A quick shout out to my keyboard that finally died today after what my logs would suggest is a little over 5000 flying hours together - and probably a lot more.

It's been my FSX companion for nearly ten years. Looking after switching views, Inputting FMC Data, Resetting Barometric, deploying Reversers in tight situations, etc, etc, etc.
I've even used it to fly a few times when the Saitek yoke and rudders have been playing up and all else has failed.

It's done its part perfectly but, today it just plain rolled over in the water and died.

Thank you my faithful old keyboard. We flew everything from ultralights to the mighty PMDG T7. It was great to fly with you. We saw some sights didn't we?

Blue Skies to you - wherever, err, keyboards go when they're gone. You are missed.

Ganter x

Edited October 23, 20187 yr by Guest

OH MY! That one was way beyond recommended TBO..... LOL

5 minutes ago, fppilot said:

OH MY! That one was way beyond recommended TBO..... LOL

It was indeed way beyond TBO - I conservatively estimate about 4500 Hours! Probably a lot more!

Thank you for your kindness.

Edited October 23, 20187 yr by Guest

That is not a keyboard.....  It is an accident! LOL

John

2 minutes ago, Cactus521 said:

That is not a keyboard.....  It is an accident! LOL

John

Funny you say that John - it caused one on approach last night in to Bluie West One when icing had frozen the Saiteks.

This morning I made the very difficult decision to retire it. Luckily, as I did it died anyway.

There's no room in the cockpit for failures you know are present. 

Still hurts though.

Sorry for your loss (I feel the same sadness when my mouse dies... a period of mourning is required).

Errrr... was that keyboard once white?  Looks like it might have been... 😋

Greg

3 minutes ago, lownslo said:

Sorry for your loss (I feel the same sadness when my mouse dies... a period of mourning is required).

Errrr... was that keyboard once white?  Looks like it might have been... 😋

Greg

Err, yup; it was once white but the years have not been kind and, it has ended it's life with that fine patina that both suggests age and frequent use. And, Goddamit it has flown!

Thank you for your kind words at this difficult time.

I always preferred keyboards with a number pad, I guess from my hotel accounting days I just liked having one handy.  My fav keyboard was a HP PS2 keyboard I had for years, with the letters faded off of many keys.  I am a "hunt and peck" typist.  I took typing on typewriters in the 70's and hated it, I could not touch type.  My colleagues were amazed at how deftly I could work a keyboard during my career with just two fingers, I just had this spatial awareness of where all the keys were and could type around 80wpm. 

When Word Processors started to come into vogue I was in heaven, since I originally majored in writing, I was poet laureate of my high school and college and even published in poetry anthologies in the 1980's, I still have the books which were published thru what we liked to call "vanity press" at our college.  I had this amazing word processor that held a full page of text in its memory, imagine that, lol!  But it allowed me to type without mistakes, I loved it, and when I went to Europe in 1982 I used it for my journal. 

When dot matrix printers first came out they did not have "hanging letters" like "g", but there was a program for the Commodore 64 that could make them, the first desktop publishing software.  I remember a Popular Science article pricing out a desktop publishing system with a 8x8 dot matrix printer at over 2K, look what we have today with laser printers and inkjets and laptops, you can publish for less than $500. 

Back to simming, I "flew" by keyboard for years until I got my first controller.  Wore out my number pad.  I could not land at all and I remember when I finally got a joystick and pulled off my first landing!  I was in heaven.  Luckily my first real life aircraft lessons were on an aircraft with a stick, not a yoke, so habits learned in the sim did not hurt, other than my CFI told me I scanned the instruments too much which he said was a common habit with simmers becoming pilots.

John

dont throw it away! it looks like it hosts and entire microcosm. Billions of single-cell-organisms, some may even be undiscovered yet. Dont be a murderer, donate it to science!

23 minutes ago, Woozie said:

dont throw it away! it looks like it hosts and entire microcosm. Billions of single-cell-organisms, some may even be undiscovered yet. Dont be a murderer, donate it to science!

Well Woozie, it has been around a bit - flown all over the World - twice actually! - so no doubt it's picked up some odd species along the way.

The new keyboard 'feels' far too clean.

I still have an old Focus 2000 keyboard.  As noted in the Deskthority wiki, an invaluable resource that I bet none of you knew existed:

https://deskthority.net/wiki/Focus_FK-2000_Plus

I'd suggest you turn yours into a wall ornament.  A conversation piece for sure.

8 minutes ago, Mace said:

I still have an old Focus 2000 keyboard.  As noted in the Deskthority wiki, an invaluable resource that I bet none of you knew existed:

https://deskthority.net/wiki/Focus_FK-2000_Plus

I'd suggest you turn yours into a wall ornament.  A conversation piece for sure.

A good idea Rhett, but I think the best thing - to ensure the survival of the human race - would be to bury it quietly at night in an unmarked grave wrapped in several layers of plastic and anti-bacterial compounds.

Sure hope you were able to type "RIP" before you unplugged it?