mnewbery

Hopefully not too exciting

 

 

Slightly off topic. I was quite fearful flying around Malaysia on the MASwings ATR-72 because of the known crash history regarding the stall-spin characteristics especially in icing weather. You'd think that Malaysia would not be host to icing weather but it has some quite high terrain. I should not have worried because, like Australian turbo prop operators, everyone was "on the ball".

 

So I'm happy that Virgin has chased up the ATR-72 for its regional routes. I've passengered in the twin-otter in Vanuatu, the BAe Jet Stream J47 and Metro Three (Swearingen Metroliner III) out of Canberra and every type of Dash-8 out of places you'd rather not be. I think that flying Dash-8's between Canberra and Brisbane or Melbourne and Canberra is 'quaint' bordering on offensive. Its not the lack of in-flight service or the assumption that the cabin crew are somehow reserve grade (they are not). The ticket for a seat on a Dash-8 is the same retail price as for a 737-800 or A-320 (IMHO) but significantly more profitable and significantly slower on the longer legs.

 

Is the turbo prop better for me? About the same - a bit more noisy and slow but I entertain and feed myself too. Is it better for the airlines? Obviously or the airline(s) wouldn't be doing it. You have less choice with cruising altitudes too so sometimes the weather and turbulence is on the nose not below you.

 

Looking out the front window of a twin otter from row 10 while flying into Baerfield airport Port Vila was quite interesting. The co-pilot forgot to draw the blinds at the top of the descent. When I looked forward I saw no sky at all, only airfield. That scared the number-twos out of me but I rationalised the two guys at the pointy end didn't want to die either and that was just the way the twin otter flew. It seemed like an elevator ride straight down but that wasn't the unsettling bit. Because the flaps were fully out and the props were fine pitched they worked like parachutes and caused the plane to slip and skid on short final. The pilots played with it but the landing was smooth.

 

 

Australia (caveat emptor: no idea who these people are)

 

http://www.aircrafttrackingavionics.com.au/

 

http://www.aircrafttrackingavionics.com.au/prod01.htm (this the SBS-3 sold by the Australian distro)

 

 

Any chance of posting images of the plugs?

 

 

For those who have been paying attention, it will be no surprise that I am a first time parent as of yesterday morning.

 

What many won't know is that I was in Brisbane when my wife's labour started in Canberra.

 

Big thanks to Virgin Australia for getting me where I needed to be without fuss or delay. I took a moment to reflect on all of the people and machines that worked as required, in wee small hours of Sunday morning, to deliver me to the operating theatre in time and deliver our daughter safely into the world.

 

Next time you hear people bagging aviation, remember its not all about having a few days holiday in Bali or the Gold Coast. Certain things can't happen in our modern world without reliable, safe and efficient air transport. Anyone who thinks they can take it for granted needs to stop and think what their lives would be like without it. Same comment for surgery. Similarly, the transport pilot and surgeon are both heavily dependant on an amazing team and some amazing tools.

 

I've been privileged to look at the "man behind the curtain" in a very wide range of fields. It still impresses me and I never seem to get tired of this amazing world.

 

 

See my commets regarding Pilot brand headsets (mine had foam seals too). I bought a set after using borrowed H10-13.4s because I wanted to look after them (a bit like dive gear). Now I have both my own H10-13.4 and Pilot headsets. Read further here: http://theaussieaviator.net/threads/fettle-your-headset.23142/

 

 

Normandy Guinea Fowl recipie: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2008/07/24/normandy-guinea-fowl-with-nigellas-perfect-roast-potatoes/ (in which amongst other things, Lorraine Elliot (aka Not Quite Nigella) blanches 5 pounds of potatoes and then boils them in goose fat) *drool*. Brings a whole new meaning to road kill, dunnit? Seriously, if you look at the recipie, the gravy is made from guinea fowl dripping, apples, cider, butter, cream and booze. Sad for the bird, but what a way to celebrate its passing. Maybe don't try this with a pelican, you'll need more than a new wing skin afterwards *grin*.

 

Please laugh now. Bird strikes aren't funny at any time.

 

 

Well, if it wasn't less capable for more money than the competition (...)

I'm glad you got my point. I was going to relate a story about a brand new composite trainer that instructors and others refuse to fly but in summary, there appears to be an old guard who won't fly anything unless its a direct drive prop and metal skinned. There is no logic in their arguments. I still see this behaviour and it is sadly contagious. These people are making the purchasing and hiring decisions and if a plane isn't being flown, it surely isn't being serviced, worn out and replaced. Instead its on the ground costing someone a packet.

