Author Archives: Maria Langer

Weird R44 Things: Partial Clutch Activation

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You learn something new…

Yesterday, I picked up my helicopter down in Chandler (CHD) where it was getting some maintenance. After 10 years of mechanic hopping — not my choice — it looks like I’m finally back with a good mechanic who won’t disappear and who will be able to handle my maintenance needs in the Phoenix area on a timely basis.

Because I’m a commercial operator, I am required to get a big inspection every 100 hours. The 100-hour inspection is basically the same as an annual inspection for my helicopter. I fly about 200 hours a year — although I’m likely to hit 300 this year — so I get these big inspections at least twice a year. I’m very happy to be having it done by someone who has been maintaining and repairing Robinsons for longer than I’ve been flying them.

After I paid up, they rolled the helicopter out onto the ramp, and we said our goodbyes, I did a good walk-around. Then I climbed on board and started up. And that’s when I noticed things were different.

Normal Startup

Understand than when you start the same aircraft over 1,000 times over a 6-1/2 year period, you get a pretty good idea of how startup goes. On my ship, with temperatures in the high 80s as they were yesterday, 5 seconds of priming is usually enough to get a cold engine started. I press the starter button and push in the mixture control gradually. When the engine catches, I push in the mixture in all the way, flick on the Alternator, Clutch, and Strobe, and watch the RPM gauges as the clutch engages and the belts catch the drive train.

Right around this point, the helicopter’s engine compartment usually starts making a gawdawful squealing noise. It’s the rubber belts catching on the upper and lower sheaves as they move apart and the belts tighten. The engine RPM is dragged down by the weight of the drive system it’s becoming burdened with. I add a bit of throttle to keep the engine RPM as close to 55% as possible. There’s a final drag on the engine and then the belts become secure. The squealing stops and the RPM recovers. The two RPM needles — Engine and Rotor — become matched and begin to climb. I normally reduce throttle a tiny bit again, just to keep RPM at about 55%. This whole process — from engine start to squeal end — takes about 15-20 seconds. When the clutch light goes out — usually 15 to 30 seconds later — I throttle up to 68% RPM to complete the warm-up process.

Yesterday’s Weird Startup

Unfortunately, that’s not how it happened yesterday and I was in tune to everything that was different. First, no squeal. Second, the engine RPM wasn’t dragged down. Third, the rotor RPM did not match the engine RPM until after the clutch light had gone out. And that clutch light went out a lot quicker than normal.

What the hell was going on?

Everything sounded okay and when I throttled up to 68%, everything seemed okay. I continued the warm up process, watching gauges. Everything seemed normal.

Until I throttled it up to 75% for my mag check. The rotor RPM lagged and the engine sped more than it should have. It was obviously not carrying the full burden of the rotor system.

I signaled to my friend Don, who was in the helicopter next to mine going through his startup routine, that I had to shut down. Don had kindly flown me down to Chandler from Deer Valley so I could pick up my ship. Now it looked as we wouldn’t be flying back as a “flight of two helicopters” after all. I filled him in on the situation, certain there was a problem with the clutch that the mechanics inside could fix, and sent him on his way. Then after checking “under the hood” to make sure it wasn’t an obvious problem, I walked back into the hangar to track down the mechanics.

Under the Hood

My description probably sounded flakey, but I managed to communicate to them that there was a clutch issue. They came out and, with the engine shut down, flicked on the Master switch and engaged the clutch. Looking into the compartment that gives a clear view of the upper sheave and clutch actuator, we could hear the clutch engage and see the upper sheave begin to move. It moved for about 10 seconds, then stopped.

“Did you hear the click?” one mechanic said to the other.

“No,” the other one replied.

They disengaged the clutch and it began running again, now in the opposite direction. It stopped when fully disengaged. Then they engaged it again. It ran and stopped, again without the click.

For some reason, the clutch wasn’t fully engaging. That meant the belts weren’t properly tightening. That also meant that the engine would not be able to turn the rotor blades sufficiently for flight.

In other words, I had a serious problem if I planned on using the helicopter for anything other than as a lawn ornament.

MT558-1 Use

From the R44 Maintenance Manual, this illustrates how to use the MT558-1 [Clutch Actuator Test Plug] Tool. Warning to Pilots: Do not use this tool without following the instructions in the manual!

