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End of the Straight Talk experiment

I’m letting the Straight Talk Wireless lapse, and will sell or give away the phone.  Overall impression: The service is fine, just not the right direction for me right now.  The phone is not without its faults, but is good as a very basic smart phone.

The only real annoyance I’ve had is Straight Talk texting the phone a few times with upsells, and calling the house number to “remind” me that the service is expiring in a few days.  I suppose I can forgive the reminder calls (though I do wish they could be stopped without calling in to talk to a salesdroid).  The texts were a little annoying, though.

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Airplane hunting

Since I am not likely to be able to renew my FAA third class medical, I’m now limited to flying with Sport Pilot privileges – at least for the time being.  This situation could possibly change at some future date, but when or indeed if that ever happens is anyone’s guess.  For my part, I’m not really willing to simply give up and hope for the best.

Unfortunately, the options for flying with Sport Pilot privileges around here are nil.  There are no Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) available for rent anywhere.  My flying club doesn’t have one, and won’t be adding one (I tried, it was shot down – so to speak).  I have not found anyone looking for a partner in one, and my efforts to find a few partners to buy an RV-12 have so far fallen short.  And while an RV-12 wouldn’t cost (much) more than I was planning on eventually spending on the RV-7, it would be a much larger expense up front — and the same cost for a far less capable airplane.

So, I’ve been exploring other options.  here are some that I’ve looked at:

Ultralights.  No thanks.  Zero utility, and I would probably have conditions favorable enough to fly for 2-3 months out of the year.  Next!

Single-seat LSAs (Fly Baby, various other experimentals).  Sorry, needs to have two seats.  And while I’d love to fly a replica WWI biplane, it’s really got to have an enclosed cockpit.

Remos, CTLS, various other S-LSA planes:  Nice rides, but priced well above what I’m willing to spend.  Good deals start around $85K and go up from there.  It took about ten minutes to eliminate an entire class of airplane from consideration.

Ercoupe 415-C.  While I originally didn’t pay a lot of attention to the Ercoupe due to the relatively narrow cabin and the sorry state of a lot of the examples for sale, I started looking more closely at them recently.  They’re not terribly expensive, and range from “really nice” to “kinda cool” to “cute” – and downhill rapidly from there.  Unfortunately, they are pretty porky and don’t have anywhere near enough useful load left.  They do have starters and electrical systems, but would realistically be good only for solo flying.

Cubs.  If you’re not a Cub aficionado, these will seem a little overpriced due to the Cub name.  Slow.  I mean, all LSAs will be slow, but the Cub brings it to a whole new level.  Solo flight from the rear seat.  Most have no electrical system and no starter.  Of course there are dozens of different Cub models and modifications, but the variants that would make good candidates for us are very rare and/or quite expensive.

Taylorcraft: Poor visibility, narrow cockpit and some gymnastics required to get in and out.  Priced fairly reasonably.  Have not looked into STCs for things like electrical system, etc.

Luscombe:  All metal, which is good.  Narrow side-by-side cockpit (like the Chief and T-craft), and a reputation for being substantially more challenging to land and taxi.

Aeroncas:  Prewar models are simply too slow.  The postwar Chief is attractively priced, but the side by side cabin is again quite narrow.  Most have no electrical system/radio/xponder/starter.  Lots of STCs to fix most shortcomings, but none to make it 4″ wider.  The LSA market has driven the prices on Champs up some, but there are still reasonable deals to be had.  Tons of STCs to do pretty much anything to them, if you’ve got the time and a friendly A&P/IA.

Bearhawk LSA: This one looked very promising.  The quick-build kit available relieves me of the welding, which is good.  Unfortunately the list of things NOT included in the kit mean the total cost would most likely be more than I’m willing to spend on a day-VFR, 100-knot cruiser.  If I were willing to build from plans and do all my own welding, I’d be all over this…  but I’m not.

Sigh.  There really seems to be no good option.  I’m continuing to keep an eye out for a “project” Aeronca that I could (re)build to spec.  If I happen to find one outfitted the way I want (C-85-12, starter, alternator, battery) for a decent price I’m all over it, but so far have not seen much.

 

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Straight Talk Wireless / Huawei Ascend Y

I’ve been carrying a cheap little Huawei Ascend Y on Straight Talk Wireless for a couple of weeks now.  The short story is, I’ve gone back to my Droid 3.