So going back to my question, is more safety and utility at half the price (and a much cheaper total cost of ownership) enough, Bas?

 

 

Then it wouldn't be a Cessna

 

 

The main web page for ByDanJohnson http://www.bydanjohnson.com/index.cfm suggest Pipestrel will be announcing a short wing Virus (e.g. a variant of the Virus SW) for the training market. The headline information is "all this delivered and flying for $85K USD".

 

Assuming this design comes to be, my questions are:

 

1. We have no idea how much this is going to be in Australian dollars. At what price point does it become attractive to get rid of a fully amortised, avgas burning C150/C152/PA140 with a time expired engine with a new model running on PULP (premium unleaded), rather than putting a new engine in a smelly old trainer with chair springs that poke you in the pants?

 

2. Will the training market eschew the idea of an all metal airframe, metal being recyclable, durable, repairable and UV stable, once the repair techniques for new materials are widely known and accepted?

 

3. How many PULP-compatible trainers does an airfield need to have before a PULP bowser is attractive, thereby driving the running costs down further?

 

 

Access Aviation use a number of turbine planes for skydiving e.g. C208 all over the east coast. A company like Australian Sky Dive Company uses their services. How that works and who hires the pilot I don't know. RFDS (air ambulance) uses King Air 200s and 300s plus Pilatus PC-12. Rex uses the SAAB 340 (they also own and operate a line pilot training school in Wagga-Wagga) but I'm not sure that counts as small.

 

http://www.rex.com.au/cadetpilot/Default.aspx

 

Mmmm. Dunno. You could become an air ambulance nurse?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Flying_Doctor_Service_of_Australia (see the fleet list)

 

Qld Government did once advertise for a King Air 300 FO but that was a while ago.

 

Brindabella Airlines uses BAE J41 and Metro III (Both TPE331 engines I think). I've been a passenger for Brindabella and a student in their flight school in Canberra. I have also met the boss person Jeff Boyd in the hangar there.

 

For some free career advice, you could do worse than contacting Malcolm Poulton at Goulburn Flight Training Centre and having a chat. Corporate Air have a maintenance hangar at Goulburn too so it would be beneficial to hand deliver your resume there ... never know who is going to be around and who is going to fly what where.

 

Hint: Malcolm can tell you a little about Brindabella Airlines.

 

Lots of aerial application work too but you WILL be started on pistons first and it will take years or someone retiring to move to a turbine.

 

Just a brain-dump. I'm sure others will chime in. I don't know anything about the Sydney Basin as far as turbines go.

 

 

I've been using this for VFR flight planning in PC based Flight simulators so I had a lot of links saved including METAR, ERSA and Visual Flying Guide. Not one of them works now. I'm not sure saving the new ones work when save them because they are a bit 'dynamic'. I think I will need a NAIPS login anyways. I wonder if the planning tools that upload plans to NAIPS still work? I was OK with the old site. However, being in the biz, I know that a tart-up on the skin usually means a big re-write of the back end of the web site has already occurred and I assume limitations of the old web site stopped the owner from implementing new features.

 

Darren Masters may like to comment further based on his recent experience.

 

 

There are two C150's I know that could do with a prop balance. Must have something to do with the LAME(s) continously needing to grind the stone chips out of the leading edges. And yes I do have trouble focusing or even hearing the radio at full power in these examples. You can balance a steel prop-full-of-dings? Cool. Wonder how many dings it would take to unbalance it again?

 

Serves them right for not pumping up the front struts

 

 

http://www.recreationalflying.net/tutorials/navigation/airspace.html

 

http://www.recreationalflying.net/tutorials/regulations/regulations.html#airspace

 

Extract of section 1.1 (first URL)

 

Recreational Pilot Certificate holders flying an aircraft operating under the CAO 95.55, CAO 95.32, CAO 95.12 and CAO 95.10 exemption orders may only enter and fly in Class C and D airspace if they meet specified requirements; see '

 

[/url]Operating airspace allowed, pilot qualifications and equipment required

 

' (2nd URL above). For flight in Class A airspace, a recreational pilot must seek and receive written permission from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority for the flight.

