Rent-a-Pilot Aeronautics
airplanes and other distractions
On Duty – Amsterdam FIR
Latest

The new version of the E6B Flight Computer Teacher is coming for iOS – and how I crashed my M1 Mac
The long overdue version for IOS14 In 2008 or so I built my first version of the E6B teacher app. Back then I was really into Flash action script with adobe Air so I could build cross-platform. After that several copies appeared in the app store but all the only thing...

Counting aircraft (Or anything else) – How to use Node-Red to add a TAG for “Group by TAG” in Influxdb
Influxdb is great for time-series data but sometimes you want to look for a combination of two values. This allows you to display occurrences of that combination in Grafana.

Anonymously counting the anonymous Bluetooth COVID-19 contact tracing app near a busy roundabout in Amsterdam
Knowing how many people in the area have the Covid-19 contact tracing app installed So I got distracted again. That post about ADSB is going to be delayed a bit. In the past I was already fascinated by a project that allows to collect anonymised data about the amount...
Quick highlights
Bluetooth devices in Amsterdam 1059 with the Covid contact tracer installed
Updates every minute.
In the sky around Amsterdam in the past 12 hours
Schiphol Runway 22
threshold base landing

Amsterdam Area Real-Time Aircraft Stats from Mode-S Transponders
Live updated every minute from my Mode-S receiver.
The data comes from a Software Defined Radio receiver with an antenna under my roof in Amsterdam. The receiver is connected to a Raspberry Pi which funnels the data via Virtual Radar server on a second Raspberry Pi to my NAS with several Docker containers: Node-Red splits the JSON feed, adds formatting and then inserts it into an Influxdb which then of course gets picked up by Grafana.

Freelance Corona Classrooms in Aviation – Now what?
WTF? → OK let's do this So the other day I was rudely separated from my audience by world events no recent developments no. Forget it. Anyway, the point is that I've been doing this explaining thing for a long time now and posting about it somewhere online instead of...

ADS-B retrofit manadate for Europe postponed to 2023
Not enough aircraft will be equipped at the original deadline In an interesting but not unexpected move last week (april 22, 2020) the European Commission and EASA published an amendment to Implementing Regulation EU No 1207/2011 that effectively delays the mandatory...

So you are a pilot?
Well it's not exactly brain surgery, is it. But do check out this short clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I

To reject a takeoff after V1 or not?
Dusting off the FAA takeoff safety training aid I teach Aircraft Performance for commercial pilots (ATPL) and the question that ALWAYS comes when we talk about V1 is: What if something happens after V1 and the runway is long enough to stop on? The simple answer...

Crazy LORA ranges today, can Tropospheric propagation be the cause?
Records are breaking July 25, 2019 It is high summer in Europe with record-breaking temperatures (again) today.Also we are seeing record-breaking ranges on LORA trackers. This is one of my gps-nodes on the Things network that rides along in a delivery truck. It passes...

The Cloud
There is no cloud, it's just someone else's computer This catchphrase is becoming more popular lately. Why? Because it's not just about storing your data in Dropbox, or handing over all your images to Google for the convenience of it.Need I still remind you of this...

Video: Jet Airways flight 9W-118 intercepted over Germany after lost com
Here's an interesting video that was brought to my attention today by a Captain from India. On Feb 16th 2017, Jet Airways' flight 9W-118 from Mumbai (India) to London Heathrow failed to make contact with German ATC after being handed over from Bratislava. The aircraft...
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The Art of Flying
“There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. Its knack lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, that provides the difficulties.”