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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/12/2018 in all areas

  1. Logged my 250th flight hour and passed my IR checkride. Woohoo!
    17 points
  2. I find it interesting that several people take the position that it is inexcusable and a gear up could never happen to them. As I said earlier, I feel that it could happen to anyone including me, and the best way to avoid such things is to understand that, and therefore to humbly take every sincere action possible to avoid it by always being the humble student.
    7 points
  3. I take your tact, it could happen to anyone and the person who it is most likely to happen to is the one who gets distracted if for only a second. I keep telling my wife that she has one job and one job only when flying with me, to ask me as we are approaching whether the gear is down.
    6 points
  4. Actually yes I'll have to pull the study, but by actively participating in a type group organization, your accident rate drops by something like 100x vs the rest of the general aviation population. So by discussing these incidents and being a member of MooneySpace - YES - it makes you statistically a safer pilot. Watch, we'll be the two next to gear up . . . Now I have to find that study! -Seth
    5 points
  5. Some of you know I had starting problems in my new to me M20J. Well all that has been taken care off, now my starts take no more than two to three blades. Back on topic. In the lat two months my wife and I made some trips that wouldn’t have been possible with out the Mooney. We took a friend to Sarasota Fl for a job interview. Forced stay for three days due to maintenance. I know, still not making my point. So I will start now. Plane fixed, left Sarasota for Savanah GA, dropped friend off, RTB to NW Florida. Trip time 5 hrs.....car time at least 15 hrs. Next trip was to Houston TX for the birth of our grandson. Flying time 4hrs there, 3.2hrs on the return. Round trip by car would have been 20 plus hours. Returned home for one day then flew to Virginia Beach to baby sit our granddaughter. Heck of a tail wind, flying time 4hrs, 5plus on return (heck of a head wind). One way trip to Virginia Beach is more than 14 hrs by car. Bottom line, without the Mooney these trips would either not have been possible or we would have spent more time on the road than in the visit.
    4 points
  6. I've posted this before, but I really feel it bears repeating. Humans are by nature distractible. If we weren't there never would have been such things as pickpockets and stage magicians. If you really feel you could never gear up and airplane I promise you I could distract you into doing it. And I don't hold a patch on the average 4 year old (though Mrs. Steingar thinks I have the maturity of one).
    4 points
  7. Gear up warning buzzer can easily be mistaken by a stall warning, specially when turning base to final. The voice warning provides a distinctive indication of the type of warning. José
    4 points
  8. +1 These don’t have to occur from pilot error. Distractions do happen with VERY expensive consequences. Those that only use a check list and super pilot skill...Good luck with that. Last time this came up I was ripped on for the investment by a member on this site. I chuckle in his general direction. Don’t be that guy. <than .5AMU plus install and you get the added benefit of a verbal pre-stall warning. This is as much a no-brainer as a shoulder strap for front seats an engine and CO monitor.
    4 points
  9. No one is saying that gear up pilot error incidents “just happen”...but you Peter. What people are saying is: Distractions DO HAPPEN that result in gear up pilot error. You refuse to comprehend that these events can befall a competent pilot. We are not talking about complacency. It is your attitude that is just bizarre and frankly not rational. You refuse to actively listen to what others are saying on this thread. By saying “Those that have and” It is a warning. A call to arms. It is not an absolute statement. Your statement “Do we have better things to do when setting up for landing”? Really? 1. Door pops 2. Baggage door pops 3. Engine sputters 4. Baby screams/pukes 5. Dog freaks out 6. ATC says “Keep speed up 737 number 2 on 5 mile final.” 7. Turbulence or cross wind or gusty conditions. Wind switches directions 8. Other traffic in pattern. 9. Someone lands in the other direction. 10.Distractions Peter. You perhaps live in a sanitary world void of other events occurring. I do not live in that world. You can plan all day and be high minded and frankly judge mental, but I am calling you on it.
