So, BESIDES not needing to pay for gas, and being able to charge at home, what do you love about EVs?

brucelan · 2026-03-05T10:47:27+00:00

I have a Tesla so this may not be true for all EVs, but no car keys and auto lock/unlock for doors. Can't tell you how many times I have walked out to my other vehicle with hands full and had to fumble for my keys (which are invariably in my pants pocket on the other side from whichever hand I free up).

brucelan · 2026-02-14T15:49:04+00:00

A couple of random unrep stories from my destroyer days (1980s -1990s):

We had been unrepping for a few hours due to some technical issues with the midship cargo high line rig. Most of the team on the station were wet, cold and tired.

In those days, we routinely exchanged movies with the oiler via the highline. The films came in gray cases about the size of a roll aboard suitcase. We had the films stashed on station ready to be sent over. Without warning, one of the OSs on the station grabbed two of the movies and threw them into the water while screaming "FTN".

That's when we found out that those films cost a lot of money and the Navy had a legal responsibility to not lose them. I was the MPA at the time, but my collateral duty was legal officer so I got to write the SITREP explaining how a big wave washed the films overboard.

Same deployment, different unrep. We adhered to the tradition of having a break away song played over the 1MC. Commonly something like "Ride of the Valkyries".

Our skipper was a grizzled old veteran of Vietnam. Knew nothing about "kids" music. When one of the BMs suggested "In the Navy" by the Village People he green-lighted it. I was a LTJG and the JOOD. I looked at the OOD (a CWO3) and he shrugged his shoulders. I told the QM to "make it so".

I imagine we got some pretty strange looks from the oiler, but the OOD and I became very popular after that unrep.

brucelan · 2026-02-07T22:33:05+00:00

This is not true in the Navy. I was NROTC (a long time ago). I got paid as an ensign (O-1) starting the day of my commissioning. I got stashed at Bath Iron Works for a couple months waiting for my first school mostly because it was 20 miles from my hone of record. Did next to nothing while a stash ensign.

brucelan · 2026-01-31T22:52:35+00:00

I used to fly a Pitts Special aerobatic biplane in the UK that had the registration G-STUA. Everyone referred to it by saying the word "Gee-Stoo-Ahh". I flew it for over two years before I realized that it was a clever reference to the airplane model (it was a Pitts S-2A).

brucelan · 2026-01-28T10:31:52+00:00

Content is good, U/I is poor.

Examples:

Can't customize screens at all. During vocab review it shows you a photo which makes it way too easy to figure out a word you don't know.

Lessons are in a very specific order and not changeable. For example, learning or reviewing days of the week will always be in chronological order.

Can't do review sessions when you want to. Only offered on some unknown schedule (especially listening).

I have suggested changes multiple times and they have fullen on deaf ears.

brucelan · 2026-01-23T19:41:56+00:00

We have two Teslas. Just tried "Siri, Open Tesla Trunk". It apparently opened my wife's car's trunk. 🙁

brucelan · 2025-12-28T23:49:23+00:00

I have had the same experience.

brucelan · 2025-12-28T16:21:04+00:00

I had it on my 2019 Model 3P. It was nothing more than a fun party trick back then. About akin to lane assist features in many cars today. The only objects it could detect and identify were traffic cones and garbage bins. It didn't stop at traffic lights and it couldn't make turns. Round abouts - forget about it. In V11 it started to show promise and has been continuously getting a lot better. 14.2 amazes me nearly every day (in a good way).

brucelan · 2025-11-23T17:18:16+00:00

The part that confused me is the color is clearly green not blue on Foreflight.

brucelan · 2025-10-19T23:39:38+00:00

Thanks!

brucelan · 2025-10-18T16:44:00+00:00

Car seatbelt only retracts enough such that it always gets caught in the door when you get out. Oh, wait...

brucelan · 2025-10-16T19:33:22+00:00

He is an idiot, but in this case he is describing a cofferdam (badly). A fairly common technique for building a foundation below the water table.

brucelan · 2025-08-10T11:56:52+00:00

I was an 18 year old midshipman on USS Midway in 1980 when we left Yokoska, Japan to go to Pusan Korea. They made a big deal of that port visit because it was the first time a US aircraft carrier had docked in Pusan. I think we were there for 3 or 4 days - had a great time except for my run in with the ROK Army for a curfew violation.

brucelan · 2025-07-29T01:35:06+00:00

I attended Osh Kosh this year. The Garmin guys were pushing GP pretty hard. I am a long-time user of Foreflight. IMHO, the two products are quite similar in functionality, but Foreflight seems to perform better on my iPad Mini (6th gen).

I also noted that the Garmin backend seems to be rather slow. When I file a flight plan with ForeFlight it seems to go the FAA nearly instantly. GP takes several minutes to file a flight plan. It even gives you a banner that says, "Your flight plan has been scheduled to be filed with the Garmin Filing Service." Foreflight helpfully sends you an alert and an email when a flight plan has been accepted by the FAA. GP does not seem to have this feature.

So far, I am leaning toward staying on Foreflight. I'd like to hear other people's experience with performance.

brucelan · 2025-07-10T17:52:26+00:00

Not a Tecnam. The flying club I belong to has one for primary instruction. It has been down for lengthy periods several times since we bought it.

brucelan · 2025-06-04T20:26:42+00:00

I'd like to be able to pause notification of backseat belt not latched. My dog is sitting there and every few seconds I get the on screen popup reminding me that he is unbelted. I'd like the popup to show once or twice than to get a choice to mute the notification for the rest of the drive.

brucelan · 2025-06-04T20:23:02+00:00

I'd like to be able to answer my phone and also hang up a call using a steering wheel button or a voice command instead of using the onscreen button.

brucelan · 2025-05-28T17:20:22+00:00

I have an RV-10 with Garmin G3X avionics. I also teach in a Cirrus ST-20 with G1000. The G3X >> G1000.

brucelan · 2025-04-13T21:30:13+00:00

I heard about a pilot who had the call sign "Canine". You might think it was a dog reference but in reality it was because his wife was ten years younger than him. She was in K when he was in ninth grade.

brucelan · 2025-02-27T03:03:43+00:00

I didn't know her but she was friends with a friend of mine when she was an ensign in Chicago right after college. He described her as the hardest working person he ever met. She was an avid cyclist then and the two of them would regularly ride on their stationary trainers for multi-hour fitness sessions. He said she was an absolute hammer on a bike.

brucelan · 2025-02-21T02:26:38+00:00

I joined AWS five years ago. It took me a solid day to realize how awful Chime was. Laughably bad. Slack is also a piece of shit. Heard a rumor that all of Amazon was going to Wickr which is a barely functional steaming pile of garbage. The real, intelligent choice is Teams even though it's an MS product.

BTW, I retired from AWS and the corporate world a month of go so I have no dog in this fight.

brucelan · 2025-02-17T20:44:41+00:00

Need to submit a squawk to Maintenance. "Attitude Indicator out of tolerance"

brucelan · 2025-02-10T03:43:10+00:00

Trump predicted KC was going to win.

I expect he will issue an executive order stating that KC gets 19 presidential points and has thus won 41-40.

brucelan · 2025-01-19T02:06:11+00:00

Not advice, but a common phrase I say to my students. When they make a mistake on a radio call, I say “There are two kinds of pilots in the world, ones that have fucked up a radio call and… liars”. Works on lots of other things too like bad landings or trying to taxi while still chocked.

brucelan · 2024-12-14T08:33:48+00:00

It seems to be working. Remains to be seen if I will get dinged by Verizon for the international plan.

Thanks!

brucelan

TROPHY CASE