As R44 pilots should know, there’s a little plastic socket inside the compartment near the warning light test buttons. R44s come with a pair of plugs that go into this socket. Each plug disables one of the two up-limit switches for the clutch. Although I had the plugs under the pilot seat (with a spare gas cap, batteries for my Spot Tracking device, and duct tape), they didn’t ask for them. (I guess they didn’t think I carried them with me.) Instead, they used the scissors on my pocket knife to do what one of the plugs does. They engaged the clutch and this time, it ran all the way up with a satisfactory click.

Not completely satisfied, they disengaged the clutch and then cycled it again, this time without the scissors. We were rewarded with a nice, healthy click. Then again. Click. Then again. Click. It seemed to be working fine.

They disengaged it again and let the belts fully loosen up. They told me that sometimes, when they wash inside the cowling, the clutch switch gets wet and doesn’t work quite right. They’ve had this problem once or twice on R22s. They listed a bunch of symptoms to watch out for in case there was a problem with the clutch switch itself, but they doubted that it was a real problem. Just one of those weird things that happen sometimes.

I know about those weird things. They do happen. When they do, they get your attention and you watch them closely. If they don’t happen again, after a while you just write them off as one of those weird things. But if a pattern begins, you follow up with a mechanic.

Fixed? Looks that Way

I thanked them, started up without any problems, and headed up to Scottsdale (SDL) — a 15-minute flight. I parked on the ramp, walked to the Apple store about 1/2 mile away, and took care of some business there. After dinner with my husband at a restaurant in the area, I went back to the helicopter. It started up again without any problems. I flew it to Deer Valley (DVT) and left it on the ramp for the FBO line guys to put away.

I’ll be watching the situation closely as I prepare for my annual trip to the northwest. I’ve already been advised on how to handle the situation when I’m on my cherry drying contracts — I’ll be keeping those two plugs handy, just in case.

Is iPhone/iPad Killing Stand-alone GPS?

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I think so.

This morning, while going through the tweets in my Twitter stream that had arrived overnight, I stumbled upon a MacObserver article that discussed the iPhone becoming the top “camera” on Flickr. (I have my own opinions on that factoid, which I left as a comment on that post; it’s not a favorable commentary on Flickr users.) That post linked to a far more interesting one by Ted Landau titled “A Dozen Devices the iPhone is Killing.” In it, Ted discusses how features in the iPhone that duplicate those in stand-alone devices are making those devices redundant or simply not necessary.

GPS for Everyday Use

As I commented on that post, Ted is right on target with the GPS analysis. I’ve been using various GPS tracking apps on my iPhone for a while now and am super-impressed with the results. The first one I tried was the $2 GPSTrack app, which I wrote about here. Since then, I’ve also played with GPSLite, a free app that does much the same and more for free (which an interface I find a bit too complex for everyday use). My goals with apps like these is to create track logs and trip computer data for flights and for geotagging photos.

Although I’m not fond of turn-by-turn navigation, I know there are plenty of apps that do this, too. So, as Ted pointed out, in-car GPS navigation systems can also be replaced by an iPhone.

GPS for Flying

ForeFlight on iPhone

ForeFlight runs on my iPhone and includes not only GPS capabilities, but flight planning, weather, airport information, and more.

For pilots, a great app called ForeFlight, which works on both iPhone and iPad, offers better functionality than the $12,000 panel-mount Garmin GPS in my helicopter. Rather than view my location on a primitive screen display, I can see it on an actual aeronautical chart. I can also download charts and other information in advance so there’s no need to rely on 3G connectivity in flight. If I do have 3G connectivity, I can also get up-to-date weather information in flight. And although the iPhone screen is generally too small for my aging eyes to see the details, the same software works on my iPad — that screen size puts my panel mount system to shame. In fact, ForeFlight is the reason I’m updating to a G3 iPad 2 — that model includes a GPS; my original WiFi iPad does not.

Garmin is apparently trying to play catch-up with this functionality but I don’t think they’ll succeed. Why would someone pay thousands of dollars for a one-trick pony like a panel mount GPS when less than $700 will get you an iPad with GPS and Internet capabilities that can be updated on the fly and do so much more — for example, e-mail, Web browsing, ebook reader, and other apps? Best of all, the FAA is starting to accept apps like Foreflight as “electronic flight bags,” thus making traditionally required documents such as printed charts and flight plans unnecessary. (This is something I hope to blog about in more detail soon.)

And Another Thing…

ForeFlight on iPad

Here’s ForeFlight on my iPad. Although this iPad doesn’t have a GPS and can’t do accurate tracking, my iPad 2, which should arrive soon, will.

