A Geek Goes Flying

Still digging into this, but seems like a cool thing to try: https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/3fscia/the_11390_adsb_receiver_for_foreflight_or_pretty/

The iPad mini 2 finally arrived from PowerMax.com. Definitely fast enough to use with ForeFlight. Everything's setup for tomorrow's flight (er, I guess it's now "later today"), which I am looking forward to (even if I do have to dodge Obama TFRs). Despite what some Amazon reviewers stated, the iPad mini 2 fits perfectly (not too tightly) in the RAMHOLAP14U cradle, though I don't yet have a screen protector (likely an anti-glare filter) fitted (yet?). (I'm carrying it with a Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover and a ShaggyMac pad (protects and cleans :) ). In other news, after flying 00U (with a butterfly yoke) a couple of times, I think this slightly different yoke mount will be a better fit than the RAM-B-121B that came with the kit I bought. (The RAM-B-121B , which has the 1" ball at a right angle to the clamp, works perfectly with the newer ram horn yoke.) It doesn't get in the way of flight operation, but just barely - have to back the cl

I’ve now had the opportunity to fly a Cherokee (N5800U, my favorite of the DuBois PA28-140 fleet) with the ‘butterfly’ yoke, and can confirm that the RAM mount works about as well on it as it does with the ‘ram horn’ yokes (though again the iPad Air 2 is just a tad too big; I’ve ordered an iPad mini 2 32GB from PowerMax, but it hasn’t shipped yet :/ ). Also, I confirmed that even with the yoke pushed fully forward, there’s room to spare for the RAM mount clamp. Doesn’t impact operation of the aircraft at all. Yoke pushed full forward iPad Air 2 RAM mounted to Cherokee butterfly yoke Doesn't obscure any instruments on this (updated) panel

Finally getting into the 20th century and setting up an electronic flight log. Still going to keep my old school paper ASA-SP-30 (circa 1993) pilot log, because two is one, one is none. But having the information input electronically is useful too. And what kind of flying geek would I be if I didn't  have a digital version of my logbook? Exactly. So I'm using MyFlightbook.com and their iPad/iPhone apps, but inputting ~18 years of flight records using their interface (web or app) was going to be too tedious. Fortunately, they have a CSV import feature. Naturally, I ‘reverse engineered’ my own Excel worksheet (based on a downloaded export of a few records I input using the app), before  checking and learning that, of course, in fact, they provide their own CSV “ template ” and description of the columns and data they expect . Alright, back to data entry.