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@bonal, we appreciate your temporary restraint and I think we all get that you’re frustrated. Several of us (myself included) have spent hours attempting to explain the reasoning behind the choices that were made at the time and what the alternatives were. I agree that there are no perfect rules and what is best for SF may not be best for some rural counties. California is a big state in terms of area, population and economic influence and it’s a very heterogenous place. I’m sure you understand that. College entrance exams have been controversial for quite a long time, even before COVID. I think @aviatoreb gave an excellent example of one of the issues that has been raised regarding standardized tests for college admissions. Yes, all segments of the economy are being affected - even the hospitals. I’m not going to engage with you on a political discussion on this forum. I’ve offered to speak with you privately if you have any medical or epidemiological concerns that I might help you understand, but I think it’s pretty clear that the rants are counterproductive. I’m frustrated too, but I’m sharing my frustrations in different settings. Edit: Just to clarify, I’m not trying to pick on @bonal. I think we all share his frustrations and welcome his contributions. I’m just trying to prevent the conversation from deteriorating like it did last time I made a political comment.

I was just making fun of the Speaker. I hope there is no more stimulus. Just let people get back to normal and they will take care of themselves.

On Tuesday, I stayed at full power (Mixture, prop and throttle) up to 14,000 and then to 16,000, with no overheating. Ended up between 130 and 135 knots to keep temps at or below 380. Still climbed at 1000 fpm or more. I was quite pleased. Thanks to all for your help and advice! :-|)

Guys, my wife told me long ago, this is NOT a man cave. It's a MANGAR -Seth

Mine is tuned for FL 280. 300 knots (give/ take 10 knots depending on temps) on 30 GPH. Not exactly real efficient but then neither was my 305 Rocket. I’m a pretty well documented “Speed Guy”. Tom

I can tell you from experience that the governor will loose control at about 2 QTs of oil. The first thing that happens is the oil system will start sucking in air. This will cause the prop to start surging. It will get your attention fast. If you throttle back the engine will smooth out, but you better have a landing spot picked out. I would suggest pulling the throttle back to idle and save as much engine as possible to fix the landing. Luckily, when this happened to me back in '84 I was 5000 feet above an abandoned dirt strip, which I made easily.

We should be tuning up and getting ready for Oshkosh... maybe next year.

Okay, since the oil issues seems rather sorted out...I'll tell my wasp story. Until about 4 years ago, I was doing technical training/troubleshooting/project management on wind turbine installations. I had climbed a 140-foot tower at a site on the shore of Cape May, thinking what a beautiful place and a great view. As part of the troubleshooting, I turned the rotor by hand to feel for bearing roughness or cogging...and found out then that there was a wasp nest inside the alternator windings, and my actions pissed them off royally. They came swarming out and I did my best to descend quickly, balancing the need to go quickly and avoid as many stings as possible against the need to not fall. Complicating things, my harness had a slider which rode on a vertical safety cable and if you descend too quickly it locks...damned thing!

20200402_173641.mp4

Old windlace replaced. Actually was a big job and took days but the end result is well worth the effort. Pictures of before and after .

Tell the Speaker of the House you need it to start a weed farm, she’ll get it for you!

My headset arrived in the mail yesterday, two days after ordering. Surprisingly I only received the email receipt no shipping info at all. I’m not posting pics because at this point everyone that has been interested has seen them. I’m flying in a Citation tonight, and a piston plane in the morning. Will give my personal pirep after the next 24 hours.

Well, strange set of events... I have 30 days from pickup to notify the insurance of improvements and hull increase (with all the upgrades, I'm moving to $45k). Since I picked up the plane last week, doing that now. Second, the claims adjuster is now looking into repairing the plane. This is really due to the existing lien and what it would take to clear it. It's been a roller-coaster. Still waiting to find out if they've moved the plane... -Don

Same here, plus split lock washers continue to function after repeated use - since they don't loose their split. Unlike the internal tooth and star lock washers that after first torquing when you remove them you'll readily see their teeth have been totally flattened and no longer effective - at least not nearly as effective. Iam sure Lycoming picked them because they must have some very small advantage over split ring washers but its bad setup for people that don't realize their not resusable or ignoring that and don't replace them on re-torquing. But after hearing about mags fall off in flight well before I did my A&P training this is one area that's deserves the fullest attention to detail. As for safety wiring or cotter pins, every engine is different and I am always jealous of my big brother IO-550 which has the mags forward at top of engine - where as mine are buried in the middle of the back of the engine. As it is, I have to remove an alternator for access from the left or the intercooler for access from the right. Then I still need a magnetic pickup tool to get both washer on each stud all the while while I have the mag jury rigged in position to not fall off with some safety wire till I get the nuts on. Safety wiring the nuts would be near impossible.

