Introduction

[Jerry Kaidor <jerry@tr2.com>]

Hello,

   I'd like to introduce myself.  Name is Jerry Kaidor.  I've been Linux-ing
for 7 or 8 years ( started with kernel version 0.95 ) and flying for three.
   I make money for toys by doing embedded network programming, and my main
toy lives down at San Carlos Airport:  a 1953 Cessna 170 taildragger called
"The Silver Turtle".

   When I was learning to fly, I wrote a lot;  that mass of writing resides
at my web site, www.tr2.com.

   I host a couple of mailing lists - cessna-140@lists.best.com, and 
cessna-170@lists.best.com.  The subjects are self evident :-).

   I have no specific applications or plans for Linux in the cockpit at 
this time, but am open to new ideas.  I believe that Linux _can_ be made
robust enough for cockpit duty, whereas Windows can NOT.  Windows does
have its place, but do you really want to depend on every single DLL, 
modified by every single vendor, when bouncing around in the clouds?  Ugh.

   One thing I think a Linux system can be very good for, is flight
planning.  Now that DUATS is accessable via telnet, I'm imagining a 
system where I say "I'd like to fly the Turtle to Pismo Beach this
afternoon", and a full set of documents is printed, including charts,
flight log, etc, etc, and a flight plan filed with FSS.  With a minimum
of human intervention.  And with enough artificial intelligence to 
say "whups, jerry, are you sure you want to do that?  There's icing
at 5000....", and taking into account the particular capabilities and
limitations of my airplane ( "Xwind component is forcast to be 10knots
gusting to 15, didn't you almost groundloop the airplane last time
that happened?" :-) ).  

   I know flight planning isn't as sexy as the in-cockpit stuff, but
it can be an awful lot of work.  To do it right, that is.  And the
plug-together-tinkertoy nature of Unix could potentially make it
more doable than in Windows.  

                                  - Jerry Kaidor ( jerry@tr2.com )
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