    3 points
  10. Isn't the best procedure, to build a relationship with a shop so that there is mutual trust and professionalism? When Laura at SWTA sends me a bill that I think is a little higher than I was expecting, I can be 100% confident that she should be charging me even more based on the amount of effort JD or the guys, had to put into the job. There are plenty of things to worry about and stress over regarding this little hobby we all enjoy. Worrying if my mechanic is overcharging me shouldn't be one of them. There is a particular Mooney owner in Texas, who can't hardly find a shop to work on his bird. And it's because he has accused every shop in the area of incompetence, ripping him off, gross negligence, and even threatened legal action. Be nice to your A&P and he'll be nice to you... It can't be an easy way to make a living, so I try to be the best customer I can be. Don't make unreasonable requests, accept that sometimes jobs take longer than expected, they will find stuff that needs fixing that I didn't know about, pay my bill promptly, and never complain about the cost. And so if you stop in at SWTA and the job takes an extra day, it might be because I pulled 252AD in and needed some quick maintenance. Being a shop's favorite customer has it's advantages
    3 points
  11. I totally understand there are far better pilots out there than me. And there are pilots out there that will never gear up their plane. But I don’t view myself in either category. I believe I can get distracted and forget to put the gear down and I try to prepare myself with every flight and never think it can’t happen to me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    3 points
  12. I have one of these voice gear alert, and found it to be a must to have. http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/voicegearalert.php?clickkey=46870 José
    3 points
  13. I usually told people I was licensed to practice medicine on every species on earth, but one.
    3 points
  14. Although it varies by aerodynamic considerations, the studies I have seen indicate that to maintain 60 mph, the typical car requires about 20 hp.
    3 points
  15. It's not a matter of trust, it's a matter of risk management. If work can be done without the shop having the original log books, than why take the extra risk, no matter how small, and leave the original logs with the shop. Accidents happen that are no fault of the shop, but they still happen. So why add additional responsibility to the shop, needlessly.
    3 points
  16. If I were going to do this, I would put together a data packet for submission to the FAA for field approval. Include the drawings from the Mooney kit, The Mooney kit part numbers. Any photos and 337s from previous installs. Include an electrical load analysis and any additional wiring and circuit breakers and switches along with W&B information. Have your IA review the data package and send it to his principal inspector for review before you start any work. The principal inspector will let him know if all the "i"s are dotted and the "t"s are crossed and let him know if he has any problems with the modification. Make any suggested changes to the data packet and then send that in for the formal field approval. I took four classes on 337s and field approvals taught by FAA principal Inspectors. They all said that they hate it when you do a bunch of work and then seek approval afterwards. They all said they like to be educated. You can't assume the principal inspector is a Mooney expert. There are checklists available on the FAA website for getting field approval. As long as you address all the items you will get the approval. They all said they want you to be able to do your modifications, but you have to be in compliance with the regs. If you can't figure out how to get in compliance with the regs, they can probably help you with that. I was talking with a Principal inspector about getting my IA and I told him I probably don't have enough spare time to do four annuals a year on four different airplanes. His response was there is no requirement to do four different airplanes. He said there is no limitation on how many annual inspections you do on an airplane in a year. I said "So I can do four annuals on my plane in one day?" He said there is no regulation prohibiting that and it would satisfy the IA currency requirements. He went on to say that he had a better plan for me. He said that an IA only needs to complete one progressive inspection plan a year. Take your check list and split it into two three or four parts and submit it to the FAA as a progressive maintenance plan. He said it would be approved without any hassle. Then all I have to do is two or three mini annuals to meet the regs.
    3 points
  17. Cheap bastards troubleshooting method. Depending what year you have. There are two plastic tubes that terminate under the instrument panel than transition to rubber hoses. remove the hoses one at a time from the turn coordinator valve. Stick it in your mouth and suck real hard until the yoke moves. then stick your tongue on the end of the tube. If it holds the suction the servo is good. If the suction bleeds off the servo needs fixin. Each hose goes to two servo bellows. One goes to the right aileron and right rudder. the other to the lefts.
    2 points
  18. I agree completely! That is why I said 4 hours ago the following: My only defensiveness is that everyone only seem to be talking about what they have to lose, and that the IA should trust them. Very few are talking about what the IA has to lose if he is dealing with an untrustworthy owner. And for me personally, I don't want to hold anybody's logbooks longer than the time I need to check the few entries I need to see. And I would much rather tell the owner what I need to check and have them look them up, not me. That way I wouldn't even need to touch the logbooks and I'd save a lot of time.
