We had a situation at work the other day when one of the guys took a photo on the digital camera attached to the microscope in the lab and he needed to get the photo off the memory card and into his laptop. The camera took some grotty old memory card, probably a Smartmedia or something like that, and the company's card reader refused to work for him on his laptop. He then paniced and informed me he *had to* have it by the end of that day. So I tried it on my work PC, but although XP recognised it had a card reader attached, but we couldn't get the memory card to appear, then he really paniced!
I just happened to have my MacBook with me, and it was sitting on my desk with it's sleep light quietly pulsing, so we plugged in the card reader and in an instant the card appeared and the files were accessible.
Score one for Mac, zero for PC!!
Of course, if I had my Sandisk Titanium USB flash drive with me, I could have put the files across on that, but instead had to resort to burning a CD. I now have it permanently attached to my car keys, just in case!
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
First flight in an Arrow!
After much anticipation last weekend I finally got my first flight in our Arrow, ZK-DQV:
I currently fly Archers and 172s, and I have been looking forward for a long time to getting a retractable and CSU rating. I have read up on the ins and outs of operating the CSU and the gear, and I felt happy with the idea.
I expected there to be more to it than that, and I wasn't disappointed! There's the extra items on the preflight, checking the gear and prop for leaks, etc. Then there is starting an injected engine, warming it up for 2 mins before taxiing, exercising the prop, and a pre-takeoff briefing..
And then, shortly after takeoff, I get to grin and say 'gear up!!' which I've been waiting to say for such a long time!! I found that I had no issues at all with the CSU or gear, surprisingly enough. Maybe it's the hours and hours of practising on flight sim that helped?
The other thing I noticed is that not only is it hard to slow down without the gear out, but it also picks up speed alarmingly when the nose is pointed down.. Straight and level it takes a while to speed up from Archer speed to Arrow speed!!
I also particularly like the airswitch, and also the way the RMI (DI) aligns itself to the compass! Very cool!!! When I had to deal with a badly drifting DI on one particularly rough trip, I really could have done with one of those!!!
Due to weather I wasn't able to complete my rating that weekend, and with bookings and aircraft availability I can't finish my rating until after I come back from my South Island flying trip next month, so I am going to have to wait until then, but I am looking forward to flying faster and cheaper!
I currently fly Archers and 172s, and I have been looking forward for a long time to getting a retractable and CSU rating. I have read up on the ins and outs of operating the CSU and the gear, and I felt happy with the idea.
I expected there to be more to it than that, and I wasn't disappointed! There's the extra items on the preflight, checking the gear and prop for leaks, etc. Then there is starting an injected engine, warming it up for 2 mins before taxiing, exercising the prop, and a pre-takeoff briefing..
And then, shortly after takeoff, I get to grin and say 'gear up!!' which I've been waiting to say for such a long time!! I found that I had no issues at all with the CSU or gear, surprisingly enough. Maybe it's the hours and hours of practising on flight sim that helped?
The other thing I noticed is that not only is it hard to slow down without the gear out, but it also picks up speed alarmingly when the nose is pointed down.. Straight and level it takes a while to speed up from Archer speed to Arrow speed!!
I also particularly like the airswitch, and also the way the RMI (DI) aligns itself to the compass! Very cool!!! When I had to deal with a badly drifting DI on one particularly rough trip, I really could have done with one of those!!!
Due to weather I wasn't able to complete my rating that weekend, and with bookings and aircraft availability I can't finish my rating until after I come back from my South Island flying trip next month, so I am going to have to wait until then, but I am looking forward to flying faster and cheaper!
Monday, March 5, 2007
The search for the World's Best Memory Card
Yep, I know this isn't exactly flying related, but...
As some of you know, I am what I call an enthusiastic amateur photographer. This means I may not be any good but I am bloody persistant! I know the camera doesn't matter, but I do like my Canon 30D. With a 5 fps continuous mode, for about 80 large/fine/JPG images, it rocks for airshows and other occasions you need fast frame rates. It is also bigger than my old 350D, and it's built like a brick outhouse. Problem is with 5 fps you fill memory cards quick, so the challenge is to find a memory card solution that is damn quick - not for camera->card but card->mac. The camera probably won't be any faster with a fast card but the transfer to computer sure as hell will be!
