It was a beautiful day on the South Coast yesterday, and we flew circuits for a bit . Halfway through a funny thing happened. The guys in the tower directed me to reset the transponder, telling me that I’d stopped showing up. (This isn’t as bad as it seems, because I was still on radar – they had me on radar, so they were only missing my altitude, and since I was in the circuit they knew what that was). Anyway, I recycled it and tested it and it was kaput. They told me to fix it later.
Lucky for me, one of my partners fixes transponders. What I thought was going to be a hassle wasn't a problem at all.
The first job is removing the transponder from the plane. If you’re only experience is installing car stereos, a NARCO AT 150 is a treat.
The transponder is the unit at the bottom, and you’ll see there is a little hole on the bottom right of it right under the IDENT button. Guess what? There's a screw in there.
You stick in the Allan key, and that unscrews a long retaining screw that attaches the transponder to the back of the instrument panel. You can see how nicely it slides out. Not at all like my ’72 Toyota Celica with the AM/FM 8 track.
You can see the attachment point at the end of the mounting box, along with the connector.
No wire harness or plug. Instead, it connects just like a card in a computer.
Once it was out we threw it on a few testers. Surprise, surprise, it worked fine. We cleaned the connector with alcohol and re-installed it. I powered it up, gave it a little bit for the tube inside to warm up, but no go!
Of course, there was something simple I should have thought of in the first place, possibly while in the air – the fuse. I pulled it, inspected it and found nothing wrong. I replaced it and miracle or miracles, the transponder light blinked blue. Good to go!
What was it? Gremlins?
Of course not. Remember, I was flying circuits on my way to soloing. Take off, turn out, do the downwind check “Primer in and locked, masters on, mags both, fuses and circuit breakers in….”
And that’s when I "broke" my transponder. Running my hands over the fuses must have been the cause. Lesson learned, and if I have another non-critical electrical screw up I’ll be sure to check the fuses early in the game.
Live and learn….
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
Raising Steer for Yourself
How much meat does a steer produce? I've read that a Hereford will come in at perhaps 1,200 lbs on the hoof, but we'll use 1,000 as a round number.
How much becomes meat hanging in the cooler? Probably about 600 lbs. but that gets whittled down further.
Grass fed beef tends to be leaner than feedlot beef, and there tends to be more usable meat, relatively speaking, but we still have to subtract somewhere between 25% and 30% of the hanging weight off the 600 lbs. Let's take off 180 lbs, leaving us with 420 lbs of beef.
The website at Chicamarun.com breaks the steer down thus:
So, 420 lbs of meat should cost, what? Believe it or not, it looks like a live steer, bought in bulk, goes for just over $100 in the US and about $150 in Alberta if I'm reading the tables correctly. Its going to take more investigation, but it looks to me like there's room here. If the rancher is getting that little then there has to be a lot of marking up at each stop from pasture to table.
How much becomes meat hanging in the cooler? Probably about 600 lbs. but that gets whittled down further.
Grass fed beef tends to be leaner than feedlot beef, and there tends to be more usable meat, relatively speaking, but we still have to subtract somewhere between 25% and 30% of the hanging weight off the 600 lbs. Let's take off 180 lbs, leaving us with 420 lbs of beef.
The website at Chicamarun.com breaks the steer down thus:
A 1,000 pound choice steer will dress out at 61.5% (615 pounds). Of that 183 will be fat, bone and other loss. That leaves 432 pounds of beef.
Chuck (shoulder area): 164.8 pounds (26.8% of total carcass)
* Blade pot roasts-59.3
* Stew or ground beef-32.1
* Arm pot roast-22.3
* Cross rib pot roast-10.7
* Boston cut-9.9
* Fat and bone-30.5
Brisket (basically between front legs): 23.4 (3.8%)
* Boneless-9.4
* Fat and bone-14.0
Shank (basically lower leg below brisket): 19.1 (3.1%)
Short plate (belly under rib area): 51.0 (8.3%)
* Plate, stew, short ribs-40.8
* Fat and bone-10.2
Flank (belly under the loin): 32.0 (5.2%)
* Flank-3.2
* Ground beef-12.6
* Fat-16.2
Rib: 59.0 (9.6%)
* Standing rib roasts-24.2
* Rib steaks-12.4
* Short ribs-4.7
* Braising beef-2.7
* Ground beef 3.5
* Fat and bone-11.5
Loin (between rib and round): 105.8 (17.2%)
* Porterhouse steak-18.7
* T-bone steak-9.5
* Club steak-5.2
So, 420 lbs of meat should cost, what? Believe it or not, it looks like a live steer, bought in bulk, goes for just over $100 in the US and about $150 in Alberta if I'm reading the tables correctly. Its going to take more investigation, but it looks to me like there's room here. If the rancher is getting that little then there has to be a lot of marking up at each stop from pasture to table.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Off Grid Living
Wikipedia defines "The term off-the-grid (OTG) or off-grid [as] living in a self-sufficient manner without reliance on one or more public utilities".
It works for me. Its comprehensive and inclusive enough to make all kinds of creativity and conformity. You could hike in the mountains three days to get rid of everything and everyone, or start a system of rainwater collection, or raise vegetables produced locally. Every little bit helps, and besides, who wants to someone else to define their way of life? Not me!
Anyway, if this is interesting to you I've got more written on the subject on Off Grid BC.
Interested in an off the grid rec property in the Interior? I've got listings for Cariboo and Chilcotin real estate on my other blog, including one at Tibbles Lake. I also have free real estate classified ads there.
Anyway, getting back to off grid and off grid in British Columbia, I've decided to start a cowoperative, and you can find out more about that at my cowoperative blog.
It works for me. Its comprehensive and inclusive enough to make all kinds of creativity and conformity. You could hike in the mountains three days to get rid of everything and everyone, or start a system of rainwater collection, or raise vegetables produced locally. Every little bit helps, and besides, who wants to someone else to define their way of life? Not me!
Anyway, if this is interesting to you I've got more written on the subject on Off Grid BC.
Interested in an off the grid rec property in the Interior? I've got listings for Cariboo and Chilcotin real estate on my other blog, including one at Tibbles Lake. I also have free real estate classified ads there.
Anyway, getting back to off grid and off grid in British Columbia, I've decided to start a cowoperative, and you can find out more about that at my cowoperative blog.
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