Obsolete Stuff

[yknpdlr]

the FAA and aircraft manufactures actually do consider the compass as permanently superseded and unnecessary due to new electronic technology.

Do you consider the standby 'Whiskey Compass" as permanently unnecessary in every aircraft as well? If you should lose all electrical and backup power, which way is it to the nearest landing strip?

 

[Punkinhead]

Do you consider the standby 'Whiskey Compass" as permanently unnecessary in every aircraft as well? If you should lose all electrical and backup power, which way is it to the nearst landing strip?

Not having an electrical systems means that's one less thing to go wrong. I just fly low enough to see the town name on the nearest water tower to get my bearings. An advantage of living in farm country and flying a plane with a tailwheel that lands at a brisk walking pace means the world is my runway. I did put a nosewheel plane in a muddy soybean field once after an engine failure and that didn't end well for the plane.

 

[Dana]

I'll see your obsolescence and raise you one...View attachment 153045
Like a fine mechanical watch, it's a pleasure to hold and use. In fact, Minerva used to manufacture movements for high end Swiss watches Montblanc and Panerai.

I have and often use one of those, though it's not as nice as yours.

How about a parachute? That level of technology screams “PARACHUTE!”

That level of technology just means less to go wrong, and it lands so slowly you're unlikely to get hurt. They used to say, "The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you."

 

[Superdave]

Do you consider the standby 'Whiskey Compass" as permanently unnecessary in every aircraft as well?

No, not every aircraft; only those with sufficiently robust levels of redundancy. The Gulfstream has four generators, each capable of powering everything on the airplane, and each driven by a completely independent source. If every generator were to somehow fail, there are multiple batteries, including dedicated emergency batteries whose only purpose in life is to power essential items (like the magnetic direction indicators) when all else fails.

Many, if not most of the aircraft being built today still have a wet compass, but I don't lose any sleep over flying one that doesn't.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Anyone have a collection of triangles and French curves? Rapidiograph pens? I actually could have used these tools recently.

Triangles, French curves, circle stencils of various sizes, various sizes of compasses, dividers, angle gauges.....all still being used in my shop.

 

[DougK]

my grandfather's ink well.. keep it on my desk, have to polish it once in a while tho.
I'm obsolete now also, so I like to have other old things around ;-)

I have rescued what I could of the past from the teeth of time.
- John Aubrey, 1697

 

[DougK]

Good point. I have to admit, I have gone back to white gas lantern and stove for car camping. The lantern, because it's quieter than propane. The stove, because the lantern.

on every trip, the mantle of the lantern would have broken off somewhere along the rattletrap road.. still running a 1998 gas stove, on the lantern I've happily gone to a solar LED light ;-)

I'll see your obsolescence and raise you one...
Like a fine mechanical watch, it's a pleasure to hold and use. In fact, Minerva used to manufacture movements for high end Swiss watches Montblanc and Panerai.

still have one like that, though mine is not nearly so nice.

 

[Boatman53]

I am way behind on getting in this thread. It seems I am not alone. In my mind obsolete just means I can afford it, they are still useful. Back in the seventies I was doing land surveying and natural resource work and use a planimeter often. When I moved away from that field I got into boats, building, measuring and designing. No longer having access to a planimeter I resorted to a making a Hatchet Planimeter.

I didn’t put the pennies on for the pic. Obsolete, but I still have it. I finally found one at an antique store.

I’ve also got a map measure, with the offset wheel and the swiveling handle it is real easy to follow a squiggly line.

When I lived on my big boat I had one of these which I’m sure most people now would consider obsolete. I still have it but it’s not been used in a long time.

As a draftsman I still have and use my rapidograph pens, ruling pens, along with all manner of triangles and a complete set of ships curves and the spline weights to hold flexible battens when drawing or lofting.
I guess you could say my milling machine and South Bend lathe are obsolete too.
Jim

 

[Boatman53]

This is what a set of ships curves looks like if anyone is curious.

Jim