 

Comment and opinion

 

A recreational aircraft isn't getting into Class A airspace unless its really really special (or being air freighted in a box) because Class A starts at FL180 (e.g. about 18,000 feet). A recreational pilot would then be seeking written permission for a lot of things I think. Also, since I went down the GA path first, I already have the medical (mine was class one) I just forgot about it and the $360 price tag. So the statement becomes "GA Licence or equivalent training, an equipped aircraft and a medical (or a written exemption for any/all of the above, specific to the aerodrome)". This agrees with the previous post. Finally, I have only ever heard of pilots with full GA licences flying RA registered aircraft into Canberra and I should have mentioned that at the time. 'They' seem to know who has a GA licence and I'm not surprised because you need to lodge a flight plan with your ARN and registration number in order to fly back out (of controlled airspace) again!

 

It is a bit crap for the RA flyer. Also when flying into a certified airfield (like Gladstone) you need an ASIC or a RA-Aus equivalent. Since I have a GA student licence and I did my TIF up to first solo in Class C, I'm all sweet. I'm not getting into the merits of whether or not a class 2 or better medical is a good thing for private flight into controlled airspace. AOPA USA is having that discussion with FAA right now and it may be worth watching.

 

As for Gladstone becoming a CTA:

 

http://www.casa.gov.au/wcmswr/_assets/main/lib100008/gladstone_study.pdf

 

 

 

[/url]http://www.casa.gov.au/wcmswr/_assets/main/lib100008/gladstone_study_final.pdf

 

 

 

Summary and opinion

 

 

 

CASA want to permanently dis-establish D704 and it should be cancelled in the June 2010 ERSA/DAH onwards (available online at Airservices publications). This is due to ... no flying training (they say)!

 

 

 

CASA plan to keep Gladstone Class G CTAF® and therefore you can fly RA-Aus into there with the usual caveats, including mandatory radio use. The aerodrome is under the Rockhampton Class C airspace similar to Redcliffe being under Brisbane CTA. Redcliffe has one VH- and two RA- registered Tecnams. Mmph! They look like the same type! Also Redcliffe isn't certified any more most likely due to ahem an issue with their fence.

 

 

 

The 'final' PDF above is worth a read if flying around Gladstone is of interest.

 

 

 

Looking at the report, I would say that if I was to fly out of Gladstone regularly, a GA PPL and a GA aircraft (or GA eligible) would be of benefit due to the demands of navigating in a CTAF® with a huge variety of other fixed and rotary wing aircraft. Plus, the GA style of aircraft (I'm thinking SkyFox, Tecnam and Cessna 150, even a J230) will have been built and equipped for electrics like radio, transponder and nav/anti-collision/strobe/landing lights which is going to be useful for the other aircraft in the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wife killed our car. The replacement car arrives tomorrow. This means I am effectively grounded until 2014-ish

 

 

I did my TIF in WWS 27 September 2009. Last I heard the a/c was sold to a private owner for maybe $20-$30K. The owner didn't promptly get an airworthiness certificate so the a/c stayed at YSCB unflown. According to an instructor at the airfield in 2011, Canberra Aero Club "was in a position to" either become the registered operator or possibly put the aircraft online as a cross-hired trainer, thus easing the ownership transfer. I am not sure if the individual was approached or not but I am aware of the source of the difficulty in getting the ownership transferred. That was a few months ago. Assuming nothing has changed and the aircraft was not properly preserved, in my opinion it is now junk. This is sad because even though it was gutless, slow and constantly letting me down, it fit like an old boot. Viewers might conclude that it flew like one too and you'd be not far off the mark. Its the nature of the type, not the example.

 

 

The book mentioned below is Why Can't We Make Money in Aviation

 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Why-Cant-Make-Money-Aviation/dp/product-description/0754649113]Amazon.com: Why Can't We Make Money in Aviation? (9780754649113): Adam M. Pilarski: Books[/ame]

 

 

Does Redcliffe or Caboolture qualify? I'm thinking pplz at those clubs would like to spread the word on your behalf.

 

Further, I travelled from Canberra to Brisbane to get my hours because there was no flying school at either Canberra or Goulburn.

 

I'm going to qualify that by saying "no flying school that suited my needs at the time".

 

If you have the aptitude and circumstances, you can contact a flying school that will not only train you in a particular type but it will be the aircraft you buy and fly home. Cessna have this option in Qld but you will need to search for the details *cough, cough, google Authorized Cessna Pilot Center* of the school on the sunshine coast. I did an intensive training, loved it and got a long way to a private licence. I'd give it five weeks though, expecially in a Qld summer. Four (not five) weeks only amounts to 40 hours with weekends off. Five weeks gives you extra time and some no-flying days to sit cyber exams or sit out weather. Flying more than 2 hours a day, well you'd be a better person than me, I was wrecked.

