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Avidyne IFD440, Avidyne transponder, and Avidyne abd IN installed. Worth every penny already!

This discussion about the effect of leaded gas finally explains something. As a kid, growing up when leaded gas WAS the only gas available, it is probably the reason I am brain damaged. Why else would I spend the tens of thousands of dollars on a 40 year airplane?

I just finished the annual for the Rocket and was hoping to lock in on a pesky engine oil leak. I had cleaned the backside of the engine really good and ran it pre-annual to warm up for the compression tests, but no leaks developed during the ground run. I installed a dye we use for finding leaks on big truck engines and flew the plane about 15 minutes. When I got back and pulled the cowls, I closed the hangar door, turned off the lights, used the special glasses and flashlight to see the dye, and found a small streak of oil on one of my hoses. I had always suspected we had a hose leak after the turbo failure, as that seemed to be about when the oil consumption and belly oil increased. Following the oil line back it was dry further up the hose. I had to pull my heater scat tubing off to see more, and thought I could see an oil drop coming off a bolt on the rear of the starter. I pulled my intercooler off and sure enough, oil was dripping out of the lower bolt. Discussing with Chad and John Miller over at Kubick's, they said it was either the seal on the front of the starter, or the drain on the starter drive plugged. Chad give me his blessing to remove and inspect, and I found the spring on the seal lip had failed. A few hours later one oil leak fixed. Sorry I didn't get a picture of the failed seal, but I thought it was pretty neat how the dye worked finding this leak. Unfortunately I couldn't take the picture through the glasses, but it really stands out with them. Tom

Fun times, I had my third flight on Saturday. (Hot, 95 degrees out and the plane climbed like a dog.) I had been listening to ATC at Burbank for a couple days in the office so was feeling pretty comfortable in trying my hand at it. I contacted ground for taxi clearance and then tower for takeoff clearance. During the flight my CFI called out everything over the radio when we were in the practice area but had me contact the tower on the way back in to ask for the clearance to do touch and go's. In the practice area we went through power on stalls, power off stalls, and steep turns. Much better on the steep turns this time. Next I told him I wanted to work turns around a point and s-turns so we needed to get to a lower altitude. He said, "Let's pretend you have an engine fire and go through those procedures" (ie: the quick way down...) I said "Ok, walk me through it." So we pulled power, put it in a 45 degree bank and pushed over heading down. He was talking me through the whole thing, I picked out a section of field that I thought we would reach and was clear of trees, power lines, etc... He approved so I rolled out lined up and stayed in the descent. He been talking the whole time about how the fire would be progressing and tells me "About now you probably won't be able to use your rudder pedals because if the fire hasn't made it through the firewall the heat has and your feet are going to hurt so bad you won't be able to use them." (I thought "Great...") We were getting close to the ground, I thought too close so started to pull back and he said "nope, not yet." Finally he said "Ok, level out, add the power back and bring us back up." He talked me through the whole thing again and the importance of getting on the ground as fast as possible. We did turns around a point, better but still needs work, and s-turns, again better but needs work and headed back for some landing practice. Landings were much improved. We did two and then he asked the tower if we could do a short final (I think that was the term). He said when we got even with the end of the runway on our downwind to pull power and I couldn't use it again until we were on the ground. I said "Ok" (and in my mind said "Seriously?") I went into a shallow bank and he had me head at an angle straight for the numbers, watch airspeed, straighten out and line up right at the end and touch down. Good experience. Power back in and up for one more time around the pattern. I put one notch of flaps in like normal at the end of the downwind but as we turned base to final he said "I want you to do this one without any flaps." So, flaps back up and we came in faster than normal but it wasn't bad, I just touched down further down the runway than normal but was still able to turn off onto the taxiway at the same place. Got my medical last week and we submitted for my student pilot license. By the time it shows up in the mail I should be ready to solo.

