Category: FAQ

July 1, 2018

I was asked, recently, what aviation “tools” I use, and how I use them to put together my Texas-Flyer blogs.

I put quotes around “tools” because we’re generally not talking about just physical devices.  We are talking about software (although there is always some hardware that needs to run the software, so I’ll talk about that hardware, too.)

“Aviation tools” and “blog tools” may sound like two different circles in a Venn diagram with almost no intersection, but since I tell stories about my flying, and my primary audience is pilots, then there is some overlap.  For example, my ADS-B system could be considered an “aviation tool,” but does it really help me create a Texas-Flyer blog?  Well, most of the time, not directly.  Indirectly, it certainly helps me stay safe by letting me see and be seen when flying.  More directly, I have taken photos of the iPad screen showing how the ADS-B work.  But most of the time, it isn’t something that would be both an aviation and a blogging tool.  On the other hand, my navigation tools are not just indirectly, but usually directly involved in a blog just due to having information on the flights.

Fundamentally, after I finish a flight, I want to tell a story about that flight.  To tell the story, I need the text, of course, but I also need information about the flight: how I got from point A to point B (and to points C, D, and ???), where I navigated to, when it occurred, why I took the flight, who might have been involved in that flight, and some record of the things I saw and did along the way.  The few tools I use provide me with most of that.

Before I get started enumerating the tools:  These are tools — hardware and software — I use now, but I fully admit they may not be the best and/or only tools for the job.  I’m certainly not advocating for any of these tools, and have no relationship with the makers of these tools, except that I use them.  I change my tools as I find new ones that are better.  You may know of similar tools that are better, and I would love to hear from you!  But so far, the tools I’ve found work well and are usually low-cost or free.  One more thing:  this is not a review, and I’m not going to justify why you should or should not use these products, I only make mention of why I use the products. You’ll have to make up your own mind.  Ok, let’s get started.

Navigation

Purpose-built navigation devices are going the way of the dot-matrix printer, frankly.  That’s not to say that they aren’t a good solution for many aircraft in many environments, but for the small, slow aircraft that I fly, spending a lot of money on a dedicated navigation product is not financially prudent.  Instead, there are a number of excellent navigation software programs that run on iPads, Android tablets, Windows tablets, and iPhone/Android smart-phones.  And most of these are much less expensive than dedicated devices — even if you include the cost of the tablet.

Not only are these software navigation programs less expensive, but updates are common and usually included in the annual subscription.  And if you get a better/faster tablet, then your navigation software will (in theory) run better/faster.  The most popular of these navigation tools (often called generically an EFB, “Electronic Flight Book”) is Foreflight.  However, only 95% of everything I want is in the basic package (at $100/year), but to get the other 5% — the obstruction database — I have to make a huge leap up to the Pro version ($200/year).  So, I looked around and found an excellent alternative that not only works well for me, but is much less expensive and includes the obstruction database:  Adventure Pilot’s iFlyGPS ($70/year).  Yes, there are a few things in the basic Foreflight I don’t get with iFlyGPS, but to me they aren’t critical.  I consider the obstruction data to be critical since I fly low a good part of the time.  And iFlyGPS works quite well for me and I’m very happy with it.  Additionally, it interfaces well with my Stratux, and when I replaced that with a uAvionix echoUAT ADS-B unit, it works well with that too.  So, no complaints.  Adventure Pilot has been very responsive to my comments, bug reports and improvement suggestions.  Is it perfect?  Nope, it has some clunky interfaces for some tasks, but it does 100% of what I need, and about 95% of what I want.

Also, I have it running not just on my iPad, but on my Android smart-phone and on my Windows 10 PC at home.  That gives me the ability to use my PC for planning, and the smart-phone — when in flight — as a reliable redundant backup.

If there is a down-side, it’s simply that it doesn’t do 100% of what I really want, but since there are a couple of other products I use that complement it, I’m not too worried about it.  For what I pay, I get a terrific package, so, no complaints!