 

So rather than learn to fly in Gladstone, it may be better to learn at your 'other' home.

 

Of course, you'd want to fly a Cessna for this to be an option. I'm not a student there nor do I endorse the training etc etc.

 

Another option is to look at someone who flies RA-Aus. Its possible to have an RA licence and fly privately into controlled airspace with the right training and equipment. Happens all the time in Canberra.

 

Doing flying lessons on the weekends ... Well, it can be fun and help you through the working week but after two years I have 100+ hours on many types and no full licence. I had to do it all again, many times and I have had way too many instructors. I loved them all ;-)

 

If you want to fly for transport (as I do), intensive training is the way to go and it doesn't matter where that happens really as long as you get what you want.

 

 

What is your preferred method of gathering this fortune? I am thinking seriously about posting a primer on investing in publicly listed airlines (Rex, QANTAS, Virgin, Skywest) after having watched and participated successfully for a year or that space.

 

I figured, personally, that the only people making money from planes are the ones staring up at the underneath bit as it zooms over their heads. As with all things, your mileage may vary

 

 

TIF 2

 

Trevor Bange and Daniel King know a thing or two about teaching for Drifters. Something that I didn't immediately consider is that the sound of a 65Hp two-stroke engine behind your head can be a bit overwhelming. Combined with a lightly loaded wing and a bit of a wind gust, it can become uncomfortable as in motion sick uncomfortable.

 

This is why the time aloft starts out at no more than 30 minutes. Its a good thing to keep it that way until you can effortlessly fly straight and level, relaxed and oblivious to the screaming cacophany.

 

Clearly I can't do that yet so we moved on to steep turns, stalls then spin-and-recovery exercises. Caveat: I have done more than my fair share of spin, spiral dive, unusual attitude recovery and basic instrument flying so I'm already used to feeling like I'm upside down when I'm not or vise vera, so I thought this would be a doddle.

 

Standard stall and recovery (SSR) stalls in a Drifter are a quiet affair, somewhere between the benign but heavy stall of the Cessna 150 and the non-event mushing stall of the SkyFox Gazelle. Tangential comment: If you want to stall a Gazelle like you mean it you need to enter a gentle climb at 5000 rpm, pull the carb heater on then yank back on the stick and idle the engine at the same time. Don't do that, ever. The SSR stall for the Drifter provides no opportunity for wing drop and like the Gazelle the rudder authority is there to help you out if there is. Recovery is as per "the training" although I note that recent discussions in the magazines are leaning towards lowering the nose then adding full power rather than doing both at the same time. This is claimed to be because you get airspeed (and back to flying) sooner with the nose pointed low and no longer rotating about the pitch axis at the time full power comes in.

 

The Drifter has a high thrust line which means the propellor is above the centre of gravity. That means when you cut the thrust it naturally pitches up and pitches down when thrust is added. Tractor propellors do the reverse which means you really want to control the pitch change when practising SSR there. A bigger engine means you need to be smoother with the throttle to cancel out the forces with control inputs. The Drifter has neither of these traits.

 

Neither the Drifter nor the Gazelle have landing flaps so there is no such thing as a landing configuration stall.

 

Entering a spin in a Drifter is waaaay easier than for something more GA-esque. Once again the rudder authority comes to the rescue. I'm not going to tell you how to enter a spin or how to get out of one here. What I will say is that once the power is cut, the high drag characteristics mean that everything is under control with only minimal altitude lost. This was proven at least twice even with a fully developed, inverted spin.

 

*now where did that horizon go...* :biggrin:

 

I didn't check but we lost maybe 100 feet both times. It is however quite possible to get close to Vne if you don't get back to straight and level promptly. The craft is rated to +3.6G and you can safely pull out at 2G by the seat of the pants with about 10 knots of airspeed remaining. The trick of course is not to let the speed increase much before starting the recovery but that means you need to look at the horizon, fly and glance at the airspeed indicator at about the same time. Um, I couldn't do that either. In fact, I felt very alone without my DG and AH instruments. Because its an open cockpit, you have to look where you are going, just like on a motorcycle and that look could be a very very long way away from the instruments. High bank angle turns are a hoot but you have to make a deliberate effort to glance at the dials mid turn or ignore them completely. The other thing is that the pitot tube suffers like crazy when you yaw, causing the airspeed indicator to oscillate uselessly like a nodding dog.