Yesterday evening the topic of Third Class Medical Reform came up again on the Cessna 172 Club Forum. One of the other members had commented that they felt the FAA had been purposely delaying progress on this issue and that even if the pending legislation passes Congress and gets signed into law that the FAA will delay it's implementation as long as possible. That may well turn out to be the case; however, I elected to share the following information as it is pertinent to this topic. Here is my post from the 172 Club forum and I have attached the letters from both the FAA and the DOT for public record as well. I have also shared this information with the folks on Beech Talk and the Super Viking Forum as well. I want to share something with you that I have known about and have been working on since last year but have not made public until now. There is a very real possibility that the FAA is not the real villain behind the delay in medical reform. I believe that it may well be the Department of Transportation. Let me tell you why. Remember that the FAA had reportedly submitted to the DOT a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Third Class Medical Reform? They did. It was 68 pages in length. Remember how we waited and waited and waited for the DOT to take action on the NPRM, which they were supposed to do within 90 days, but we never did hear that they took any action at all? Well, it turns out that the DOT sent a response to the FAA that was 22 pages in length. That response along with the original NPRM has never been made public. I know these things because I attempted to obtain a copy of the NPRM and documentation as to what action(s), if any, the DOT had taken on the NPRM by filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act with the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation. The FAA responded to my request with a letter dated August 27, 2015. Their letter provided the details that I mentioned above. Do you remember Michael Huerta's comments at Airventure 2015 when he spoke about resistance to the medical reform in the Executive Branch of our government? You can look it up on the EAA website and read it yourself but the part that stood out to me was when he said these words: "I'm not saying that it's right or rational, but that's the reality." That struck me as being a strange comment for the Administrator to make if he was opposed (as some of us thought) to Third Class Medical Reform. I also had phoned AOPA and spoke with their Government Affairs people and they firmly believed that the FAA was "on board" with the reform and had made an honest effort to get it done. My personal belief, given the circumstances as well as the documentation that I have received, is that the FAA is not opposed to Third Class Medical Reform and may not be an obstacle to implementing it IF it is approved through legislation. Let me share one more interesting piece of information with you. While the FAA responded promptly to my FOIA request, albeit denying the release of the requested documents under Exemption 5 of the FOIA, the DOT itself did not respond until just recently, May 27, 2016, to be exact. The DOT response states, in part, "No action has been taken on this NPRM." They also declined my request citing Exemption 5 of the FOIA. How the DOT can provide a 22 page response to the FAA on their NPRM and then tell the American public that "No action has been taken on this NPRM" defies logic and is downright dishonest. You and each and every one of the other nearly 600,000 American Citizens that hold a Pilot Certificate has a right to know that. In a greater sense, each and every American has a right to know how blatantly dishonest the Department of Transportation has been in their handling of this matter. If you want to know who the real villain is in this situation, in my opinion, it is not the FAA, IT IS THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION. IMG_20160531_0002_NEW.pdf 2015-332_Lott signed letter-signed.pdf

looks great. On a side note, it's funny what workhorses the KX155 radios are. Nearly every new panel with modern avionics has the KX155 sitting in the middle of it with its decades old technology.

congrats and nice write up.. Make it a PDF and post in Documents area for posterity Bill

I always read that the amount if lead in 100LL is a fraction of what was in regular gas in the 60s and 70s. Don't let her play in a fuel puddle in the ground, or your sample cup / dipstick and she should be fine. Just ask any of the people here who grew up flying with their parents on 100 Octane before the introduction of the Low Lead formula . . . Fly everyone to the family in the Carolinas. The greatest danger will be your decision making along the route regarding weather, terrain, other air traffic, etc. Be safe and have fun! I grew up making epic 10-12 hour family road trips, and doing it in 2 hours is a large part of why I bought an airplane.

Not my video, but found this on another mooney side on Facebook. Shows what you can do with a Mooney. oscar

+1 for the SavvyAnalysis folks and Mooney Spacer Paul Kortopates in particular. I've been uploading my JPI data to the Savvy sites for 3 years but just recently signed up for their paid service. Doing their gami and LOP mag tests lead to a very helpful report. Paul was very responsive and prompt and he gave me several useful suggestions. Turns out my little 4 banger is happy to run 50+ LOP on either mag. And the average of 7 gami spread sweeps is 0.3. Great to know that ignition and fuel distribution are both fine. I feel my prejudice for fine wire plugs is justified. I might have to run more LOP @ ~8.7 gph (65%) when I'm doing a 4 hour plus leg. KMRN to KMSN in July comes to mind.

