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aviatoreb

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Everything posted by aviatoreb

  1. Hmmmm.... and now returned from Maine - everything working perfectly - I am more and more suspecting its not my panel and never was but it was GPS blocking.
  2. Actually a single Montague frame with wheels off and seat post off will fit in the rear of my k with seats in place! And wheels in wheel bag on the rear seat. I do occasionally travel with my full size road bike because nothing beats a road bike if you really want to go far on road... anyway it too fits in my rear seat with seats out - actually just one seat - wheels off in bags, and seat post off - and VERY important - everything in bags - frame in a BBQ keeps everything clean. ...and I have a bike friday tikit for fast fast fold the whole bike goes in the rear door with wheels on and it folds in - no kidding - 10 seconds.
  3. I have a Montague and I find it fits nicely in the mooney with both wheels off and the seat post off - then the frame alone fits nicely through the baggage door - and both wheels in a wheel bag fit easily through the human door. Its not too heavy to load. Its not a super light bike not even for a mountain bike and no competition if we are thinking high quality road bikes but you can ride it hard and off road so if that's the need its a good fit for that option with a Mooney and it is legit for road riding as much as any other mountain bike.
  4. I've flown a fair bit to Canada from my home base in upstate NY just 15 miles from Canada. To Toronto, to Ottawa, to New Brunswick, to PEI and Nova Scotia as well as over Canada to Michigan and beyond... I pretty much always file IFR when over flying Canada since it is so much like USA IFR that it seems utterly seamless and I feel right at home. There is almost no difference. And just like in the USA if a controller gives you a flight clearance routing that you did not choose, that you do not like for a legitimate reason like you dont want to over fly long stretches of water Single Engine - then just say so - you can say it fancy - unable - or you can say it human - "do you have a routing that doesn't take me over such a long expanse of water in my little single engine airplane" "would you accept the following routing instead"/. The nice thing is - outside of Montreal, and Toronto and maybe Ottawa - these are mostly rural airspace controllers with not a whole lot of activity in their area and so they have time to help - and separation and safety are their primary job - they want to help. So dont be shy to ask for what you NEED.
  5. Never suggests a very very long time. There are all sorts of good reasons for and against wind turbines and certainly significant challenges to actually going wind and building that all into the infrastructure - and hidden costs and so forth. But the bird thing is just not one of them. It just isnt Estimated number of birds killed by hazards in the US each year (millions) Wind turbines, 2020 1.17 Wind turbines, 2050* 2.22 Communication towers 5 Automobiles 60 Pesticides 67 Buildings 100 Cats Unless we are going to eliminate cats, buildings, pesticides and automobiles, then wind turbines vs birds is a red Herring (haha birds are a fish). Its a misplaced argument designed as a gotcha against greenies who are supposed to live every living thing and be called out as hypocritical for allowing a poor baby bird to die at the altar of a mean scary wind turbine. But really I am good with 1.17 birds per year dying considering I still drive a car and we car drivers contribute to 60 billion birds dying. And I eat birds too....!!!! Yum! If I am for or against wind turbines its not contingent in the least on this measly small fraction of birds that die for all sorts of reasons. Silly birds....
  6. Hello from Maine. Well now I am thinking it is an area gps outage. So for the 4th time in the past week, I lost GPS within 2 min of departure from home airport. Looking back -I always turned eastward. On two of the occasions, the first times, I then went home within just a few minutes assuming the equipment was broken and I wanted to debug it. Third time I went North and found I could get it to come back a live by cycling it - so I thought - by about 15 mi north. Then upon returning, it went out again. Well today, same thing it went out within 2 min but it came back on its own - no recycling - within about 15 mi North East. And stayed alive the rest of the way to Maine. It had almost all satellites showing strong signal. So now I suspect it may not be the airplane - but some kind of blocking going on to the immediate east of the airport. Nefarious? Military (we are 15 mi north of a MOA?). Solar flare? UFO?
  7. Byron - jet driven on here - did something labor intensive and very interesting and he did get some more speed from it. He carefully radiuses his wings to the shape they are supposed to be theoretically, exactly and smooth with lots of body work puddy. Before his paint job. Is Byron here? How much speed did you get?
  8. I was imagining what if there was one panel you could get for like 500 bucks - and then install is easy if it is just a direct replacement for a current panel, and then you could separately hide your antenna underneath it. Then it might be interesting. I agree otherwise, juice is not worth the squeeze.
  9. So I just spoke to the avionics shop - they cant see me until next week - so I guess I get to play around with it until then on my own. They did offer me yet another theory. They asked me if I had dropped my cell phone recently. Yes, as a matter of fact I have! They said that if the rf shielding becomes dislodged it can really wreak havoc with your gps. HMMM!! SO the suggestion is to test it with the cell phone on fully off mode. Not just airplane mode.