STW is OK as far as service goes.  Fine, in fact.  I do get an occasional text message from them trying to upsell, which is a little annoying, but not overly so.  Aside from that, it’s regular Verizon coverage, which is to say excellent.  So…  no complaints there.

The Huawei phone…  well…  what a POS, for one thing.  As an Android phone, it’s as close to the bottom of the barrel as you can get.  The web browser is next to useless — it frequently seems to just lose its mind, followed by a crash.  The phone has VERY little internal memory, and a lot of the apps can’t be moved to the SD card.  Some pretty basic features, like a flash for the camera, are missing, and some firmware features are inexplicably missing.  Like…  no quick way to silence the ringer.  The phone cost me less than $18, I think, and it’s about worth what it cost and no more.  So…  POS, but not a ripoff.  Want it?  I don’t need it.

So, will I drop Verizon for Straight Talk?  Not immediately.  With discounts, my phone costs us $43 and change per month.  Our overall bill is ridiculously high, but dropping my phone for STW would actually cost us a little more.  I’ll continue to look for a less expensive way to keep them on Verizon, but I’m not anticipating that will work.  We may just drop Verizon, pay the early termination fee, and move – or maybe we can find two separate plans under VW that will eb cheaper.  Time will tell.

 

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Neato vacuum update

My only complaint is that we only have one.

Rosie, our Neato robotic vacuum, has been doing a great job of keeping the floors vacuumed in the rooms where she runs.  I still haven’t done anything to the living room to keep her from getting hung up on the coffee table, but I’ve turned her loose in there once or twice anyway.  Once I used the magnetic strip to keep her out from under it, the other time I flipped it (the table) on its side.

The family room and upstairs, though, are now getting vacuumed a couple times a week.  I am always amazed at the amount of crud that comes out of the carpet even when it seems clean.  I’ve only had to intervene a couple of times when something got left on the floor (like a blanket) and sucked up, or once when the bot got hung up on a lamp base.  Overall — well worth the money.  I empty the dust bin after each run and occasionally vacuum off the paper filter; I just replaced it for the first time.  It came with 4 spares, and it looks like they only cost 3-4 bucks each.  Not bad if it means having your carpet vacuumed regularly.

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Got a new phone

I decided I would try out Straight Talk Wireless, so now I have a new phone. It’s a cheap little Chinese Huawei Ascend Android phone, but it’s doing okay for the less than $20 I spent on it.  So right now I’m just trying out the WordPress Android app, & a new voice keyboard plugin. This is being posted from my phone, using voice input.  Maybe now I’ll post more. Maybe not.

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Seeking RV-12 Partners

I am currently looking for a few partners to go in together on an RV-12.

The way I can see this working is four partners sharing ownership of an RV-12, either completed or mostly built.

