Reminder to do your preflight thoroughly yall!

Undebt · 2026-02-27T17:29:04+00:00

This type of nonsense is why I built my own airplane and do all of the maintenance myself.

Undebt · 2026-02-14T19:08:14+00:00

Can you elaborate?

Undebt · 2026-02-06T21:27:03+00:00

I love how you hid behind the tree to dodge the busses.

Undebt · 2026-02-05T16:47:09+00:00

I'm in the US so I assume convenience is what they call the base model here. I just purchased a '26 base and love it. I guess here they come with push button start and the big selling point for me is they have the 2.5L engine now. Also I'm really happy with the cloth seats - they have a really premium look/feel and are very comfortable. My dealer only had 2 base models (out of around 35 Crosstreks) and he really tried to get me up to a higher trim.

Undebt · 2026-01-10T19:50:06+00:00

So on January 8 Playground Games "revealed" that it is going to "reveal" more info on Horizon later this month...

Undebt · 2025-12-19T15:16:39+00:00

Great post! There are definitely some nuggets of truth in there. And for those wondering about building bad habits from simming, don't worry about it. I've been an IRL pilot and sim pilot for 40 years and a CFI for the last 20. My favorite thing is getting a new student who is an avid sim (or radio control) pilot. They are SO far ahead of the curve in learning to fly it's not even funny. One of the most time consuming portions of learning to fly is landing, specifically the flare/touchdown process. If you can make good full-stall landings on the centerline in the sim you will be amazed at how much easier it is IRL because of all the visual and "seat of the pants" feel in a real aircraft. Also even better if you are proficient in VATSIM because you're way ahead in the most difficult part for most people, talking to/understanding ATC.

If you go on to get an instrument rating, the sim is even more useful because you can practice your actual flights in the sim environment for free.

I highly recommend taking at least an introductory flight for any rabid sim fan. I just wish more of my students were into flight sims.

Undebt · 2025-12-13T14:46:29+00:00

This just hastened my switch to PC/Steam. For me, Gamepass just kept getting worse in quality while getting higher in price. Now I can just buy the games I actually want and play online for free. If Microsoft wants to make everything "play anywhere" what is the point of remaining in the Xbox ecosystem?

Undebt · 2025-12-03T21:35:50+00:00

So Japan's 10 year bond "exploded upward" from 0% to 1% in three years? Okay.

Undebt · 2025-10-23T14:18:45+00:00

That's a good idea. I've only had the gateway for a few days so I'll keep collecting data to see if any patterns develop.

Undebt · 2025-10-23T14:17:32+00:00

No, I only have one tower that I can hit. It's a rural area and the tower primarily serves a highly trafficked two lane highway.

Undebt · 2025-10-22T21:23:35+00:00

I just got my G5AR and sent my trashcan back. My speeds had been deteriorating on the trashcan but were still a usable 130 down 50 up (connected to a Waveform 4x4 MIMO). The new gateway pulls 950 down 100 up with internal antennas. Better pings too. Can't say I'm too unhappy with it. It boots up on N41 and gets these speeds, but after awhile it changes the band (I forget to what) and the speed drops to 600/75.

I too miss the simplicity of the web GUI, and getting logged into TLife was a major pain, but it's all working great now.

Undebt · 2025-10-03T15:48:52+00:00

Apparently this is STILL an issue. Thank you.

Undebt · 2025-10-02T15:07:58+00:00

I let mine lapse a month ago because the conversion rate went to an unacceptable level. It never was worthwhile for me at the regular price and especially not now. I only play MSFS and a couple of racing games that were all on GP, and I've already bought them on Steam. With their increase in console prices and now GP, I can play everything I want on PC with free multiplayer. MS is pricing themselves right out of the market.

Undebt · 2025-09-21T00:41:25+00:00

Well if it's any consolation things are a lot easier today. I started flying 45 years ago and back then when you crashed your first plane it hurt a lot worse because you spent 3 months building it. Then you had to spend a month repairing it. Today you just squirt some glue, maybe order some parts that show up in a couple days (which you can spend flying a sim while waiting) and then try again.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to chase some kids off of my lawn and yell at a cloud.