You need anti-lube. A slurry of peanut-butter, old grease and dust..

At those speeds, the power requirement is almost entirely from parasite drag. It's already clear that piston-prop aircraft motors are already some of the most efficient heat motors in common use (and near the practical thermodynamic maximum), so it's hard to imagine any other motor/propulsion system will do better than a Rocket (or @Yooper Rocketman's slippery Lancair, for that matter) at those speeds.

Yikes! I think we have a winner for most tasteless.

That could have opened up a real hornet’s nest

That's scary. Good job keeping your cool and not turning into an NTSB report. -Seth

Alright - whatever it was, it's gone. Couldn't replicate the issue today - all gauges in the green, performance normal. I'm still going to get the sender/gauge checked, and keep an eye on things. Also, no hornets - DOUBLE WIN!

When’s your birthday? I’ll buy u some dry erase markers.

Finally finished it. It was a lot more work than I expected going in. Here is a pic of the regulator mounted, detail on the 3-D printed part and how the module is mounted. The aluminum plate mounted behind the LED module is the heat sink. It is designed to touch the aluminum wing rib. A layer of thermal grease enhances heat transfer. The LED module generates quite a bit of heat and needs a good heat sink. The existing dropping resistor proved useless. Mooney wired it into the ground leg of the original circuit. Because the regulator is grounded to the aluminum the resistor is effectively bypassed. Fortunately the wing provides a sufficient heat sink for the regulator even without the resistor. I had to use ABS for the 3-D printed part to handle the heat. I still have the incandescent nav light, and that gets pretty hot too. The original Royalite shroud is also ABS, so my part should have heat resistance comparable to the original. I had to build an enclosure for my 3-D printer in order to get a good quality ABS print. Without the enclosure, it was warped and cracked easily. With the enclosure, it came out perfect. At least I can now print in ABS...

I went to KRME today for cheap fuel. It was 3.11/gal when I departed and it was $2.74 by the time I got there 30 min later! That is officially the cheapest fuel I ever got! I took on 76gal. I wish I had a tanker. There was some kind of UAS there talking to the tower but the airplane was unmanned and doing touch and goes. It was tiny like half the size of a normal 2 seater airplane, and shaped roughly like a forward canard LongEZ. You can sort of see it in on the runway behind my plane.

I'm really dumb. I just took an old piece of wood and marked it as I fueled the airplane. Marked it wrong too, about 5 gallons low. Must work though, I haven't run out of gas yet.

Bob is so right! But it doesn't take a strong head wind either. I wish we could dispel this myth for ever. But to even suggest this is a sign of a pilot that hasn't yet mastered his stead. Trust me, after hundreds of Mooney hours, certainly thousands, a Mooney pilot should have no problem slowing there bird down on approach such that they no longer need to get it slowed down to landing approach speed with the gear down. I personally think this myth is one, but just one, of the reasons we have so many gear ups. And as most will agree, its rarely just one, but usually multiple issues/mistakes that come together to result in a gear up.

Good points! and another great reason why dragging it in low and slow is just very poor technique. Unfortunately its how many private pilots learned to do short field landing because they could make up for poor precision in stabilized 3 degree approach by coming in low and just chopping the power to fall onto the numbers. In addition to risk of missing the gear, the plane is also much more susceptible to any downdrafts at short final where the pilot might incorrectly pull up and stall rather than push while adding power to get some speed first. The back side is not the place to be on approach. On the other hand, a bit steeper than 3 degree approach slope at idle power at the end followed by quicker than normal round out (because of higher descent rate) just above the runway will absorb more energy leaving less forward energy and easily enable beating POH landing distances. It will also ensure the gear horn goes off if need be because its uses even less engine power and one won't be nearly so vulnerable to a downdraft on short final. Good points on how that sets you up for a gear up. I had only associated the other bad issues I mentioned above and had not also realized how easily it can set the pilot up for gear up as well - valuable lesson!

Good news, passed my checkride yesterday. Look forward to meeting up everyone

I wonder if [mention]Yooper Rocketman [/mention] could chime in here regarding a tuned turbine. Is his Walter flamethrower specifically tuned for ops under FL280?

It does look nice, but from a financial standpoint, not the way I would have done things. The 430 has trade-in value today but that value drops every day. So I'd trade it in on an IFD440 before the value drops any further... The IFD also comes with $0 install cost. Echoing what @StevenL757 said, you can either do the engine monitor twice, and cut the right side panel twice, or do it once. Sell the factory gauges and make up the difference. There is no difference in cost if you put in the G5's today or next year. So for me, those would wait. I would still cut a new panel for the left side to arrange the steam gauges into a standard six pack pattern. Just make sure you leave room to enlarge the holes to put in the G5's when you're ready. You'll be able to install them later without cutting a new panel and without even removing the panel. Anyway, just my $0.02. The only thing worse then spending hard earned money, is spending it twice.