    2 points
  19. Only locally do I monitor everything. But the problem isn't limited to Mooney's. At the 10 day FAA report I only monitor Mooney's and that's purely to help me as a Mooney specific instructor as well as a pilot. The FAA has certainly studied this issue at depth and although there is the occasional time a pilot simplify "forgot" without extenuating circumstances that is far from the norm. The fact is the majority of times the pilot was working real hard to ensure a safe outcome to a landing but had unusual stress factors (e.g., traffic, short approach, asked to keep speed up etc) not from the pilots choosing but stresses that altered the pilots routine and distracted the pilot from doing what they typically do 99.999% of the time and on that day their backup checks failed to catch that issue resulting in a gear up landing. Consequently, my take away is we need 3 things, we need to fly regularly (maintain proficiency) 2) we a need pattern for when and how the gear goes down (at FAF IFR, or entering the downwind VFR etc and waiting to see the gear green light actually come on, not just move the switch and move on) and 3) we need multiple backup checks, such as at least 3 GUMPS including the one at short final to check the floor indicator (which is primary) to verify for at least second time the gear is really down just before landing. So for example on the point of seeing the gear come down, when I see a client move the gear up switch on takeoff and not verify the gear actually came up, I'll pull the gear actuator CB on a subsequent takeoff and when they fail to notice the gear didn't come up in the climb we'll have something to talk about. But I've found it not believable to them that they'll miss it If I just to call it out. Doing it on takeoff has made the point well enough and I really don't want to do it on landing and risk turning it into one of the those training induced incidents. But in the end we're still human and subject to erring so a good voice annunciator could really save the day when your normal backups could otherwise fail us. Its great insurance to reduce the odds which are always present no matter how good you are!
    2 points
  20. As you "regulars" know, when these gear-up-landing discussions come up, I do not trust humans to put the gear down 100% of the time. I've seen what EGPWS has done for the airline/jet community. Technology can fill in for human inattention. Since the G-430 is installed in so many aircraft, it seems a fairly cheap software/connection change could make lights flash and horns (or voices) sound if the aircraft GPS altitude comes within 400'-500' of database field elevation with the gear not down. Garmin? A great addition to safety.... How about it?
    2 points
  21. My AD Compliance spreadsheet is printed out, with a signature for each one indicating either "N/A" or the date it was completed. Each new IA makes a new one, since apparently they don't trust the previous IA, either . . . . .
    2 points
  22. That is a great feature to add. I believe the voice annunciation in the G1000 planes is a huge safety feature - "Check Gear....Check gear" plus the horn is way more effective than horn alone. Now, if I could only get her to shut up with the "Stall....Stall....Stall" stuff on short final at 1.25 Vso.
    2 points
  23. If one is getting a stall warning on the base to final turn, then remedial training is indicated. That is probably the worse time possible to be close to stalling. A stall there means a whole different type of "gear up landing."
    2 points
  24. Bob -- mine are around 3 inches below the flange. I think the actual temps will vary a lot and not to take them as absolutes. If your probes are 6 inches down on the tubes, you may be at a hotter point in the exhaust plume.
    2 points
  25. Was always taught.......if it doesn’t feel right it isn’t. There is no way your speed will be correct with the gear tucked away. Your power will be way off if you are slow enough. Same goes for the flaps. Speed and configuration (especially in the Mooney) will be and feel the same every time. If something feels weird Go Around and see what it is. Do not continue the approach.
    2 points
  26. Dawn had a lot of issues, logs not being one of the worse. the FBO that replaced them are still going strong. It’s an easy decision if you don’t work on my plane with copied logs,I go elsewhere. Another shop in Wilm could not find my logs years ago, after a few months I went through there files and found them in a file for a piper, last time my originals were out of my custody and control.
    2 points
  27. FWIW, there are racing applications where people beat on automotive engines for far longer than a quarter mile. I'm on race car #5 (road racing, sometimes endurance racing), and every one has had a 100% stock motor for reliability. Stock engines have a lot more design margin (even when run wide open for long periods) than tuned engines, which make more power but usually at the cost of reliability. If you want every bit of power the rules allow, you may want a built motor, but if you can squeeze the performance from somewhere else you can save engine building budget and get more reliability (which is the tradeoff direction I prefer). I've never had a problem running a (carefully selected) stock automotive engine extremely hard for long periods as long as the oil and water temps are managed, and that can be done without making changes to the engine. If an engine overheats in a race car it's a cooling system problem, not an engine problem. A little better aero to the rad or a little bigger radiator or both usually fixes it, or sometimes just removing stuff that's in the way like the air conditioner. An airplane engine only makes rated power at sea level (or at equivalent manifold pressure), and lives a pretty tame life at altitude (or lower MPs) even at full throttle. Flogging an auto engine hard at low altitudes runs it much closer to design limits for potentially long periods. From my perspective an aircraft engine lives a pretty tame life compared to many racing applications with auto engines. Both hold up well with careful attention to just a few things; oil pressure and temp, head or coolant temps, and not exceeding rev limits. If you manage those most reciprocating engines will live long lives, even if run hard. Auto engines often suffer in aviation applications because they're out of their design envelope, and often the cooling system is compromised for reduced weight and improved aerodynamics. OTOH, VW Beetle engines were popular in homebuilts for a long time, but they're pretty much a shrunken O-360. Just another perspective, FWIW.
