AH-1 Cobra Pilot

https://loup.energywisenebraskagoev.com/electric-vehicle-charging-station-incentive/

A few months ago, I took a quiz on the AOPA weekly newsletter. I found an answer to be in error, so I emailed the correction to them. They responded via email, thanking me for the correction. Recently, totally unsolicited, they sent me this coin and hat, with a letter, again thanking me for the correction. How honorable! And what an act for a fine organization! They will have my support forever!

I have no idea what you mean by incorrect. The utility company is giving money to those who install an EV charger. That is a subsidy for EVs. What is incorrect?

To any and all that insist electric vehicles are not subsidized, I submit Exhibit A: This just arrived with my electric bill. Of course, there are also subsidies via road taxes contained in the price of gasoline and diesel fuel, tax breaks for EV factories, etc., and, perhaps the biggest subsidy is the value of cheap money. This one is not forced by government, at least, but the fact that Tesla stock is valued higher than GM and Ford, which actually have much higher sales. To those debating "possible, future aircraft configurations", look at what exists today. Pipistrel makes an electric aircraft. Its battery will power its motor at full power for 12 whole minutes! Or 24 minutes at 50% power. BFD! Is that even legal to takeoff?!? It will take a 20-fold improvement of energy density in batteries to give us equivalent performance to conventional aircraft, and that is if internal combustion engine technology stays the same. Given the history of technological development, it will take about 40 years for this improvement to be available for the average consumer. (The real suckers are those investing billions in electric aircraft factories. Is 40 years to begin payback realistic? I suppose the Bigger Fool Theory might apply.) Ergo, the reality is that the last answer on the poll is correct for most people here, regardless of your desires!

The scariest wires I have seen were in the Philippines. They were several inches in diameter, unmarked, and stretched between mountain tops for logging operations.

I doubt Ag planes do that, but I did fly under power lines in Cobra training. You go slow, you kick up lots of dust, you risk catching your tail, so most people conclude that it is better to just go over them quickly in forward flight.

I had AVEMCO when I had hail damage on my C-152. The adjuster gave me several options, from reskinning to accepting a check for 10% of the insured hull value. I chose the latter for simplicity. When I sold the airplane a few years later, the buyer discounted the price for the hail damage, but less than I had received in the insurance settlement. The claim had no effect on my rates.

I have known numerous of both. The only way I could tell the difference is that the politicians wore suits.

I totally believe you; not stupid at all. On a trip to Pittsburgh a few years ago, I flew at 11,000' for the more favorable winds and to stay above clouds. Eventually, the clouds snuck up to my altitude and left a really strange spiky pattern on my wings' leading edges. That, (and maybe shifting winds), slowed us down by about 20-25 kts, so I descended a few thousand feet. The ice went away, but the worse winds still cost us. BTW, bad icing will leave a lollipop on your spinner. You do not want to see that, and better have some serious anti/de-ice equipment onboard.

That was from throttle movement, until the rapid oscillation was from shutdown.

I am/was qualified in and flew: T-34 T-2 A-4 T-39 T-43 S-3 O-2 UH-1 AH-1 OH-58 C-12 I also got a chance to fly a T-37 and a KC-135. If not for working for a shit, I would have also added UH-60, C-23, and UC-35 to the list. Yes, I have gold and silver wings.

Gremlins piss in it.

Deep Water Environment Survival Training. This has a good account of it. The also attached article highlights the two at-the-time trainers I got to fly. https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/histories/naval-aviation/pdf/train-06.pdf My helicopter pilot compatriots used a HEEDS. If I had ejected, I would still have had an oxygen mask attached to a small bottle in my seat pan. We did practice using those underwater.

My DWEST was at NAS Miramar. They probably moved it all to North Island after the Marines took over Miramar. The Dilbert Dunker was more fun, but the Helo Dunker scared more people, especially when they had to wear the blackout goggles. It was best to sit there for as long as you could in order to not get kicked in the face when you all had to go out through the main door.

I will take a look at it. Any suggestions? Also there are already two threads for the overhead vents. Overhead vent upgrade project and

NAS Pensacola. I also did a DWEST refresher in San Diego, but I do not remember if they had the Helo Dunker and/or the Dilbert Dunker.

Not the big, black tube with 6 or 8 seats that I went through.

I once remarked to a group of guys that I always do my own (car) oil changes because I am probably smarter than the average oil changer, and I care about doing the job right a helluva lot more. One guy, who turned out to be the manger of a local auto dealership's service department, then said, "I don't even know you, and I can GUARANTEE you are ten-times smarter than anybody doing the oil changes!"

Nylon is probably the worst of the commonly printed materials. Even storing nylon filament in air-tight containers with desiccant does not work for long, you still have to dry it. You can usually hear the water vapor bubbles pop as you print. ABS is not too bad for moisture absorption; I think this has more to do with the shape. As each layer cools and shrinks, it puts lots of stress on the lower layers. Being a round shape means it pulls equally around the circle rather than having one stress point. That probably increases the tendency to delaminate the layers. You can sometimes help relax the stress by boiling the parts right after printing, and with ABS you can paint the part with acetone, which also smooths the surface and makes it stronger by bonding tiny voids. That is what I did with this part. It is a little thicker in places than the original design, but it is far stronger. It can also still be painted with an acetone-based pant, (common in spray paints). I found two suppliers of vent covers made from vacuum-formed sheet, just like the originals; one was out of stock and charged $115, the other wanted $55/each. These are much less. The ball-vent apparatus may need some kind of gasket. The double-sided tape sounds like a good idea.

I was having a lot of residual stress cracking with the ABS. I thought it might be a bad lot of filament, but that is unlikely. It would otherwise work pretty well and can be painted. So I made one with nylon. I also put a little carbon fiber in the base to make sure it is rigid and will never sag. It looks great, but painting is problematic, and they are expensive. Next to see how it looks and works in the Mooney.

Birchwood Technologies has some methods to blacken and/or color aluminum and other metals.

Did you melt the insert into the plastic? Or press it into place?

I had already 3-D printed replacement vent covers, but I have not installed them. If you have enough of a lip on the outsides to keep them in place, you will have to remove the panel, which I am loathe to do. So, I chose another path... This prototype is PLA, but the final version will probably be nylon or ABS. (It is two-colored because I ran out of the orange filament before the print was finished.) Nylon can be dyed, but ABS can be painted. Nylon is more heat resistant and can be made with long fibers for better stiffening, especially around the attachment point. I will also install the eyeball vents into these, but the beauty is that they can be installed without removing the overhead panel; just a bolt through the center to attach it to the old place. Still a bit of a PITA, but better than the alternative. (There is a metal pin in the overhead plastic I will have to account for by putting a hole in the bottom of this, but that will also keep these from turning on the bolt.) Note that this particular part will fit on the copilot seat and the left-rear seat. A mirror image part is required for the pilot and right-rear seats. My eyeball vents are due on Friday, so I will have more to show then.

That looks great! Depending on the material you use, the screw threads may not last as long as you would like. That is why most similar applications use an insert such as this: Print it with the hole no more than 0.001" larger than the insert, and with a hole for the set screw. Then use heat, such as a soldering iron, to push/melt the insert into place.

I presume these are the vents you purchased? https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/appages/eyeballswivelvent.php?clickkey=28429 What is the angle between the flange and your table? 30º? 40º? What is the slope of the plastic to the left of the flange in the picture? How tall is your molded part on the right? Were all of the openings previously covered by this the same orientation? (I can see only two in the pictures you provided.)