I’m aiming to keep this relatively free of politics, and hopefully focused on likely outcomes.

I’m passingly familiar with the Federal rule making process. I know the proposed rule in question has been through at least one public comment period, etc.

Given that the inauguration will be prior to the 2025Q1 expected final rule dates I’ve seen from various sources, I’m curious what the collective community thinks is likely to happen with the final rule.

If the proposed rule is likely to be issued as expected, I may delay starting training until that point - I read the proposed rule as opening up a wide variety of additional aircraft under LSA and it may benefit me to start in one of those additional allowed a/c.

If it will be tied up as an unknown for months or years, then starting under the current rules makes sense to me.

I’ve a Travelers Notebook cover in A5, possibly of unofficial Chinese origin but quite fit for purpose.

It does quite well at carrying a Cousin, a similar notebook, and a wallet insert, along with a solid handful of pens, and my keys on a strap run through the pen loop.

The one thing I’ve had trouble making part of my system - right or wrong - is a method of carrying a handful of cigarettes and a lighter.

Right now that task falls to a flip top cigarette case that I replace ~annually due to wear, with a pouch for the zippo as well as one for an emergency disposable lighter.

This being a creative community by nature, thought I’d look for ideas or products fitting the bill that have worked for others.

If a product exists akin to the wallet insert, even if I had to load smokes one-deep as with metal cases, that might suffice. Haven’t seen anything that “just straps on”.

Bonus points if said wallet style insert includes someplace suitable to cram a handful of spare pills for when I’m out longer than expected, etc.

As of now, I’ve nearly managed to fit my whole life in there. Carried a backpack for years, mostly to handle the small ephemera, but I’ve recently had my shoulder worked on so that’s a bit of a challenge.

Mostly, a bottle of tylenol and the like, along with smoker’s paraphernalia, are what end up in there along with the notebook. Seems a bit of a waste if the lot could all fit together.

I have a Pantech laser printer that surprisingly works well for my purposes. Cartridges are page-limited to 1,600.

That’d be all well and good if I was printing A4 or letter, but my journal/calendar/binder is A5 for ease of carrying.

Half-pages == full pages as far as the cartridge is concerned.

Anyone aware of new chips and/or workarounds for these cartridges to make them appear usable to the printer?

Most printing is for my own reference anyway, so even if the last few pages are imperfect, nothing wrong with that.

Had a 300 page PDF that I wanted a paper version of to dog-ear, highlight, and study at length, but that’s a good 1/5 of the cartridge.

I’ve been considering this for a number of years. Light Sport, restrictions and all, suits my mission well -No need to stress over the medical, and I get to take some fairly capable planes into the sky. Travel is secondary and perhaps irrelevant - I’m 180lbs, and my wife is somewhat more, so in addition to a minima useful load beyond us, there are possible CG and balance issues as I understand it.

We don’t seem to have anyone giving lessons truly locally, but that’s fine. Let’s say I’m based near Chambana, IL. So far, available A/C look like this:

• Lots of Evektors
• one school has a Remos GX and Flight Design CTLS
• There’s a single Aeroprakt A22.

The latter is of some interest for me for personal reasons, and also seems a touch slower, but none of them give me pause, really.

I expect to use speed as a tool for enjoying being in the air, not because I’ve any need to quickly get from A to B.

I’ve looked over the generalities of ground school content - it’s not familiar to me already, but I can put in the necessary time and energy to learn it. I’ll be on disability for 4+ weeks soon following a minor surgery, so study time isn’t a problem.

Any instructor and plane will require a bit of a trip, which I’m fine with.

Several schools have caught my eye as at least worth a second look - curious if anyone has insight on any of these folks (or the airports they operate from):

• SRT Aviation Mt Vernon, IL
• CityWings.net Schaumburg, IL
• Jet Access Indianapolis, IN (and others)
• Sport Pilot Chicago Newark, IL
• St Charles Flying Svc St Charles, MO

They are all roughly equidistant from me, save the last one being a bit farther.

Also, how do I interview an instructor, aside from qualifications? I’m going in with minimal enough knowledge that I don’t know at least some of the obvious questions to ask.

For what it’s worth, LSA is a goal unto itself for my mission - no intention to use as a stepping stone to PPL, etc.

Thanks

• FWP Grand Central Skies / Safari M
• Iroshizuku Suo-Ro / Sport B
• Diamine Havasu Turquoise / Safari F
• Diamine Apple Glory / Safari M
• "Just Blue" / Lilliput F

Love the way GCS shimmers.

A CCR quote, and a few words of a certain classic twenty-five minute Arlo Guthrie song.

This isn't "proper" alt text, but the quotes at the bottom got a bit illegible as I ran out room, so...

20204.03.13.08.39 Clariefontaine A5

• Diamine Violet / Sailor 21
• Diamine Sherwood Green / Sport F
• FWP Pink Sugar Beach / Preppy 05 M
• Diamine Earl Grey / Perkeo M
• Iroshizuku sui-gyoku / Perkeo M
• Diamine Pumpkin / Perkeo M

Bother me tomorrow, today I'll buy no sorrows... - CCR [Above is in my atrocious cursive, just to see if I can even still write a simple sentence in it]

All those people, all those lives, where are they now? With loves, and hates, and passions just like mine, they were born and then they lived and then they died And then they I also ran out of room on the page, it continues "Seems so unfair, I want to cry." (The Smiths)

That's it for today, I suspect I'm a little behind on reading comments, hopefully will have some time today to remedy that.