My old Lexar 40x CompactFlash used to run about 3mb/s via a usb card reader talking to my old G4 iBook. That's pretty crappy!! So I have been looking round for something better, and came across Ken Rockwell's CF Speed Tests some time ago, and I was just blown away! Those sort of speeds are impossible, surely?
I bought a Sandisk Extreme III 4GB card in the end, because I read the IV needs a special Firewire card reader which wasn't available in NZ, and the III is only half the price, and still promises 20mb/s. I was initially disappointed because I was only able to get 4mb/s out of it direct from the camera, and the Sandisk reader was still not available in this country, so I placed a backorder for one and decided to stop whining and live with the slow speed until it turned up.
It turned up a few months later, and I was exteremely pleased to get a consistent 15mb/s - that's megabytes per second, out of it! Very much in line with Rob Galbraith's Card speed tests. According to his tests I should get about 38mb/s for an Extreme IV card. So, now a 4 gig card takes just under 5 minutes to download, and with an Extreme IV card it will take about 2.5 minutes. That's even faster than my hard drive in my laptop!!! As a comparison the old Lexar would probably take over 20 minutes to download 4 gig.
Sandisk seem to be one of the best manufacturers. The packaging and free extras that you get with the products (I also have a Titanium USB drive) are top notch and I am very very happy with their products. I hear Lexar has released a 266x card and reader, which should be comparable, and anyhow both brands are very good, but I am definitely sold on Sandisk.
Edit: The Lexar I had was a 40x, the Extreme III is 133x and the Extreme IV is 266x but only with the Extreme Firewire Reader
As some of you know, I am what I call an enthusiastic amateur photographer. This means I may not be any good but I am bloody persistant! I know the camera doesn't matter, but I do like my Canon 30D. With a 5 fps continuous mode, for about 80 large/fine/JPG images, it rocks for airshows and other occasions you need fast frame rates. It is also bigger than my old 350D, and it's built like a brick outhouse. Problem is with 5 fps you fill memory cards quick, so the challenge is to find a memory card solution that is damn quick - not for camera->card but card->mac. The camera probably won't be any faster with a fast card but the transfer to computer sure as hell will be!
My old Lexar 40x CompactFlash used to run about 3mb/s via a usb card reader talking to my old G4 iBook. That's pretty crappy!! So I have been looking round for something better, and came across Ken Rockwell's CF Speed Tests some time ago, and I was just blown away! Those sort of speeds are impossible, surely?
I bought a Sandisk Extreme III 4GB card in the end, because I read the IV needs a special Firewire card reader which wasn't available in NZ, and the III is only half the price, and still promises 20mb/s. I was initially disappointed because I was only able to get 4mb/s out of it direct from the camera, and the Sandisk reader was still not available in this country, so I placed a backorder for one and decided to stop whining and live with the slow speed until it turned up.
It turned up a few months later, and I was exteremely pleased to get a consistent 15mb/s - that's megabytes per second, out of it! Very much in line with Rob Galbraith's Card speed tests. According to his tests I should get about 38mb/s for an Extreme IV card. So, now a 4 gig card takes just under 5 minutes to download, and with an Extreme IV card it will take about 2.5 minutes. That's even faster than my hard drive in my laptop!!! As a comparison the old Lexar would probably take over 20 minutes to download 4 gig.
Sandisk seem to be one of the best manufacturers. The packaging and free extras that you get with the products (I also have a Titanium USB drive) are top notch and I am very very happy with their products. I hear Lexar has released a 266x card and reader, which should be comparable, and anyhow both brands are very good, but I am definitely sold on Sandisk.
Edit: The Lexar I had was a 40x, the Extreme III is 133x and the Extreme IV is 266x but only with the Extreme Firewire Reader
Arrow rating coming up!
