Today's AOPA ePILOT newsletter had a short paragraph half way down the page titled “Rare but Dangerous – in flight electrical fires” it also had a link to an informative PDF.

This topic is significant to me as it I how I was branded with the call “Smoke Boy” back in my primary flight training. Short story is I had a significant in-flight electrical fire on my first solo cross country flight.

My RV-8 panel is not hugely different from that primary trainer. It has basic instruments. On that day that the pungent smoke plumed in my cockpit, it was a fraction of a second until I had the master switch in the off position. It was a reaction of my training and barely a conscious decision. I recall a funny thought crossing my mind – “geeh, this plane really does fly without the electrical system on”. (Technically it still had the self contained electrical aspects of the magnetos but to this student pilot, flying with 'the switch' off was little more than book-theory up until that moment.)

I have read many posts over on the VAF forums of wonderful glass panels and electronic ignition systems with detailed descriptions of battery backups, diode isolation circuits, etc. Done correctly, these systems will tolerate different degrees of electrical fires.

I write this as a reminder, that those of us with glass panels and modern electronics need to be instinctively familiar with what works and what doesn't work when you throw 'the switch'. It only takes a fraction of a second for things to change in a very dramatic way.

They say, “the best camera is the one you have with you”. The same can be said for writing. “The best writing platform is the one you will use most often” and the one you use most often is the one you have with you when the need to write strikes.

For me, the need to write usually strikes when I am someplace unexpected – out for a walk, sitting in an airport with an hour before my flight, waiting for an appointment. In all of these cases, I have my smartphone. I do a lot of my writing and publishing from the iPhone. I blog and write for several other sites. The universal writing solution is email. It's far from perfect but it works and is predictable. It's also one of the few options for iPhone. The iPad is a different use case.

There are a few writing solutions for iPad. Blogsy is one of the few rich applications which supports a wide range of on-line media sites.

Blogsy does everything pretty well – everything but images. Yes, it does images but not they way I do images. Blogsy assumes the image resolution you upload is the same as what you want to display. When you change the display size, Blogsy just changes the width and height of the display but still uses the original image. Let's say you want to upload a nice high resolution image but only show a small image in your article. Ideally, you may want the small picture to link to the larger picture. This makes it efficient since the reader only loads the small image by default. WordPress and other blogs have automated solutions for pictures – making three or four different sizes of pictures available. Postie – my preferred 'publish by email' solution – easily handles storing the big pictures, letting WordPress create the various Ives, and then linking things together. Better yet, Postie has simple configuration settings for how and what to do with images.

Blogsy makes lots of assumptions about what it will do with images. It's tedious to add a picture, then switch to the cryptic HTML markup to correct it. It's all possible but not easy and not fun.

I'm glad I have Blogsy on my iPad – not because it is so good or easy but rather because it gives me total control when I need it. The native WordPress app does it all too and is free. Blogsy just gives me a 'what you see is what you get' view that can be helpful. Blogsy also supports lots of different internet publishing systems.

The Pictures are grainy but no less amazing given it was so dark, I could not use auto focus and could barely see the deer to focus manually. Shot at ASA 12,800 and 25,600.

The title pretty much says it all. I have this working and I will do my best to explain the entire process. But first, the disclaimer.

The following is not an endorsement for any product real or imaginary. No user-serviceable parts inside. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Continued reading constitutes acceptance of agreement. This website, author, ISP, family, friends, known acquaintances, the dog that peed on your shoe, all known humans, living or dead (excludes zombies) are held harmless. This disclaimer does not cover misuse, accident, lightning, flood, tornado, tsunami, volcanic eruption, earthquake, hurricanes, or other acts of God, neglect, damage from improper use, incineration, or robo-calls. The fact that the content described here works is a miracle on an order of magnitude that is seldom seen in a single life time. The fact that the content described here worked for me is in no way a guarantee it will work for you. That fact that the content described here did not nuke anything, cause smoke, excessive cursing, or human or animal sacrifice is not a guarantee in whole or in part that any or all of those events may not befall others who attempt to reproduce the results. Buyer beware. No guarantees, real or implied. Use at your own risk.

Yeah, that was messy. While it is partly humor, it is also important enough that I will repeat – USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

In addition to a Nikon D700, an Eye-Fi Connect X2 Card, and Extreme SD to CF Type II Adapter you will also need a utility knife, sharp scissors, and a thin piece of plastic (I used the packaging from the adapter). I also suggest you find an old Compact Flash Type 1 card you won’t mind sacrificing.

All you need to know is contained in two videos. The first shows how to disassemble the adapter. The second is optional but a good safety measure explained below.

Note: the adapter I purchased did not have the thin plastic insulating film shown in the first video. It was not critical but something you may encounter.

The D700 memory card ejection button is connected to a small frame deep down in the CF slot. The modified adapter will likely catch on it. To solve this, you need to cut a thin piece of plastic to act as a guide. I used the packaging from the adapter. Cut the plastic almost as wide as a standard CF card. Cut it slightly longer than a standard CF card. Now drop the thin plastic rectangle into the CF slot on the D700 such that the end sits between the pins and ejection frame. This will allow the modified adapter to slide into the camera without getting caught up on the ejection frame.

The second video above describes how to cannibalize an old compact flash type 1 card.

I highly recommend this procedure. It was not absolutely necessary – I tested the adapter + eye-fi card after completing the instructions in the first video and it worked. However, here is your important safety tip – IT IS VERY EASY TO BEND PINS INSIDE THE CAMERA WHEN INSERTING THE NAKED ADAPTER. You would be seriously bummed if you did that. You might get lucking and insert it once or even twice but very soon, you will be sending your D700 in for service because you mushed a pin.

The use of the CF-1 frame aligns the modified adapter in the slot. There is a much smaller chance of messing up your camera if you complete the steps of both video one and two.

In the midst of all the dissection, it is easy to get confused which way is up regarding the modified adapter and the cannibalized CF-1 frame. Below is a picture of the finished setup inserted in the D700. Use a good memory card as a reminder of which way they go in and then assemble all of the parts to match the end result.

Addendum: The D700 really likes to power down the CF card (and thus kill the juice that runs the WiFi in the Eye-Fi card. The easiest solution is to set the Playback timer to 5 minutes (MENU -> CUSTOM SETTING MENU -> TIMERS/AE&AF LOCK -> Playback). This will not affect battery life when shooting since the “review” timer is a different setting. The playback timer affects when you hit the “play” button to review past shots. Setting it to 5 minutes lets you power to Eye-Fi card and then go to your iPhone or iPad and start the Eye-Fi app to transfer images. IT will often take 30+ seconds before the first image transfer so give it time.

One last time – Don’t blame me if you screw up your camera, Eye-Fi card, fingers, or anything else involved in this post.

Every student pilot is taught about the left turning tendencies of an aircraft … well, almost every pilot, some Russian and Eastern European engines rotate in the other direction so they have some right turning tendencies.

One of the left turning forces is called spiraling slipstream. It’s the air pushed from the propeller and it spirals around the aircraft fuselage and hits the left side of the rudder.

It’s not usual that you can actually see the spiraling slipstream but today, an airplane was taking off and it was misting. The result is that you can see the persistence and the propeller path and thus the slipstream!