    2 points
  28. I replaced all 12 on my TSIO-360 with silicon gaskets . Done correctly as per the instructions it takes longer than you may think. I torqued them to 25 inch pounds in steps, ran the engine and checked the torque again. I spent all afternoon (4+ hours) You may want to check the condition of your rocker covers before you invest in new gaskets. Make sure the sealing surface is flat. The covers may be deformed, especially if they had silicon gaskets and someone over tightened them. I had to replace several of mine to eventually stop the oil seepage. Bill
    2 points
  29. I recently put in the P2 system. It is activated at a programmed airspeed (such as <85 knots) and has a male voice which states gear down is gear is safe and a female voice stating Gear, Gear if unsafe. It remindes me to do Gumps a final time, and tug on the Johnson bar to insure it is indeed latched. Seems to be a worthwhile investment. John Breda
    2 points
  30. I agree. Probably the best value of anything I have put on my plane.
    2 points
  31. Incidentally, when I designed a timer for the older Mooneys, I intentionally designed it to stay on for 10 to 12 minutes, figuring that should take care of most any unloading someone would need to from their plane, and not be a problem for draining a battery. Sorry for the thread hijack.
    2 points
  32. An automotive engine that is run at 75% power for an extended period of time will not hold up If it is a production built design. It will fail period. The engines are built for a purpose of occasional WOT and load factored over a given time and if I remember correctly that time limit is 3 min at 85%+ then it needs time to cool down. The bearing surfaces and water jackets can't handle the load. Now before getting crazy a Corvette, Mustang or whatever fast toy you think you have that is bad ass if it is STOCK from the factory it has limits. Racing a quarter mile is 10 - 15 seconds at best just to give you perspective. Using an automotive engine design for the power plant of a plane is silly. Unless it has been built and designed for that purpose, only one company has done so. It is a great design but still years away from certification. Now if you want to use the technology from the auto/diesel world and incorporate it into the aviation world that is totally doable and needs to happen. We have the technology that would put to bed issues of mismatched cylinder heating and exhaust temps that rise or fall because of improper A/F ratios. We have metals that are far superior than the 60 plus year old metal we are flying around. It can be done but it would cost!
    2 points
  33. GUMPS works fine and is generally done further out, but i add, "short final check.". Four items said out loud.... Gear in the green Flaps set for landing Prop full. Mixture appropriate for go around. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
    2 points
  34. Chris, your temps and speeds are really great. I'm not sure my speeds will beat that by much and I know my temps will be higher. You ought to hang on to that bird.
    2 points
  35. you all are missing the point, an aircraft engine produces very little horse power per cubic inch. The O-360 family of engines was certified over 60yrs ago, there are a ton of advancements that have been made over the past 6 decades, Could Lycoming or Conti build a 360 C.I. motor in the 275 ~ 300 HP range that would stay together and go well past the now 2000 hr TBO?. Sure they could, but it would cost a large fortune and take years to certify and decades to get their investment back.
    2 points
  36. I don't want to derail this thread but I have been pondering all the heat variations to the cylinders and was wondering has anyone mapped the air flow under the cowl. Actually using a digital cam, some string taped to the top hanging down about 1.5in and watch what happens while cruising. I've had to do something very similar on a kit car that was built and was having a terrible time keeping it from overheating. It turns out I had a tornado occurring under the hood and it was fix by literally keeping the back of the hood up 1/2 in. Don't shoot me just offering an idea...
    2 points
  37. Yes, but a car engine on the highway is maybe 35%? Or about half of what an airplane does for hours on end.
    2 points
  38. My CHT's generally stay under 350.... Although I have seen the hottest one creep over 350 sometimes. This is on a 75 F with the Lopresti STC.
