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sfGnome

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Everything posted by sfGnome

  1. sfGnome
    O.K., that's brilliant. I'd like to pretend that was what I meant all along, but that would involve bending the truth well past the elastic limit!
  2. sfGnome
    My brother used to have a farm at Crookwell. He was mustering sheep one day when an F111 came over the ridge, very low and very fast. He said that he didn't hear it until it was passed, and then he had to go and regather the flock from the four corners of the paddock...
  3. sfGnome
    Yeah. The pictures in question were carved on a cave wall!
  4. sfGnome
    Reading about Louis Blériot's flight over the channel, looking at the pictures and thinking "I could build that!"... Must have been about 8 at the time, and the thought has never left me.
  5. sfGnome
    My vast(??!!) experience of the younger folk is that they're all different. (Amazing, really). My younger son is simply not interested in coming aloft. My daughter came up once to keep me happy. My older son was keen, but after a bout of airsickness his keenness diminished somewhat. Just about to give up on the lot of 'em, when recently I took my son in law up. "Wow. Awesome! This is amazing. My dad is going to be soooo jealous". Looks like I finally found one with the nascent bug... :)
  6. sfGnome
    I had an 'interesting' moment fairly early after getting my X-country endo. Heading north into a strong headwind, crossing an east-west mountain range, I only left a bit over 500' ground clearance. Approaching the range, she started descending at a fair rate of knots. I was on the edge of chucking a U-ey when it flattened out and I could climb again, but I've always approached mountains with a lot more respect (and a lot more clearance) since then.
  7. sfGnome
    That's a pretty impressive "least impressive"... :)
  8. sfGnome
    I generally include a comment in my briefing about some "really stupid" passengers who've let their feet get near the pedals. That seems to do the trick... :)
  9. sfGnome
    Thanks for asking the question. I'd given up looking for it. I like OzR, but geez I wish they'd just write a few sentences of instructions on each new feature. It doesn't need to be big power points or anything, but saying "We've got feature XYZ" without explaining how you access it (or even what it is on some occasions) just isn't helpful.
  10. sfGnome
    No, GG. What he said was to wait for an announcement from the people involved rather than going on rumour. Didn't look like 'scoffing' and 'ripping' to me.
  11. sfGnome
    Saw Robert Redford's latest flick tonight ("All is Lost"). Now *there's* a bloke who could have used an EPIRB...
  12. sfGnome
    I've had two flights recently on quite warm days. One was lovely and calm and relaxed and made me fall in love with flying all over again (apart from having to manage the temps on climb. Ah well), while the other was so turbulent that I hit my head on the canopy 3 times in the last 5 miles. Very, very glad to get down on that particular day!
  13. sfGnome
    Nup, it's not Mt Beauty (I think!). Now if it's the next valley down, does that put it somewhere near Bright?
  14. sfGnome
    Took a flight in a glider today, courtesy of the good folk at Mt Beauty Gliding Club. Just a half hour (couldn't afford longer) to experience the feel of a very different aircraft. Much fun, but I think I'll stick with my motor for the time being... :)
  15. sfGnome
    The best part about this photo is that you can ignore the ugly sod on the right and concentrate on the beautiful bride on the left... ...And a merry Christmas to all!
  16. sfGnome
    Just a few test flights for a faulty - now repaired - Altitude Encoder. Of course, I had to take it up to 7,500', didn't I? Never bothered to do that over the home field before. Nice view.
  17. sfGnome
    Robots are how Google et. al. know all about everything on the web. Their computers, commonly known as robots, 'crawl' around the web, following all the links on a page and all the links on those pages and all the links... etc.
  18. sfGnome
    Mostly PC, but only because I can't get the little pop-up preview window on the iPad.
  19. sfGnome
    I can't think of a better purpose for my flying than visiting my Daughter in Vic.
  20. sfGnome
    Thanks to you both.
  21. sfGnome
    Can I ressurect this thread to ask a related question? Our (*very* old) altitude encoder has curled up its toes and taken its last flight. The replacement choice from Australian suppliers when you're purchasing encoder only seems to be limited to the Ameri-King AK350 or the Microair EC2002. As our transponder is also Microair - and it's Aussie - , it seems to make sense to use it rather than the American unit. However, the Microair unit is not TSO'd. My understanding is that if a recreational aircraft is flying over 5,000ft, then it must have a transponder that has been calibrated within the last two years, but it is not necessary for the devices themselves to be TSO'd. Is that correct?
  22. sfGnome
    Fair point. I will admit that I was thinking of equipment rather than batteries, but you're right. Batteries are the exact opposite of what I said. They have a very low internal impedance, and rely on the supply to limit the current. Only guessing, but I'd be surprised if it drew more than the amp. However, even if it did draw more (say 1.5A to be excessive), then with the supply providing one amp, the internal batteries only have to supply the other half amp, and the iPad will still be running long after your bladder has exploded and you have to be on the ground anyway!
  23. sfGnome
    For voltage and current, think of it this way. The source supplies the voltage and the load draws the current. As long as the supply can supply as much current as the load needs, then everything is fine. You could have a supply that is capable of supplying 1000A and it would be quite safe to connect to your iPad, because it is the load (ie the iPad) that controls the amount of current drawn. On the other hand, if the supply can't supply enough current to keep the load happy, then the voltage will droop and all bets are off. So, if your genuine Apple wall charger that came with it is rated at 1A, then it means that the mini iPad must require less than that amount, and any cigarette lighter charger that can supply that much or more is fine (all other previously discussed issues being already accounted for, of course).
  24. sfGnome
    Dafyydd, please don't take what I said as implying that linear is the better way to go. Good switchmode supplies are the bee's knees. They'll cope with the small repetitive spikes that the Sport Pilot article was talking about (as long as they are not designed to be borderline at 14V like a real cheapie might be), and they are no more susceptible to to the kV spikes of startup and shutdown than a linear reg. The biggest problem with running a linear reg off a 6V battery is that linear regs require a certain level of step-down, and even the best ones will be borderline at 6V. As soon as the battery voltage starts to droop, so will the output and the iPad will start getting very iffy. Switchmode reg, on the other hand, will keep supplying as the input voltage droops (for a while at least).
  25. sfGnome
    That was really interesting reading. Thanks for pointing it out, Andy.
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