I started using iFlyGPS on a new 10.5″ iPad Pro and I loved the size and brightness.  Unfortunately, it didn’t really fit on my panel.  I struggled with it but finally decided to sell it and get an iPad Mini 4, which fits perfectly!  That particular size issue was solved, but the Mini 4 is not as bright, not as fast and, well, it’s smaller.  I think I got spoiled.  But I’m very happy with how it now fits easily into my panel, and the other lesser features are tolerable.

Link:  https://www.iflygps.com

Sample screen:

Flight recorder

This category is tougher for me.  There is a flight recorder in Foreflight, I understand, but I have no experience with it.  And even if it works and does everything I want, it still wouldn’t justify the extra expense.  Especially because I’ve found two other utilities which do provide just what I want, and both are free!  I do still look at flight recorder software that becomes available, but so far I’m happy with these two.

—  CloudAhoy

CloudAhoy is basically, at its core, a flight recorder.  It has a free mode and paid mode.  The paid mode is super-cool and has a ton of really excellent features, but I simply can’t justify paying their subscription fee.  But I still use their free mode as it works as a really good flight recorder, recording where you are, when you had wheels up, wheels down, destination and distances.  So, before each flight, I start the recording function and then rely on it later to give me actual time in the air vs. Hobbs meter time.  The free mode of CloudAhoy will also show you a 2-D track (over the ground) of where you flew.  (Their paid mode does that in 3-D, which is super-cool.)  But for a track, I almost always use Ramblr.  If I need a very accurate track, then I use CloudAhoy.  CloudAhoy has some faults but most of them are minor.  I do have trouble, sometimes, with it knowing which airport I’m at, but that might be because of a poor cell tower signal.  (But since it records where you are via GPS, it should remember all that and figure it out later.)  Still, it’s a good tool and I use it to help me remember details about my flights so that I can enter them into my paper log book.

Link:  https://www.cloudahoy.com

Sample screeshot:

— Ramblr

I’ve used Ramblr for a few years, but until recently I used it only for hiking.  As of this moment, I have 211 “trips” in Ramblr and only 47 of them are “flying” trips.  In November last year I had a kind of epiphany and realized that when I flew it would record my track on the ground, and other statistics.  It makes a nice map, I can add photos and text to make a map and photo-centric story, and I capture the screen from it often to use in my blogs.  In some ways — if you use it with pictures — by itself it’s a kind of small blog.  But it’s photo-centric versus my story-centric Texas-Flyer blogs.  I’ve found that Ramblr will often disagree with CloudAhoy on times, distances, elevations, etc., but it’s all small differences.  When there is a conflict, I usually defer to CloudAhoy since it seems to be more accurate for time in the air, and for distances.  CloudAhoy’s track is also more accurate.

Link:  https://www.ramblr.com

Sample screenshot:

What else?  Well, that is actually it!  The rest of my blog is done via the simple WordPress software and a few 3rd party add-on’s.

As a side note…. I also, for most every flight, will use Glympse.  Glympse can tell someone you choose (and who is also running Glympse) exactly where you are.  My wife and I use Glympse all the time so that we know where each other are, in case one of us has an issue.  Since she cycles a lot, it makes me feel good that I can get to her directly because I’ll know where she is via Glympse.  And she likes me to use it when I fly alone, so she will know where I am.  Glympse does need a cell phone connection to work so it’s not always available when I fly (or, for that matter, when she cycles), but generally it does a fair job most of the time.  For example, on my flight from Maryland to Texas, Glympse worked for about 90% of the time.

When I plan to fly cross-country, I also take along a SPOT, which is probably better than an ELT for most situations.  Yeah, if I crash into a mountain or have a mid-air collision, it won’t automatically be turned on, but as long as I’m able to press a button, I can activate emergency services anywhere I fly.  Plus for non-emergency notifications, I can set it up so my wife and brothers get a text message, showing the time and where I am, when I press the “I’m OK” button.

Glympse and SPOT are not used for the story telling, but I consider them essential components to safe flying.