  • Why an RV-12?  It’s an LSA, and currently the best option I can find.  It can be operated as an E-LSA, meaning the flexibility of owner maintenance and inspections.  It’s reasonably fast; reasonably inexpensive; Rotax powered; burns Mogas.   Would I consider something else?  Sure, if it’s reasonably fast, affordable, etc.  Probably not a Champ.
  • Why four partners?  According to the insurance broker I talked to (Shawna at nation Air), this keeps the insurance simple and inexpensive.  With 4 pilots it’s an airplane with 4 pilots.  With 5 pilots it’s considered a club and insured differently.  With four partners, I think scheduling conflicts cold be kept to a minimum.  Would I consider fewer or more partners?  Sure, it depends on how the numbers work out.
  • Why not build?  I have no problem with building.  But, there are nearly-complete RV-12s out there right now for not much more than, or even slightly less than, the cost of the kits.  If we can fly in a few months instead of a year or two, so much the better.  There are also built, flying, low-time RV-12s available for a very small premium over the cost of an unbuilt kit.  Would I consider building instead?  Sure, we’d just have to work out the details.
  • Do you have a particular plane in mind?  I have a few potential candidates.  One is a factory built 12, complete with ALL options available from Van’s, with major assembly work complete.  It includes the engine and prop.  Another is amateur built, and is complete from teh firewall back – we’d buy the engine and prop from Van’s.  Either would cost about wht the kits cost, give or take a couple thousand.  I also see a couple of low-time flying RV-12s for sale in the upper 70s to low 80s.  Of course all of these are subject to prior sale; I don’t want to rush into this deal, but if I can find partners soon it would be good.
  • How would this work?  I can see a couple of different possibilities.  One would be a simple partnership, co-owning the plane.  Another would be a club, with the club owning the lane and four members of the club.  The structure would be something we’d need to discuss and agree on; I don’t have a strong preference.  My only preference would be an arrangement that protects everyone and makes it easy and hassle-free to enjoy flying.
  • Where would the plane be kept?  I would strongly prefer Millard.  I would not rule out Eppley, if that worked out better for a majority of partners.  Blair, Wahoo, etc are simply too far for me.
  • What would it cost?  That’s the big question, isn’t it?  My calculations indicate we could make it work for an initial investment of $20K per person – that’s buying the plane, shipping it to Omaha, and even getting it painted after final assembly and phase 1 flight testing.  Monthly fixed expenses would run around $80-90 per partner for the hangar and insurance.  Flying time would run between $30-$35 per hour wet, if you include a fairly generous engine reserve — enough to have a top-notch major overhaul done by a nationally known shop at TBO.  That’s some pretty cheap flying.
  • When are you looking to do this?  Soon.  Now. Last week.  Next week.  As soon as I can find a couple more pilots interested in joining the partnership.
  • What kind of flying do you plan to do?  Like most recreational flyers, mostly shorter flights from an hour or so to several hours; $100 hamburgers, fly-ins, day trips to visit friends and relatives, that kind of thing.  The longest trip I would anticipate would be 5 days to a week, possibly once a year.

 

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Neato Robotics SV Signature robotic vacuum

Santa left us one of these for Christmas.  While Lisa was not terribly thrilled, I for one welcomed our new robotic underling.  🙂  And, within a few days Lisa decided maybe “Rosie” wasn’t so bad after all.

Neato XV Signature
Neato XV Signature

The thing does a pretty nice job of keeping the floors swept.  Unlike the Roomba, the Neato robots take an orderly approach to vacuuming a room – they take a lap around the perimeter to map out the room, then use a linear pattern in most places to make sure everything gets covered, but only once or twice.  I like the approach.  I was originally a little concerned about tire tracks, but it just looks freshly vacuumed.

I’ve been amazed at the sheer amount of crud it will suck up from even a recently vacuumed carpet.  It does a decent job on wood and tile as well, but carpeted rooms is where it really shines.  You’ll still need to vacuum occasionally, since it doesn’t get all the way up to the edge – unlike Roomba it doesn’t have an edge brush, but the only time you will notice is if you let it clean up a very dusty wood floor.

It’s smart enough to recharge itself when needed, navigates well, and you can schedule cleanings for whenever you want – there’s also a spot clean mode and manual start, all with just a button push or two.  It’s only gotten stuck a few times.  Shoelaces are a problem, of course, but rugs don’t seem to be.  We do have a couple of pieces of furniture that are at just the “wrong” height.  For instance, one coffee table in the living room — the laser scanner can’t see it, but the robot can’t fit under it.  On the other hand, it gets under another coffee table with no problem and vacuums where the regular vacuum can’t go without moving the furniture around.

It won’t completely replace your regular vacuum, but it does a very nice job of keeping things cleaned up in between regular cleanings.  Costco has the best price I was able to find on them.

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Experiments in media servers

For the past week or two I’ve been doing some work toward some distributed media (audio, video, etc) for various parts of the house. What I’d like to do, ideally, is be able to watch HD TV on any TV in the house without the added monthly expense and hassle of a digital cable receiver from Cox. I’d also like to be able to record the shows we regularly watch, play them back from anywhere in the house, stream music wherever we want it, that sort of thing.

So far Windows Media Center seems to be a really good fit for the DVR portion of the job… unfortunately, it would also require a fairly expensive box be attached to each TV.  It would also mean two remotes per TV, or a universal – and good luck getting one to actually work.  I suppose I could build some Windows boxes fairly cheaply, but we’re still talking about $150-plus per instance, and that’s assuming I re-use any old hardware I have around such as hard drives.

