Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Neomys Sapiens]

@Specmaster - Yeah, that is exactly the phenomenon I was talking about. Been "business as usual" down in Dumbfuckistan for decades.


I'll just leave this lying here for the cabling/connector freaks... and freqq...



https://www.ebay.ca/itm/6-GOOD-CONDITION-ASTRO-DANIELS-INSERTION-EXTRACTION-TOOLS-11/174622120691

mnem
 

That's just the standard kit for MIL-C-26482 Series1. Everyone has them. At least twice.

[med6753]

You don't know me very well, do you? 

Dirty old man until I'm a dead old man. 

I see nothing wrong in that at all  , if a man has given up all interest in the opposite sex, he's either gay or not long for this world I reckon 

Add to that extremely grouchy old man. I just got some bad news. Lady Cop just informed me that she's on a special duty for the foreseeable future that involves working Saturday and some Sundays. 

She hasn't had any overtime in over a year and I certainly understand her desire to snap it up when she can because it adds to her pension and helps to pay bills.

So......far warning.....don't piss me off.   

[Robert763]

I even got to do some flight test and got some sim training.  I have stories.

Reminds me of our good friend and neighbour whom was foreman of maintenance watch at Air NZ and did rotational shifts for much of his career. In the dead of night when they were all caught up and all aircraft signed out as airworthy trips to the sim were fav time killers where he reckoned he'd crashed 747's in every major international airport. 

I logged an hour of dual inst. and six takeoffs and landings at SYD in a Qantas B-747 sim.  A good mate was a Qantas captain and got me a slot in the schedule.  I was in town for a meeting and had arrived the morning after the big party at the opera house after Sydney won the 2000 Olympics.  (Such a mess.)  They had the Olympic venues in the sim just like when they gave the Olympic suits sim rides to showcase what it would look like if they were awarded to Sydney.  I even flew the a/c under the Harbour bridge and it knocked off my vertical fin.  Good memories.

Sims are in much greater demand it appears these days (pre Covid) and our daughter captain gets a slot weeks in advance to do her 2x/year checks. She flys the 50 seater Dash 8's.
In Auckland we apparently get quite a few fly in's to use it and I know it was extended and further sims added. Pretty neat place to have a poke around as daughter got us in there once.

Talking of Dash 8's I designed a system for and spent a fair bit of time on this one a few years ago.
https://youtu.be/huJDDGyWDYU

Nice, bit flasher than the Q300 Dash 8's we have in NZ. Looks a bit bigger to, ~70 seater ?

It's a Special Mission aircraft cnversion. I can't tell how many seats but it's a lot less than when it was carrying passengers (it's an ex FlyBe airframe)

[Specmaster]

You don't know me very well, do you? 

Dirty old man until I'm a dead old man. 

I see nothing wrong in that at all  , if a man has given up all interest in the opposite sex, he's either gay or not long for this world I reckon 

Add to that extremely grouchy old man. I just got some bad news. Lady Cop just informed me that she's on a special duty for the foreseeable future that involves working Saturday and some Sundays. 

She hasn't had any overtime in over a year and I certainly understand her desire to snap it up when she can because it adds to her pension and helps to pay bills.

So......far warning.....don't piss me off.   

Thanks for the warning, grouchy, but I somehow doubt that I'd manage to piss you off, I'm quite happy to hand that function over to others who seem to take pleasure in doing that with whoever is prepared to bite 

As to Lady cop, it rather sounds as if they are expecting something to go down before too long then, just keeping my fingers crossed that nothing happens and before long she can once again return to your snowy abode and be the apple of your eye and inspiration for your dirty thoughts, which means that we don't need to polish a bullet just yet then.   

[tggzzz]

   *eeeep!* fly away, fly awayyyy!!!

Sorry... lemme get some wipes and I'll clean that right up...

mnem
no, the irony is not lost on me.

Spinning a glider is a known way to lose altitude fast. Daughter puked after spinning down from 4000ft to circuit level.

