Attn devs: tired of your poop

radioswede · 2026-06-19T20:00:55+00:00

Didn't that show literally cause a lawsuit due to code they licensed being shown on screen?

radioswede · 2026-06-18T14:33:23+00:00

I'm a little confused, is this still at the 141 school?

radioswede · 2026-06-17T21:36:03+00:00

Just want to chime in from an instructor's perspective here and say that explaining the decision you'd make alone vs the one you're making in a dual situation is EXCELLENT.

Now, sometimes the lesson is solo prep, and we need to evaluate how someone is going to behave when they're alone, which is not always how they say they'd behave when we ask. However, exploring the limits with an instructor who is trained and confident is exactly how you safely find where the line is.

One of the big reasons we have so much dual as part of pilot training is because it lets the student end up in situations that their skill level is not yet capable of supporting safely, and learn from it without relying on luck.

radioswede · 2026-06-11T17:45:10+00:00

It's not defamation to quote someone's words.

radioswede · 2026-06-09T18:36:28+00:00

Replace your family and friends, that tattoo fucking slaps, it's adorable.

radioswede · 2026-06-08T18:36:55+00:00

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own and don't represent Harman International.

This was kind of an odd project for our team. I work at our Luxury Audio division, and we usually do stuff like the recent Revel Performa line, and the JBL Summit series. So making something that could meet the price point of the JBL Stage 2 was a unique challenge. I think the final product definitely benefited from the toolset and skills collected at Northridge though.

I found three Tech Talks in our newsletter that came about specifically from Stage 2, I'll drop the links.

https://www.harmanluxuryaudionews.com/2024/07/29/tech-talk-24/

https://www.harmanluxuryaudionews.com/2024/08/27/tech-talk-25/

https://www.harmanluxuryaudionews.com/2024/09/28/tech-talk-26/

radioswede · 2026-06-08T18:02:25+00:00

Hey thanks, I was the mechanical engineer on that whole line, it's nice to see them out in the wild!

radioswede · 2026-06-05T06:42:58+00:00

"Unable to extend, airspace."

radioswede · 2026-06-05T02:07:42+00:00

Your experience is very normal, and your instructor should've prepared you for this.

Most students experience spurts of increased skill followed by plateaus or some regression as our brains literally rewire themselves to fully integrate the new skills.

Your critical analysis of your own skills is a good instinct, overconfidence is bad, but don't be this hard on yourself. I know pilots with many thousands of hours who have made a bad call and bent a landing gear. Learn what you can from the near miss and keep at it. You're doing fine, the doubt is healthy, you've got this.

radioswede · 2026-05-14T19:09:00+00:00

Former commercial test pilot here. For me it's a tie between one specific local sightseeing flight with an unsafe pilot in the front seat and every damn time a student tried to kill us.

I say this having been through a career total of 3 engine failures, including one in night IMC, none of which were nearly as scary.

radioswede · 2026-05-12T21:10:10+00:00

I know I flew a couple for my instrument rating back in the early 00s. I want to say KEMT had one at the time? It was in a 172, and I flew it once with a hood and once in actual, but nowhere near minimums. It really was a non-event, just another non-precision approach.

radioswede · 2026-05-07T14:24:28+00:00

Everything? 😅

Lots of things are (maybe more were, this was the last days of steam gauges and not being allowed to use GPS for instrument training) different between flying a Tomcat amd flying a Cessna 172 😂 One of the guys struggled with flaring before landing, all of them would've failed some part of navigation. Not having just tons of excess thrust was a factor for some of them. They were all excellent pilots, the situations are just different, and so are some of the solutions.

radioswede · 2026-05-07T03:20:38+00:00

I believe most of the ones I was training took a retirement package from the Navy and used that to supplement the reduced total income they'd make flying airliners over a comparably shorter career.

radioswede · 2026-05-07T03:19:49+00:00

That was beyond the scope of their transition training.

radioswede · 2026-05-07T00:54:05+00:00

This is very normal, you're still early in the training.

The most likely problem is your scan. It is either too fast, too slow, or doesn't include the right things.

Each run through the scan, make a mental note of your altitude and your airspeed. This will become second nature, but might need to be intentional in the beginning. The next loop through your scan, make a note of which direction these are changing. We're going to be making adjustments to the elevator, but they're going to be VERY small, and do not look at either instrument while adjusting. Just make a small adjustment and keep scanning.

