Airventure 2011 at Oshkosh!
August 13, 2011Podapalozza at Airventure 2011!
July 29, 2011Hi gang. Thursday night, July 28, 2011, aviation podcasters from around the world met at Airventure 2011 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for Podapalooza 2011! Along with the audio and video podcasters there were fans and general hangers-on (hangars-on?) like me! The event was simulcast by LiveATC.com for podcast fans around the world and the Twitter stream was alive with comments!
The event was graciously hosted by Sennheiser at their very well-appointed tent. Below are a few photos from the event.
Sennheiser was the host location for this evening event. Nice digs, and lots of people!
Airventure is about new and old friends. Met and reaquainted with many, like Milford Shirley of “FlightTime Radio” (red shirt with the devilish smirk) and Grant and Steve from “Plane Crazy Down Under” ( wearing black shirts left of Milford, they’re Australian, mate). So many good people, but too many names to remember, and I blame it all on the Jeremiah Weed (whiskey) samples being passed around…
The party got so rowdy, the cops came. Ok, it wasn’t the real cops. It was a prop car announcing Da Blooze Bros, performing at the Ford stage at Airventure. Cool car, and dig the HUGE speaker on top. A hit!
I’m sure each of the podcasters will have their own stories and pictures to post, but I wanted to get something out there as well.
Thanks for the invite!!
Bonanzas to Oshkosh – Airventure 2011
July 23, 2011Two days before the official start of EAA Airventure 2011, but it’s already pretty busy here.
Today was the mass arrival of the Bonanzas to Oshkosh, B2OSH. I understand there were 109 planes, Bonanzas and Barons. I’ve been flying with the Northern California Bonanzas for formation training, so I took the opportunity to shoot some photos of the B2OSH arrival.
Here a sample below. Good job guys (and gals)! The crowd was impressed!
New Garmin GTN 650 Avionics!
July 10, 2011HP Slate 500 Yoke Mount Plate
May 30, 2011Recently purchased an HP Slate 500 tablet PC to use in my plane with the AnywhereMap Pro GPS navigation system. This tablet was developed by HP for commercial use (although I hear that it is now available at some retail locations).
The tablet has an 8.9″ screen, so it will fit nicely on the yoke in my plane. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a commercial supplier of a tablet mounting plate for the HP Slate 500, including the biggest suppliers of such things, RAM Mounts. The mounts available from RAM either are generic “tabletop” plates that are far too big or plates for the iPAD that do not fit the HP slate. So I made my own yoke mount plate. Pictures below.
The mounting plate is made from aviation grade 2024 Aluminum, 0.040″ thick. This is stiff enough to hold the tablet well while thin enough to work with the cutting, bending, and finishing tools in my hangar. It’s a simple design, basically a cruciform shape with double horizontal members. This leaves space for all of the ports and controls while providing arms that securely hold the tablet on the yoke. The bottom arm has an additional vertical surface to hold the tablet bottom in place and the other arms secure it laterally.
To hold the tablet securely on the plate, I fabricated a U-shaped top bracket that velcros to the top side of the top arm to hold the tablet within the 6 arms of the plate (there is very little force against this U bracket, a design I used successfully in a previous tablet plate. Primed and painted grey. The tablet inserts easily onto the plate and then held securely with the U bracket.
This tablet plate bolts to a standard circular RAM 1″ ball mount, connecting arm, and adjustable yoke mounting arm. This general design should work for most tablets, with the securing arms sized and located as needed to avoid ports and ventilation holes.
Cheers!

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