The outlet pipe is white plastic; probably ABS or polythene. And the flexible pipe coming out is thin plastic. So the air cannot be that hot. Maybe +50C max.
99% of the energy is wasted
100.0000000000000% of all energy in the universe is wasted. The number of digits were chosen to correspond to the accuracy with which the mass of the electron is known 
In the wiring schematic of the Wilms heater the thermostat says 0C – 38C. Obviously that’s ambient air so doesn’t say anything about output air temp.
BTW I got one 8.33 frequency yesterday: 128.355, somewhere near Amsterdam.
By the way, you will find that getting a DCT to some fix on the approach is not “high unusual”, but totally the norm in Germany nowadays.
What I’m a bit envious about is your windows, Peter. After 13 years, they look like new, with no scratches at all, even if photographing directly into the sun. Or does your camera equipment “filter out” those tiny scratches? My windows are 10 years old and are not quite as clean. Well, the reason might be that I fly into places like Calvi or Calatabiano. Compromises…
I have looked very hard after my windows. I have paid a commercial cleaner a number of times (£200 after Calvi 
) but I have always told them, or any maintenance company, to never touch the windows. In the UK, there is a long history (probably due to almost everybody being ex rental, where a lot of people including the schools don’t give a ****) of cleaning windows with paper towels which just leaves them scratched (paper is abrasive). So now my windows are still “OK”. There are scratches but mostly due to maintenance (tools slipping). I have not yet managed to poke a soldering iron into a window
I use only Plexus on them, and buy £1 “face cloths” from a supermarket. Each one is used only once or twice and kept in a bag. If it is dropped on the ground it goes in the wash. If you clean windows with a cloth which has been dropped, you can forget them.
However a few years ago some idiot was paint spraying in the hangar and covered my plane in white overspray. The company denied it but since I was hangared there I had to keep my mouth shut. I discovered it after ~3 days and it was too much work to remove it from the plane but I spent 2 days polishing it off the windows with this pricey stuff and that resulted in all the windows getting a good polish
Also if the aircraft cover (which is always on in hot places) gets dropped on the ground I take it to a commercial laundry right away, and it isn’t easy to put the cover on and off on one’s own – as you can imagine.
Recently I have picked up a number of big ones and when I looked at them closely it turned out to be from the serrated edge on the front of my Pentax DSLR lens! It was a Hoya filter actually. So I have filed down the edge of the filter and polished it. But really that’s due to being a bit clumsy and allowing the lens to touch the window, which is no good for photos anyway (vibration). I have these scratches on both L and R windows so I have been doing it too…
Calvi was “manageable” in terms of damage to windows but we had to wash the stuff off with lots of water and without using any cloths i.e. the water had to be just poured on. If I was going there again I would bring ~10 litres of water and a spray hose, but then I would still have to deal with the landing gear covered in the sh*t. Basically a visit to Calvi is a few hundred quid extra.
As regards photos, there is a number of tips. The camera wants to be as close to the window as possible but obviously not touching, and that gives you least reflections and best contrast. I also have a piece (about 1×1m) of matt black cloth which can be put over shiny objects (e.g. legs) and sometimes that is really necessary. The stills in that writeup were all done with the Nokia 808 and on that I just give the (tiny) lens a good wipe; it’s a lot harder to keep a DSLR lens as clean. Finally of course most pics are discarded But I am sure you know this because you have had outstanding pics in your writeups.
The Canon movie camera is really very good and doesn’t easily focus on scratches. It is a PITA to carry but it’s worth it.
So one has to be a bit obscessive but that should come naturally to most pilots
Interesting about the use of waypoints which “happen to” lie on the localiser. That is really below the belt though because you have maybe 30-60 seconds to load it, before you fly straight through the localiser.
By the way, you will find that getting a DCT to some fix on the approach is not “high unusual”, but totally the norm in Germany nowadays.
If you don’t find that fix, just say you have “Garmin”, then ATC in Germany will understand. It is well known that the old GNS430 have erased a lot of those points and pilots don’t find it. They will give you vectors then and you don’t have to search
Peter,
I obviously take all the same precautions as you do.
But yes, most of the scratches probably still come from maintenance people.
One can polish out fairly deep scratches with that stuff I posted a link to, but if one does too much, one ends up with optical distortions which are arguably worse than a clean window with some big scratches which can be de-focused.
Peter, I could imagine the strange cloud formations being very small scale, low level “waves” induced by the open cast coal pits. The wind doesn´t have to be very strong for these effects.
The approach waypoints are indeed regularly used in Germany to facilitate coordination across multiple sectors. Most people seem to be familiar with them, especially the locally based guys.
As for your routings: The restricting factor for the routing through Belgium most probably are the Belgian militaries. The L179 I guess you filed is often not available on weekdays. Also the Brussels TMA might be a factor. What should work is a routing via LNO-KENUM-NOR-NOSTU-BAMSU, and vice versa on the way back. You might have to file below FL95 to get it through IFPS, but in flight you´ll get the best possible direct and also different levels if necessary.
On the German side your filed return routing BAMSU-LMA-ROMIN (?) would put you into the arrivals and departures Duesseldorf.
Caba – many thanks for your input.
As for your routings
They were however validated by Eurocontrol for the actual date/time of the flight, the evening before.
So, probably, as is often the case, Eurocontrol has not been supplied by the countries concerned with the airspace restrictions. This is very much the case in the UK for example.
The filed routes were
-SLODFGRY/S -EGKA0930 -N0152F100 LYD Y803 DVR L9 KONAN L607 KOK DCT NIK DCT ONW DCT SORAT L179 DIBIR DCT VALSU DCT DOMEG DOMEG2A -EDLW0210
-SLODFGRY/S -EDLW1030 -N0152F100 BAMSU2U BAMSU DCT MHV DCT DIBIR L179 SORAT DCT ANT DCT HELEN DCT KOK L607 KONAN DCT VABIK DCT GOKAT -EGKA0214
I guess maybe the DCTs were not getting validated against some restrictions?
The approach waypoints are indeed regularly used in Germany to facilitate coordination across multiple sectors. Most people seem to be familiar with them, especially the locally based guys.
I wonder whether some/many older GPSs don’t have them in the database. My KLN94 is not capable of official RNAV1/PRNAV (King never did the LoA for it) but it does seem to contain all RNAV SID/STAR waypoints, and that 009 one is probably from some RNAV SID/STAR (I don’t have the terminal charts handy).