 

After the spin recovery we headed back to the airfield using a simulated engine failure. High drag does not mean low glide ratio. Additionally, when you are flying over ploughed fields in the morning there is a *lot* of updraft. We did an uncomfortable, steep, slipping dive to the airfield always keeping the airspeed above "that" number. At about 500 AGL feet I realised that slipping wasn't going to cut it because we were too close to the threshold. Not to be outdone I turned on to the runway centre line and with about 200 feet to spare I chickened out and killed the slip.

 

Big mistake.

 

The maxmum take off weight of a Cessna 150 is 760 Kg. The Gazelle is about 600Kg and the Drifter is 356-454 Kg depending on the variant. Essentially the heavier aircraft have more rotational inertia which means slipping close to the ground is a bit of a no-no. Especially when the aircraft has landing flaps and not full width ailerons. The Gazelle and Drifter have full width ailerons which means if you want to slip close to the ground, mmkay! I didn't do that.

 

Instead, 100ft AGL at the threshold combined with a gentle down slope saw me float pretty much all the way to the other end of the runway, causing a prompt go-around because we did not have enough runway left to stop. Note to self: If you are not on the ground by the first 1/3 of an 800m runway, its a go-around. For me that will be every time it happens, your mileage may vary.

 

Drifter brakes are fine even though they are hand operated, its the combination of tiny, tiny wheels and grass that is the problem. You can get a Drifter to creep along with the wheels locked at 3000rpm which is a bit disconcerting if you are trying to get in it at the time.

 

I still suck at tail wheel landings but I've only done four. The last one was a thumper but it was all mine and not the instructor's.

 

Drifter Summary - an acolyte's opinion

 

• Its safe and inexpensive
   
   
  
• It will teach you to take-off and land tail wheel
   
   
  
• It will teach you to fly smoothly and accurately, without relying on a six-pack of gauges
   
   
  
• If you ride motorcycles it will feel like one, just not a fast one
   
   
  
• If you fly out of balance the guy behind you will freeze and his microphone will have constant wind noise (that noise in the intercom is a big clue)
   
   
  
• At 55Kts planned TAS, its not a viable alternative to a car
   
   
  
• When you pull back on the steering wheel of a car, nothing interesting happens
   
   
  
• Its cold, especially at 5000 Feet AMSL. I cheated and wore a motorcycle touring suit
   
   
  

 

Finally, it is my opinion that a person will become a better pilot because of this combination of tail wheel, high drag and light wing loading. There is nowhere for your mistakes to hide and they become very apparent through the seat of your pants because of these three things. The feedback is immediate therefore there is plenty of time to correct a mistake before it becomes fatal. Alternatively you can get ham fisted and still not generate pilot induced oscillation.

 

I can't wait to do it again but before then I have a new bathroom to pay for and a baby due in time for Christmas :eek:

 

 

*Work's a b_tch then you die* false

 

*Open cockpit ultralights are dangerous* false

 

I'd planned to egg on a fellow pilot up the road from Clifton who got in a bit of a rut by taking him out the the airfield and just messing around for the day.

 

That didn't happen the way I wanted it to.

 

In my experience you come to these small airfields for the flying and end up getting engrossed in all the side things - conversations, arrivals and departures, test flights, re-qualifications and so it goes on.

 

I arrived by accident at the Clifton airfield the day before and had a wonderful time just being around aircraft and their associated people. This is the accessible side of flying where there is always something to do with your hands when the conversation runs out. This day it was re-arranging the contents of a hangar that had recently been re-floored and de-moused, err, and some gardening.

 

This time next year, Clifton airfield clubhouse will be sporting a much larger and nicer hedge than the one it had in March. This in due in no small part to a group of enthusiastic and able volunteer members of which I was only a small part.

 

I slept like the dead at the airfield that night. I am a mostly sendentary office worker so physical labour was a bit of a foreign concept. Fortunately the bed was excellent and I wore gloves.

 

The Drifter was in the hanger on the other side of the wall next to my bed so straight after breakfast the TIF began.

 

I didn't have a good look at a Drifter at the Clifton fly-in so I was eager to get up close and personal with this unfamiliar wing. It is a high wing. After that its different to everything else I have flown:

 

Tailwheel

 

Pusher prop (opposite p-factor too I think)

 

Two-stroke

 

Open cockpit

 

Fore-aft seating

 

Rag and pole construction

 

But they all 'fly' so we skipped the bit about primary and secondary effects of controls because I passed my GA GFPT finally in May.