Oh, I almost forgot….

Photography

Yes, a core element to my Texas-Flyer blogs are the photos, so having a decent camera is important.  I am definitely not going to get into a Nikon vs. Canon debate here, and besides, there are plenty of good cameras that are neither!  But due to the vibration of the aircraft as well as the plane moving around — often, quite suddenly — in just about any direction, having a camera with a sensitive chip, allowing high ISOs, and one that permits you to put your shutter speed at 1/1500 or 1/2000 (or quicker) is vitally important.  It seems no matter how still I try to keep the camera, anything below 1/1500 is subject to movement blur.  This is doubly important when you use a telephoto or zoom lens… and, well, you’ll want to use a telephoto or zoom lens if you’re taking pictures from the plane!

Also, post-processing of images is almost a necessity.  Due to the (usually) great distances between you and your subject, there is a lot of atmosphere (including humidity, dust particles, pollution, etc.) you have to deal with.  Having some kind of photo-editing software that let’s you “de-haze” or “clarify” is very important if you want your audience to see and appreciate your photos.  I’ve been taking photos for many decades, and I fully realize that even the most modern cameras can’t do as good a job of “seeing” as the human eye.  So, the purists who disrespect any kind of editing simply don’t understand:  I make changes to the images so that my reader can see what I saw, not what the camera saw.  To do that requires a light but sure hand with editing software.

I have used many different photo-editing software over the years.  I change them frequently as different features become available inside different software.  Certainly, I always ensure they have the de-haze/clarify capability, at the very least.

How do I know what everything is?

What?  You want ALL my secrets?  Well…. ok…  the answer is:  research.  I’ll give you an example of how I work  (note: this ONLY works if you have GPS data on your photos; if you don’t, keep reading as I’ll show you an alternative method below):

METHOD 1 — use this if you have GPS data on your photo

Step 1:  I take all my photos and I upload them into Google Photos.  You’ll see why in a moment.  It usually takes a while, so I start it then go do something else.

Step 2:  After they are all uploaded, I start writing my story and when a picture needs to be placed within the flow of the story, I look at it to see if I know what it is.  If I take a picture, for example, of the Kemah Boardwalk, I don’t need to look it up.  But if I see something while flying, but don’t know what it is… for example:

then I go to Google Photos and find that photo.  Then I click on the “Info” icon (black circle with an “i” in it).  Then I see something like this:

Look in the bottom-right corner and you’ll see part of a map.  If you click on that, then Google Maps will open up and show you exactly where you were (or where your camera’s GPS thought you were) when you took that picture!  Zoom out a little and you can usually figure out what that is.  This is how I discovered the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center!  And, dear friends, this is one of the many reasons I love flying around, taking pictures…. you never know what you might find!

Note: I’m only using Google Photos as a research tool.  The photos I use in my blogs are post-processed in a photo editor and then imported into my WordPress blog software… I don’t actually use the Google Photo version of the photo in my blog.  I could; it would probably be okay most of the time, but I don’t.  I prefer to take the original and process it, and use it in my blog.

METHOD 2 — use this if you don’t have GPS on your camera.

I mentioned above that Ramblr is a pretty cool tool.  Here’s something else about it that I really love:  I turn on Ramblr on my phone, I go fly and it records my track.  Then, when I get back to my PC, I move the photos on to my PC which I can then upload into my Ramblr “story.”  Ramblr will use the date/time stamp of the photo to figure out where you were when you took the picture!  It’s like magic!

This method requires that your camera date/time setting be very accurate, so check it every week or so to ensure it’s set correctly.  But if it is set correctly, then it’s kind of magical to see Ramblr place your photos right where they were taken.  You do have to be careful and tell Ramblr the time zone (and whether you’re in daylight savings or not), but if you get all your ducks in a row, it usually works out great.  (And it’s reversable if you mess up.)

