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Yesterday I got my instrument rating...hopefully I can now learn how to be an instrument pilot...

The original Brittain PC (back before PC meant "politically correct") was installed as a no-nonsense, basic autopilot. Years later, it's still going. When it does stop working, the fix is usually simple and cheap and Cecilia at Britain is very generous with her support. My PC had begun needing more and more right wing down correction, so I figured there was a leak.....usually due to a leak around the rubber boot. I re-taped the boot, but it didn't correct the problem. Finally, I removed the entire servo (you don't have to have monkey arms, but it helps if you do) and discovered the servo was leaking but from the center, not the boot. I asked Cecilia she advised: "The sealant used is commonly known as “Perm-e-Tex” but its proper name is “aviation form-a-gasket”. You can generally find it at one or more of the national retail auto part stores." Now that is a cheap fix! Try fixing your King, or S-tec autopilot with Permatex.

These warbirds in a museum is no better than pictures of them in a book in my opinion. They should keep flying as long as there are any left to fly. Someday they will all be gone and then we'll have the pictures, videos, and memories. For now, keep them flying.

It all comes down to knowing the beast that you operate. Operated incorrectly, you're absolutely right. Operated correctly, the safety factor is infinitely better than a single. If I am light, my 310 will climb at about 800 FPM on a single engine. If I am heavy, it will climb about 300 FPM. This is a far cry from taking a dirt nap. Contrary to the wives tales, the multi-engine accident rate is not the highest at takeoff, but rather, single engine approaches. This is usually due to the pilot being in way over his head (read multiple factors). Again, training and understanding the beast that you operate. Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

I have about 450 hours of which 400 are in my m20j including 100% instrument training last week while in Cabo got dive certified...after about 25 “resort” dives i am now “certifiable”

Was hoping for a nice VFR flight today, well I’m waiting for landing minimums anyway.

Your understanding of multi-engine operations is poor. You've demonstrated that on many occasions on this forum. It might be better to not comment on things you don't understand. And . . . I'm sure the engines are plenty tight.

My dads last airplane ride 2 months before he died. He died from complications of a fall coming out of my sister's camper. I guess we should ban campers for people over a certain age. Sorry for the TIC. Tom

You'll enjoy this... My wife started wearing skirts when we fly. So she can more easily pee while we zoom along. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

When talking about maintenance done to the plane and how old it is I have started saying "The longer I own my plane, the newer it is." I've said it enough this past year that I put it in my signature...

The momment you start renting out you lose the advantage of owning. Then you get to enjoy having the disadvantages of owning and the disadvantages of renting all together. You pay the price of ownership while the plane comes back a little different every time. People that are going to fly it dont have that same appreciation for that plane than you do.

I have not found anything uncomfortable about the 310. I run 180+ KTAS at 21GPH. Lots of room to move around. All this in addition to being super sexy! [emoji16] Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Quality words right there.

Well I'd consider putting this encounter down on paper: https://hotline.faa.gov/

Unmanned systems can fly in the NAS above 400 feet AGL via a Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the FAA. COA ops are part 91 operations and can have all kinds of limitations. Most all share two requirements relevant to this topic. First, the operator and/or his visual observer must maintain a visual at all times. This is for traffic avoidance. If he can't see the UAS and ventures beyond visual line of site (VBLOS) a chase plane is required. Second, I've never seen a COA without an associated notam. For public use COAs, as opposed to DoD, the operators are certificated pilots; traditional manned aviators. The DoD entities I'm familiar with don't require a private pilot cert but instead stand up their operation utilizing their own DoD cert. For a UAS at 9000, in the NAS, there should be a NOTAM on file and a manned AC flying formation. UAS of that caliber typically squawk a code and are ADSB equipped. Coms with the controlling authority is required as well. This isn't your Amazon Drone. 9000 generally warrants a fixed wing airframe. Having six props makes me think hobbyist out of his lane. When done properly: UAS is squawking a discrete code that they can change on the fly. Pilot is a manned aviator Pilot has coms with ATC and is flying his last clearance. A chase pilot calls out any Non participating traffic that ATC can't see. On the East coast this never happens as we have radar coverage everywhere. It's like flying an IFR flight plan under the hood with someone flying formation. All that being said, an idiot flying a multirotor at 9000, in the NAS, without a COA, without traffic avoidance is WRONG.

Each of my two Mooneys had been gear-upped three times prior to my ownership. It was of no concern to me at purchase or at anytime since. And it certainly didn't effect resale on the first one.

Congrats! I will give you the advice I give all my clients.."stay out of ice, stay out of thunderstorms, you just might live" Well done!