One thing Ted didn’t mention is the main reason why I don’t like carrying more devices than I have to: batteries and charging. When I go on the road, it seems that my “gadget kit” is filled with cables and charging devices. And spare batteries. What a pain in the butt! Wouldn’t it be nicer to carry just one cable and charger, perhaps with a DC adapter? While it’s true that running a GPS app on an iPhone, especially in tracking mode, sucks battery power more than almost anything else you’re likely to do with the phone, a DC charging device can usually remedy this. Heck, even my helicopter has a DC power port.

At this point, it’s hard to imagine why someone would buy a standalone GPS if they had an iPhone or another smartphone with equally good GPS capabilities. Can you think of a reason?

What’s More Interesting: Your Companion or Your Smartphone?

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A New York Times article summarizes my thoughts on smartphone [over]use.

I have a smart phone. I have had one for about five years, starting with a Palm Treo, moving on to a BlackBerry, and now settling in with an iPhone (on Verizon, thank you). The phone has always held useful data, such as my address book and calendar, and starting with the BlackBerry, also gave me access to useful apps such as weather (remember, I’m a pilot, too) and e-mail.

TextingI never really used my smartphone like the true computing device it is — that is, until I got my iPhone. The preponderance of iPhone apps has really helped me take the next step into true mobile handheld computing. I find myself using this phone more than any other I’ve ever owned: consulting the weather, looking up things on Google and the Web, taking photos, tweeting, and yes, even texting.

What I recently discovered, however, is that despite my involvement in the field of computing, I’m rather behind the curve when it comes to smartphone use. I generally use it when I need to and, when I’m not using it, it’s in my pocket on its belt clip. You see, I still think of my phone as a phone. (Imagine that.) Indeed, since we turned off our land lines, it has become my only phone — my only means of verbal communication with people I’m not with. The apps are a sort of bonus — a way to get more information when I need it.

What’s Getting My Attention Lately

But as I travel about, walking around the Phoenix area, going to restaurants, shopping, and doing things outside my home and office, I’m noticing that more and more people have their phones in their hands with their heads bent over them or their thumbs tapping keyboards or screens wildly. Sometimes they’re doing this while alone, waiting on line to check out or sitting at a sidewalk cafe or even while walking through a mall. But more and more often, they’re doing this while in the company of other people. In fact, I’ve often seen groups of people who are physically together but mentally elsewhere: at least half of them are paying more attention to their phone than their companions.

Two recent experiences really brought this home to me.

One was a photo I saw in The Guardian Eyewitness app on my iPad. This app shows off a daily photo from The Guardian, a UK newspaper. The photo has a caption and a “pro tip” to describe what makes the photograph work from a photographer’s point of view. The idea is that you look at good photos to learn about photography. The photo from April 13, 2011 showed 12 young people standing against a building in front of a memorial pile of flowers. Four (or possibly five) of them are either talking on or looking at their phones. The caption is what makes it so ironic: “Friends of Negus McLean gather at the spot in Edmonton, north London, where the 15-year-old was stabbed to death on Sunday while trying to stop a gang from stealing his brother’s BlackBerry.” I don’t think copyright law allows me to reproduce the photo here, so I suggest you follow this link if you want to see it.

The other was a visit by some friends from out of state who stayed with us for a few days. I don’t consider either of them techies — they just know enough technology to do what they have to do in their normal daily lives. I’m definitely more in tune with computers and mobile devices than either one of them. What really shocked me, then, was their smartphone use. Often, even in the middle of a conversation with me or my husband, one of them would be tapping out some kind of message on his or her smartphone. The phone was usually on the table beside them at meals and was often consulted. One of the phones made a noise every time an incoming message was received — which was quite often. At first, I was appalled by this. But as time passed, I got used to it and accepted it.

Should We Accept Rudeness?

Yesterday, while trying to catch up with news via the NYTimes iPad app, I stumbled across an article in the “Most E-Mailed” section that made me question my willingness to accept this kind of behavior. Titled “Keep Your Thumbs Still When I’m Talking to You,” it included this sentence that really sums up the whole situation:

Add one more achievement to the digital revolution: It has made it fashionable to be rude.

How can anyone argue with that?

Because that is what it is: rudeness. If you’re with someone else, in a conversation or at a meal or even waiting in line for a latte at Starbucks, it is rude to shift your attention from that person to your phone for no apparent reason other than to conduct a text conversation with someone else or tweet what you’re doing or even check your e-mail. By ignoring the people you’re with, you’re telling them that your smartphone or whatever is on it is more important than they are.

Is it? If it is, why bother with personal interaction at all?

