MikeS
Pre-takeoff checklist
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- Oct 16, 2014
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MikeS
Seems like POA ought to have a section for products we find especially valuable for aviation related uses. Without finding it, if it exists, I'm posting here in HT. If there's a more appropriate place on POA, please advise.
I've been a headlamp nut for several years, corresponding with my interest in cheap reading glasses. I buy both by the handfull, especially when I come across just the right combination of price and usefulness.
Reading glasses I get at the 99 cent stores sorting through all the various frame materials, sizes & designs not to mention the right strength. Finding just what I want is really a hit or miss proposition. I've been at 1.50 strength for years but am edging toward 1.75 so soon the latter will be my new norm. I've been finding some interesting composite-light frames & lenses from China that I like even better than the 99 cent store models so have been ordering handfuls of those in the last few months - they're just as cheap, or almost so. Some of them have LED's built into them which "seems" like a good idea but so far haven't found an application for them. Maybe in the cockpit they'll be perfect. Haven't tried them there yet. Also have been ordering some adjustable strap type things that connect to the tips of the earpieces and will hold the glasses tightly to the nose bridge. These are made of some type of thin wire and have small, sliding and lockable adjusters that work really well. Also ordered some things that look like soft rubber hooks that slide onto the earpieces and can be placed at that position that will hold the glasses against the face and stay there without movement. With these devices, the adjustable wire "eyeglass holders" and these rubber arm behind-the-ear hooks, constantly pushing the glasses back against the bridge of the nose is a thing of the past. All this stuff, including the glasses, are very cheap and very useful.
The notes above are not why I'm posting this however - although I hope what I've mentioned re reading glasses inspires someone to go looking - instead of paying some ridiculous amount of money to an optometrist, or even spending money on the $10 Foster Grant Costco/Wal-Mart reading glasses. If you go through a lot of these things as I do, eBay and other on-line sources are much cheaper. Shipping varies from a few days to less than two weeks and is either free or nominal.
What I'm writing about today are some headlamps that caught my eye around the first of this month. After trying quite a few cheapo headlamps off of eBay I never did find anything I liked as well as I like the little blue plastic 5-LED ones that Harbor Freight used to sell on sale for $2.99. They were bright enough, light, and the three AAA's they use last a long time. Their sale prices on these things these days are 4.99 instead of 2.99 but for $5 they're still worth it. A few have failed over time - something comes loose inside so they need fiddling with to get them so they don't get intermittent in function. That can get irritating and I have had enough of these that currently I save the straps and toss the mechanism part in the trash once they become unpredictable. I've tried to fix a few and it usually works for awhile. The quality with these things is not that great. They're bright, light weight, small and don't get in my way, batteries last a long time, and they're cheap, so for years now they've been what I use. When on sale I buy a bunch of them to replace my failed ones and have some in reserve.
I have a "cat route" I do every night on the bike. I take care of five colonies that I've gotten spayed and neutered so go out each night to feed them so they don't go looking for food and either get run over or eaten by coyotes. Over time the colony sizes have diminished - which is the way it's supposed to work. If they're fixed and not producing kittens, normal attrition will take their toll. It's usually coyotes. Sometimes it's one of the virus' cats are susceptible to. I've got a few survivors that have lasted eight years now, despite the coyotes, so some cats learn and some cats don't. Just like people. Some just have bad luck. At least they're not increasing, and that's the whole idea. This is a species that can start reproducing at four months old. I try, in my small way, to keep this from happening. They are delightful little creatures and I enjoy helping them.
I wear a headlamp when doing my route. I also wear a headlamp when working on planes at night and even during the day when working under the panel or wheel well or other dark places. At 70 my eyes are losing the acuity they once had but between using the reading glasses and wearing a headlamp I have no trouble seeing. I do depend on these devices though.
Also in the cockpit, when flying at night, I keep a headlamp on my head. It's a little bright, even at lowest setting, but when I need a light and have temporarilyy misplaced whatever little dim one I'm using, having the headlamp on my head is always there to give me light and to track down wherever my dim one is hiding. Like all pilots, especially aging ones, I've got several lights stashed around the cockpit, along with glasses. I keep them both everywhere. I never want to have to go looking for glasses or headlamps, so they're everywhere. I use them in the cockpit, when working on the planes, when working on my car at night or the motorcycle, or for just walking around my property in the dark.
While looking for something else on Amazon, a couple weeks ago I happened to spot some headlamps that looked interesting. They were advertised as bright, feather weight, and with red lamps incorporated as an optional choice to protect night vision. I didn't like the idea of having to cycle through all the switch settings in order to turn it off or to get to the setting I want, but went ahead and ordered them anyway. Buying three got me free shipping. They were $12 bucks each . . . so a little over twice as much as I pay for my Harbor Freight headlamps. These looked a lot brighter, more adjustable, and looked very well made in the pictures. I liked the red lamp option thinking I would keep these for the cockpit. Customer reviews were mostly ecstatic in their praise, especially emphasizing how "light" they were. Some headlamps I've tried felt like a three-cell Maglight hanging off my forehead so these looked like worth a try.
I gotta tell you, these things are amazing. Construction appears to be German in quality. Extremely light. Extremely bright. The two red bulbs provide actually useful red light for a cockpit environment. I can't report on battery life since I just got them yesterday but I can tell you now these are my new favorite headlamp. The primary light I'm guess is about 250 lumens, a whole 'nother world than the HF lights I've been using. A second click brings the intensity down to something reasonable. Third click turns on the red lamps and shuts the white lamps off and fourth click starts the blinking crap that I can't imagine any use for . . . but it's easy to quickly click through. Clicking five times turns everything off.
http://amzn.com/B00XTYBD8M
If you're into headlamps, you're gonna love these.