Congratulations!!! That is one of the most important steps in a pilot's career. Just be careful now!

What “Pandora’s box” is opened by an airframe having a gear up in its history? Give me the specific concerns you have: And begin... I am being serious I want you to tell me what you mean by that comment.

Thanks, I was told by JPI and my avionics shop that the EDM-900 would be the primary engine gauge replacement? I believe the 930 just provides a larger screen?

When Scot Philbin first introduced the CiES for the Mooney platform, there were a number of issues. As an early adopter, I lived through most of them. This included everything from him claiming that the JPI units were factory ready to accept frequency data (I heard an earful on this from JPI at Oshkosh), installation manual that was incorrect (he blamed the FAA for limiting modifications), wrong senders sent (he blamed his staff) and generally a lousy bedside manner from Scott. I think Scott has gotten a lot better at working with customers and I believe the majority of the issues have been resolved for Mooneys. Although I believe certain configurations (like the G1000 systems) are problematic. I installed the senders in September 2017 and they have been rock solid. No more "Fuel Quantity Mismatch" error messages. I have been able to tweak the JPI 900's fuel totalizer to within 0.5 gallons on every flight. The tank readings are reported in whole numbers. So, it may look like you are a gallon off but it is a rounding thing. Bob Belville was the one who clued me in to look at the raw data from the JPI to see that what you are seeing on the display is being rounded up or down. Still, within 1 gallon accuracy? Crazy...

Brittain is still in business. Still providing support: Cecilia Henderson Brittain Industries, Inc. (918)836-7701 email: brittainind@sbcglobal.net

Thanks Scott, I was actually all set to get them until a few friends (and the shop that I got a quote from) told me about the bad experiences. I think I just need to speak with a few other installers to see if they've had the same issues or have successfully installed them in a long body (I'm not sure how it would be different from other bodies, but maybe some particulars involving the larger tank). I have the Monroy 118 gallons and I realize that even with the CiES I'll only see fuel when it gets below 89 gallons which is perfectly fine by me.

I don’t buy that for a second, unless we’re talking about a GA pilot owner doing it illegally without a FAA part 135 operation plan that includes the commercial insurance premiums. Only an existing charter company that is trying to reduce their positioning flight cost with some additional revenue is going to be able to do without personally subsidizing Blackbird profits. Without meeting all the $ requirements of a Part 135 operator such a pilot won’t have a nickel to there name after something goes wrong and they find themselves uninsured and facing charges from the FAA for operating illegally. Read the Blackbird terms and you’ll see they provide nothing and make you entirely responsible for the operation. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Denver south to Albuquerque/Santa Fe area, then head towards Phoenix. Fly early AM, all permitting. Less chance of weather and turbulence.

If you’ve got $40-50,000 a year, plus unexpected repairs, for an airplane budget, go right ahead. The fatal accident rate of amateur flown piston twins and singles is about the same. And it’s a more complex airplane, and you’ll have lower hours in the category as well.

Made the 116nm journey to Green Bay today to take the Instrument Written. I’m not sure if it was the fact that I crammed for two days or that I was wearing my Detroit Lions t shirt but I passed with an 88%. Two of the questions I completely messed up but there were two questions that were BS. I’ll have to look them up when I get home shortly and see why the FAA is ridiculous. Departing Rwy 6 at KGRB: Nice sunset cruise home: Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Choose your runway (if calm) that has a best chance of a successful off airport landing. Climb while in the pattern till comfortable, follow roads, farmland, beaches...avoid urban areas.

Congratulations on both your IFR and Scuba!

Look up your atc convo on liveatc.net and get the tail number.

I wonder what that looks like. They gonna make everybody watch the vid? If not, we can all go back and ask why we had to watch it. Something smills feshy to me.

Hard wired with the bare wires kit for power and wired to my Avidyne IFD 550 to transfer the flight plan to the Aera 660 and hardwired to the GDL52 (with the bare wire kit for the GDL 52) for ADS-B and XM.

Continue to ask IR related questions... Some of the best discussions around here come from newly minted IRs as they take their new knowledge out into the real world... Dev has been a great resource. There are some quirky regional oddities to be discovered... Best regards, -a-

Congratulations!

You can take a plane out of Florida, but you can’t take Florida out of an airplane.

