actually it would seem one of them failed some time ago but I just didn't notice the little plastic ball popped out on the gauge.  Then the second one failed and I only noticed then... so much for twin redundancy.  duh.  Since we had some weather the last few days I preferred to have working pumps because they drive the backup AI, the boots and the Autopilot which works off of the backup AI.. so we hopped up to JetExe and had them fit the new pumps before setting off.

They were new when I put the engines on in 2011, but I guess these dry pumps only last about 500 hours.   No wonder everyone is moving to solid state.  I wouldn't want to depend on one of these $800 suckers as my only instrument source.  No way.  When the veins inside seize up there is a little nylon grommet that breaks free and so it doesn't seize up the accessory case on the engine.

So we got a late start getting the new pumps installed but made it down in about 3 hrs, with 40 kt tailwinds and mostly VMC conditions climbing to 12k to get on top.  It was cold and howling wind at Wickenburg but they had Subway sandwiches for us and a beautiful plane waiting.

Similar scheme to mine, I love the dark top with white bottom look.  Then we set off in our respective chariots towards the waning evening sun and a moonless nighttime return flight, mission successful!

Stratux!

I've always been a bit of a hardware geek.  I've got Arduino's sitting around and more half finished technical projects than I care to admit.  When I saw that someone had basically hacked together a DIY portable ADS-B receiver I figured it was probably a kludgey diversion, wouldn't work well and would take eons to setup and get going.  Man was I wrong!  I finally succumbed to temptation and bought the shopping list from this Reddit thread:

After no more than 10 minutes of unpackaging an Amazon.com box and snapping together the parts I had an ADS-B receiver on my counter.  A simple upload of the Stratux OS took about 3 minutes, and boom she was alive.

This morning I took up the Baron into 30 kt headwinds and tried her out.  To my amazement, my iPad connected to the Statux right away, picked up 2 ADS-B towers, and started uplinking traffic and weather!  All for $113.  Similar devices cost 600-1500 and this one works perfectly.

I've got traffic and weather in the Baron already, and truth be told the ADS-B traffic is nowhere near as good as my GTS-800 active traffic radar system, and the weather isn't as good as XM from my GDL-69A, but hey this was a hundred bucks.  Also I don't have traffic or weather in my Citabria and now I do!

Here you can see plenty of targets, but until everyone is equipped with ADS-B out it's a limited subset of the actual traffic.  Weather came in great and I was able to get nexrad radar returns and airport weather no problem as well as winds aloft.  Pretty stoked on this little gem, now I just need to 3D print a case for it.

Flight training

Looks like I made the newsletter for TakeFlight San Diego.

I'm famous!  haha...  lately I've been instructing a lot.  I currently have 3 private students and 2 sport pilot students and also doing flight reviews and aircraft checkouts, IPC's etc.  Hey wait a sec, this is starting to sound like a job, which I was trying to avoid.  Hmmm...  it's good fun though.  I get paid to fly around all day and show people how to fly airplanes!

Flying Samaritans

After some gentle prodding from Todd Makayama and Doug Wirzberger, last weekend I flew down to Mexico with the Flying Samaritans.  Since it was my first trip with the "Flying Sams", Doug rode with me and helped show me the ropes.  The mission was to pickup dentists Charlie and his wife Mary at KRHV, head south and clear Mexican customs at Mexicali, then fly another hour south into Baja to a little ag-worker town called Los Pinos.  This place would be difficult to get to by any other means other than light aircraft, but the strip is paved and about 4,000 ft long so it's quite an easy flight.  Here we are in Mexicali.

The Baron made quick and comfortable work of the flight.  Mexicali officials were friendly but we think it's bureaucratic here, I had 35 pages of print outs just for the weekend trip to Mexico!

Fortunately the Flying Sams have a good website that generates all the forms you need to clear customs efficiently.  I had all the forms printed and in a little folder, and Doug helped me through the process of knowing which form to hand to which official.

The town is essentially rows and rows of greenhouses and tomato orchards nestled along the gorgeous beaches of the pacific California peninsula.

But the real mission is a humanitarian one.  The doctors and dentists we brought down provide critical medical and dental services to a very poor community with few if any other options for healthcare.  The next day we got to work.  

The doctors and dentists were amazing to watch.  Sadly most of the dental work were tooth extractions.  It's rare for a mother to breastfeed...  either for lack of education or perhaps because the mother is working in the fields all day.  Often also the kids are abandoned and raised by grandparents.  Since the local people cannot afford formula or breast pumps, the kids end up drinking sugary water as a substitute and rotting out their teeth.  It was really inspiring to see such a dedicated group of doctors and dentists helping out, and the people themselves were so sweet and friendly and thankful.  The Flying Sams organization also gave out scholarships for school for the kids, clothing and sunglasses.  Inspiring is the only word I can use to describe it.

Of course I have no medical skills whatsoever, but I learned to operate the eye refractor machine and was giving out eye exams and having a blast practicing my kindergarten level Spanish.  I really need to practice more, and this is a great way to do it.

I had a really good time and it felt great to contribute.  It was only a 4 hour flight but to a different world.  We don't think twice about spending $100 on dinner but it puts things in perspective when that same money pays for a child to go to school for a year.  It was also just a great group of people to hang out with for a weekend.  A finer group of generous, caring, good humored, fun people you will not find anywhere.  I'll definitely be back.