I've been a headlamp nut for several years, corresponding with my interest in cheap reading glasses. I buy both by the handfull, especially when I come across just the right combination of price and usefulness.
Reading glasses I get at the 99 cent stores sorting through all the various frame materials, sizes & designs not to mention the right strength. Finding just what I want is really a hit or miss proposition. I've been at 1.50 strength for years but am edging toward 1.75 so soon the latter will be my new norm. I've been finding some interesting composite-light frames & lenses from China that I like even better than the 99 cent store models so have been ordering handfuls of those in the last few months - they're just as cheap, or almost so. Some of them have LED's built into them which "seems" like a good idea but so far haven't found an application for them. Maybe in the cockpit they'll be perfect. Haven't tried them there yet. Also have been ordering some adjustable strap type things that connect to the tips of the earpieces and will hold the glasses tightly to the nose bridge. These are made of some type of thin wire and have small, sliding and lockable adjusters that work really well. Also ordered some things that look like soft rubber hooks that slide onto the earpieces and can be placed at that position that will hold the glasses against the face and stay there without movement. With these devices, the adjustable wire "eyeglass holders" and these rubber arm behind-the-ear hooks, constantly pushing the glasses back against the bridge of the nose is a thing of the past. All this stuff, including the glasses, are very cheap and very useful.
The notes above are not why I'm posting this however - although I hope what I've mentioned re reading glasses inspires someone to go looking - instead of paying some ridiculous amount of money to an optometrist, or even spending money on the $10 Foster Grant Costco/Wal-Mart reading glasses. If you go through a lot of these things as I do, eBay and other on-line sources are much cheaper. Shipping varies from a few days to less than two weeks and is either free or nominal.
What I'm writing about today are some headlamps that caught my eye around the first of this month. After trying quite a few cheapo headlamps off of eBay I never did find anything I liked as well as I like the little blue plastic 5-LED ones that Harbor Freight used to sell on sale for $2.99. They were bright enough, light, and the three AAA's they use last a long time. Their sale prices on these things these days are 4.99 instead of 2.99 but for $5 they're still worth it. A few have failed over time - something comes loose inside so they need fiddling with to get them so they don't get intermittent in function. That can get irritating and I have had enough of these that currently I save the straps and toss the mechanism part in the trash once they become unpredictable. I've tried to fix a few and it usually works for awhile. The quality with these things is not that great. They're bright, light weight, small and don't get in my way, batteries last a long time, and they're cheap, so for years now they've been what I use. When on sale I buy a bunch of them to replace my failed ones and have some in reserve.
I have a "cat route" I do every night on the bike. I take care of five colonies that I've gotten spayed and neutered so go out each night to feed them so they don't go looking for food and either get run over or eaten by coyotes. Over time the colony sizes have diminished - which is the way it's supposed to work. If they're fixed and not producing kittens, normal attrition will take their toll. It's usually coyotes. Sometimes it's one of the virus' cats are susceptible to. I've got a few survivors that have lasted eight years now, despite the coyotes, so some cats learn and some cats don't. Just like people. Some just have bad luck. At least they're not increasing, and that's the whole idea. This is a species that can start reproducing at four months old. I try, in my small way, to keep this from happening. They are delightful little creatures and I enjoy helping them.
I wear a headlamp when doing my route. I also wear a headlamp when working on planes at night and even during the day when working under the panel or wheel well or other dark places. At 70 my eyes are losing the acuity they once had but between using the reading glasses and wearing a headlamp I have no trouble seeing. I do depend on these devices though.
Also in the cockpit, when flying at night, I keep a headlamp on my head. It's a little bright, even at lowest setting, but when I need a light and have temporarilyy misplaced whatever little dim one I'm using, having the headlamp on my head is always there to give me light and to track down wherever my dim one is hiding. Like all pilots, especially aging ones, I've got several lights stashed around the cockpit, along with glasses. I keep them both everywhere. I never want to have to go looking for glasses or headlamps, so they're everywhere. I use them in the cockpit, when working on the planes, when working on my car at night or the motorcycle, or for just walking around my property in the dark.
While looking for something else on Amazon, a couple weeks ago I happened to spot some headlamps that looked interesting. They were advertised as bright, feather weight, and with red lamps incorporated as an optional choice to protect night vision. I didn't like the idea of having to cycle through all the switch settings in order to turn it off or to get to the setting I want, but went ahead and ordered them anyway. Buying three got me free shipping. They were $12 bucks each . . . so a little over twice as much as I pay for my Harbor Freight headlamps. These looked a lot brighter, more adjustable, and looked very well made in the pictures. I liked the red lamp option thinking I would keep these for the cockpit. Customer reviews were mostly ecstatic in their praise, especially emphasizing how "light" they were. Some headlamps I've tried felt like a three-cell Maglight hanging off my forehead so these looked like worth a try.
I gotta tell you, these things are amazing. Construction appears to be German in quality. Extremely light. Extremely bright. The two red bulbs provide actually useful red light for a cockpit environment. I can't report on battery life since I just got them yesterday but I can tell you now these are my new favorite headlamp. The primary light I'm guess is about 250 lumens, a whole 'nother world than the HF lights I've been using. A second click brings the intensity down to something reasonable. Third click turns on the red lamps and shuts the white lamps off and fourth click starts the blinking crap that I can't imagine any use for . . . but it's easy to quickly click through. Clicking five times turns everything off.
http://amzn.com/B00XTYBD8M
If you're into headlamps, you're gonna love these.