Normal pre-solo training typically has you doing three multi-turn spins starting at 1500-2000ft; don't enter the 3rd spin below 1000ft. Powered pilots absolutely can't believe it.

Here's a buttock-clenching "low energy" landing. See if you can guess where the airfield is, then skip through every 30s to see if you got it right

[mnementh]

LOL.... seeing as I wasn't the one looking for safe places to ditch well short of the landing zone.... that was actually quite pleasant. Much like flying an electric plank FPV. 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

I'll just leave this lying here for the cabling/connector freaks... and freqq...    

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/6-GOOD-CONDITION-ASTRO-DANIELS-INSERTION-EXTRACTION-TOOLS-11/174622120691

That's just the standard kit for MIL-C-26482 Series1. Everyone has them. At least twice.

Except when you don't.    But you'll see freqq's response in a little bit. 

mnem
*toolish*

[bd139]

Right one hour unfucking an iPad and now on to fixing that criminal usage of a BD140 in that Racal.

[McBryce]

Right one hour unfucking an iPad and now on to fixing that criminal usage of a BD140 in that Racal.

A BD140! That's practically family to you!

McBryce.

[bd139]

Let’s not talk about my other half. BD139 only from now 

[Neomys Sapiens]

Is it a red one?

No pull to his push
Symmetry is discarded
Lonely Transistor

[Cerebus]

Bias asymmetric
Crossover distorted
Hitting the rails

[bd139]

I make a perfectly fine class A or C on my own 

[Cerebus]

Further TEA poetry is available in our joint publication "How to scare a Vogon and other tales", available in English, German and Double Dutch from all good booksellers.

[nixiefreqq]

I'll just leave this lying here for the cabling/connector freaks... and freqq...    

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/6-GOOD-CONDITION-ASTRO-DANIELS-INSERTION-EXTRACTION-TOOLS-11/174622120691

That's just the standard kit for MIL-C-26482 Series1. Everyone has them. At least twice.

Except when you don't.    But you'll see freqq's response in a little bit. 

mnem
*toolish*

got that call all the time.  the installation team is on site and the BOM is mostly there but missing the fixed plant adapters.  "we decided to just have the GI's make up cables". 

oh by the way.  can you fax the pin outs for the mil connectors to the team chief?

and you just pray that they have tools.  and pins.  and shells.

a couple of weeks later when nothing works you scrounge some fpa's and fed ex them half way around the planet.

thank god all those antiques have been scraped by now.  (i hope)

[BU508A]

Is it a red one?

No pull to his push
Symmetry is discarded
Lonely Transistor

Nice Haiku¹   



¹Just missing a hint to the seasons

[BU508A]

Further TEA poetry is available in our joint publication "How to scare a Vogon and other tales", available in English, German and Double Dutch from all good booksellers.

I hope, it is gotten proofread by Mrs. Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings. 

[bd139]

It is done. Racal sorted. I can live with myself now 

[BU508A]

Looking much better now. 
Have you used a Zetex again or did you use something higher specified?

[Cerebus]

Further TEA poetry is available in our joint publication "How to scare a Vogon and other tales", available in English, German and Double Dutch from all good booksellers.

I hope, it is gotten proofread by Mrs. Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings. 

No, by her granddaughter Paulette.

[vk6zgo]

It is done. Racal sorted. I can live with myself now 

Put the BD140 in an envelope & stick it under the top cover for the inevitable time when the OEM transistor croaks again!

[vk6zgo]

   *eeeep!* fly away, fly awayyyy!!!

Sorry... lemme get some wipes and I'll clean that right up...

mnem
no, the irony is not lost on me.

Spinning a glider is a known way to lose altitude fast. Daughter puked after spinning down from 4000ft to circuit level.

Normal pre-solo training typically has you doing three multi-turn spins starting at 1500-2000ft; don't enter the 3rd spin below 1000ft. Powered pilots absolutely can't believe it.

Here's a buttock-clenching "low energy" landing. See if you can guess where the airfield is, then skip through every 30s to see if you got it right

Scariest thing for me, was losing the tow at 400ft (my fault, didn't check the thing properly).
Luckily, I was just the student!
The Instructor, whom I had heard described as "being able to fly a hayshed", landed us safely.
The big Jarrah & Marri trees at the edge of the field looked bloody close, though!