The article goes on to cite examples of people more interested in their smartphones than what’s going on around them. It also offers this wonderful quote that I’m taking as a word of advice:

…Mr. De Rosa wrote: “I’m fine with people stepping aside to check something, but when I’m standing in front of someone and in the middle of my conversation they whip out their phone, I’ll just stop talking to them and walk away. If they’re going to be rude, I’ll be rude right back.”

Now I know how to handle the folks who find their smartphones more interesting than me.

What do you think?

In Search of My Next Great Photo

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Competing with someone I know I can beat: myself.

Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus

This photo raised the bar for my landscape photography; I consider it one of my best. (Click for a larger view.)

In 2010, right around this time of year, I took my Jeep and camera out into the desert east of Wickenburg for a bit of what I call photojeeping. Along the way, I made many stops and shot many images of the wildflowers that were in such abundance that day. On that day, I also shot what I still consider to be my best photo.

Let me take a moment to describe what I consider a great photo. Simply put, it needs to meet certain criteria:

  • First Impression = Wow! You know how that goes. You look at a photo or piece of artwork or even something that’s not normally considered “art” and your first response is a mental or even audible “Wow!” What you’re seeing captures your attention and holds it. It makes you really look at it. Examples of wow photos can be found daily on The Big Picture and other news sites that feature extraordinary photography. What makes you say “wow” is likely to be different from what makes me say “wow,” but I’m pretty sure there’s some overlap. I’m pretty picky, though, so I’m not likely to say “wow” about a photo as quickly as some other folks. In fact, I’ve been in groups looking at photos that seemed to impress just about everyone but me. The point: it takes a lot to impress me.
  • Composition. This is one of the things that separates real photographers from people who take snapshots. A real photographer — someone who is actually thinking about the photo before he pushes the shutter button — will study the scene before him and determine how to best frame the elements within it. Composing with the Rule of Thirds in mind seldom leads to a bad photo, but there’s so much more to consider than that. Does a composition have depth through the inclusion of foreground and background subjects? Are elements arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way? Too many people don’t realize that a photo’s composition can be dramatically altered by standing two feet to the right, moving ten feet closer to a subject, or shooting from a kneeling position instead of standing up. And then there’s the choice of lens and focal length — it’s so much more complex than just magnification. Is the composition of the subject matter as good as it could be?
  • Grand Canyon

    While this isn’t a great photo of the Grand Canyon, it does illustrate two points that make it more interesting than the standard straight-on midday shot: composition and light. (Click for a larger view.)

    Light. I can’t overstate how vitally important light is for good photography. Consider a subject like the Grand Canyon. Thousands of people visit every day and most of them are clicking away with their cameras. But how many of them are actually making good photos? I’ve been at the Grand Canyon countless times at all times of the day and night. (Have you ever seen the Grand Canyon by the light of a full moon in the winter time, with a blanket of fresh snow on the rim? Try it sometime.) I can assure you that there’s nothing less interesting than a full-frame shot of the canyon taken from the Rim outside Bright Angel Lodge at midday on a perfectly clear day. It looks completely unimpressive and downright flat. Yet that’s what so many people shoot. If you’re serious about photography and making a good picture, you’ll come back when the light is better — low in the sky or maybe filtered between clouds. You’ll let the deep shadows created by nature add depth to the image. You’ll let the golden color of the light add a warm glow to your scene and bring out the natural red color of the canyon walls.

  • Out of Focus

    This photo of Antelope Canyon is out of focus and there’s nothing I can do to make it any better. It is and will always be a crap photo.

    Mechanics. I’m talking here about basics like focus and exposure. A photo could meet all the other criteria, but if its out of focus or improperly exposed, it fails as a good photo. Let’s face it: if you’re serious about photography, you need to master focus and exposure settings on your camera first, before you spend a lot of time, effort, and perhaps money trying to capture great images.

These are just four of many criteria that can be used to judge the quality of a photographic image. They’re the four top criteria I use when I judge mine.

I realized a while back that I’m in a never-ending photo competition, one where I’m always trying to beat myself. I make what I consider a good (or even great) photo and I then try to make one that’s better.

Sometimes it seems easy. For example, when I shot my Desert Still Life (shown at the top of this post), I was unhappy with the focus. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t the best it could be. So I figured I’d just go back and try again. Although only two days had passed, the scene was dramatically different; I’d have to wait at least a year to try again. Timing, in this case, was everything. I got lucky for my good shot.