Yep, you’re doing the right thing. There no light illuminating that area so a flashlight is required at night.

https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/497381-anti-pot-group-bashes-the-house-for-including

Being oil based, peanut butter and old grease is the wrong base. I'd use some 3M fabric adhesive as the base, with some tank sealant and very fine sand. Apply quickly.

Glad to hear you are ok! Please add shoulder belts if they repair the plane!

Hi Ross, This is what mine looked like, when I bought my 1977 C. m

I run two of the sensors side by side.....you must check the checker...... I found a exhaust leak one day with the sensors......had some scat tubing detach under the cowl .........

Find an airplane with the later model articulating seat. It cranks up and down a couple inches. Many older airplanes, including mine have these seats installed.

Damn! I need a bigger hangar.

Sorry, lost track of this post. I’m KTCY. Tracy, CA. About 50 miles east of SFO. i have a PA28-180 now.

Yup! I don't know the report in question, but it doesn't take much to imagine. Sadly. There's some really great stuff done in the E-AB world (a certain Lancair IV-PT on these forums comes to mind), but not just anyone can achieve that level of safety or quality. Most don't have the budget or patience (and it takes both). Huh, I missed that detail somehow... Yeah, that pretty bad. I especially love that it's exacerbated by the fact he absolutely refused to put a fence on the re-drive pulley to keep the belts in place. Actually, speaking of the re-drive, who doesn't love that it's been fully redesigned at least twice? Third time's a charm, right? /me takes a deep, cleansing breath... Back to planes that makes sense... Now if only the weather would cooperate this weekend!

Wow, Dukes Astronautics Company! Makes me even happier to have that 0.20 hp motor under my floorboards.

Your speed and fuel flow numbers are very similar to what I see ROP/LOP. If you’re off, it’s not by much. One thing to keep in mind, you lose power much quicker on the LOP side as you decrease fuel flow. My engine runs smooth deep LOP, and I can get the ff way down, but it eventually gets slow enough to be less efficient then being about ~15-25LOP. So, with that in mind, my technique to set LOP after level off is leave full power (WOT), Ram on (probably already on from ~5,000’agl), then set cruise rpm (I use 2500), Then pull mixture slowly until all cylinders go LOP and the last one is ~10-15LOP. Then I make sure I’m at 65% or less power (based on fuel flow). I generally cruise 7,500-10,500’, so it’s usually good. You will likely be 5-10 ktas slower than 100ROP at similar MP, RPM. You should see all cylinders much cooler than ROP.

Buy some of the sticky glue traps and have them in the corners and near the hangar doors. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B012VJLZOM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Man Caves come in many different configurations and level's. But your's has an AIRPLANE in it! And that moves it right to the top of the list.

Don't forget the signs... etc.

I found this out, with several hundred Mooney hours, going into my 3rd (?) Mooney Summit with my wife. It was a long, curving GPS approach over the bay, in IMC, the only curved GPS approach that I've still ever flown. Keeping on track with the curve, being excited to get there, I missed the little lightning bolt and X on the plate and kept the gear safely tucked away. But it was weird--I was legally current but not so proficient, as I could maintain either speed or glideslope but not both. On slope, I was rather fast (even with Takeoff flaps), and on speed I was high. It wasn't until we broke out at about 1000 msl or and I saw the field and those white lights beside the runway that I realized the gear was still up. Slowed down, dropped gear, went full flaps, still couldn't get down. But Tower was nice and cleared me for a VFR go around with left traffic and the second approach was successful. It can happen to any of us, at any time . . . . Had I been lower, I should have caught it on my short final, point at the floor indicator, gear check. Right?

Looking good so far. Why not lose the engine gauges on the right and add the EDM900 as Primary instead? You can put the 900 in a landscape position and slide it left (along with your transponder) closer to the 430 stack. You’d be able to see both of them easier, rescue some panel space, and clean up the look even more. Steve

As requested - here’s an intelligible run down of the GFC in a 77 J. hope it’s helpful. b

I connect my Bose A20 to both the phone for ground phone calls and music and the ipad for foreflight. Seems to work fine. Its one way - it won't broadcast audio to your camera. Though, if you have the garmin audio panel with bluetooth, you are supposed to be able to connect that to the garmin camera. I don' t have a garmin camera to test it.

The PMA450B audio panel has a BT feed specifically for streaming cockpit audio to a camera.

I’d invest in a reasonable quality set of SAE tools. Just keep them in the hangar, a cheap investment that could save frustration down the road.