Well, after several years I have finally given in and booked an Arrow rating, in DQV and am bloody well looking forward to it! It's faster, has a CSU and retractable gear, and should be a blast! I have about 150 hours of Archer time, so shouldn't have to worry about that part of it.. Was hoping to take it to Christchurch in April, but it's already booked. Still want to get my rating before I go, and then in a couple of months I might take it down to Blenheim to visit my mate. Who I am going to see in April anyway, for the Classic Fighters airshow. Which I will no doubt inundate you guys with photos from..
Tauranga in a 172... Almost
Sunday was supposed to be the same weather as Saturday, but when I rolled out there in the morning for my 11am flight to Tauranga in JGP the weather was very grim. A 1200ft ceiling (was meant to be 4000ft on the forecast) greeted us. I was even more surprised when we jumped in the plane and took off, the tower gave us Special VFR without us asking for it. I soon saw why. All to the east was a steadily lowering ceiling. I decided to go and see if we could poke a hole in it, but by Karapiro dam we were faced with a steadily lowering cloud base and rising ground. I then made the decision to return, turned 180 degrees and headed home. So much for a 40 minute flight to Tauranga, we didn't even make it ten miles from the aerodrome before it closed in!
Turned out if I had waited the weather improved to the point I could have made it there, but my that time we would have not had enough time to get back before ECT.
0.5 in the logbook and what I knew about weather reinforced!!
Turned out if I had waited the weather improved to the point I could have made it there, but my that time we would have not had enough time to get back before ECT.
0.5 in the logbook and what I knew about weather reinforced!!
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Pilot Expo Ardmore
Saturday was the day Euan and I had planned to go to the Pilot Expo in Auckland, and predictably we left the blazing sunshine of the city and arrived at the aiport to be greeted by the first fog of the year! The first for six months I think. So our departure was naturally delayed somewhat! Euan was keen to go but we had to wait until the PIC (me) was comfortable with the weather. It started breaking up to the west about 10am, so we jumped in FWS and went. We were cleared Special VFR over the city and managed to climb up through a scattered cloud at 600ft agl to a nice cruising altitude of 2500. The trip north was nice and smooth and relaxing, I trimmed up the plane and flew on autopilot the whole way with legs and arms crossed...
At Huntly you could see what the heat from the power station does to the air above it - best not fly over that aye!
We also got to see the site of new prison:
We got to Ardmore, landed, and after a brief talk to Ground we got one of the Follow Me cars:
to lead us to our parking spot:
The expo consisted of a number of nice new aircraft, like this Garmin G1000 equipped Cessna 172:
and a lovely Cirrus SR20:
Here are some more of the aircraft that were for sale that I liked:
There was also a number of seminars. Euan and I went to one, a mountain flying seminar from the folks at Wanaka, which was interesting. We had a look inside the exhibitors tent, which was good:
Then we wandered around for a few hours and decided to go home. The flight back was quite choppy, which wasn't ideal for my mate to gain Archer experience, but it smoothed out as we got farther south. I got a couple of pics on the way back, including the Bombay hills from an aircraft's point of view:
Meremere dragstrip:
Lake Waikare:
And finally, a shot of Euan flying the Archer:
Thanks for coming with me Euan, it was a fantastic day, and I don't often get flown places so that was good too! I am glad we went.
At Huntly you could see what the heat from the power station does to the air above it - best not fly over that aye!
We also got to see the site of new prison:
We got to Ardmore, landed, and after a brief talk to Ground we got one of the Follow Me cars:
to lead us to our parking spot:
The expo consisted of a number of nice new aircraft, like this Garmin G1000 equipped Cessna 172:
and a lovely Cirrus SR20:
Here are some more of the aircraft that were for sale that I liked:
There was also a number of seminars. Euan and I went to one, a mountain flying seminar from the folks at Wanaka, which was interesting. We had a look inside the exhibitors tent, which was good:
Then we wandered around for a few hours and decided to go home. The flight back was quite choppy, which wasn't ideal for my mate to gain Archer experience, but it smoothed out as we got farther south. I got a couple of pics on the way back, including the Bombay hills from an aircraft's point of view:
Meremere dragstrip:
Lake Waikare:
And finally, a shot of Euan flying the Archer:
Thanks for coming with me Euan, it was a fantastic day, and I don't often get flown places so that was good too! I am glad we went.
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