#aviation
// 28 posts tagged
Jul 25 7:14 PM #204 4 min A 1912 Knot That Keeps the Horizon Honest
Kite Aerial Photography with a Picavet RigThe camera never left the ground today. I spent the whole session on a step with a coat hanger and two eyelets, learning why a 1912 knot outperforms firmware at keeping a lens level.
Jul 19 6:04 PM #198 3 min The Sky Was Reporting in Eighths the Whole Time
Cloud SpottingTwenty years reading cloud codes off flight briefings, and a lens-shaped cloud over the foothills stopped me cold. Turns out I could name the weather but not the sky it came from.
Jul 14 4:21 AM #194 3 min Four Centimetres of Line Between Straight and Sideways
Ripstop Sport Kite Building and Precision FlyingThe kite pulled left. I spent an hour blaming my hands, then the bridle, then physics — before measuring the two lines and finding four centimetres of pure self-inflicted humiliation.
Jul 10 5:31 PM #190 3 min Two Millimetres of Bend Between Straight and Coming Home
Returning Boomerang Carving and TuningA boomerang that doesn't come back isn't broken — it flew straight, exactly what a hunter wanted 40,000 years ago and precisely what I don't. The fix lives in millimetres of bend.
Jul 9 7:42 PM #189 4 min The Nose Must Outweigh Everything the Wind Can Grab
Model RocketryA rocket flies straight for one reason: a pea of clay in the nose. Get it wrong and you've built a very expensive lawn dart. So I swung mine on a string, like 1960 told me to.
May 25 4:25 AM #145 4 min Forty-Seven Degrees Waiting for an Almanac I Don't Have
Celestial Navigation by SextantThe sextant says 47° 12.3'. The Sun says nothing helpful. The almanac I need to make sense of either one arrives in four days.
May 3 5:41 PM #2 day 3 2 min Sixteen Temperature Readings From Eight Sensors I Soldered
Stratospheric Balloon TelemetryThe bench test showed sixteen temperature readings when I'd installed eight sensors. Turns out every solder joint was measuring something.
Mar 16 8:23 PM #74 4 min Five Signatures for Five Hundred Years of Circuits
Coptic Stitch Flight Logbook BindingMy Jeppesen spine cracked again. Transport Canada doesn't mandate logbook format. Coptic monks solved this 1,800 years ago.
Feb 21 5:00 PM #48 4 min The Wind Found Its Way to the Cathode
Nixie Tube Flight Instrument ClocksThe Soviet "5" is just an upside-down "2". I'm trusting it to show me the altimeter setting anyway.
Feb 19 5:31 PM #46 4 min Three Cups, One Wobble, and a Northwest Gust
Mechanical Weather Vane InstrumentsPerfect day to build a device that measures exactly what I'm already annoyed by.
Feb 16 5:50 PM #2 day 2 3 min The Payload Stopped Talking at Eight Hundred Metres
Stratospheric Balloon TelemetryA stranger named Dwight called to say there was a styrofoam box in his slough. He was remarkably calm about it.
Feb 10 6:44 PM #39 3 min The Cross-Country That Learned to Keep the Beat
Flightpath Zoetrope DrumsVictorian parlour trick meets GPS log meets strobe light. Somewhere in the blur, September is learning to drum.
Feb 3 7:25 PM #31 3 min Teaching a Knight to File a Flight Plan
VFR Knight's Tour Grid FlightsThe script found a perfect 41-square tour. Then I checked for restricted airspace.
Feb 2 7:55 PM #9 day 2 3 min Before I Read the Weather I Heard It Hum
METAR Chord BriefingsClear skies make my synth go silent. Terrible weather sounds gorgeous. I may have the emotional mapping backwards.
Feb 1 6:49 PM #36 3 min The Balloon Climbed for an Hour Without Changing Key
Stratospheric Telemetry Chord MapsThe script converted my balloon data into MIDI without a single error. The result was one hour of C-sharp minor.
Jan 31 10:00 AM #59 6 min The Air Had Geometry All Along
Monthly RetrospectiveRadio signals became lanterns. Flight paths became thread. A star disc stayed silent. January taught me the air has shapes worth holding.
Jan 31 8:05 PM #30 3 min The Bearings That Learned to Hold My Coffee
QSO Radial VOR Dial CoastersThirty hobbies in, and I keep asking the same question: where did that signal come from? Now my coffee mug rests on the answer.
Jan 29 6:44 PM #28 3 min Asking Polaris for a Second Opinion on North
Star-Drift Compass Calibration CardsPolaris is 0.7 degrees off true north. My compass is worse. Tonight we're going to have a conversation.
Jan 25 5:40 PM #23 3 min When the Flight Log Learned to Whisper in Thread
Morse Waypoint Flightpath EmbroideryThe flight log didn't ask to become fabric. Neither did the Morse code. I overruled them both.
Jan 23 7:24 PM #21 3 min When the Flyby Learned to Hum Its Own Speed
Propeller Doppler ArpeggiatorWind from the northwest, gusting to 25 km/h. Not ideal for flying—but exactly what my arpeggios needed.
Jan 22 5:10 PM #20 4 min The Racetrack in the Sky Had a Time Signature
Holding-Pattern Polyrhythm LoopsStandard-rate turns are 3° per second—exactly 60 seconds for 180°. The FAA didn't mean to write a time signature, but here we are.
Jan 21 7:36 PM #18 3 min The Broadcast That Wouldn't Hold Still for the Choir
ATIS Choir HarmonizationI built a click track at 84 BPM. The ATIS announcer did not consult it.
Jan 15 7:18 PM #14 2 min Printing the Sky My Radio Forgot to Keep
APRS Skytrace SculpturesThe tracker gossips to digipeaters I've never met, and somewhere a map in Japan shows a foam aircraft drawing loops over frozen Alberta.
Jan 12 7:12 PM #11 4 min The Ribbon That Refused to Touch Its Own Terrain
VFR Track Relief PrintingMy flight path floated a storey above its own mountain. GPS and terrain data have different opinions about ground.
Jan 11 8:19 PM #10 4 min Teaching a Foam Wing to Sign the Dusk
RC Light-Trace CalligraphyThe aircraft vanishes in the long exposure; only its glowing path remains. I'm handwriting in three dimensions with a machine that doesn't know it's a pen.
Jan 10 8:49 PM #9 4 min Nine Miles of Visibility in a Major Seventh
METAR Chord BriefingsNine statute miles of visibility produces a major seventh. I've accidentally turned preflight planning into jazz.
Jan 7 7:27 PM #6 3 min Teaching a Foam Wing to Draw the Ground
Foam-Wing Orthomosaic MappingTeaching a computer to recognize a park from 200 slightly different angles—like raising a very slow bird.
Jan 1 4:33 AM #2 2 min A Quarter Watt from the Edge of Space
Stratospheric Balloon TelemetryIt's 2:47 AM and I just ordered missile-grade GPS to track a latex balloon carrying a thermometer.