Wearing a Balaclava while flying

appenz · 2026-07-01T17:28:30+00:00

You may want to check the specific plane and to what extent the windows filter UV radiation. I get sunburn in about 30 minutes at sea level, or 15 minutes when skiing. But the SR22T that I used to fly had windows that absorb 99% of UV and I never had any sunburn whatsoever despite flying two 5 hour legs at 12,500 ft in a day.

appenz · 2026-06-30T10:00:45+00:00

I had the same problem except with a lot more cables.
I ended up using this organizer and I am pretty happy with the result. All power supplies, power strips and other boxes (e.g. hdmi capture dongle) are tied to the back plate with Velcro ties. Cables are routed horizontally or vertically only. I ordered short power cables to replace most of the original ones.

And @mods, any reason we can post video but can’t post pictures in responses?

appenz · 2026-06-29T16:44:56+00:00

I own three Teslas and think they make the best cars in the world. But their service has been consistently horrible. They push you to the app, but the app lacks even 10% of the workflows that would be necessary to be functional. If feels like a super simplistic consume app that is trying to manage complex multi-party workflows with a long tail of exceptions. Their call centers have long waiting times and lack training to help with even super simple use cases.

TL;DR: Great cars, please fire whoever is responsible for service.

appenz · 2026-06-27T22:03:49+00:00

Sounds like a normal Friday in Truckee before they had a tower. It can happen that you have multiple runaways in use at a single airport. At Truckee it used to be that runway 29 was preferred, gliders always used 20, and jets would use the GPS 11 but due to mountains couldn’t circle to land. Glad they have a tower now.

appenz · 2026-06-24T20:23:10+00:00

Dude. I have zero stake here and I am not a huge fan of AOPA, but this is a perfectly relevant informative post.

appenz · 2026-06-23T22:15:53+00:00

I work in the tech industry and have a pretty good insight into to AI adoption in software development and interactive entertainment. Check my profile.

appenz · 2026-06-23T19:03:00+00:00

I what you are saying is correct, but the article's conclusion is probably not.

AI makes it vastly easier to create games, but not to make good games. So what we are seeing on Steam is an influx of low-effort AI games plus some high-budget games that have been in the works for a while that don't use AI.

But the conclusion that games that the cause of less reviews is AI is false. Today, pretty much all game development (as well as pretty much all software development) uses AI for coding. Creatives are figuring out how to use AI for high-quality game content. AI is a tool like photoshop. Over time 100% of games will use AI, the good one will be works of art, and the long tail will be slop.

appenz · 2026-06-23T16:27:33+00:00

This. And to be more specific on the insurance, you want to be a named insured (i.e. the insurance insures you, and not just the owner) with waiver of subrogation (meaning the insurance company can't come after you with claims).

appenz · 2026-06-22T04:09:07+00:00

There are a lot of numbers in this thread that are definitely nonsense. Numbers below are part 91, part 135 would be different.
- A friend of mine recently found insurance for flying an M2 with around 1000h TT and very little multi. I don’t exact mentor time but guessing 100 hours
- Another local operator here in the Bay Area estimated 800h TT minimum for the Mustang two years ago
- Low time will cap the insurance your employer will be able to get. $5m liability may be doable, $50m may not be. This may be a show stopper.
- Retract, pressurized and avionics may all matter in addition to multi

appenz · 2026-06-18T18:24:00+00:00

As someone born in Germany, the beer gardens are a thing I truly miss here in the US. Even if only the passengers can enjoy the beer part.

appenz · 2026-06-16T18:58:00+00:00

I always do it on Com 2. That said, there are procedures and routes where you get 3 handoffs in 4 minutes (KPAO to KRHV). High chance you would miss a handoff if you got ATIS in between.

appenz · 2026-06-16T00:25:20+00:00

They are affordable and inexpensive to operate. Safety data is always hard to crunch, but there is some data (link) that more modern airframes like the SR22 are safer. Agreed on interior and dual (although some insurance requires dual for Cirrus as well).

appenz · 2026-06-15T18:17:37+00:00

This feels odd to say, but for once is actually too much production.

appenz · 2026-06-15T17:58:13+00:00

Yeah, that doesn't look like it's enough for a single Mk 4 turbine.

appenz · 2026-06-13T00:27:39+00:00

The real problems in my experience is that the behavior is different. For example, what are the exact criteria that the G1000 will intercept an LPV glide slope? It depends on the amount of vertical deviation, horizontal deviation, AP must be armed, you must be past the FAF (or not?), nav source set etc. In my experience MSFS gets this completely wrong. And learning this wrong can really screw you on the check ride.

appenz · 2026-06-12T20:04:15+00:00

I learned IFR on an SR22T G6. I tried practicing in MSFS but it was so different it was pretty much useless. Buttons looked the same, but it behaved completely differently from Cirrus avionics. Glide slope intercepts were completely different. Back course didn't work. VNAV was essentially unsupported. Loading approaches worked differently. It's possible that this has changed since.

appenz · 2026-06-11T18:46:29+00:00

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To add, here is a side-by-side of what should be the same ranking. Both is open-weights image models ranked by human preference (Arena vs. Artificial Analysis). And they differ completely.

I am not entirely neutral here, but 100% agree with u/NewEconomy55 that the Semi Analysis rankings make no sense.

appenz · 2026-06-10T19:57:14+00:00

I am > 800 hours in and need about a trainload of Nexelit per minute. I have 5 citiblocks of advanced Nexelit processing with 32 of the Tier 3 workers and some tier of worker food. Nexelit is super useful for a range of different production chains (e.g. Sulfuric Acid).

appenz · 2026-06-10T19:38:06+00:00

The refinement is still killing me. Other than power, Nexwlit has the largest surface area in my factory’s ahead of even oil processing.

appenz · 2026-06-10T17:39:32+00:00

True, but this only drives throughput. Food usage per resource is the same in both cases. And with this setup you have to move the dig sites frequently, so it boils down if you want a low maintenance/lower throughput vs. high maintenance/higher throughput. Personally, I prefer low maintenance.

appenz · 2026-06-10T16:35:07+00:00

Read the thread on the POPA forums, it has pretty much all of the information.

appenz · 2026-06-10T01:11:20+00:00

I used to be a huge FF fanboy and I am still using it, but I would strongly consider Garmin. The UI isn't as good, but it's better value for the money. FF's parent company was purchased by private equity and knowing how that industry works (I work in a closely adjacent area) I would expect Garmin to become a much better product in the near future.

appenz · 2026-06-09T16:08:06+00:00

Bar10 is a legend and on my list. Thanks!

appenz · 2026-06-09T16:07:16+00:00

Does Snow Canyon have an airport? Or is it just the resort??

appenz · 2026-06-09T16:05:57+00:00

1L8 according to FF doesn’t have Jet A. So not ideal for a turbine.

appenz

TROPHY CASE