Simple items, clearer head: What 3D Printing fixed for a GA pilot’s mental load
*Guest post by Tim Fernando*
One of the things that is never talked about when becoming a private leisure pilot is that the mental load required to handle everything you need to do is quite high. Mass and balance, weather, PPR, performance calculations, booking out, booking in, payments in weird and wonderful methods per airfield, managing your passengers, ensuring that the aircraft is safe etc etc. We are trained to do all of these things but nevertheless the mental load is not trivial and requires practice or process to do consistently and safely. Commercial pilots often have teams behind them to handle many of the parts that a GA pilot must do themselves.
After flying for five years, I’ve created various ways to reduce the mental load and friction/discomfort when flying. This has ranged from building an app for my aircraft to help automate calculations, through to designing and now sharing, via Pooleys, 3D printed apparatus which have helped me.
1. **Circuit Breaker Collars** - Let’s say you have a failure, perhaps there’s smoke coming out of the panel, or the electric trim has run away and you’re having to pull with all your might on the control column to counteract the force from the trim. Would you be able to find the correct Circuit Breaker you need to pull in that instance? When looking at a wall of CBs I didn’t feel confident in being able to spot the right CB quickly. So I made some brightly colour coded breaker rings which you can use to match your electrical failure checklists.
*NB Only use these with approval from your maintenance organisation.*
2. **GATS jar holder** - Dumping AVGAS onto the ground is banned in many countries, and so the GATS jar is used as the prefered way of testing fuel. It allows you to take a decent size sample, and check the fuel colour and composition against the white label. Once you’re done, you can use the built in filter to return the fuel back into the tank.
It’s a great device, but it’s also clear. And when it’s clear it disappears into your wing. And when it disappears into your wing, you get in, start your engine and off it falls onto the ground. I can’t be the only person, right?? On top of that it’s easily scratched, which makes it a bit tricky to read after some time, and it can get cracked, when it inevitably falls off the wing.
To solve this I made a GATS jar holder, with a glove dispenser on top. It’s strong so it will keep your GATS scratch and crack free. It’s brightly coloured, so you’re not going to forget it and the glove dispenser stops you having that annoying situation where you get lead laden blue fuel all over your hands just before you take to the skies.
3. **Fuelhawk 11” Holder** - For those of you who visually check the tanks of the many year old aircraft you’re flying (very wise IMO), you are probably using a Fuelhawk 11” stick. They are clear, easy to read and most importantly accurate. That is until they get scratched up, and before they annoy you by leaving fuel residue on your gear. So I made a holder. It’s specifically designed for the Fuelhawk, it’s super strong, and has tiny ventilation holes which are small enough to allow vapour out, but not large enough for fuel to go sloshing around. It’s also bright orange so you don’t accidentally leave it on the wing (can you sense a theme here)?
All these are exclusively available at Pooleys right now. I hope you find them as useful as I do when flying and help to make the whole experience better.
Buy them here...
Fuelhawk 11" Fuel Tester Holder