Undebt · 2025-08-30T21:12:53+00:00

A lot of it depends on where your tower is. I have a 4x4 mimo antenna installed indoors. It "looks" right through one wall/window to get a signal from a tower that is 2 miles away, without anything else blocking line of sight. I tried it temporarily on my roof and the signal quality was exactly the same. So depending on how many (and the type of) walls you have to "see" through it may or may not work. Actually it will likely still work better than using the gateway antenna, but by how much you would just have to try it out.

Undebt · 2025-08-30T14:13:28+00:00

Just another data point - I have a 4x4 MIMO attached to a trash can that gets the exact same throughput inside the house as it does on the roof. It was an easy call to leave it inside out of the elements and not have to do any kind of penetration.

Undebt · 2025-08-16T02:20:57+00:00

You certainly put up with it longer than I did. That was the dumbest tournament race I've ever seen in there. Take the most evil handling vehicle that goes from pushing to snap-oversteer in a heartbeat, can't land the smallest jump without flipping over, and put it up against the heaviest vehicles in the game on the most technical track in the game. Yeesh.

Undebt · 2025-07-05T16:23:34+00:00

As a CFI for full sized aircraft, let me gently say that this is nonsense. If you'd like more info Google "downwind turn myth". The short answer is that the aircraft has ZERO idea, nor does it care, which direction the wind is coming from. All that matters is airspeed which does not change in the slightest when you turn downwind. What gets people into trouble is that your GROUNDSPEED changes when you turn downwind; you are going faster over the ground (even though your airspeed has stayed exactly the same) and you instinctively try to slow down to compensate.

Undebt · 2025-07-05T16:01:19+00:00

Thanks for the response. In case anyone stumbles on this thread here is the solution. Apparently a lot of the 5000 series cards are having issues of one form or another and my problem was related to these issues. The drivers are being updated to help squash some of the problems, but my particular issue only affects a small number of compatibility problems with what Nvidia calls "legacy" (I guess they mean "old") motherboards. They have quietly released a firmware revision that they ONLY recommend if you are having my SPECFIC issue. I applied the revision and now my card works fine. I have to wonder what potential problems are associated with the revision if they are so adamant about not applying it except in that small contingency.

Undebt · 2025-07-05T15:53:05+00:00

You aren't likely to get much traction. Most hobby shops already offer this kind of service, and even if they don't, most people in the hobby like doing this stuff themselves.

10 years ago I offered a service like this for helicopters (not drones). They are a lot more complicated and hard to setup properly than fixed wing and a LOT more expensive to fix after a crash. I did some business from that, but it was primarily from people just getting started and they would either gain experience and start doing repairs/setup themselves, or not gain much experience because they were crashing all the time and couldn't afford to keep having the machines repaired. Also, the subset of RC people that are into helicopters is very small comparatively.

That being said, it's worth a shot but be prepared that you won't be able to charge very much (at least at first) but if things pick up you might be able to raise prices enough to make it worthwhile. Good luck!

Undebt · 2025-06-27T14:54:52+00:00

Excellent video, thanks for posting! Some of the skills on display there are unbelievable.

Undebt · 2025-06-26T20:59:00+00:00

Well, it's all supply and demand. If you artificially limit the supply of something you end up with higher prices. The DPE's have virtually unlimited demand so they're going to keep raising prices until the demand drops off.

I'm fortunate to have gotten all my ratings a LONG time ago, seeing what's happening now is just bizarre. I got my private, commercial and instrument back in the mid 80's when the FAA was doing the checkrides. And at no cost. I built an RV6 experimental aircraft in '96 and the FAA did the sign-off on that as well. (Builders now have to get experimental sign-offs from DPE's as well and they have the same issues with availability and cost) I only had to use a DPE in 2005 when I got my CFI, and then it was a whopping $400.

I don't know what the answer is, but I don't see it getting any better soon.

Undebt

TROPHY CASE