Obviously things have slowed because of the Coronavirus situation, but also for several weeks I was having ongoing issues with the painter I was using. Just couldn't stick to commitments and then when he was called on it, he tried blaming everybody else for causing the delays. I gave him several tries to make it right, but it just kept going poorly, so that was it...
The plane and all the supplies have been moved to a new painter selected by Mike Black and they're already working on the remaining work. ETA is 2 weeks from last Friday, so hopefully that happens as scheduled.
Then it's on to some misc. remaining work and final assembly.
Meanwhile I've started an online Instrument rating ground school and that's going well. I also have Rod Machado's Instrument Flying Handbook as I like to learn new things from several sources.
I've also been putting in several upgrades to my PC flight sim setup so that I'll be able to practice what I learn. Here's all the various pieces of HW and SW I use or have recently installed:
X-Plane 11 - Flight simulator. You can fly a 172 or a 747! Beyond the standard aircraft it comes with you can get amazing more detailed and accurate 3-D models of almost any aircraft you can imagine (including every variation of airliners!), so if you want to practice that, you can. 😎
VATSIM - Live ATC simulation environment. There is a paid alternative if you want more of a guarantee of "controller" availability and that's PilotEdge.
Boston Virtual ARTCC - Boston area group on VATSIM. They have set hours and locations that they staff for simmers to use. And they create local "events" so you can participate when it'll be especially busy.
xPilot - Plugin for X-Plane to enable VATSIM. Easy setup! Enabled the plugin in X-Plane and all of a sudden I was hearing other "controllers" and "pilots" in the local sim environment. Sounded like the real deal. I'll be nervous when I first try talking into that environment..
Redbird Aviation Headset Connect - Allows for connecting my aviation headset to my PC. There are cheaper adapters, but they need batteries and I didn't want to deal with more batteries than I have to.
Reality-XP GTN 650 - Plugin for X-Plane to simulate the GTN 650 (uses the actual Garmin GTN 650 trainer software underneath so it's the real deal!). If you get this make sure you get the correct version for the simulator you use. I almost bought the one for Microsoft FS before I realized my mistake.
Duet - Software for smartphone (app is $9.99) and PC to enable you to use an smartphone or tablet as an extra Windows (or MAC) monitor. This is super cool because I can use my iPhone to show the 650 and it's the perfect size (and fully touch screen like the real 650!).
ForeFlight - Connects to X-Plane seamlessly!
Joystick - Well, the Sling has a stick!
Rudder Pedals - I want it to be real-ish! I can't wait to try an ILS approach in bad convective weather. 😎
Throttle Quadrant - Like the Sling!
BTW, have you checked out Windy.com?? I think it's the best weather website/app for pilots. Using an available flight planning plugin (no charge) you can import a flight plan and see what the weather will be along the whole route. And the weather along the route will be the expected weather when you get to each point! You can check wind speed, visibility, cloud bases, tops, etc. anywhere in the world. SO many cool features! Check it out!
Testing out VATSIM.
On the Boston Virtual ARTCC site you can see who's flying and what controllers are available.
On the left is my iPad running ForeFlight. My iPhone has the 650 plugin and on the right is the xPilot window which shows its status.
Close-up of ForeFlight and the 650 simulator. Works exactly like the real deal!
Flight Following in/near Bravo airspace is the best tip I can offer as a lead-up to training for an instrument rating. Good chance to get a feel for what it's like in the system.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we're right on the edge of the Boston Bravo, so I've asked for flight following many times.
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