Technology is Incredible...

Only in the 21st century:

Without any effort on my part I just received an aviation video as an
attachment to an email (for our aviation video website) from a guy who
is viewing our hotel's website (which resides on a computer in
California, which, in turn, is owned and operated by a guy in North
Carolina) while sitting comfortably on the bridge of a research vessel
sailing off the coast of Cote D'Iovoire.

He is accessing the internet via the IARSAT satellite.

Nothing that guy and I just did was possible -- or even existed -- when
I was born.

Amazing!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Thanks for posting that. I work in internet telecommunications and, even
so, it is still staggering to think of how much things have changed in the
last decade or two.


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ps.com...
Only in the 21st century:

Without any effort on my part I just received an aviation video as an
attachment to an email (for our aviation video website) from a guy who
is viewing our hotel's website (which resides on a computer in
California, which, in turn, is owned and operated by a guy in North
Carolina) while sitting comfortably on the bridge of a research vessel
sailing off the coast of Cote D'Iovoire.

He is accessing the internet via the IARSAT satellite.

Nothing that guy and I just did was possible -- or even existed -- when
I was born.

Amazing!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck writes:

Only in the 21st century:

Without any effort on my part I just received an aviation video as an
attachment to an email (for our aviation video website) from a guy who
is viewing our hotel's website (which resides on a computer in
California, which, in turn, is owned and operated by a guy in North
Carolina) while sitting comfortably on the bridge of a research vessel
sailing off the coast of Cote D'Iovoire.

He is accessing the internet via the IARSAT satellite.

Nothing that guy and I just did was possible -- or even existed -- when
I was born.

Amazing!

Now compare that to the rate of change in aviation. What can you do
today in a cockpit that couldn't be done when you were born?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

Mxsmanic asked:
What can you do
today in a cockpit that couldn't be done when you were born?

snip John Smith's response.. lots of stuff.

Including fly the airplane. When I was born, I couldn't do that.
Jim

In article ,
Mxsmanic wrote:

Now compare that to the rate of change in aviation. What can you do
today in a cockpit that couldn't be done when you were born?

Glass cockpit, color radar, gps... lots of stuff.

john smith wrote:
In article ,
Mxsmanic wrote:

Now compare that to the rate of change in aviation. What can you do
today in a cockpit that couldn't be done when you were born?

Glass cockpit, color radar, gps... lots of stuff.

See over the panel?

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...

Now compare that to the rate of change in aviation. What can you do
today in a cockpit that couldn't be done when you were born?


Stare at a GPS display plugged into the cigarette lighter to view my actual
track, groundspeed, ETA, ATA and get other route information along a VFR
airway.

After being in a 20-minute holding pattern in a cloud during my IFR
checkride, and then having the examiner look at his handheld GPS afterward
and say "Let's look at how well you held your racetrack pattern"...
*shudder*

Don't know if they had flight following back in the day, either.

-c

Now compare that to the rate of change in aviation. What can you do
today in a cockpit that couldn't be done when you were born?

You don't have to go back that far. Heck, everything has changed in
flying just since I earned my ticket 12 years ago.

When I first started flying, flight planning was laboriously done with
a sectional chart and a pencil. I would carefully plot my course,
figure out VOR frequencies, plan waypoints where I could triangulate my
position with multiple navaids, and make note of visual checkpoints. It
could take 20 minutes to plan a 1-hour flight. It could take DAYS to
plan a multi-day, truly "cross-country" trip.

Now, unless we're going somewhere far, far away, we hop in the plane,
punch in "Direct to" on our dual GPS's, and we've got more information
at our fingertips about where we are (and where we're going) than we
could possibly use. Every radio frequency, the runway diagrams, the
approaches, the restaurants on (and off) the field, where to spend the
night, phone numbers, the controlling airspace -- even the LIVE weather
-- is all there, for easy viewing. It's absolutely miraculous.

The other thing that has changed dramatically is a revolution that
often goes unnoticed: ANR headsets. When I used to get back from a
long cross country flight, I'd be exhausted, and often had a headache
from all the noise. Now, I arrive fresh as a daisy, even after flying
all day, thanks to my Lightspeed headsets. It's another miracle of the
modern age.

All of this makes it so hard to watch GA gradually withering -- we've
FINALLY got flying to the point where it's really quite safe, simple
and enjoyable to fly cross country, just in time for no one to want to
do it.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
You don't have to go back that far. Heck, everything has changed in
flying just since I earned my ticket 12 years ago.

When I first started flying, flight planning was laboriously done with
a sectional chart and a pencil. I would carefully plot my course,
figure out VOR frequencies, plan waypoints where I could triangulate my
position with multiple navaids, and make note of visual checkpoints. It
could take 20 minutes to plan a 1-hour flight. It could take DAYS to
plan a multi-day, truly "cross-country" trip.

Now, unless we're going somewhere far, far away, we hop in the plane,
punch in "Direct to" on our dual GPS's, and we've got more information
at our fingertips about where we are (and where we're going) than we
could possibly use. Every radio frequency, the runway diagrams, the
approaches, the restaurants on (and off) the field, where to spend the
night, phone numbers, the controlling airspace -- even the LIVE weather
-- is all there, for easy viewing. It's absolutely miraculous.

Hell, I've got nearly that with my LORAN... Flight from Houston to
Oshkosh consists of going to Airnav to get a couple of fuel stops and
checking the weather on Intellicast and the Unisys weather sites the day
of the flight... Mainly the Unisys weather site though since it shows
VFR / MVFR / IMC shaded areas and ceilings across the country... If
there is any weather to avoid, I choose one of the Airnav routes that
hopefully will allow me to avoid it...

Personally, I'm not so sure that having a GPS that does *everything* for
you is the best design... I prefer it to just be a source of coordinate
information and there to be another device that handles the database and
such... I guess I like a bit more distributed approach to the system...
Let's say that there are providers and displayers of information... One
could have GPS and LORAN both act as a provider and the moving map could
be the displayer... Of course, using this logic, perhaps the database
for the moving map should also be a provider subsystem so that other
subsystems could use it to lookup information...

Jay Honeck wrote:

Nothing that guy and I just did was possible -- or even existed -- when
I was born.

fair enough; but (as I like to remind my dad who is a retired postal
worker), way back then, you could send mail (aka 'snail mail' nowdays),
with a reasonable expectation that it would arrive reliably within a
few days; heck, Roman soldiers posted on the Hadrian's Wall could
exchange snailmail to/from Rome significantly faster and more reliably
than is possible today (including packages)...

--Sylvain