    2 points
  39. I use a molex plug wired to the battery with an in line fuse.
    2 points
  40. Not wishing to plagiarize, So, let me state this method of avoiding gear up incidents was copied some time back from another Mooney driver, (Apologize for not remembering his name), as he posted on Mooney Space in reply to a similar gear up incident. As I recall he always used some word he called GUMP before landing. Again as I recall, it went something like this: G-- Gear down U--Undercarriage down M-- That mf gear sure as hell better be down P--I am going to be so P. O. if that mf gear is not down As for myself, I now use GUMP for every landing procedure. Best
    2 points
  41. In a different thread I mentioned that I was going to be modifying my baggage door IAW an article I found in an old MAPA Log from January, 2012. I finished the work and ended up differing from the original article a bit. Please excuse the fact that part of my interior is out, part of it is grey, , and part is brand new (the baggage door cover, which I think came out pretty nice). Baggage door mechanism before modification: This is the door mechanism after modification. I replaced the 2 standard washers with 3 'L' washers that are half the thickness of the standard. I made a short pull mechanism out of 1/16" control cable and standard swages. This shows the latched position. This shows the unlatched position. The changes that I made to the original design were to make for a better looking installation, IMO, and having the pulling direction to unlatch the door to be to the rear, not forward. This will make it less likely for a child to see the pretty red handle and pull it. The baggage door must remain unlocked for this to operate. This is different from later model Mooneys. Of course, with the baggage door unlocked, it could also be unlatched, which will cause it to open in flight and cause damage. Use at your own risk, as always. The placards are simple Brother P-Touch, made using a very old machine. I trim the labels as close to the lettering as possible, and it sticks quite well to the fabric. The pull handle is velcro'ed to the fabric. The labels are actually the same as I did all of my placards, just smaller sizes. They look great from about 6" distance. My logbook entry will be as follows: "Modified baggage door by the addition of 1/16" cable to allow emergency egress in the event of main door failure. Operations check satisfactory, no change to original function of the baggage door. Interior placard installed. Weight and balance change negligible."
    1 point
  42. I installed EI CGR-30P in my M20F two years ago and I'm very satisfied with it. It fits in standard 3 1/4" hole (I didn't want to replace instrument panel at the time) and is primary replacement for most of my engine instruments. It couldn't replace Fuel quantity gages and I'm looking into install of Aerospace Logic dual Qty. gage... Installation was not too complicated (I did it with help of my IA) and I don't find it's size to small. I prefer it to JPI's EDM 730-830 that I considered at one point as well. MVP-50 would certainly be better but it takes a lot of space not currently available in my 6-pack equipped Mooney. On their website, JPI says EDM 350 Deluxe is for experimental aircraft only so I don't see how can you install that in your Mooney. Regards,
    1 point
  43. Not doubting these numbers, but is just seems very high rate of occurrence. @kortopates where are you getting your gear up reports from? Right now there are 12 M20's buzzing around per flightaware. So average flights per day 24 over 365 days (just wild ass guess). Given 104 gear ups(2 per week) divided by 8800 flights per year gives you a likelihood of a 1% chance that your flight will land on its belly. What's a gear up cost - 20k on average? With this math that's 2mm per year that premiums need to cover. That seems like enough incentive to somehow solve or reduce the likelyhood of these. My numbers are a complete guess, pick whatever you like.
    1 point
  44. 1 hour flight to the island. Time by driving,.....uhh, good luck with that.
    1 point
  45. I agree with your comment. Unfortunately, 100% of the basic meds I've performed are not on my patients. All of these patient's primary care providers refused to perform this service. As a result, I typically spend a minimum of 1 hour sometimes 2 hours getting the patient's entire medical/surgical history. This may not be the spirit of what was intended, but it's the best I can do at this point. Someone (docs like me) has to get the ball rolling on the medical side. I believe once things get rolling personal primary care providers will jump on board and the program will run as intended.
    1 point
  46. I would think an hour to take the cowling on and off, 15 minutes per cylinder and 30 min for paperwork. So like 3 hours.
    1 point
  47. simple rule to keep the instructor shut up during an IPC on approach....keep the needles centered. (and dont forget to put the gear down)
    1 point
  48. Leaving the gear tucked away in my C, even with the 3 blade Hartzell out front, leaves me noticeably high and/or fast. I've done it on purpose flying along a grass field before landing, had trouble getting down even to treetop level. The same holds true when IFR. Going to the Summit in 2016, I was in the clouds most of the way down, and started on that long, curving GPS spproach over the (unseen) bay. With little recent actual time, my wife and I looming forward to the weekend, and a non-standard approach, I was struggling with both speed and altitude being high. When I broke out at about 1000', I realized the gear was still up . . . Gear down, throttle back, flaps to full down, fingers crossed for the descent and the landing was uneventful. There's no way I would have reached the runway with the gear still up.
    1 point
  49. Here’s a few photos of the seat handles that I had made a couple of years ago for my bird. This is what I’ll be making for Ned and anyone else who would like a set. David
    1 point
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