After some reading, including some stuff I quite frankly didn’t really believe, I bought a Raspberry Pi with a wifi adapter to play around with.  Now, admittedly I’m a little late to the Pi community, but it’s really a pretty slick little board.  The Raspberry Pi is a tiny Linux system running on an ARM processor with half a gig of memory, and using an SD card for storage.  There are a couple of Pi-specific XBMC distributions, and they worked great for music and movies.  It was pretty impressive to see a sub-$50 computer the size of a pack of Camel Lights streaming HD video over a wifi link, without a hiccup.  Unfortunately, XBMC doesn’t have native ability to handle a cable tuner like the HD Homerun.

I ordered an HD Homerun Prime-CC and picked up a CableCARD from Cox.  The monthly rental on the CableCARD is not unreasonable at $1.99, although I do think it simply sucks that they are encrypting pretty much everythign other than the local broadcast channels.  They certainly earned their two bucks over the past few days; since Friday of last week I’ve dealt with five or six Cox support people on the phone, and two on-site service calls trying to get the CableCARD setup working.  It seems that all of the problems we encountered were in the initial setup and (mis)configuration of the hardware from the Cox network end.  Once I got a tech who knew how to get a CC set up, it went pretty well… until they shut off our cable receiver, then managed to un-pair the CC again when I called about the receiver. Once we got that straightened out, though, things started really coming together.

Once the HD Homerun and CableCARD are working, you need a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) back-end to feed video to the Pi or anything else running XBMC.  I’m running Windows Media Center on a Win7 machine, with ServerWMC installed.  ServerWMC is a free program that allows remote XBMC systems to connect to WMC and pull video and program guide information.  So the setup here is [Cox cable] –> [HD Homerun Prime with CableCARD] –> [E4200 Wifi router (via gig-Ethernet)] –/(wifi)/–> [Raspberry Pi / OpenELEC XBMC] –> [Insignia 28″ LED TV].  If I were ambitious I’d make a Visio diagram, but I’m lazy…  and no one reads this crap anyway.

As of today I have streaming music, HD video and live TV thorough this system.  I haven’t tried playing back recorded TV, but that may  require transcoding…  I’m not sure if ServerWMC will stream recorded TV files or not, but if not they’re in a format the Pi can’t play, so they’ll need to be converted to something it can play.

Possibly the coolest part?  I was not expecting this, but the Pi has a CEC adapter built in.  CEC lets you control XBMC from the TV remote.  The TV sends remote button signals through the HDMI interface to the Pi, so only one remote is needed — no IR receiver on the Pi, no need for a universal remote.  Too cool.  That doesn’t even work on the little Windows EEEBox in the other room – I’d need to add an external CEC adapter for that.

I can see using Raspberry Pis for other things as well.  Having an inexpensive Linux machine, powered by a common cell phone charger and equipped with wifi, wherever you happen to need it — pretty nice.  I’m thinking one of them with the add-on dedicated camera (5Mpixel, 720p video) that I could set in a window to catch whoever has been letting their dog crap in the side yard would be nice.  A video doorbell seems like a fun project.  And one of them will make a nice backup for the Asterisk server.

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Sheer heart attack

Queen_Sheer_Heart_AttackSo Wednesday I was headed to the airport, minding my own business, when it became apparent that something was really wrong and I should probably find an ER. I was right – something was wrong. In hindsight, I was wrong to think I needed to drive to an ER, I probably should have just parked and called 911. Anyway, I am now the slightly sheepish owner of a little chunk of metal mesh in one of my coronary arteries.

I’ve made some changes to my diet and exercise plans, of course. Lisa and I had already done a lot over the past couple of years to improve our diet, but of course there is always more to be done. Less cholesterol, less sodium, less fat, more fiber, more exercise. I’d been working on making changes, but apparently not aggressively enough and it caught up with me.

But, now I’m home and doing fine. I came home from the hospital yesterday (Friday). We took Buddy for a walk and I started getting used to taking a small array of pills that I’ll be stuck with for a long time to come — some of them permanently. I’m not complaining; I’m alive and still reasonably healthy and will be improving that. I’ll be around for the grandkids’ high school and college graduations, Lisa will have a husband, I can start seriously nagging her about smoking (grin) and I’ll be able to fly again.

Life’s good.