Jim Weir
Jim Weir is the chief avioniker at RST Engineering. He answers avionics questions in the Internet newsgroup www.pilotsofamerica.com–Maintenance. His technical advisor, Cyndi Weir, got her Masters degree in English and Journalism and keeps Jim on the straight and narrow. Check out their web site at www.rst-engr.com/kitplanes for previous articles and supplements.
Shining a Light on History
Back in 2008, George W. Bush was president and 100LL was $2.50 a gallon. Production of 80/87 had stopped the previous year, and this...
Power, Scotty, I Gotta Have More Power
“I canna give ye more, Cap’n. The dilithium crystals are already overloaded.”
—Star Trek
This month’s article is more of a simple tutorial instead of a...
Round…and Around…We Go
Stay with me here. This is going to be a very interesting and somewhat difficult project. But worth the read, I guarantee.
No matter how...
What a Darling(ton) Noisemaker
Mostly we’d like our airplanes to be quiet. Somehow, “airplane” and “quiet” don’t belong in the same sentence. We’ve got roughly 5000 explosions per...
Can You Hear Me Now?
For those of you in aircraft with magnificent audio systems—stereo music and multi-input switching panels that have push-button selection of your half-dozen headphone inputs—this...
LED to a Landing
We have come a long way with light emitting diodes. They went from $200 a bulb in 1968 to 5 cents a bulb in...
This Is an EXCELlent Idea
For a long time after I bought my first airplane (N2014V, the Cessna 120 heavy), the problem of keeping the aircraft data (weight and...
QLF–Amateur Radio in Your Aircraft
To find the earliest recorded amateur radio in an aircraft, we have go back to 1912 when Lieutenant B.T. James (RAF) strapped a pair...
Airshow Antennas
We are headed into airshow calendar time. I don’t care if it is the granddaddy of them all (Oshkosh) or the usual four beat-up...
A HOG in Time Takes…Forever
As I told you a couple of months ago, “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is a...
In Case You Missed It
Preparing for Your First Flight
The paperwork, the plane, and the pilot must come together for success.
Viewfinder
Vertical Power’s VP-400 stands ready to locate the nearest airports and help you plot and execute an emergency landing—welcome assistance for the pilot experiencing an in-flight failure. By Marc Cook.