I'm in an oddball mood this morning, so the quote is from Simon and Garfunkel's "America". The original is "Kathy," the spelling liberty just fit my mood. Same for the mixed styles and colors in the text.

• Diamine Pink Ice / Preppy 05M
• Diamine Tropical Glory / Preppy 03F
• Diamine Apple Glory / Safari M
• Iroshizuku Shin-Ryoku / Perkeo M

Clairefontaine Triomphe 90gsm lined stationery, which also happens to be stationary within a generic six-ring binder from Amazon that I stripped the cover off, and rigged to a much more solid piece of cardboard cut down to A5-ish.

Slides really nicely that way right into a Travelers Notebook, the original cover was clear flexy plastic and kinda worthless as an insert.

Quickie ink samples are on Midori in A6, weight unknown. It plays pretty well with a lot of things, I thought I'd dig the color, but... Not so much.

Keeb in the background is generic Chinese 80-key from Amazon, to replace the one that was on sale because it was UK layout and my dumb ass didn't notice. Juuuuuuust different enough to be infuriating when I'm trying to work...

Gotta say, y'all, I enjoy this hobby on a relatively solitary basis, but... I'm having a friggin' blast doing these - not just because I'm rediscovering stuff I adore that's been buried too long in my ink drawer, but the sharing as well.

PS my penmanship is almost as potato as my photography skills. But I'm kinda stuck with both skills sucking, at this age. Meh, I still have fun.

As ever, y'all, forgive the potato-quality image.

Today's contestants...

• Amo-Iro / Sport EF
• Hana-Ikada / Jinhao (model unknown) EF
• Syo-Ro / Sport B
• Grand Central Skies / Safari M

The shimmer in GCS doesn't photograph as well as I'd like, but there is some serious depth to that ink as with most FWP products.

Also, confession time... But just between the lot of us, of course... I may be a 45 year old man, but dammit, Hana-Ikada is one of my all time favorite colors. Can't even tell you why, but it brings a smile to my face to use, and it's just SO well behaved and clean to write with...

Second and third faves, while I'm confessing such things, are FWP Pink Sugar Beach and Diamine Pink Ice. Slightly less well behaved, but only just, and who doesn't love pink sparkly... Um... Yeah I'm not helping my case here lol!

Have a bottle of both, barely opened, and zero chance I’ll ever use either.

Without getting into the why…. 2 nearly full bottles of noodlers inks free to good home. Cover actual ship cost and they’re yours.

Really, truly, I want the damn things outta my ink drawer because I won’t ever use ‘em and because reasons.

Hell, if you’re somewhere between roughly Chambana, IL and Indianapolis, I might even be up to meet you somewhere.

Since my handwriting is a dog’s breakfast…

“Today’s fun

Going out for a bit so keeping it light. Just my much adored Fuyu-Gaki (you’ve seen that EF nib) and “mooring on the quinuai river,” from a Chinese company whose name I can’t recall, in a preppy 05M. Don’t know if the shimmer will photograph well.”

Still up for sample trades, can never have too many inks!

• Jade Green
• Hope Pink
• Havasu Turquoise
• Hotaru Bi

Possible that I've posted this here before, but since views seem to be trending upwards and it also might have been on the other instance that's gone now...

...I positively love these pens, but is there any practical way to disassemble them, or am I stuck with the ink color I chose for them?

Maybe - just maybe - I'm a bit early but there's a chance my morning will be a lil nuts so might as well set things out and post ahead of time.

Also, feedback welcome - don't want to spam the sub, do want to add some useful content even if it's just a post history with a bunch of ink samples in it so some lunatic (like me) can agonize over the perfect orange between FG and Pumpkin (Protip, Iroshizuku every. single. time. It just writes better, across more pens, IMHO. It's also a slightly more pricey addiction than Diamine, so...)

Today's fun includes:

• Fuyu-Gaki in Safari EF

• Midway the Magnificent in a Perkeo M

• Pumpkin in another of the ever-present Perkeo M

• Amo-Iro in Sport EF

Pardon my handwriting, and weird datetime formatting. Blame my journaling habit for the latter, as it makes finding things I know I 100% wrote down rather easier. The former is all me.

Midori A6 for the scribbles, Clairefontaine in the background.

Being the change I want to see (more traffic and more interesting pens here)...

My primary pens for today are a Safari F inked with Tsutsuji, and a Kaweco Lilliput in brass, with the Kaweco Blue cartridge it came with (also F). I'll refill it with something more interesting when the time comes, just haven't decided what.

On an average day, I might rotate through two pens; or everything I have inked. Just depends on my mood.

Edit: That's Midori A6 they're sitting on / scribbled on, and Clairefontaine A5 in the background.

Tired of wondering when the Big G will kill off GV, and now I also find myself needing to port a number quickly so I don't lose it (damned MFA backup SMS!).

3 numbers, a fax would be nice though I can take it or leave it. Basic autoattendant would be nice, voicemail and transcription, etc.

Really, I'm just looking for the features that have been bundled for years on the consumer side, and without nickling/diming me to death on it - and without Google.

Amazon's call center product is interesting, but more than a little heavy for me. I hate to go all-in on a self-hosted PBX when I don't really have the need. Not to mention I've still got to pay for the DID if I do that..

Used RingCentral for many years, and wasn't impresses. That was a while back, I hear they've improved somewhat, but the experience still left a bad taste.