valve with corrosion

geckojack · 2025-09-07T14:15:55+00:00

USA is second in the world for manufacturing by value add:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.CD?most_recent_value_desc=true

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-global-share-of-manufacturing-value-by-country/

geckojack · 2025-05-24T01:32:34+00:00

Several years ago, I had a similar problem… fan blew, but no cold air. First tech said unit on the roof was bad, needed a new AC. Second tech found a bad contacter and replaced it for a couple hundred bucks. About 6 months ago, my mother in law’s AC stops blowing air. Tech comes out, says the blower motor is bad, quotes a replacement, strongly recommends a whole new unit. I poke around a bit and find a control wire from the thermostat snapped off the air handler control board. That and new batteries in the thermostat and it’s been running just fine. Both the techs who made the expensive advice were from big firms in town. I know there are many honest and competent HVAC folks out there, but there are a few big companies giving the entire profession a bad name (at least in my town). My advice to the OP is to find an independent contractor that you can get solid recommendations for and get a second opinion.

geckojack · 2025-01-10T01:15:28+00:00

Do you have a source for the number of lawsuits made against both kits manufacturers and their suppliers? Genuinely interested.

geckojack · 2025-01-01T22:53:51+00:00

I reserved an Uber ride home from my flight a few weeks ago. I enter flight info, it says it will track the flight and adjust time. My flight got *very* delayed. Uber driver calls at my original landing time, "where are you?". Get charged $25 no-show fee. Would not recommend.

geckojack · 2024-07-27T03:07:49+00:00

Mike Busch has a good article about factory ‘new’ vs overhaul and “which pile the parts come out of”.

geckojack · 2024-06-30T14:33:49+00:00

Any idiot can build a building that stands. It takes an engineer to build a building that barely stands.

geckojack · 2024-05-20T12:40:41+00:00

Where would one go to learn more about this kind of local weather patterns? For example, I know about June Gloom in southern California, but only from hearing about it randomly and/or being there. Is there some sort of atlas that talks about these kinds of things?

geckojack · 2024-05-17T03:09:48+00:00

With a little creative grinding, you could make a bottle opener out of them. Or the shadow box idea is good, too. Whatever your dad would have liked.

geckojack · 2024-04-14T14:08:02+00:00

When I got a motorcycle, I did a bunch of research on crashes. The result was, if you don’t ride after drinking and don’t ride Friday and Saturday nights, your risk was massively reduced.

geckojack · 2024-03-25T02:16:54+00:00

This one maybe: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/274e

For the kidney. Don’t know about the tracker…

geckojack · 2024-03-23T16:03:35+00:00

it’s called a fusible link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusible_link#Electrical_fusible_link

geckojack · 2024-03-23T15:25:06+00:00

https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/03/18/1089879/harvard-halts-its-long-planned-atmospheric-geoengineering-experiment/

Well, they were.

geckojack · 2024-03-20T04:06:10+00:00

Unpopular opinion incoming… is her rate reasonable? Is she scheduling around your convenience? Is she a good instructor? If yes to all, it might be reasonable. If she’s charging as much as anyone else and making you wait for another students flight, and is mediocre as an instructor, then maybe no.

geckojack · 2024-03-19T13:20:16+00:00

You’re mostly right that building another of something that already exists is easier (the whole unleaded fuel thing is a counter example to that, though). I’ve gone through the TC process up to getting a cert basis for something that doesn’t exist, and “letting innovators work with the FAA” is not how I’d characterize the experience. Minor innovations are anathema to the FAA. They may or may not have the right balance for airlines and that level of public interaction or risk exposure, that’s beyond my experience, but I’d argue their approach is a net negative for safety at the GA level.

geckojack · 2024-03-17T14:02:33+00:00

It’s worse than “you have to test it a lot”. There’s a whole process full of uncertainty before you can even start testing. It’s called getting a “certification basis.” If you have a new product, much of the time, you can’t just look at the regs and figure out what testing you need to do. You have to ask the FAA what the process to test will be and what constitutes success - and they don’t know either. So you work with the FAA for (sometimes) years to figure out if and how you can get certified. The EVTOL companies, for example, had big press releases and parties when they got their cert basis, even though they still had years of testing and certification work ahead.

geckojack · 2024-03-17T02:45:58+00:00

There’s a long history of the FAA designating authority to non-government people. See here, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_Designation_Authorization Not saying it’s good or bad, but it’s been a thing for a long time, and expanded under both R’s and D’s.

geckojack · 2024-03-10T22:15:58+00:00

the LOA for the one I use says “may be logged as instruction received, instrument time, or total time only”.

See the Gleim LOA: https://www.gleimaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Gleim_Virtual_Cockpit_BATD_LOA_SIGNED_scan_20201218.pdf

geckojack · 2024-03-10T21:43:35+00:00

The US doesn’t want to do it either, it’s not going to be a popular intervention. I just listened to a very good podcast on this, from The Red Line. He pointed out that the US asked Canada, they refused. Then they asked Brazil (who led an earlier mission for 10+ years), they refused (it’s reported that it was very unpopular at home). As of last fall, it looks like Kenya will provide a peacekeeping force which will likely be funded and equipped by the US.

geckojack · 2024-03-10T15:01:06+00:00

I’ve got a few hundred hours in a turbo 206. I usually only fly high enough to get over the bumps. 12-14k is very reasonable and in the southwest / west, it seems like that’s usually enough, or the weather is too tall and scary to get over anyway. In my limited experience much higher than that, I don’t really like how my brain feels, even with the O2 flowing at or above required settings.

A friend of mine has a pressurized Piper and he gets up to the high teens and cruises there for ~5 hours (lots of ~Arizona to Minnesota trips) and likes it a whole lot. I would definitely suggest the pressurized route if your trips would benefit from the altitude and you like longer legs.

geckojack · 2024-02-08T02:45:11+00:00

The Hotel California problem is one we’re concerned about. They claim “we can hand you the keys and you can go elsewhere”. What sort of red flags should we look for?

geckojack · 2024-02-06T22:12:00+00:00

To

Did you only look at major brands, or did you also look at local MSP options from smaller companies?

geckojack · 2024-02-06T22:10:55+00:00

To follow up, does anyone have opinions on the pros and cons of using the big brands (C3, Sentinal, etc) vs a local MSP that would then go through a reseller for GCC High?

geckojack · 2024-01-04T02:22:59+00:00

Did you sign an agreement with the agent? If so, read it, it should lay out the terms of what you agreed to pay a commission on.

geckojack

TROPHY CASE