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September 1, 2024 at 10:54 AM in reply to: Visiting Pilots from Switzerland looking for guidance #20923
David Webb General MemberHi Sam,
Should be plenty of pilots flying tomorrow (Monday). As long as the forecasts hold, I plan on being at AJX by 8AM for a short morning flight, and then going back up again in the afternoon at 3PM. Happy to give you a site briefing in the morning if you want to join, otherwise there will be others around later in the day to do the same.
You can sign up for rides up the mountain here:
Enjoy.
David Webb General MemberOMG! Price drop – now only $1250. Also, recently refluffed.
David Webb General MemberI saw 2 reports of really great Blackhawk flights (will let the pilots chime in if they want to spill the details):
One Blackhawk – Baldy – Brewery (I think)
One Blackhawk – Baldy – San G – San J – Palm Springs
David Webb General MemberSounds P2/H2 friendly! :)
David Webb General MemberYep – Ziad’s reviews are great. Also good that it’s one pilot, so it’s nice to use his stats as comparison data between the wings he’s reviewed.
This one’s nice due to how many flights it includes in the data set. Some of the wings in there have flight data from over a thousand flights. Still not perfect, since harness and pilot aren’t factored in at all, but maybe the number of flights included for each balances those wildcards out enough for comparing them with one another.
David Webb General MemberJust for clarity – the Wx on Crestline is most likely perfectly fine. It’s the Wifi that is the issue at the moment (that unit uses Wifi instead of cellular since there is internet up there). Need some pics of the inside of the weather-proof enclosure up at the radio towers and then we can figure out what our options are as far as size of the unit, power, etc.
David Webb General MemberReplacement station arrived today. It includes 2 prototype LTE modems, which adds to the one 2G modem we have from the now-deceased station. Will test it out and reinstall the next day that offers up a decent flying forecast. If LTE turns out to not work well up there, we can fall back to the 2G modem that was working well before, so it’s nice having options.
David Webb General MemberHi Steve,
Yaesu makes nice radios, so you wouldn’t miss out on anything by going with Jordan’s recommendation. I’ve never had any issues with my cheapo baofeng, but I know there are plenty of pilots out there that hate them for various reasons. Also seems to be hit-and-miss if you get a good one or a bad one (maybe I just lucked out with the one I got).
I would avoid adding in adapters and extra connectors into the mix if you can avoid it.
If you get the Yaesu FT-70D, it looks like this speaker mic will work:
https://www.amazon.com/Yaesu-Standard-Microphone-SSM-17A-Replaces/dp/B089YW2BP9
For my radio, I got this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z4X3MM6
You only need the one connector (speaker mic plugs in, and you both talk and listen from the speaker mic). I don’t have an external PTT button, but the location of my speaker mic on my shoulder strap makes it easy to reach even with my brakes in my hand (and I can push the button with my thumb without pulling any brakes). Also, with my new harness, I now have the radio mounted in my flight deck, with the speaker mic still on the shoulder strap (so radio no longer in my back pocket). Best to talk that over with Jordan to make sure that’s an approved/recommended solution (works for me, but go with instructor advice).
I’ve considered the boom mic / in-helmet / PTT button / wireless solutions in the past, but I’ve stayed away from them for a few reasons:
- added complexity (when setting up on launch)
- something else to charge (or forget to charge)
- expensive (the nicer in-helmet solutions like SENA are expensive)
Would also recommend against using VOX (voice-activated mic solutions) – wind noise while we’re flying makes that impractical and annoying for other pilots on frequency.
One last recommendation: strongly recommend something soft over the mic for wind noise (it cuts down wind noise when you’re transmitting quite a bit). I use this:
https://www.amazon.com/Sunmns-Furry-Windscreen-Condenser-Microphone/dp/B07J3HDTYB
I’ve also heard other pilots that like this one (it’s a small stick-on one that just goes over the mic portion):
David Webb General MemberOf course – Rowin Gorse. Nice guy – generous and a hard worker.
David Webb General MemberClimbs were very smooth but on the weak and small side. Still, the weather was near perfect which made for really pleasant flying and allowed us a modest adventure to the east. Heard many others on the radio having their own fun.
Echoing the thanks to Forrest for the retrieve – we packed up, got curbside, and he was there 5 minutes later. He had a cool rattlesnake story too.
In-flight pic of the ocean air coming in:
David Webb General MemberOne thing to add: XCSkies is usable on your phone, but not awesome. It’s a much better tool to use on a larger screen (tablet or computer) due to all of the menus and indicators.
That write-up is my super-beginner way to use it for deciding if I want to drive up from San Diego, but there are loads of other goodies in there (route planning tools, skew-Ts, sun angle on terrain, etc).
Happy forecasting.
David Webb General MemberNice – 3000 hours is quite a milestone.
David Webb General MemberThat was a nice save.
Late into our flight, I radioed up to keep an eye out on the hangie getting low near the water tank at the bottom of the billboard spine (didn’t know who it was). Looked like you had a productive session of getting up and out.
David Webb General MemberLooks like our little group made a couple of cameos starting at 2:44 :)
David Webb General MemberLooking goooooooood. Thanks for your efforts.
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