I just saw that today. That thing is awesome. Super Cop and I got too good of a deal to pass up though.

Pilot José Mariá Aliaga is welcome to visit MS anytime! Thanks for posting the video, Oscar. Mr. Aliaga has a really nice Hudson River video as well! Best regards, -a-

Good to be concerned but fly there and don't think about it anymore. I can remember putting my face in the exhaust stream of a running car in the 70's I have no obvious problems except for that aggravating twitch.

I knew there was a logical explanation for my behavior. Now to convince my wife...

Good because Mohamed doesn't believe in Santa.

Oh for Odin's sake! Children grow up and live in Lhasa! How much higher are you going to be flying that that? Lots of us grew up with leaded gasoline, in cities with all kinds of cars spewing the stuff everywhere. And believe me, most of the cars were more poorly maintained that our aircraft. We're still here. Lots of things to worry about with a child, the job of a parent isn't an easy one. This dog just don't hunt.

I upped my dates for Myanmar in August so I will be able to make it too!! I just registered today.

I have flown a 262 conversation for over 15 years (thousands of hrs). First, a comment; assuming you are using book power settings and operating at typical altitudes for this model (mid-teens) Any sudden throttle reduction regardless of reason will significantly reduce engine life. As to the MP increase in decent from 20 inches, I would first confirm your prop is the correct model for a 262. The 231 had a 216 prop. The 252/262 requires the 221 prop. Some conversions were signed off with the old prop. Rpm and MP increases in decent if the 216 prop is still on the plane. Assuming a correct prop, I would have your wastegate controller checked. It should progressively open as you decend into thicker air. Best solution, discontinue the throttle reduction practice. Gradually reducing MP from 20 miles out has been my practice and my engine has over 1600 tach time hours on it and going strong.

So we think we've solved the problem. I'll attach pics so if anyone else runs into this, you'll have a reference. #1 Cylinder with the piston at the top of the compression stroke. It'll look the same if your on the exhaust stroke so you need to feel for pressure. Pic showing TC mark splitting case line...maybe not perfect but I wasn't setting the timing. You have to zoom in to see the mark. Window in the middle of the mag. You can see the start of the "L" in the center. "K" is just to the right. This is a shot of the left side window of the mag and where we think the problem lies. If you zoom in, you'll be able to see a red dot on the backside of the tooth. That dot should be 180 degrees and is NOT the red tooth that's supposed to be in the window. Courtesy of Aaron at Select Aircraft, this is the red tooth you should see. Soon as I get a chance I'll try to fix the problem and report back. If you get a mag returned and it's just a red dot in the side window your firing order will not be correct.....at least I'm hoping this will solve it. Thanks to all who replied!!!

Flew from W. Washington to Denver today. I left a day early because of weather system that followed me out. Dodged some rain showers in WY. I'm here for PPP.

We are . . . Marshall!!

Isn't Marvel Mystery oil suppose help with dirty valves, etc?

But what's wrong with Sadig Khan? After all we got a muslin from Kenya. Next will be King Mohamed in Buckingham. José

Lance Keve, a member here, bought a vintage M20E last year from air-mods, he might have had the PPI done by someone else to get an independent opinion but I think he was pleased with his experience with air-mods.

http://www.air-mods.com pasted from my last post, -a-

Nice scenery. Thanks for sharing, TT. Best regards, -a-

Nice! A full stall landing, on the centerline!

eccellente!

Since we are talking about power charging options. I carry one of these around with me as well as an emergency backup supply and when I need something to keep my iPads charged if I use them outside of the plane. Can charge a completely dead iPad Air twice or an iPhone 6s six times. http://www.amazon.com/26800mah-Capacity-Powerful-RAVPower-Technology/dp/B012NIQG5E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1465176271&sr=8-2&keywords=ravpower

Also be familiar with how to minimize database costs. There are a couple of theories of what to use as primary nav being backed up with the GPS. An out dated database can be used if you verify that it has the waypoints you intend to use. Waypoints such as VORs and their intersections don't change very much. I am a PP, not a CFII... Best regards, -a-

My insurance sentence (DK just loves that phrase--not!) was 10 hours, more than sufficient for an AC that doesn't really need a pilot. You do not fly an E, you merge with it and fly united.