Just one guy's opinion, but I think past a certain age point, a "no damage history" ad starts to look negative rather than positive. The reason is that old airplanes are extremely unlikely to have zero non-wear-and-tear damage events. NDH claims on such airframes make me think the seller is either naive, or outright dishonest. A circa 1980 airframe is 40 years old at this point, and 40-year-old airplanes nearly always have least minor damage events: couple of hail dents, a little hangar rash, a patch where a cowl screw or inspection panel pulled through due to over-tightening, and so on. I'm sure a number of those airplanes have never been crashed into a hangar or gear-upped, but that's not the same as NDH. Each person has to decide for themselves if an NDH claim is legit, but I'm quite certain there are more NDH claims in ads than their are actual NDH airframes. I think we'd all be a little better off if the NDH purists admitted that philosophy is only practical on new-ish airframes. It would go a long way toward combating the incentive for owners to fudge or omit logbook entries.

Paul, I have no direct experience with the Precise Flight unit, but I believe Mooney was shipping them with new airplanes for some time, so there shouldn't be any issues. I weighed the extra cost of 2 PF units vs the low likelihood of battery depletion (O2D2 gives good warning, and I carry a spare set of batteries) and landed on the O2D2. -dan

They're probably having a hard time with your putting a GTN into a 1964 Mooney. But waiting 3 years to use the free database update is going to be in your favor. All in all, a tough call...

You might consider updating your software. There have been some important bugfixes as well as several new features and additional functionality. Your GTN is several releases out of date: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/aviationalerts/approval-of-gtn-v6-50-flight-stream-210-v2-90-flight-stream-510-v2-40-and-gtn-com-v2-30-software-for-aml-stc-sa02019se-d/ https://www.garmin.com/en-US/aviationalerts/approval-of-gtn-6xx-7xx-software-version-6-51/ https://www.garmin.com/en-US/aviationalerts/approval-of-gtn-6xx-7xx-software-version-6-62-and-flight-stream-510-software-version-2-51/ Aaron

Look at the back of the Garmin card pictured here closely...SanDisk is the actual manufacturer. As was already stated, any cards will work... Or so I've heard [emoji6] Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Cies is the way to go... If you want them. Tech issues arose, but their tech service is pretty sharp as is their sales guy also an engineer... Any concerns ask @fuellevel ask the hard questions... the jpi 900 does everything but vac gauge. as far as the does it fit in the bravo’s pair of six pack engine instruments... a dimension check may be necessary... but we have a really good jpi guy that has answered similar questions before... Ask @Jeev ^^^^ Best regards, -a-

I wonder how the risk of a 10 minute ride in a WW2 bomber compares to the risk incurred putting your granddaughter on a typical carnival ferris wheel? I suppose that traveling shows are much more likely to have cobbled together machines, poorly trained operators who probably couldn't pass a drug test, sloppy inspections, missing safety guards, minimal customer briefing... Give me the 75 year old Flying Fortress pilot every time - he was younger, and no doubt fitter, than I am.

Agreed, high alt is hard on the body. Also take into account circadian rhythm. Taking off for a long night of flying after working all day is much different than leaving in the AM for that same flight. Fly Safe, Safety Forum Mod

The Rockies/ Sandia tend to develop CB starting in the late morning. Flew from Vegas to Denver a few months ago. Stopped in Los Alamos around 10AM, by 1PM the CB had already built up preventing me from flying up the valley and through one of the passes. Ended up up going east from Santa Fe and up around the east side of the mountains. It was plenty bumpy, like flying in a washing machine On the way back I left Denver early and went through Mosca Pass at 12.5k, the air was silky smooth.

If the NTSB is ever involved in my flying activities, I'll have much bigger troubles than a non-TSO'ed card Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Where logs are unclear as to the actual damage—run run away from that 1. Increase your budget slightly and get a J that has not had prop strike and or gear collapse, 1 that has no damage history NDH Or a minor issue only, no gear up’s. You don’t want a pandora box of hidden problems. I will say the 77 had Annual by Maxwell. He has a good reputation, but still . . . As fleet size shrinks, prices on J’s will continue to increase. IMHO I don’t see J’s with NDH depreciating anytime soon

So, back home after taking the old gal (and my wife) to Utah, word gets to me that someone wants an airplane ride. Someone who drove me to the airport countless times as a kid. Someone who flat-out refused to get into an airplane his entire life despite being listed on my airline travel benefits the last 12 years. Maybe he decided that if it hadn’t killed me yet, he’d probably make it through one little flight. Yesterday, my Dad went for his first Airplane ride. He says he’ll go again, which I’m calling a win as bumpy as yesterday’s flight was. After the last 30 hours of “Mooney Zooming” straight-ish lines between distant points, flying circles for a sightseeing trip over the home turf was a great change of pace, though.

Thankful for our freedoms of general aviation in the United States. As we know, freedom is not free, so we fight to protect!