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Good buddy of mine recently upgraded the panel of his Cherokee 6, and has a ton of used avionics for sale. Here's a summary, with his target prices. Or best offer, of course. Contact Mike at mikebentz54321@gmail.com, or send a text to 206-618-1398. item P/N S/N Orig Date weight, packed...

Waaaayyy too much background to go into, here. But my wife had a saintly old aunt in her 80s, and the woman had a POS son. Said son had done prison time (for beating up his mother), had multiple arrests on drug charges, had multiple warrants out on him. She took him back in after he got out...

My EAA chapter has a "White Elephant" gift exchange as part of its Christmas party. People drop unwanted aviation stuff in a box, wrap it, and get them awarded randomly. Most years, I end up with junk I just throw out anyway...a broken LORAN, a 40-year-old book on the airline industry, etc...

I got a Flightcom Denali D90ANR headset earlier this year. I'm plugging into the Icom ICA5 that's permanently mounted in my airplane. Noticed one curious thing: Sounds have a *lot* more bass than with my other headsets, and even more than my older Flightcom ANR headset. To me, it makes the...

Discussions on another thread highlighted to me some of the changes in flight training since I learned to fly in the early '70s. 1. Was taught to fly all patterns so I could make the runway if the engine quits. No longer a factor, apparently. 2. Power back to 2,000 when on downwind abeam...

Years ago, I met a retired Boeing aerodynamicist who had the lift equation tattooed on his arm. Mentioned it to another retiree lately, and he said that was a "thing" among aerodynamicists. Anybody else hear about this, or was it just perhaps a Boeing thing? Ron Wanttaja

Quiet Wednesday morning at Schloss Wanttaja.... No squirrel guts, blood, or fur evident, but I'm told hawks usually carry their prey intact into the trees. Ron Wanttaja

I had traveled to a nearby city to give a couple of presentations. As I usually do on these trips, I ran through the local antique stores to look for aviation/space items of interest. REALLY scored this time. The Martin Mars was the biggest airplane produced by the Allies during WWII. It was...

Seeing as how it's May First, some of my non-flying friends want to shout "Mayday" at me. I always counter with the history of the term (as it is used in aviation), merely from the French term for "Help me." Now: Where does "Pan" come from? Ron "Not Neverland" Wanttaja

I've been putting together a presentation on the pre-WWII through WWII Link Trainer, focusing more on the technical issues (how it worked) vs. the model number/history flow. Came across a curiosity that I haven't been able to explain. Figure there's no one here that can actually *answer* the...

I'd like to fiddle with ADS-B data showing aircraft positions in real time, in a ground environment. I've got iPads/Android devices. What would be the best approach to do this? Ron Wanttaja

Since 2010, US aircraft owners have been required to re-register their aircraft every three years. Sounds like they're going to extend that to seven years.... https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2022-11-17/faa-extending-aircraft-registration-period-seven-years Ron Wanttaja

I'm trying to compute the average number of GA hours flown in the US for personal/recreational flying. In 2020, the annual FAA GA Survey said that fixed-wing piston aircraft flew an average of 95 hours. But only 45% of the fixed-wing piston hours flown by GA are for personal/recreational use...

We had a kind of sketchy guy come through our neighborhood the other day. Parked in my driveway, wandered down between houses and into folks' back yards, when challenged claimed that 25 people were out to get him. You know, the usual. Anyway, we eventually got him back in his truck and on the...

Ron Wanttaja

I seem to recall that the Air Force doesn't allow generals to fly solo in aircraft (I think I remember it because Yeager was granted a waiver when he got his star). So... if Captain Smith is flying with General Jones, who is the Pilot in Command? If Captain Smith decides General Jones is...

Getting ready to swap out my mobile, and my wife is working on me to get an Iphone. However, I get the impression that I-things complicate the process of swapping files from a PC to the phone and vice-versa. With my current Android phone, I plug it into the USB port on the computer, and...

Was looking at a track on Flightaware for a recent accident, and it reported altitudes that really didn't match the aircraft's capabilities. How reliable are the altitude reports on Flightaware? Ron Wanttaja

This is actually about a small truck, but the logic and information probably holds for aircraft. I have an old small pickup truck that I keep in the hangar for times when I need to carry a sheet of plywood or a dirty or smelly load. It doesn't get used much...maybe 100 miles a year or so, if...

Replacing a leaky instant-hot water tank in my kitchen. Noticed the pipes for it have no flanges at all. This is the same model of tank I already have, and the inlet and outlet tubes obviously have some sort of compression fitting that doesn't depend on the pipes having a flange. Never...