  10. Ill try that if I get another outage enough to think its area instead of my own hardware. Thanks!
  11. Im not about to do this one. I was just curious - why anyone would spend 10k plus to go one piece if they are thinking its a speed mod...instead of as I suggested which should do at least the same speed stuff. Which you say is 1knot or less. I have no way of judging. Lasar claims its 6 but that seems like a lot to be likely not true.
  12. Well I just flew again. Still intermittent. Pulled it out of the hangar - before startup test - gps signal acquired quickly. Turn off - Start up engine then restart panel - re-acquired quickly. Begin flight - and what do you know - it lost signal again at almost the same spot and 3 miles east of the airport - so this time I head north about 20 miles and it re-acquires - I cycled the system twice - I am not sure if that helped. Then on the way back - it lost signal again about 10 mi from home. While the signal is good I have lots of gps satellites acquired - and when it is gone - none. So then I am sure it is a bad antenna or something. I land - and there is a medical lift company helicopter there from New Hampshire. So - I talked to the helicopter pilot from Dartmouth U and asked if he’s had any gps issues and he said as a matter of fact yes he has, over the last week - in two different aircraft! So now Im not sure what to think. Im supposed to fly to Berlin, Maine tomorrow and current morning forecast past Burlington VT is marginal VFR - and there is terrain in that part - so more likely than not I will just stop in Burlington to visit the avionics shop and see if they can see me right away or rent a car from there - I want to get to the bottom of this. Theory 1 - solar flares - supported by the article and the fact of the helicopter pilot having issues too in two different airplanes! Theory 2 - antenna or something else comparable - supported by the fact of loosing it about 90 seconds into flight in two flights - suggesting it is vibration sensitive.
  13. I seem to be acronym challenged. AC.
  14. Yeah - I bet that is what it is - that is exactly what the pilot at the medical lift company suggested - a bad antenna - and I am all geared up to go to my nearest friendly avionics shop...but after reading that article - I am going to fly today in any case and see what I see - it is a bit of a coincidence that the same week I had two occasions of intermittent for the first time - an article comes out in avweb that says solar flares are causing glitchy gps. Anyone else?
  15. I just read something on avweb: https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/solar-flares-unusually-strong-this-week/ Is anyone else having problems? Maybe its the sun and not my airplane? I quote: Solar Flares Unusually Strong This Week By Russ Niles - Published: August 9, 2023Updated: August 10, 2023 2 If your GPS-driven panel functions seem glitchy this week the cause might be a Cannibal Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) and it’s as sinister as it sounds. The sun is reaching the end of Solar Cycle 25,
  16. I cant find in my manual - does anyone know how to turn off and turn back on a GTN650 (cycle it) ?
  17. I think you are right regarding the repeater - but I did go and talk to the guys in the hangar initially to see if they had experienced any recent locality gps blocking or something. And that's when they told me about their repeater and how just the other day a helicopter had experience the issue right near their hangar on the ground - and I am across from them like 200 yards. But...then once at the other end of the airport - or off the ground - or in the air ten mi away.... Ah - good point re a log. Looks like I am taking a trip to an avionics shop soon.
  18. Darn - my GPS seems to be intermittent. GTN650 original not txi. It boots up sometimes acquires a signal sometimes does not. Sometimes when it acquires a signal it looses it after a few minutes. When it doesn't have a signal it says no gps - and the page that shows the individual satellites its tracking is empty. But the radio on it works and it shows a screen. This has happened the last two flights which were local flights. Mitigating confusion - I am in the hangar across from the air med company that they just told me that they have a gps repeater that they use for their own use of getting signal in their hangar but it can act as signal blocking for those near by? SO could it be causing me to loose signal - even 10 mi away? I never went more than 10 mi away on these two flights. Couldn't be a data base or a software update thing can it? Maybe its my antenna? I guess I need to go to the avionics shop - in Burlington - but I already know what is going to happen - this is intermittent and it will work for them and they will tell me nothing is wrong. :-?
  19. That’s the point - burying antenna. On the cheap. Is that all it takes? An ia sign off as minor mod? I bet it’s a knot or two. Not worth it?!!
  20. But people already spend a fortune on a one piece. looking at a subdue panel I just don’t get it / it’s a flat piece of metal. Why not a flat piece of carbon? Sane size drill your own holes?
  21. So why hasn't somebody made a single belly panel that just screws in where my normal belly panels are - like just one of them - not a one piece - but made of something transparent for radio? And heck why not carbon fiber or something light while they are at it? For the purpose of hiding antenna and no other reason, and also to do so without needing to rework the airplane machining in any way to save the majority of the mod labor requirement?
  22. I agree with you. And power screw drivers even more so. The ONLY advantage I can figure of the one piece is to hide antenna - but why cant someone make a small nonmetallic panel shaped as already have to hide antenna. And save 10k in labor to convert. The idea of spending 10k to save a little bit of time and money with the screw driver at annual doesn't add up. As a speed mod - its just the antenna right? And its not a big speed mod bang for the buck.
  23. Its pretty neat! But we dont see it often - maybe once or twice a winter. At most. We aren't far enough north that it is so frequent.
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