 

The Drifter has a 'magic speed' which it 'shall' be flown faster than, all the time. Unless you are on the ground, at which time you figure its a good idea to go a lot slower. It is tail wheel after all.

 

I say 'shall' because if you go slower-than-or-even-near the magic speed, a disembodied voice will yell into to your ear the following phrase:

 

"What are you trying to do, kill us both?"

 

There are two valid reasons for this phenomenon. Firstly there is no stall horn and even if there was its an open cockpit. Between the engine and the wind noise, you're not going to hear it. Also the helmet headphones are great ear protection. Secondly the voice belongs to the instructor behind you (fore and aft seating, see ... try to keep up) who is heartily more weary of repeating this mantra than you will ever be of hearing it.

 

The Drifter has nose ballast to bring the pilot weight into the ~88-110 Kgs range. Not much was required, only maybe 15Kgs for me but if you forget it, the Drifter will kill you because you will run out of pitch trim plus elevator authority and either not land or not take off. For me it would be nose up (therefore no safe landing) because I'm average weight but note this situation is no different to the Beech Bonanza (?) and some gliders.

 

Learning the basic handling characteristics of the Drifter proved some things to me. A hundred or so hours of flying GA aircraft was useful but only 'so much' and the Drifter requires FAR LESS rudder than I was applying in order to make it turn.

 

My instructor arrived by Jabiru (as you do) but his handling of the Drifter in banked turns was nothing shot of inspiring. I thought The SkyFox Gazelle was a real stick-and-rudder aircraft in that it was hard to keep the balance ball centred and the rudder is relatively massive. The Drifter takes this up a notch because the rudder is on a long pole, has a propeller blasting air at it and when you fly unbalanced, it loses airspeed like crazy. This in turn changes the drag and torque equations, making the aircraft even more out of balance. Conversely when the aircraft is flown balanced, it speeds up and before you know it, its out of balance again but in the opposite direction and slowing down again.

 

Happy times! For this reason the Drifter often sports a jaunty piece of wool on the top of the VHF antenna which is right in your line of sight. So there are no excuses for flying out of balance but I dare you to avoid it on your first attempt.

 

After 30 minutes flying we were on the ground again and discussing what I had just done. I kept forgetting that we were flying a tail dragger which means the nose needs to come down on the initial takeoff run, I kept getting too slow and using too much rudder. Also I was making quite gross stick inputs where much smaller and frequent ones were required. Back to school on these. Bugger it, I've never flow tail wheel or high drag ultralights before.

 

The high drag bit was to become very important during the next flight...

 

 

Greetings from Margate Qld

Welcome from Clontarf. If you squint you can probably see my house. If you really squint you can see me at Redcliffe Aero club

 

 

I have posted here about Redcliffe Aero Club before. Thumbs up. Plus there is another school at Redcliffe Aerodrome (YRED) I don't know about. At the same aerodrome is Bob Tait's Aviation Theory School. Both the Aeroclub and the other school have Tecnams but my fave is still the C172

 

 

The most important thing for me was to ensure I knew what I wanted from my training, asked for it and got it. I keep getting asked if I want to go to CPL and the definite answer for me was 'no' because I have a job I actually like and it pays some bills. I think if I was seriously motivated to exit my career at 30 'something and never go back I'd be motivated to 'sell my soul for yaw pitch and roll'. Your soul will sing but your bank manager will cry

 

 

In my earlier post I noted that I was going to do another conversion using a Pilot brand stereo headset. I did that a couple of weeks ago and have since sampled the result.

 

The ANC is as good as the previous attempt plus it was more familiar work. Without ANC, its just a crappy set of headphones, albeit with more clear speakers. Battery life is noticeably shorter because of the lower passive noise cancellation. This is as predicted.

 

The headset orginally cost $190 including postage. The exchange rate has moved in favour of $AUS so this is now better value for money than the DC H10-13.4 conversion.

 

This headset has a media socket in it which I think was originally wired for Mono plus microphone. It never worked terribly well because the isolation capacitors were tiny and the plug didn't line up with my mobile phone.

 

New mods for this headset:

 

1. Add an extra cable to allow the battery pack to be mounted on the headband. You can order this when you buy the kit. I got the (AMP) integrated cable which works fine when the intercom sockets are below your eyes. This mod is for the CA25N Gazelle and some Cessnas where the sockets are above your head and the battery pack just gets in the way.

 

2. Get a proper four contact media socket then figure out the circuitry to allow a phone call to proceed. Alternatively, integrate bluetooth to achieve the same result.