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Show HN: Aviation navigation log on $20 receipt printer

carloslagoa.com

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Re: Show HN: Aviation navigation log on $20 receipt printer

#41

Post by aledalgrande »

EMM_386 wrote: post #7

I'm a dinosaur and I'm always amazed at the technology that pilot's have available to them these days. While complex to learn, having huge glass navigation systems sitting in front of you in a single engine plane seems so foreign to me. I did my instrument ride in a C-172 and my commercial in a PA-44. During both of those checkrides, I ended up having to shoot ILS approaches to minimums, in turbulent IFR conditions,…

Reminds me of my (pretty recent) sailing course :) I went on a few short sailing trips after and other people on the boat only trained on the boat we were on, which was much fancier than the one I first had to deal with. The original one had:

- tiller instead of wheel (my brain could not)

- no bathroom (bucket available)

- no furling foresail (got to change to a storm jib in strong winds)

- no auto locking winch

- no auto pilot

- no depth sensor

- no gps/screen

- no fuel gauge

- no clutches (only a couple of jam cleats that didn't work really well)

- retractable engine (so we had to lower it/pull it up manually, was fun to use it to stabilize the boat a bit when winds were strong)

Boat was also a bit smaller 31' vs 34'. I'd still take my course on that boat if I had to redo it, it was a deeper learning experience.

Re: Show HN: Aviation navigation log on $20 receipt printer

#42

Post by tux1968 »

carloslagoa wrote: post #2

Hi HN! Just a small script I wrote a few days ago, but I had 2 or 3 friends publish some blogs online and I got hella jelly --- so here's my submission, so at least I can say I made something and post it. Hopefully you like both planes and tech and very hopefully you find this an okay read :) Any spelling mistakes, bugs, issues, ethics, please do tell me about! Sorry if it looks rushed -- night is coming upon us and…

Hi there! Which printer are you using? Can't be a new one at that price, surely?

Re: Show HN: Aviation navigation log on $20 receipt printer

#43

Post by carloslagoa »

miki123211 wrote: post #33

This is one of those posts with tons of images whose alt text is just set to the literal string "alt text". Does anybody know where this phenomenon comes from? This isn't the first time I'm seeing this, and I don't know why anybody ever thought that it was a good idea.

I copy pasted my tags cause I had to 'remake' the blog and completely forgot to fill it in, if you are using accessibility functionality I am very sorry -- please allow me to update it briefly

Have a nice weekend :)

Re: Show HN: Aviation navigation log on $20 receipt printer

#45

Post by V99 »

svarlamov wrote: post #12
EMM_386 wrote: post #7

I'm a dinosaur and I'm always amazed at the technology that pilot's have available to them these days. While complex to learn, having huge glass navigation systems sitting in front of you in a single engine plane seems so foreign to me. I did my instrument ride in a C-172 and my commercial in a PA-44. During both of those checkrides, I ended up having to shoot ILS approaches to minimums, in turbulent IFR conditions,…

G1000s are great, but it's disappointing that just about everything else has remained basically unchanged on GA aircraft for the last 30+ years. I hope that we will see some actual innovation in GA engines, airframes, and fuels soon. Fuels might be the most promising for the near-term.

The innovation/future exists, but is not evenly distributed. For example Diamond planes [1] have:

  - The same G1000 (NXi)
  - A composite body
  - Jet-fuel burning engines adapted from recent Mercedes diesels
  - Computer control of that engine through one knob instead of managing the throttle/mixture/prop separately like cavemen
  - Crash testing, like impact absorbing seat structure and separately enclosed fuel tank modules that are unlikely to rupture instead of just filling the wing.
And a new one costs about the same as a new Cessna 172 that's been essentially unchanged since the 60's except for the G1000 like you said.

But "the same" is a pretty nice house in most of the country (~$600k) so everything is hand-built, so costs are high, demand is kept low. Commercial students trying to get their 1500hrs mostly just need the lowest cost, not the nicest or safest.

Another big area of innovation and also lower costs is in experimentals and/or light-sport. LSAs should be getting a lot more capable soon with MOSAIC [2]

[1]: https://www.diamondaircraft.com/en/private-owners/aircraft/d... [2]: https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2023/july/25/mo...