I gave up learning gliding, as I was on shift work, & sailplane pilots are a migratory species.
It got a bit old to turn up at the usual "cow paddock" on  the alternate Sundays I had off from work, only to find everybody had decamped for Narrogin, or Cunderdin, both 100 plus km away!

It really was a "cow paddock" ----the Cessna towplane often ended up with cow poo "under its armpits!"

[bd139]

Looking much better now. 
Have you used a Zetex again or did you use something higher specified?

No idea which vendor it is but it's a ZTX550. I loaded it up on a power supply first with a bias circuit to set the current to 36mA and Vce at 10v and left it for 10 minutes to warm up. Didn't get particularly warm even and it's in SOA. Not sure why the old one died to be honest. Googling Racal and ZTX550 found a post or two about duff ones in Racal counters so may have been a marginal batch 

It is done. Racal sorted. I can live with myself now 

Put the BD140 in an envelope & stick it under the top cover for the inevitable time when the OEM transistor croaks again!

Gone in the bin. I don't recycle the things if they have been used in circuit these days. Also knowing my luck it'd fall out of the envelope and blow something up 

Edit: forgot to mention. I checked the ESR of the main filter caps in there as well - all good which is unusual for Philips caps that are about 43 years old!

[cyclin_al]

I even got to do some flight test and got some sim training.  I have stories.

Reminds me of our good friend and neighbour whom was foreman of maintenance watch at Air NZ and did rotational shifts for much of his career. In the dead of night when they were all caught up and all aircraft signed out as airworthy trips to the sim were fav time killers where he reckoned he'd crashed 747's in every major international airport. 

I logged an hour of dual inst. and six takeoffs and landings at SYD in a Qantas B-747 sim.  A good mate was a Qantas captain and got me a slot in the schedule.  I was in town for a meeting and had arrived the morning after the big party at the opera house after Sydney won the 2000 Olympics.  (Such a mess.)  They had the Olympic venues in the sim just like when they gave the Olympic suits sim rides to showcase what it would look like if they were awarded to Sydney.  I even flew the a/c under the Harbour bridge and it knocked off my vertical fin.  Good memories.

Sims are in much greater demand it appears these days (pre Covid) and our daughter captain gets a slot weeks in advance to do her 2x/year checks. She flys the 50 seater Dash 8's.
In Auckland we apparently get quite a few fly in's to use it and I know it was extended and further sims added. Pretty neat place to have a poke around as daughter got us in there once.

Talking of Dash 8's I designed a system for and spent a fair bit of time on this one a few years ago.
https://youtu.be/huJDDGyWDYU

Nice, bit flasher than the Q300 Dash 8's we have in NZ. Looks a bit bigger to, ~70 seater ?

It's a Special Mission aircraft conversion. I can't tell how many seats but it's a lot less than when it was carrying passengers (it's an ex FlyBe airframe)

Exactly that.  In the most recent standard configuration (aka, cattle hauler), the Q400 seats 86.  Factor in the weight and balance of the mission equipment, then you have much less capacity for human cargo.  Also, if that equipment impedes on the normal emergency exits etcetera, then the occupant safety requirements will further limit the headcount.

[cyclin_al]

   *eeeep!* fly away, fly awayyyy!!!

Sorry... lemme get some wipes and I'll clean that right up...

mnem
no, the irony is not lost on me.

Spinning a glider is a known way to lose altitude fast. Daughter puked after spinning down from 4000ft to circuit level.

Normal pre-solo training typically has you doing three multi-turn spins starting at 1500-2000ft; don't enter the 3rd spin below 1000ft. Powered pilots absolutely can't believe it.

Here's a buttock-clenching "low energy" landing. See if you can guess where the airfield is, then skip through every 30s to see if you got it right

Nope, did not even guess close where the airfield was.  That was a long couple of minutes with the stall warning horn (I assume) going off.