Secure that battery
Teen’s creation fits most popular headsets
By Alyssa J. Cobb
If you ever get tired of the battery pack for your noise-reduction headset dangling and banging into you, a California high school student has created a holder to solve that nuisance.
Using his father’s 3-D printer, Ryan O’Toole created a holder for the headset battery pack and attached it with adhesive in his father’s Cessna 206’s cockpit. His father loved it and shared the product with Mark Patey from Best Tugs, who reviewed the product in a social media video. Pilots started contacting O’Toole, asking him to make holders for them. When he could no longer keep up with demand by printing one holder at a time, O’Toole used his earnings to buy an industrial 3-D printer that allows him to complete 10 holders every 24 hours in his parents’ garage—while he’s at school, studying for SATs, taking flying lessons, or sleeping.
He prints 300 to 310 holders per month and supplies them to Sporty’s Pilot Shop, Aviat Husky, and CubCrafters. He has also filled bulk orders from Aero Air, the University of Tromsø in Norway, and a skydive operation in Australia. The holders fit external battery packs for the Bose A20, Bose X, Lightspeed Zulu/Sierra, Lightspeed PFX, and David Clark DC Pro-X/DC ONE-X headsets, as well as the Pilot BluLink headset adapter. When O’Toole receives a new headset model, he spends about a week designing a holder to ensure a secure fit. The black holders, sold at $40 apiece, are becoming so popular that O’Toole said he “might have to get a second printer to keep up with demand.”
O’Toole is using the profits from his business to pay for flight training, and he said he plans to earn his private pilot certificate this year—he turned 17 in June.
Email [email protected]
METAR Maps
Functional aviation art
By Jill W. Tallman
METARmaps are maps of the United States studded with light emitting diodes. Each LED represents a station that provides aviation routine meteorological reports, which you and I call METARs.
The map pulls in and displays METAR data in an easy-to-understand format: A green light is VFR conditions with visibility of more than 5 miles and a ceiling greater than 3,000 feet above ground level; a blue light is marginal VFR, where visibility is between 3 and 5 miles and/or the ceiling is between 1,000 and 3,000 feet agl. A red light is IFR, with one mile or more visibility but less than 3 miles, and a ceiling of 500 feet or more but less than 1,000 feet. A purple light is low IFR—less than a mile visibility, and/or a ceiling less than 500 feet agl. A white bulb means a reporting station is offline.
The map gets its data from a Raspberry Pi computer that is attached to the display but not visible. The display refreshes every 5 minutes. You’ll need to connect the Raspberry Pi to the internet, and the map must be connected to a source of electrical power to illuminate the LEDs.
When we set up a METARmap at AOPA covering the continental United States, everybody who walked past stopped and stared. And it is entertaining to see at a glance who’s got the VFR weather and who’s grounded.
METARmaps creator Richard Freilich calls his invention “functional aviation art,” and the map’s user manual stresses that it is not to be considered a substitute for a thorough preflight weather briefing. That said, the pilot who would glance at a METARmap and use it as a basis to go flying is the type who would probably look out the window for a clue.
The first incarnations of METARmaps used sectional charts. Freilich has since switched to maps as he continues to refine the original design, which debuted in 2018. Other changes include a more robust LED mounting system and improved image processing, he said. Freilich keeps a detailed database of each map made, so that if the customer calls and says a chip has failed in the Raspberry Pi, he can re-create the exact chip. “Then I send the chip and they’re back in business,” he said.
METARmaps are made in Sugarwood, Texas. They can be ordered with black or brushed aluminum frames and a choice of glazes. The company offers maps of the continental United States; the East Coast; the West Coast; Texas; South-Central United States; Virginia; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Gulf Coast; Florida; Chicago; and California. You may also request a custom image or a logo. Prices start at $310.
Email [email protected]
