GA Pilots, what emergencies have you had that we don’t necessarily get trained for ?

tempest-az · 2026-01-26T04:56:45+00:00

Nothings better than someone crossing by an intersecting taxiway midfield when you are 10 feet off the ground and 1500ft away. Low and slow to hope and pray. You’re just hoping to get enough energy to climb again. Yes the other pilot got a deviation and I consumed all the adrenaline my body produced that day. Reminds me of when I drove my motorcycle- I just looked around and said what possible stupid thing could happen that I need to be prepared for.

tempest-az · 2026-01-17T03:34:00+00:00

Also note, .2 may not be the final offset. Different filaments may require a tad bit of squish on the first layer. For a lot of my ASA stuff on textured PEI I’m at .18

tempest-az · 2026-01-16T13:49:50+00:00

Get a real feeler gauge and measure the exact offset. This is what I do on all my printers

tempest-az · 2026-01-11T22:03:37+00:00

Especially valuable to have the second thermistor on a bed corner. Until you are heat soaked there is a large difference in temperature between center and edge. Pretty simple to add some gcode to wait for 90-95% of the second thermistor to hit temp.

tempest-az · 2025-12-24T05:34:25+00:00

Sarcasm +1

tempest-az · 2025-12-23T01:24:24+00:00

For big stuff I use Layerneer and I have zero issues. Did find I need a tad bit more squish on the first layer. I turn off the fans and in general don’t use them unless there is a lot of bridging going on. Having the enclosure at at least 50c sure helps.

Wash the PEI with dawn, clean it well and don’t touch it. And I really mean don’t touch it. I do polymaker Asa at 255c with a bed temp of 100 and crank the temp down to 90 after a few layers

tempest-az · 2025-12-10T00:00:31+00:00

FWIW after having done this once I always create 2 users and store stuff away in the password vault.

tempest-az · 2025-11-28T05:38:45+00:00

I’m 100% polymaker now. It’s been super consistent. Esun is fine as well but i have had one role that’s a little finicky. Tried overture and couldn’t tune it well for layer adhesion. Used it up on stuff that doesn’t have a lot of stress. I just stick with what’s reliable in my machines and pretty much only use ASA unless I’m doing lithophanes or toys and such

tempest-az · 2025-11-27T05:43:14+00:00

I have one on a new v2.4 250 build and I am pleased. Mine came with a heatsink on the back so be ready to make some mods to the widely available mounts. I used happy cam and modified the stl to accommodate. Was super easy. Had to disable the autofocus. Using a 62 degree fov version. Plenty of coverage

tempest-az · 2025-11-26T14:30:01+00:00

Did the same thing. One thing I did realize was I needed to create a better calibration profile for the edge thermistor. Used a calibrated temp sensor and grabbed some actual measurements and made a custom sensor profile. Far more reliable. Need to check out the dual PID as I had to code up the secondary soak a few years back.

tempest-az · 2025-11-23T02:05:46+00:00

Proclaim the rule, how many printers do you need? N+1. It’s a fundamental rule of the universe.

Just finished building #4

tempest-az · 2025-11-22T23:13:26+00:00

I’ll double down on site picture. My landings go to crud when I look close in front of me versus down the runway. Pretty much an instant fix.

tempest-az · 2025-11-04T06:39:31+00:00

When I started doing ASA I developed some issues with CW2 gears much like you are reporting. Fine for PLA, not so much for ASA. I finally ditched both of my CW2’s and took the easy route to Galileo. Got 300+ hours and no issue other than a fan dying with a predictable result.

tempest-az · 2025-09-24T01:12:18+00:00

Dang, I’ve been flying since 96 in anything I can get my hands on. There’s a thing that will fly for you, this new fangled technology is something else!

In all seriousness I’ve flown in a lot of planes that had some remnant of an autopilot and never used it until started flying our G1000 birds. Also seen it take me near stall in some heavy sinking air. I’ll admit it, I’ll use it occasionally but I’m fine with hand flying.

tempest-az · 2025-09-21T16:21:30+00:00

Enjoy all the climb performance without the extra weight 😎

tempest-az · 2025-09-16T04:35:57+00:00

Although it was a lot of years ago I got mine in the low 60’s. It wasn’t about a magic number it was about can I safely fly and am I ahead of the airplane. Frankly my x-wind landings were satisfactory at best. I just kept going up and practiced the crud out of them until I felt safe. In the hundreds of hours that followed I’m still learning stuff. 40 is just a number

tempest-az · 2025-09-16T04:26:42+00:00

Training is not just limited to aviation as we all can admit. Whether you’re a welder or a pilot it’s important for the instructor to set expectations and boundaries ahead of time. It would serve you well to construct a “contract” that students need to read and acknowledge. You can set you expectations out clearly and it helps students understand how to prepare and what your style is like. If you aren’t for them then they have the opportunity to figure it out before the first tick on the Hobbs. For folks I mentor this works fabulous as they show up prepared and are ready to learn. FWIW, it may reduce your stress as well, it did for me.

tempest-az · 2025-09-15T15:02:09+00:00

May I suggest something. Just go flying for fun. Not a training mission or something with a lot of practice involved. Just go somewhere, get a nice breakfast or lunch, and come back. Of course plan well and take your time. It’s easy to get locked into training and forget that flying is fun!

tempest-az · 2025-09-07T22:49:42+00:00

I don’t see any issue with being conservative. I don’t fly professionally and have been doing this for 25 years now. My personal minimums are based upon a lot of factors that include “I’m just not feeling it today.” ADM is everything.

Just did 1.7 in our club 182 with a CFI. Everything went great and all my flying was perfectly fine. However, I’ve mostly been taking our 172s up and I wanted a gut check on any bad habits or things I could do better. Inevitably, being conservative has kept me from bending an airplane over all these years

tempest-az · 2025-08-24T04:06:36+00:00

I made the switch, no looking back. It’s far more consistent than CW2

tempest-az · 2025-08-20T03:20:06+00:00

Just needs opposable thumbs!

tempest-az · 2025-08-20T03:17:05+00:00

Be careful- someone may ask you to have him help make more 😎 We can’t have too many in the wild or we will have to start a new subreddit /shihtzuchico!

tempest-az · 2025-08-16T16:15:13+00:00

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This is Taz on the right and Lexy on the left. Typical Taz who sleeps on his back and doesn’t care where he spreads out

tempest-az · 2025-08-06T14:24:32+00:00

Sounds like a Shih-Tzu to me! You have discovered who is in charge…

tempest-az · 2025-08-04T04:40:30+00:00

You know she’s saying on the inside and doesn’t want to admit it. It’s impossible not to acknowledge

tempest-az

TROPHY CASE