A Geek Goes Flying

So I'm about to fly a 1966 Mooney M20E cross-country, from 0A7 to KSMO (by way of KSUS and KPPQ to see family). It's going to be a helluva trip. A friend is flying commercially into Lambert to meet me for the longest portions of the trek. The plane has been upgraded periodically, with the current avionics installed in the 1980s (two Terra TX720s, two Terra TN200s, two Terra Tri-Nav digital CDIs, a Terra TMA-230D audio panel) and early 2000s (S-Tec 30 autopilot with altitude hold; Apollo GX55 en route IFR GPS; GPSS module; WX-1000 stormscope). (There's also a PM2000 stereo 4-place intercom, and an EI-E1 single probe EGT display.) Coming with us will be a new-to-me Stratus 2 (after flying with the AHRS and synthetic vision on ForeFlight courtesy the GTX-345 in the Arrow, I'm spoiled and want the "backup glass cockpit" with us - especially flying >1700nm in a 51 year old steam cockpit). Also, tunes. The PM2000 has an audio input jack and handles soft-mute ...

So I’m picking up a plane out in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and flying it back to SoCal. Flying out on a commercial red eye into Asheville. Problem: I want to take advantage of the fact that I’m lugging along a nice set of Bose Aviation X noise canceling headphones to drown out the jet noise and supply me with tunes, while riding steerage. Bose lists the impedance of the headset at 150Ω “off” and 400Ω “on.” The iPhone’s output impedance is about 5Ω , and ideally the output impedance should be about 1/8th the headphone impedance. Solution: An inexpensive headphone amplifier ($29 or so), with a couple of adapter cables ( 3.5mm male to male stereo ; 1/4" stereo female to 3.5mm stereo male ). I’m sure I’ll look like a dork, but at least I won’t be lugging around a second set of inferior and/or expensive headphones.

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. :)

My boss got me several of these (and a few more, when the batteries on one went out). But he can’t remember where he got them. Sigh. They work great for copying down clearances at night, etc. They’re not quite perfect; the clicker at the top of the pen controls the light, and the ballpoint end is extended/retracted by twisting the barrel. But if you can live with that, and if you can find them, maybe you can call on, the Red LED Pen:

I’m using a ‘poor man’s KVM,’ (one of these days I’ll get something with EDID , like the IOGEAR GCS932UB ) hooked up to an OS X mini tower (DVI) and a MacBook Air ((mini) DisplayPort). I use the input selector on the  DELL U2311H monitor (I love  matte displays) to toggle the displays, and a Plugable USB switch to toggle a Unicomp SpaceSaver M  (best. keyboard. ever.) and ThinkPad Laser Mouse (which matches the USB version  I carry with my laptop) between the two CPUs. Problem: The Creative T10 speakers (cheap, but all I really have room for at this workstation; elsewhere I have a set of Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 s that are mind-blowing) weren’t switched, and the connection is buried behind the mini-tower. 1st world problems... (How do I link this back to flying? Oh, yeah, editing GoPro footage. And, um, LiveATC.net .) Anyway, problem simply and cheaply solved: Sabrent USB External Stereo Sound Adapter  ($7) (shows up immediately in OS X 10.9.5 as a...