(Permit me to take a moment to critique this photo a bit more. Focus isn’t the only problem. The other problem is the sky: it’s too damn blue. This is a problem we have in Arizona — most days there simply aren’t any clouds in the sky. A few clouds — heck, even a contrail — would have made this photo a lot better. But there’s nothing I could do about that. Sure, if I waited for a partly cloudy day, I could have gotten a better desert scene. But would those cactus flower have been in such spectacular full bloom?)

So now I just try to beat that shot and others I also think are good with new and interesting subjects. It’s tough. Sometimes I’ll be at a place where I think I can pull it off and I wind up walking away with an SD card with a handful of disappointing images. But I don’t give up. And I keep experimenting — mostly to learn what works and what doesn’t.

And I think that’s the only way to improve at anything: to keep trying to be your best. To look at past achievements and work hard to take things to the next level. To learn from experience and experimentation.

Sure, along the way there will be plenty of frustrations. But will there ever be so many that I give up? I don’t think so.

New Social Networking Scam

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Another story from my inbox.

Yesterday, the following e-mail message from “Ben” arrived in my e-mail inbox. It had been sent using the contact form on this blog. Here’s the text with the identifying information redacted.

Hi,

My name is Ben and I’m working with the [dedacted TV channel] to help spread the word about their new outdoor photography show, “[redacted name of show].” The second episode airs [redacted date/time] and follows [redacted host name] as he photographs the red rock canyons of the American Southwest.

I came across your wonderful blog and I thought you might be interested in doing a post to let your readers know about the show and help spread the awareness. Any posts that you put up will go up on [dedacted TV channel]’s Facebook Page and/or their twitter page- so it is a good way to get some publicity for your own site. I also have a copy of [redacted host’s name] ‘[redacted host’s book]’ which I could offer out to you for your time.

I’ve put some info about the show, pics, and videos below just to give you some background. If you have any questions or need more information please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for your time and let me know if you are interested as it would be so great to have your help.

Best,

Ben

What followed was a bunch of links to content in various places that evidently showed off the show. (I admit that I didn’t follow any of them.)

Bryce Canyon DawnI received the message on my iPhone while I was stuck waiting for a tow truck (long story) and, because of that, didn’t really read it carefully. At first, I was flattered. This well-known TV channel had found my blog, liked it, and wanted to work with me on some publicity for their show. This made me feel really good because, as regular visitors here know, I do a lot of photography in red rock country in Arizona and in Utah. It looked as if I were getting a bit of recognition.

But when I got back to my office and re-read the message on my computer screen, I realized that the message was obviously boilerplate. Nowhere did it mention my name, the name of my blog, or any other identifying piece of information that might make me think it was written specifically to me. “Your wonderful blog” could be a nice way to refer to anyone’s online drivel — provided you wanted to make them feel warm and fuzzy about your project.

I’d been duped.

Or almost duped.

I then took a closer look at the domain name on “Ben’s” e-mail address. It wasn’t from that TV channel. I popped the URL into my browser and found myself looking at a Web site for a company claiming to be “social media marketing & publicity specials” that “develop strategies and execute initiatives, which generate conversations & cultivate relationships between brands and publishers.” In other words, they con active members of the social networking community to tweet and blog about their clients.

For free.

Well, the client doesn’t get their services for free. It’s Ben and his company who get the services of the social networking folks for free. Free authoring, free placement of the ads, free “buzz.” Ben and his cohorts just send out boilerplate messages to lure in unsuspecting bloggers who apparently have little else to write about. Along the way, they get these bloggers to look at the content on their clients’ sites, bumping up the hit counter to show immediate results.

I’m wondering how many bloggers fall for this strategy and how many thousands of dollars Ben & Co. rake in weekly by copying and pasting boilerplate messages on the Web.

I composed my response:

Ben,

I’m interested in this, but admit that I’m a bit put off by being ask to write what’s essentially an advertisement and place it on my own blog without compensation. Not quite sure how this would benefit me. A few additional hits to my blog would be nice, but since my blog does not generate any income for me, getting more hits is not really that important to me.

I also wonder how many dozens (or hundreds) of other bloggers you’ve contacted. Your message was very generic and could have been sent to anyone with a “wonderful blog.”

Now if I were offered compensation via exposure for my helicopter charter company (http://www.flyingmair.com/), which specializes in aerial photography over red rock areas such as Sedona and Lake Powell — well that might interest me a bit more.

Or is your message just another bit of spam to get ME to check out this site? So far, it’s a FAIL.

Any interest in making this more appealing to me?

Maria

I’m waiting for a response that likely won’t come. Why should he respond to me when he probably has dozens or hundreds of other bloggers taking the bait?

In the meantime, Ben has indeed given me something to blog about.