It's been months since I got a good set of sectional raster DVDs from the FAA. For a couple cycles a Miami image was missing georeferencing data. That was fixed but then the current set I received had a bad (East) disk. So I called to see if I could get another. They didn't have any extra disks...

My wife completed her Ph.D. in May and now has a part-time faculty position at Purdue. This semester she's teaching the Aviation...

....how about some cookies for dessert? http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0804CarCookies04-ON.html --kyler

I just got this in an investor update from Borealis. ************************* Missing pilot and plane We are delighted to report that the plane and the pilot were found. Dave is fine; the plane crashed and is probably a total loss as a wing broke off, possibly from wind sheer. Dave was flying...

This struck me as something that could make loading the plane a little easier. http://ricardobeverlyhills.com/scale.html Then I thought about it for another second. No, my fish scale is a whole lot more versatile. It's not like I'm going to find a self-weighing 5 gallon dogfood bag so I'll always...

I submitted a form for some information from the FAA awhile back. As I recall, I received a response only by telephone. Today I received some spam ("Cialis - No prescription needed!") to the address I gave in that form. Tough to tell exactly what happened but I'm curious if anyone else has...

I've tried to follow the "charitable airlift" discussions here over the years and it usually makes my head hurt. I was just contacted with a request to transport and I could really use some Usenet-level advice. (Yeah, I've got AOPA legal services but I get better info here.) There's a Rottweiler...

I fell behind in maintaining my copies of FAA data last year. http://aviationtoolbox.org/raw_data/FAA/ As a new year's resolution, I decided to get going again. I misplaced the December ATA-100 data but I now have the January version in place. http://aviationtoolbox.org/old/ATA-100/ The raster...

I just saw a clip on the local news about a single-engine turboprop that landed on a Highway 933 in Roselawn yesterday after having engine problems. It looks like it might be a PC-12. It's N922RG. It was going from South Bend Regional, IN to White Plains, NY with five people on board. They were...

I hate software patents. They *really* burn me when they're on things that I've already discussed and planned to do. Here's one. http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/323-full.html#188748 Any GPS can tell you where you are but Control Vision's Anywhere Map system tells you where you...

I've been asked to help write some code to assist in flight planning by choosing routes. I have just enough Computer Science and IFR background to make me dangerous. I said that I'd donate my effort if it results in Free code the community can use. So we're making this a community...

As I was considering renting a car today I noticed that Enterprise has a section for general aviation. http://www.enterprise.com/GA "from your wings to our wheels" Last time I rented an Enterprise car it was from a place just down the road from N10. (They picked us up at the airport.) ...

Getting ready for some flights today I noticed this. Kansas City Center (Olathe KS) : August NOTAM #19 issued by Gps Notam OA GPS unreliable within a 350 nautical miles radius of TRUTH or CONSEQUENCES VORTAC (TCS) at FL400, decreasing in area with decrease with altitude to 300 nautical miles...

I needed a break this morning so I whipped up a trivial little script to create a sectional image from GPS data. https://aviationtoolbox.org/Members/kyler/tools/trip_plot It just barely works but it takes NMEA $GPRMC sentences and generates a JPEG. I noticed that there are people who like to...

When I got my first DVD of sectional images from the FAA I was thrilled by the quality of the scans. I did, however, notice that the sectionals had wide-ranges of colors to denote similar elevations. This was especially noticeable out west where the sectionals meet. Lately I've noticed that some...

The best part is watching students. http://lairds.us/Kyler/photos/disk0026/img_2097.jpg/image_viewer (If I knew a way to prevent this from becoming a high-wing/low-wing thread I would do it.) --kyler

In a CSI Miami episode that I recorded awhile ago, a pilot crashes onto a beach. The NTSB inspector (who appears to be a complete idiot compared to the profound star of the show), says "long flight over the ocean; the pilot probably had a class four rating". Does that have any basis in reality? ...

Thanks to Dennis Megary at MyAirplane.com, I've added the vector (PDF) approach plates to my collection. http://aviationtoolbox.org/raw_data/FAA/approaches/ There's a lot that I plan to do with these, but for now I have a terribly simple kludge for finding them...

I see that the Fairey Rotodyne had a max. gross weight of over 32,000 pounds. The only gyro in which I have time was close to 2% of that weight. It's been years since I've been to a PRA fly-in, but I only recall seeing *little* (two-person max.) aircraft - much lighter than the 5200 pound...

I'm interested in knowing how important the availability of WiFi access to the Internet is when pilots choose an FBO. Is it enough of a benefit to really affect your choice, or is it just one more thing that is nice to have. If it affects your choice, is it enough to make you select one FBO over...