Bose A20 Pirep

For headsets I've got two Zulu 1's and one Bose X as well as a QT Halo and then a mish mash of non-ANR sets.  I've had LightSpeed Zulu's for a long time and they are a good headset, and until now were what I prefered to wear.  The Bose X is pretty good, but I have big ears and the cups wouldn't quite fit over them.  The QT Halo is okay in a pinch and the price is right, but I just don't like the in-the-ear headsets and it's nowhere near as good at drowning out the low pitch noise.  So when I had a full ship, the kids would take the Zulu's and my wife would wear the BoseX, and I'd wear the QT Halo.  I finally decided I can't handle the in the ear thing anymore and I'd get a new set, and so I bought the new Bose the A20.

This is the hands down the best and most quiet headset I've ever worn, and it fits over my ears.  Hurray!

Highly recommended.  It's so ridiculously quiet you almost can't hear the engines.  It drowns out nearly all the low frequency vibrations and so you just hear a light higher pitch rumble and feel the smooth vibrations of the big bore Continentals.  The sound coming from the XM sounds amazing too, it's like a concert hall.  I'm going to sell all my other headsets and get 3 more of these suckers.  They're pricey but worth it.

Buzz Kill

In all my free time, haha, I help run a local flying club.  I finally convinced the other club managers that we should update the airplanes with modern WAAS gps units, so we did.  I coordinated the install with Executive Autopilots up at KSAC.  Overall a great experience and a solid shop I highly recommend for local avionics work.  Here is how the installs turned out:

Our venerable 172 gets a GTN 650

Our 182RG gets a GTN 750

Sweet, now I'll have good solid IFR backup for when my plane goes to the paint shop... I sent my slot reservation deposit off to Don Copeland, but he's super busy so it's unlikely he'll be able to get to it until Octoberish.  Must have patience for the master!

While I was up at Executive Autopilots I asked Dan the owner about a problem with my XM that's been bugging me for some time.  I hear an constant background buzz when the music goes soft.  He said I probably needed to install a noise isolator between the audio panel and the GDL69A.  It was only a $30 part so I decided to go for it.

It gets installed in the radome

Just that little black box right there smack in the middle of the photo above the wire bundle.

I still hear it ever so slightly, but it's definitely improved.  No one would notice unless they had good hearing and you asked them to listen for it in the lull between songs.

Momentary ice not so momentary

On today's flight I started picking up light to moderate rime ice pretty quickly, I hit momentary on the windshield ice to get her a squirt to get it clear, but when I released the switch it kept streaming out. Doh, no matter where I put the switch it wouldn't stop and I used up all my fluid in a matter of a few minutes. Luckily I climbed 2k feet and got on top and eventually it sublimated away, but obviously something I need to get fixed! 

Oh well, another squawk to deal with!  

My flying club finally decided to do some avionics work on our Cessna's so I flew our 172 up to Sac to get that done.  It had been some time since I've flown a 172, so despite my 95 kt landing speed and endless float, not to mention the sunrise launch, I had some fun with it...

While I was there I talked to the shop about updating the GTN's in my Baron.  When we went to pickup the plane, I went ahead and had them do the software update.  The difference is amazing, it's like the units have been updated with a faster processor, everything is more snappy.  The frequency buttons change quicker, and the backfill render is at least 2x faster.  More importantly, I now get geo referenced charts, woot!

Cool, just in time for a trip.  Here is one of my copilots

Some beautiful weather lately, at least from the air

Skiing in 40 minutes

Last weekend I did the first family ski trip in the Baron.  This was a good test because I despise long car rides, and with Friday afternoon traffic a weekend trip to Tahoe from the SF Bay Area is most definitely a long car ride.  Destination was Truckee airport (KTRK) which is an excellent and well equipped airport with runways in perfect condition.  If you're going to rent a car, Hertz is right on the field across the parking lot outside the terminal building.  The problem is the office there closes at 5pm on Fridays.  Getting there would be a test of my door to door time because I had meetings until about 2pm in the city.  Long story short, we left for the airport at 3pm and had the rental car by 4:45.  Not bad and we had a lovely flight.  Total inflight time was only 40 minutes.  We had an excellent Italian dinner in the town of Truckee (Pianeta) as well as a little shopping and made our way to the house we rented with friends who arrived looking quite road weary.  Airplanes rule!

Drove the rental car right up to the plane and we were loaded in less than 10 minutes.  The overnight fee is $10 / night. 

Dialed in again

So here was the problem with the tach

After a lot of digging turns out it was the left tach generator.  Apparently it was filled with dust or something, weird!  Oh well, turned out to be a $150 item, and while she was in the boys at TriValley aviation (MxExpress) finally fixed the left alternator.  I filled up with cheap(er) gas at LVK ($5.26) and flew down to Harris Ranch and had a yummy steak sando with my buddy and Bonanza owner Tim.

Good times, and the plane is back in her home snug as a bug!

On the paint front, I'm actively talking with Don Copeland about this scheme...

I'm going to pull the trigger any moment, I just can't decide when to take the 6 weeks of downtime...

Gremlins

I had the guys at TriValley Aviation (formerly maintenance express) go through the plane and they couldn't find anything wrong with the alternator or the tach.  Of course I picked up the plane, started up and everything looked fine... I took off and 5 minutes into my flight the alternator light came on and on takeoff the left tach was bouncing.  Grrr... frustrated that I now need to bring the plane back, I proceeded on home.  A few days later I setup to bring it back, and to my delight all my squawks go off on the short flight to LVK, the left alternator light comes on, the tach fluctuates on takeoff, and the left fuel gauge drops to zero.  Of course I land, go to the shop, pickup the tech and go for a demo flight where I'm certain to show him all of this and then... nothing.  nada, zilp, zilch, zero.  Nothing wrong!  the alternator light never comes one, the tach never fluctuates at all, and the left fuel gauge is rock solid.  WTF, we flew for 40 minutes, a multiple mixture and power settings and everything ran PERFECT.  Murphy's law... I have about six hours of flying scheduled for this weekend so we shall see...

squawk free... not so fast!

I just thinking how great it is now that I've got my plane totally dialed in with new engines, fixed everything imaginable, new avionics stack and nice interior... I'd actually gone nearly 50 hours with no squawks.  Then I blast off and fly out of a little rain system and the tach fills up with mist.  hmmm, no biggy but annoying!

Oh well, I keep trucking on and then the left fuel gauge does this...

Hmmm... I just filled it up.  I look out the window and everything is secure, and the engine is running just fine... fuel sender must have gone bad.  Grrr... oh well.  Fly on a bit longer and...

Bad photo but yes that's the alternator warning light, the left alternator gone.  Jeez... that's not good.  Luckily I have two alternators so not the bigger deal it would be in a single, but still annoying and even more so since this alternator has less than 200 hours on it and is a replacement for the one that failed with less than 100 hours on it.  How can these alternators cost so much and suck so badly?  I don't like flying instruments with stuff this this inop, luckily I was on top of the cloud layer, just barely.

It started to break up over the LA area, so I canceled IFR and circled down through a hole and landed uneventfully.  Got a list of squawks to attend to now and an oil change due.  I also bought a Davtron clock for the yoke and am looking to get it leather wrapped.  When done it will look like this: