A Geek Goes Flying

Our HOA has a basic cable package I’m paying for anyway, so I figured I might as well start to use. Problem: Circa late 2014, Time Warner (now Spectrum) started encrypting all their channels, so my analog tuning stuff would no longer work, even for what would be OTA channels if I didn’t live in a no-man’s land when it comes to any wireless signal (cell phone, TV, whathaveyou). And I don’t have room for a clunky cable set-top box. Solution: an HDHomeRun Prime box with three tuners, I could tuck away out of sight in my network stack. Simple, right? Requires a cable card. Okay, no problem, went down to ye olde storefront and got a cable card (Motorola M-Card). Didn't work (bad card); exchanged it. Replacement card works, but wasn't validating. Called up Time Warner / Spectrum and got them to put the code into billing. Okay, validation works now. Go to setup channels - four of them appear (none that I'd ever watch): Try to watch on my Apple TV 2nd Generation dev

Ever since I transitioned to complex aircraft (predominantly), I’ve thought it would be kind of cool to get video of the landing gear in operation. Also, more of a picture of outside of the aircraft, not shooting through scratched and curved plexiglass, etc. Because this is America, someone already had that idea, and implemented a solid solution: The MyPilotPro Swivel GoPro Airplane Mount . (Also pictured: An optional $5 Wrench .) This thing rocks. Clamps down hard on the tie-down loop under the airplane’s wing (though with neoprene washers to dampen vibration), and kept everything neatly in place even at 130mph in an Arrow II. I picked up a cheap refurbished Hero 3+ Silver  and hooked it up, and shot this video (the first half is my first take-off, the latter part is my last landing; the camera didn't budge an inch through four trips through the pattern to full-stop landings). This is raw video straight from the camera, no processing or stabilization, etc.: Very cool.

I use the  Nflightcam Aircraft Audio/Power Cable for GoPro Hero  cable to hook my GoPro Hero 3+ Black into aircraft comms; captures the intercom (passengers) as well as ATC transmissions. I’ve been beating up the same cable for months, tossing it into a variety of different configurations and airplanes. Lately, I’ve started intermittently getting some distorted audio in my recordings[ 1 ][ 2 ]. I contacted Nflightcam support and Patrick confirmed it was “a wear issue on the GoPro’s female USB port or the cable’s male port.” They sent me a new replacement cable, gratis , and I can confirm the replacement cable completely fixed the problem. Will definitely buy from them again. $35+ is kind of a lot for this (admittedly speciality) cable - especially when I used to work at Best Buy, where our employee discount was 5% over store cost, and I could see what, e.g., those $39.99 cables actually cost (<$2 usually). But with service like that, doesn’t sting quite so bad. :)