> All hard drives have a spinning platter with a read/write head riding a
> cushion of air just above it.  Go to 10,300' and there isn't much of a
> cushion left.  The head will fall into the platter turning at 7500 or
> 10000 rpm.  I think you'll be lucky if the drive ever works again.
>

Hi Ernest;
Another theory I heard is that the disc case is sealed so that at the lower
pressure it deforms the case enough that the heads are no longer aligned and
that by drilling a very small vent hole into the hard disc case this can be
alleviated. No evidence to back it up but it is something to consider.
However, I ran the system recovery disc's and everything is working again
although I lost allot of data, but I've been thinking for quite sometime
that I should reformat my drive anyway. I just wish that I'd gotten around
to backing up more data.
Last night I loaded Jepp FlightMap onto this old Toshiba and I took this
flying today all the way up to 15,300' and had absolutely no problems at
all. It worked very well and in some ways is more appropriate to the task.
It only requires 12vdc versus the 19vdc for the Sony so can be wired direct
to ships power rather than the inverter/power supply that I used to have to
mess with. It's only real drawback is the screen is nowhere near as good as
the Sony, however I'm likely going to add a small external screen in the
allowing this to be slid into it's storage slot under the panel. It sounds
complicated but it's not really and it gives a great moving map display
along with a few thousand MP3's as it also inputs to the intercom.
I wrote down alot of performance figures during our flights today but I
forgot them in the plane so will post them tomorrow if I get in early
enough. After 11.1 hours flying this weekend I'm a little tired and since
it's after midnight, I'll post in more detail tomorrow.
But I need to add that today was full of adventure for my plane as we
rolled it, looped it, flew it to 15,300' and did some rough field landings
with never so much as a hiccup.
I'll try to answer other e-mails regarding fuel system & prop tomorrow.

S. Todd Bartrim
Turbo 13B
RV-9endurance
C-FSTB
http://www3.telus.net/haywire/RV-9/C-FSTB.htm

         "Whatever you vividly imagine, Ardently desire, Sincerely believe
in, Enthusiastically act upon, Must inevitably come to pass".


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