Have you created anything "home-made" for your plane? (or a low cost alternative?)

("Blanche Cohen" wrote)
I picked up a bunch of those 3 ft. long foam tubes in the pool area at
Target for $0.99 each, cut slit in them. Didn't go with the streamers
since the tubes are fluorescent colored. A bit hard to miss.


Noodles.

IIRC, someone on the rec.newsgroup(s) was in the business of making those -
don't remember their name.


Montblack

I got this one off of the Cessna Pilot's Association forum. When I got
tired of cold air leaking in around the "juice cans" on my 172, instead
of the $800 Sporty's replacement vents, I applied $5 worth of the fuzzy
part of sticky backed velcro to the existing "juice cans." Makes great
weather stripping to keep my cockpit nice and warm.

I have a home-made tie down kit. It consists of three appropriately
sized ropes, professional sized tent pegs, a rubber hammer, and
carabeners. The carabeners came from a kayak store and the rest came
from Lowes. The carabeners are permanently tied to the bottoms of the
ropes. They clip on to tie down rings at an airport. If I'm at an
airport with short or tattered ropes, I loop the existing ropes near the
ground and clip my ropes to them with the carbeners. If there is
nothing at all at the airport to attach to, I park in the grass, thread
the rope through the tent pegs (the knot at the end with the carabener
stops the peg at the end), and hammer the pegs into the ground.

Most of my other pilots supplies for my plane, while not home-made, come
from Walmart. They have some $7 clip on LED lights which are awesome
for the cockpit. Not only are they a great back-up source of lighting,
but they are indispensable when you have the master off and are trying
to clean out the plane after a night flight.

My oil box, survival kit and contents (you could consider that
home-made), life jacket box, Marvel Mystery Oil, MMO funnel, and
cleaning supplies all come from WalMart as well.

Helen


Andy wrote:
As a new pilot and new owner of a cessna 172, I've noticed the
seeimingly unlimited amount of accessories available for my plane. Most
seem to have one thing in common - a high price tag.

I was wondering if anyone reading this thread would share information
on any devices that are perhaps homemade or are low cost alternatives
to items available in aviation catalogs.

I guess this would include anything from pilot -assist devices to low
cost alternatives to lighting, interior upholstery, and the like.

Thanks in advance for any input you may offer.

Andy.

A prop lock.

Got one of those 'security cables' from Home Depot and a good Master lock.

It got stolen.....



Actually, a friend of mine thanked me for 'letting him' use it. He had to
drop his plane off at a nearby airport that requires prop locks on all
planes. He knew it was in my plane, and knew where the spare keys were.


"Andy" wrote in message
ups.com...
As a new pilot and new owner of a cessna 172, I've noticed the
seeimingly unlimited amount of accessories available for my plane. Most
seem to have one thing in common - a high price tag.

I was wondering if anyone reading this thread would share information
on any devices that are perhaps homemade or are low cost alternatives
to items available in aviation catalogs.

I guess this would include anything from pilot -assist devices to low
cost alternatives to lighting, interior upholstery, and the like.

Thanks in advance for any input you may offer.

Andy.

I made a couple of custom leather flight bags to fit the
available space in the airplanes I was flying. I also made
some pitot covers from leather, that were a wet molded fit,
that would not blow off.


--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.
some support
http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm
See http://www.fija.org/ more about your rights and duties.


"Steve Foley" wrote in message
news:qts_f.6292$_T5.527@trndny08...
|A prop lock.
|
| Got one of those 'security cables' from Home Depot and a
good Master lock.
|
| It got stolen.....
|
|
|
| Actually, a friend of mine thanked me for 'letting him'
use it. He had to
| drop his plane off at a nearby airport that requires prop
locks on all
| planes. He knew it was in my plane, and knew where the
spare keys were.
|
|
| "Andy" wrote in message
|
ups.com...
| As a new pilot and new owner of a cessna 172, I've
noticed the
| seeimingly unlimited amount of accessories available for
my plane. Most
| seem to have one thing in common - a high price tag.
|
| I was wondering if anyone reading this thread would
share information
| on any devices that are perhaps homemade or are low cost
alternatives
| to items available in aviation catalogs.
|
| I guess this would include anything from pilot -assist
devices to low
| cost alternatives to lighting, interior upholstery, and
the like.
|
| Thanks in advance for any input you may offer.
|
| Andy.
|
|
|

I am a musician, and have some custom-fitted isolation
headphones. They work very well, and made an audio
transformer that allows me to use those as my headphones.
Comfortable in-ear and nice sound.

However, I had then to find a microphone to use with them,
and that's harder to find (cheap). . .which I am. Ha!

Three LED (red, amber, green) over/under/just-right voltage indicator
which tells me if the alternator is on line. It takes up just 0.005
square inches of panel space.

A home-brew auto-muting stereo music switcher which added MP3/CD inputs
and stereo headphone jacks to my otherwise mono audio panel/mono
intercom. Auto mutes when there is activity on the aircraft radios or
intercom. Cost about $50 in parts, vs $1000 for the high end PS
engineering audio system.

In rec.aviation.owning mikem wrote:
: Three LED (red, amber, green) over/under/just-right voltage indicator
: which tells me if the alternator is on line. It takes up just 0.005
: square inches of panel space.

I've been thinking of doing this, but haven't had time to design the circuit.
Do you have yours available to share?

: A home-brew auto-muting stereo music switcher which added MP3/CD inputs
: and stereo headphone jacks to my otherwise mono audio panel/mono
: intercom. Auto mutes when there is activity on the aircraft radios or
: intercom. Cost about $50 in parts, vs $1000 for the high end PS
: engineering audio system.

I've had non-muting (where I simply tapped a music jack into the audio panel),
partial-muting (10-20dB down), and full-muting iterations on my plane. My comment is
that partial muting is probably about the best option, but it's still not great. It
really discourages conversation among others in the plane that are listening. If you
say something, the music goes away, so most people don't say much. I usually fly long
distances solo, so I use the direct input to my headsets. It does full-muting, but I
get higher fidelity and stereo than running it through the intercom (PC-4 IIRC).

Doesn't seem like it should cost $50 for the parts on that.

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

A home-built airplane, since you can't install parts in the
panel that are not approved. Now if it is a cigarette
lighter plug-in you can do what you want since it is not
part of the airplane.



--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.
some support
http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm
See http://www.fija.org/ more about your rights and duties.


"mikem" wrote in message
oups.com...
| Three LED (red, amber, green) over/under/just-right
voltage indicator
| which tells me if the alternator is on line. It takes up
just 0.005
| square inches of panel space.
|
| A home-brew auto-muting stereo music switcher which added
MP3/CD inputs
| and stereo headphone jacks to my otherwise mono audio
panel/mono
| intercom. Auto mutes when there is activity on the
aircraft radios or
| intercom. Cost about $50 in parts, vs $1000 for the high
end PS
| engineering audio system.
|