Re: Show HN: Aviation navigation log on $20 receipt printer

#46

Post by palijer »

I've worked in a bunch of restaurants and now work with restaurant software (we're hiring some cool positions if you are interested [1])

The one thing I'd be a bit wary about here is heat making that paper unreadable. I've seen a bunch of kitchens intend to run thermal printers in kitchens, but had to switch to impact printers because how quickly the paper would turn dark in the ambient heat in the kitchen, plus the heat lamps on expo station.

Thankfully the author isn't relying on this for anything absolutely critical (also aviate, then navigate anyways) but I'd wonder if on a sunny day without any clouds there, how quickly that paper would degrade.

[1] https://boards.greenhouse.io/touchbistro/jobs/5058791003

Re: Show HN: Aviation navigation log on $20 receipt printer

#47

Post by V99 »

carloslagoa wrote: post #24
EMM_386 wrote: post #7

I'm a dinosaur and I'm always amazed at the technology that pilot's have available to them these days. While complex to learn, having huge glass navigation systems sitting in front of you in a single engine plane seems so foreign to me. I did my instrument ride in a C-172 and my commercial in a PA-44. During both of those checkrides, I ended up having to shoot ILS approaches to minimums, in turbulent IFR conditions,…

I'd have to agree (with the little experience I have). My school is the cheapest on the block and we have the oldest planes, the other day I sat in another's schools C172 and saw the G1000 and.. "damn.. look at all those colours and uh what does this button do" was just about all I could say I think in regards to safety, screens have the upper hand 99% of the time however... a) the 1:1 of screen X to screen Y doesn't…

Guessing you meant 6-pack/steam-gauge trainer, since anything with a G1000 put in is virtually guaranteed to be IFR-capable.

There's no hard requirement to learn one versus the other. If you're a new student today and looking to go to one of the big-boy airlines you'll probably never need to fly a 6-pack if the school you pick has G1000's.

Re: Show HN: Aviation navigation log on $20 receipt printer

#48

Post by rtheunissen »

miki123211 wrote: post #33

This is one of those posts with tons of images whose alt text is just set to the literal string "alt text". Does anybody know where this phenomenon comes from? This isn't the first time I'm seeing this, and I don't know why anybody ever thought that it was a good idea.

Might be a CMS of some kind because I doubt anyone would purposefully type out "alt text".

Re: Show HN: Aviation navigation log on $20 receipt printer

#49

Post by carloslagoa »

palijer wrote: post #46

I've worked in a bunch of restaurants and now work with restaurant software (we're hiring some cool positions if you are interested [1]) The one thing I'd be a bit wary about here is heat making that paper unreadable. I've seen a bunch of kitchens intend to run thermal printers in kitchens, but had to switch to impact printers because how quickly the paper would turn dark in the ambient heat in the kitchen, plus the…

that's interesting, thanks for the insight -- I was aware of thermal's darkening but unaware of it's speed. I'll leave one out in the sun tomorrow, if I can have ~4hrs with it I'll be chuffed

And, of course, as you said, aviate navigate communicate first :)

Thanks!

Re: Show HN: Aviation navigation log on $20 receipt printer

#50

Post by carloslagoa »

V99 wrote: post #47
carloslagoa wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd have to agree (with the little experience I have). My school is the cheapest on the block and we have the oldest planes, the other day I sat in another's schools C172 and saw the G1000 and.. "damn.. look at all those colours and uh what does this button do" was just about all I could say I think in regards to safety, screens have the upper hand 99% of the time however... a) the 1:1 of screen X to screen Y doesn't…

Guessing you meant 6-pack/steam-gauge trainer, since anything with a G1000 put in is virtually guaranteed to be IFR-capable. There's no hard requirement to learn one versus the other. If you're a new student today and looking to go to one of the big-boy airlines you'll probably never need to fly a 6-pack if the school you pick has G1000's.

Yup! Sorry, glad you caught on :)

Maybe my point was rubbish, just wanted to highlight that the learning curve is --> this is an IFR instrument + how it's represented/actioned thru our avionics suite

For sure, something bigboys might be happy to hear you covered in your ATP

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