I have entered the 21st century

[M20F]

[N201MKTurbo]

A Starlink antenna

[0TreeLemur]

I'm curious, why not just use the wifi hotspot on your phone?  Starlink is pricey, isn't it?

[M20F]

20 hours ago, 0TreeLemur said:

I'm curious, why not just use the wifi hotspot on your phone?  Starlink is pricey, isn't it?

Cell service sucks in the area and it also isn’t super fast.  This frees me up to do things like download database updates at hanger, do work in hanger (AT&T will not allow my work VPN to function), and you can switch to mobility for a month for only $30 (take it anywhere so say Osh Kosh, camping, whatever). 
 
It’s $120 a month which isn’t cheap but not bad either.  Mostly though I just wanted it so I got it :-)

[0TreeLemur]

1 hour ago, M20F said:

Cell service sucks in the area and it also isn't super fast.

This I understand.  Cell reception at my field is not stellar.

One day I fired up the engine in front of my hanger, powered up foreflight, and noticed my maps had expired.  Connected iPad to AT&T iPhone hotspot, and started updates.  SLOW.  Then I got the brilliant idea that maybe if I put the phone outside the cabin it would get stronger reception and speed the process.   So, I cracked open the door and laid my phone atop the cabin.  Probably didn't help, but at least I felt like I was doing all I could.

A couple of minutes later, updates completed, and I increased rpms to taxi.  THUMP!   Something hit my plane!?!  Oh crap, I forgot the phone.

Shut off engine- exit aircraft- don't see phone anywhere!  Look for dents on tail, don't see any (whew).   I walked away from the plane, and found my phone about 50 ft aft.  Luckily the case on my trusty iPhone 8 took the brunt of the impact with the ground and nothing was broken.

[Fly Boomer]

25 minutes ago, 0TreeLemur said:

A couple of minutes later, updates completed, and I increased rpms to taxi.  THUMP!   Something hit my plane!?!  Oh crap, I forgot the phone.

Shut off engine- exit aircraft- don't see phone anywhere!  Look for dents on tail, don't see any (whew).   I walked away from the plane, and found my phone about 50 ft aft.  Luckily the case on my trusty iPhone 8 took the brunt of the impact with the ground and nothing was broken

Every time I get a new phone, my first thought is "I don't need a case this time -- I'll just be super careful".  Never works.

[M20F]

1 hour ago, 0TreeLemur said:

 

Shut off engine- exit aircraft- don't see phone anywhere!  Look for dents on tail, don't see any (whew).   I walked away from the plane, and found my phone about 50 ft aft.  Luckily the case on my trusty iPhone 8 took the brunt of the impact with the ground and nothing was broken.

I only do that with gas caps 

[MikeOH]

1 hour ago, Fly Boomer said:

Every time I get a new phone, my first thought is "I don't need a case this time -- I'll just be super careful".  Never works.

I always get the case and never have dropped the phone!

 I know better than to NOT buy a case next time

[Fly Boomer]

1 hour ago, M20F said:

I only do that with gas caps 

I carry a spare, but I can only lose one out of the four.

[Fly Boomer]

13 minutes ago, MikeOH said:

I always get the case and never have dropped the phone!

 I know better than to NOT buy a case next time

I get the case AND drop the phone.

[MikeOH]

2 hours ago, Fly Boomer said:

I get the case AND drop the phone.

Money we’ll spent

[Pinecone]

I did not use a case on my iPhones from 3GS to SE.  But I got an Xr and dropped it 3 times in 2 weeks.  I got a case for it. 

[wombat]

I have starlink at my home  which is a relatively rural area with rather poor options for internet otherwise.

It's a little more expensive than the non-starlink competition $120/month vs $100/month) , but the bandwidth is better (~150mbps down, ~10mbps up vs 80mbps down and 6 mbps up).  The latency is almost exactly the same at about 40ms.        Those speeds and latency numbers are horrible compared to what I got when I lived in Seattle (900mbps down and up with 3 to 6 ms latency) for only $60/month, but that's part of the efficiency of living in a city compared to living in the country.

 

I'm really happy that the people that have the house nearest my hangar are willing to let me use their internet in the hangar.  So much better than a cellular hotspot.

 

It lets me do things like have a couple of cameras that take a picture every minute so you can see the current weather conditions.   Better than an AWOS.

[Echo]

Only time, so far, I have damaged a phone screen was through pressure on edge to snap a case in place.  Doh!

Edited September 20, 2023 by Echo