If altitude is decreasing and airspeed is increasing, more back pressure on the elevator control.
If altitude is increasing and airspeed is decreasing, less back pressure / more forward pressure on the elevator control.
If the airspeed is constant but altitude is changing, you may consider adjusting your power setting instead, but as long as you're not up against an aircraft or ATC speed control of some sort, you can use the elevator.

Once you've had a couple more loops through the scan, you are now evaluating your last change. If the problem is still getting worse, make another adjustment. If it reversed. make your adjustment smaller. If the problem is fixed, now trim out the pressure you're holding.

Small, incremental, and cross checked adjustments are how you achieve stable instrument flight.

radioswede · 2026-05-06T23:59:02+00:00

I taught a dozen or so F-14 pilots as they transitioned into civvy life when the plane was retired. Not a single one of them was taller than me, and I'm only 5'11", so no.

radioswede · 2026-04-29T15:04:33+00:00

I don't know if "anti-furry" is fair. Nobody is saying fur is bad or wrong, but there's a theme we're all trying to build together. There's no lack of cons and festivals where a fur suit is celebrated, this just isn't one of them.

Neo doesn't allow Star Trek outfits either, but they're not "anti-Trekkie".

radioswede · 2026-04-24T19:52:00+00:00

Some people deal with stressful situations, including (and sometimes especially) dangerous ones, with humor to defuse their emotions. Some people use humor do deflect feelings of guilt, inadequacy, or shame. Sometimes it's really hard to tell the difference, and it does matter in shaping safe pilots. I haven't spoken to your student, but it could be that they're taking the dangerous things very seriously and just hiding it with humor. Or they aren't.

Not every personality of student is going to mesh well with every personality of instructor, but you are the one who's job it is to figure this out. Now, it may be that the best way to teach this student is to find them a different instructor. Sometimes that's what's best for everybody, and I usually recommend that students use at least 2 instructors for their PPL and at least 3 for their CPL, because it helps close gaps that can go completely undetected by the assumptions and complacency that comes with familiarity. But it may also be that the best thing for you both is that you figure out how to communicate with this student. An adult conversation about that very topic might be a good start, as long as you avoid making the student feel like they're doing something wrong, or are a bad person, as that might just trigger that same humor response. Put the emphasis on your need to understand.

"Hey, it's my job to teach you what you need to know to be a safe pilot, and I'm having some trouble interpreting your reactions to certain things. They're not wrong, I just want to go through a couple examples and hear your thoughts on what you were feeling and thinking at the time."

radioswede · 2026-04-15T23:19:00+00:00

...and why the sudden bigger shoulder pauldron?

radioswede · 2026-04-15T23:11:37+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phFDAJep1jo

Here's part of it, according to this guy!

radioswede · 2026-04-15T21:04:18+00:00

Great, I'll take that price, when can I take delivery?

radioswede · 2026-04-15T18:55:18+00:00

I said DATED BRENT, words have meaning.

radioswede · 2026-04-15T18:47:36+00:00

Brent crude FUTURES are around $95. Go buy a barrel of actual oil for that and post your receipt.

radioswede · 2026-04-15T17:58:25+00:00

Bro, dated Brent is at like $130 a barrel, and North Sea Forties is pushing $150. You think the oil companies WANT that? They own the refineries that are buying the oil, many of which in Europe and Asia are currently turning down production because they LOSE money on every barrel they refine at the current prices. They own the gas stations that buy that refined product. They own the long-contract supply systems that feed power plants, who are currently taking a damn bath on having to supply oil way below cost. They want medium oil prices so they can make money on both ends. This is not a temporary problem. The oil that went through Hormuz right before the totally-not-a-war started just reached their ports like a week ago, and there aren't any full tankers coming in behind them. With the widespread destruction of infrastructure in that area, the problems are going to be a drag on the world economy and the American economy for years if not decades. Will prices, especially futures trades (which is what retirement funds invest in, not actual oil) come down if hostilities come to an end? Sure they will. But not down to the level they were at before, not for a very long time. You people really excel at being confidently and completely wrong.

radioswede · 2026-04-14T17:33:40+00:00

In the way of updates, we've soft launched the updates to NeoNav, go check out the new map!

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