My Favorite Flight Bag

Most of you probably know the problem: What is the best way to organize your cockpit? And, closely connected, how do I transport everything from home to my car to ops to the airplane and back? That I am not alone with this question becomes clear when you look at the average selection of flight bags at your preferred aviation supply dealer. Bags, cases, tools in all shapes and sizes, with tons of specialized pockets and bells and whistles. And I have to admit, I also tried various forms, tools and gadgets to find the optimum.

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My New iPad Workstation

Well, it’s no secret: I love my iPad! But when it comes to typing longer documents, the on-screen keyboard just won’t work for me (I touch type, if I forgot to mention). I looked at various keyboard solutions for the iPad, but most of them add too much weight and are too clumsy in my oppinion. Basically, I don’t want to carry the keyboard with me all the time, only when I need it. And when I need it, I want a real fullsize keyboard that enables me to just type away. The solution: Use an Apple Bluetooth keyboard. Problem: a) How to securely transport the thing and b) How to attach the iPad at a nice viewing angle. This is where the Incase Origami iPad Workstation enters the game.

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My QRP Go Pack

Just wanted to show you my new QRP go-pack, designed to be extremely portable for use in my back pack. It consists of a YouKits HB-1B tranceiver, a ZM-2 antenna tuner (Z-Match), 10 cell NiMH battery pack, Palm Key portable paddle with magnetic mount (the FT-817 model), pair of in-ear headphones, 2 x 10m random wire antenna (one goes into the next tree, one goes on the ground as counter poise), some thin nylon line to mount the antenna, and a golf ball with a hook as a weight to launch the antenna.

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Aviation Headset Connected to FT-897

Those among us who do both flying and ham radio have a dilemma: as a pilot we usually own a high grade aviation noise canceling headset that is generally of better quality than most headsets available in the ham radio market (I personally own a David Clark H10-13.4 headset … try to find a passive headset with similar robustness). However, all standards regarding plugs etc. are different Continue reading

iWeb is History

Some of you might have heard โ€“ well, at least the Apple users among you probably heard โ€“ iWeb is almost history, there doesnโ€™t seem to be any plan to keep it alive. MobileMe is definitely history โ€“ Apple will retire it in fall and replace it with iCloud, their new service. Problem โ€“ there will be no replacement for the existing web page hosting service. Continue reading