So, if you’ve done all this, then using Ramblr you can figure out where you were when you took a photo.  Then, either by zooming in to the spot on the Ramblr map (which is a subset of Google Maps), or, if that doesn’t give you enough detail, you can figure out on Google Maps where you were and then zoom in using the full featured Google Maps to look around for what you are looking for, you can almost always find the object or place.

It sounds a bit tedious, yes?  Well, yep.  Research usually is tedious.  But I figure my readers appreciate knowing what it is that I’m taking a picture of, but, frankly, I like knowing what everything is.  Maybe it is tedious, but I enjoy it.  It’s kind of a like a game to me, so it’s fun when I figure out what something is that I didn’t know about before.

What about the rest?

The rest of it is just typing up what I want to say, and assembling the text and the photos in a way that makes sense, that creates the story, and letting WordPress do the rest of the compositional magic.  I go through many iterations before I finally push the “Publish” button, and try to have someone else read the final draft blog to help me find those terribly simple errors that always seem to secret themselves into my text.

I hope this helps someone who might be struggling with these same issues.  And please note that I reserve the right to come back and make changes that reflect any changes I may make in my configuration.  (If I do, I’ll be sure to let you know a change has been made, and what it is.)  And, last, if you know of any tools that have been a big help to you in your aviation trials and tribulations, I would love to hear about them.

 

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January 1, 2018

Given all the changes that have occurred in the last 10 years — both in my life and in aviation — I suddenly had the urge to wax epodic…  And, since this entry is kind of a dividing line between the “old” Texas-Flyer stories and the new ones, now is the time!

Wow, where to start?

Let me first mention how the idea of this blog entry came about.  The primary reason was simply that I’ve been having to “translate” the old Texas-Flyer site to the new one, and in doing so I ended up having to go through all the stories and photos.  I can’t help myself, but I do actually read my own stories!  They range from the year 2000 through 2008 before the long 10-year gap begins.

In those years, most of my flying was done in ultralights, back when 2-seat ultralights were legal.  My first plane, the Quicksilver, and my first gyroplane, the Gyrobee, were my only single-seat ultralights.  The Rossi trike was a 1+1, which meant someone could sit behind you, but it would not be that comfortable (for either of you).  The rest actually were designed as 2-seaters.

The last fixed-wing I owned, the Kolb MkIIIC, I had well past 2008 — in fact, I didn’t sell it until last year, 2017! — but the number of flights in it after 2008 were small, and all those flights were just around the pattern.  There were no Texas-Flyer stories written about the pattern work, even though I was still flying.  In reality, the seeming 10 year gap was only a 4-year gap.  10 years between stories but only 4 years between major contiguous flying periods.  The reasons for that gap in flying were due to several significant upheavals in my personal and work life but I won’t bore you with the details.  Most of my issues had been resolved by 2015 but in the meantime I had totally lost interest in my Kolb.   I decided to sell it.

In May 2016, not having any success in selling the Kolb, I put it in storage while I took a trip around the U.S., visiting national parks.  The following year, I again tried and, this time, I was successful in selling it….. in March 2017.   It may not have been the first time I’d been without an aircraft since I started in 2000, but it was a longer gap than the previous times.

Following up on a decades-long passion

Ever since I had flown the Gyrobee back in 2009-2011…

…I knew eventually I wanted to end up with a 2-seat gyroplane, so I set my sights on that.  Truth be told, I’ve been fascinated by gyros ever since Igor Bensen found himself on the cover of Popular Science magazine, in the 1950’s.

When shopping for my ultimate flying machine, my wife insisted on a side-by-side configuration, and she wanted it fully enclosed.  (I’m actually grateful she insisted on those features… I’m certainly enjoying them!)  But those types of gyroplanes were difficult to find.  In fact, back in 2011, they were rare as hen’s teeth.  In the years since, the Europeans had definitely upped the game by creating significant advances  in the engineering, aerodynamics and build-quality of their gyroplanes.  (Of course, the rules in Europe encouraged these kinds of advanced whereas the FAA rules were very antiquated and short-sighted… and still are.)

