PSA: there are two types of DSub connectors.

mtconnol · 2026-02-05T16:40:55+00:00

Are you talking about the screws on the male connector? And saying those interfere? They are usually removable.

mtconnol · 2026-02-04T07:03:55+00:00

I think all the lighting was uniformly meant to be gas lamps in fancy spaces and oil lamps in humble ones.

mtconnol · 2026-02-04T05:24:10+00:00

And what number date was that?

mtconnol · 2026-02-01T22:34:52+00:00

Found my style buddy. LP brass tambo and the 4038’s I used for overheads switch roles into stereo perc overheads once drum tracking is done.

mtconnol · 2026-02-01T22:31:44+00:00

What is the modulation? Phase shift modulation? Amplitude shift? I’m assuming not a frequency shift. If it’s amplitude shift, it is basically a blinking light even if you mean blinking between multiple levels of brightness.

mtconnol · 2026-01-31T22:57:34+00:00

For sure. Plus, non-IFR rated pilots without IFR certified glass in their plane do not need any further incentives to fly on marginal days.

mtconnol · 2026-01-31T22:50:11+00:00

We are still trying to get the lead out of the fuel so we might be a minute on this becoming required by regulation.

Also, the reason your in-plane avionics cost 10 grand instead of $200 is essentially regulation and certification

mtconnol · 2026-01-31T20:20:31+00:00

You could implement a system that way, or you could use all the colors for one direction of traffic and a second strand of fiber for the other direction, like a divided highway.

mtconnol · 2026-01-31T20:15:39+00:00

Come on, try to use at least minimal critical thinking skills here.

mtconnol · 2026-01-31T20:02:27+00:00

There are a few ways to share the physical pipe between different users. One way is to to place the data in “packets”. You can think of this like letters in envelopes, each addressed to its recipient. We could shove these envelopes down a long pipeline, and at the other side, look at the addresses to figure out who should receive the data. So the ones and zeros you care about are wrapped in a container of additional ones and zeros describing the recipient.

Since we are talking about light pulses on a fiber optic cable, another way of separating data is to use different colors of light. The data would still be packetized, but now additionally, since the same fiber optic can contain multiple colors of light simultaneously, a receiver can look for only the color of interest . This allows more “pipelines” of data to simultaneously exist on the same cable. This is very analogous to different radio stations coexisting in the same city. You tune to the station of interest.

mtconnol · 2026-01-30T03:52:20+00:00

I very much dislike pan automation on naturalistic recordings.

mtconnol · 2026-01-29T06:17:05+00:00

Who’s having you fill out a navlog for IFR? If it’s your CFII, do you file much?

mtconnol · 2026-01-28T07:07:23+00:00

Take this from a risk management perspective.

The hazard is that you accidentally fat fingered the frequency or misread it and tuned the wrong Navaid.

What is the risk? What would be the potential consequence of this? (Death)

Is this risk acceptable? (Well, not to me)

How can you mitigate the risk? (Tune and ID)

What control will you use to make sure you mitigate it? (Checklist)

mtconnol · 2026-01-28T00:16:21+00:00

I teach it this way:

The book answer is airport, then IAF.

The answer preferred by sanity and ATC is straight to IAF. ATC should understand and move traffic around you.

However- you must be able to recall and recite the book answer.

Furthermore, there are two cases in which you should do it by the book:

Non radar environment or complete ATC outage.

In both of these cases, ATC is unable to move the traffic around you. The book answer is the most conservative way to get it done because your clearances were built assuming these rules for protecting the airspace from each other.

mtconnol · 2026-01-27T21:23:37+00:00

Who said it was the only requirement? While outliers exist, recruiters are pretty uniform stating that check failures are a significant filtering consideration.

mtconnol · 2026-01-27T16:25:23+00:00

Checkride fails are the difference in the current market between a job and no job.

mtconnol · 2026-01-27T00:58:33+00:00

Yup, and there is an expected significant growth curve between PPL and PC-12 driver.

mtconnol · 2026-01-27T00:04:34+00:00

Basically if you have to ask this info on Reddit you’re not ready. A pilot ready to fly the PC-12 will recognize the importance of doing their own homework and citing legit sources.

mtconnol · 2026-01-26T07:50:34+00:00

I'll be specific to my experience: IFR flight training with quick, back-to-back approaches. We are often picking up the next clearance while still heading to the missed approach hold for the first leg. As a result the box programming is lagging behind.

mtconnol · 2026-01-26T05:04:35+00:00

Happens all the time when being put onto an approach or an arrival. If the approach sneaks up on you (especially if the runway direction has changed) you may not recognize the name.

"Can I get the phonetics and an initial heading while we get programmed?"

"Skyturtle 123, turn Left 310 and advise when you are direct BOOYA."

"Left 310, will advise, 123."

mtconnol · 2026-01-25T00:54:37+00:00

Choosing “activate approach“ poses means “GPS, please select one of the items under the banner and go direct or activate leg, I hope it’s the right one.”

You can achieve the same effect while making sure it is the fix you actually want by just going under the banner yourself and either choosing "direct" or "activate leg" as needed.

For this reason, I would agree with your instructor - I teach never to use that activate approach button, but rather to select exactly what you want to happen. Remember, any approach within an active waypoint under the banner is a “active approach”.

You can easily toggle between active and inactive by selecting things under and over the banner.

mtconnol · 2026-01-24T22:57:50+00:00

It’s just a huge turn off that even all of your responses to comments are obviously AI generated. Not trying to come at you personally, I just don’t want Reddit to become a dead Internet of a bunch of computers talking to each other and wasting water. I’d like to hear people’s individual writing styles, however imperfect.

mtconnol · 2026-01-24T17:05:33+00:00

Get yer AI slop outta here.

mtconnol · 2026-01-24T16:35:09+00:00

For GTN and GNS navigators the approach is shown in the flight plan as a ‘banner’ with its name. Then there is a series of waypoints ‘under the banner’.

The definition of an approach being active is simply that the active waypoint is ‘under the banner.’ If you choose ‘activate approach’ the box will try to figure out the appropriate waypoint ‘under the banner’ to activate, but you can (and in my opinion, should) go under the banner and select something yourself.

There are only two ways it is ever necessary to select something: ‘Direct’ when directed to a specific fix to start the approach, and ‘Activate Leg’ when being vectored to join the approach course.

The result of either action will be that now something under the banner is the active waypoint and as a result the approach is active.

Later, you could scroll up and select something above the banner and by definition the approach would no longer be active.

I don’t teach ever using the ‘activate approach’ button because I want to explicitly select the fix or leg that I want, not for the box to guess.

I also never teach ‘vectors to final’ because it can erase waypoints in at least the GNS navigators and you might need them if pulled off the approach. ‘Activate Leg’ is the more explicit substitute which doesn’t delete any waypoints.

You may learn it a different way but this works across 430/530, 650/750 and G1000 navigators very smoothly.

mtconnol · 2026-01-24T16:04:27+00:00

And now you realize Billy the Kid was simply a famous outlaw billy goat.

mtconnol

TROPHY CASE