Last year, Lady Luck smiled broadly on me, plus I had been saving for such a plane for a while — and selling the Kolb helped — so I ended up buying a real dream machine, something that far exceeds every spec of all my other aircraft, and I couldn’t be happier.  Better yet, my wife loves it!

So, the dividing line has come about for Texas-Flyer because my personal and work life has been resolved.  And I have a new machine!  But, also, although I was metaphorically standing still for those 10 years, in the ensuing time period, aviation and technology have not been so static.

Re-reading the stories, I have been amazed at the differences between a cross-county flight then as compared to now.  There have been incremental and evolutionary changes in engineering, materials, design, engines, and other areas, but what has noticeably changed — at an almost revolutionary level — are the improvements in navigation and data handling.

The Texas-Flyer stories are rife with comments like “I don’t know where the airport is…”, or, “I’m not sure what that is…”.  Today, real-time moving maps with sectionals overlaid on them, plus the full content of the old A/FD (Airport and Facilities Directory) can now be summoned up with a touch of the screen.   There is a lot of anxiety that shows through regarding the weather, too, and modern navigation apps also provide weather that helps one plan better, and fly more safely.  Many of the apps can even let you file a flight plan directly.

With the addition of ADS-B (granted, at this time it’s not yet required, but will be in most aircraft, large and small, by 2020… only 2 years away), real-time location of other aircraft as well as en route weather will be available and constantly updated.  Even for someone in the IT industry, these improved capabilities are pretty incredible.  Now, cross-county trips are planned better and executed more exactly and safely.

Yes, there are downsides to the new navigation technology, not the least of which is more (some might say, total) reliance on GPS and loss of map-reading, pilotage and dead-reckoning skills.  Also, pilots may spend too much time with their head inside the cockpit and not enough executing ‘see and avoid’, the primary skill required of pilots.  And less conscientious pilots may take off on cross-country flights, thinking the weather information will provide them with enough data for them to avoid problems when the truth is, they never should have left the house and headed for the airport!

But all new technologies often bring new problems with them, and this isn’t any different.  The advantages do outweigh the disadvantages, and these changes are inevitable.  I’m just glad I’m still flying around and able to exploit these new technologies.  (This is more important given that I’m now flying a more long-range aircraft!)

Onward into the Future

At this point, I anticipate adding to the library of Texas-Flyer stories, and many of my flights will be much further afield.  My range has increased to more than 400 miles per day (with a fuel stop), and because my new plane is more comfortable, can fly in higher winds, and can deal better with turbulence, then I am more likely to do longer cross-country flights.

Since my navigational ability is orders of magnitude better than even the last time I flew a long cross-country (The Aventura’s Last Trip) in 2005, I’m more likely to make those long trips.  Last, because I’m now retired, I don’t have as many time-constraints as before.  If I get caught out, I can wait out the weather without the anxiety of having to get back.

Idle contemplation, though, has made me wonder if my new, comfy, capable, long-distance aircraft will reduce the tension in my stories… will it have become too easy?  Are my readers secretly waiting for me to fall — presupposing the truism of ‘everyone loves a car wreck’.  Are they cheering me on because I was fighting slim odds?  Hmmm, I don’t know.  But I hope you’re reading because you’re interested in the process of flying, the fascinating machines, the things I see, and the interesting — if off-the-beaten path — places I go.  I’d like to think you’re a pilot like me or at least maybe an arm-chair pilot, and you’re hoping I don’t have any problems as I venture out.  I may never know, really, but I’m very glad you’re still reading.  I do try to make it interesting!

Regardless of the reason, I hope you’ll continue to enjoy my stories, as much as I enjoy assembling and telling them!

— Robert

P.S.  My most ardent hope is that I hear from more of you, both in comments and in subscriptions to the blog.  I really would prefer this to be a 2-way conversation and not just a monologue.  I’d love to hear from you!

 

Note:  If you enjoyed this or any of my other blog entries, I suggest you subscribe to this blog so that you are automatically notified when I make a new entry.  Go to the top of this page, and look along the left side for the subscription field.