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Some of you will have seen this on FaceBook, but I picked up the plane from the Avionics shop and took it immediately to annual 16 miles down the crows path. Got everything paid for so it's real now. I have a BFR scheduled with one of our MS CFI's in Muscle Shoals on Saturday. I hope I have enough bank left to fill the tanks and pay Rick to teach me how to fly again...

I had to dig this out of the closet. Here is your watch porn:

That ain't nothin. I was on a work trip about a year ago in Dresden Germany and we ended up on the weekend doing a tour in Saxony that included a stop in a watch making town where they specialized in one off-for commission Uber-expensive watches. For about two million euros you too can have a team of German watch makers design from scratch a watch for you and only you, exclusive single edition, with all the customized mechanical "complications" you desire. Glashutte.

I’ll offer an appropriate segue. Yachtmaster and HK 93 (pre ban)

Here are a pair of AV30's that I installed in a friend's Cherokee 140 today

I fixed the tail

A photo of my favorite watch ...... Does anybody know what time it is? Does anybody really care???

My every day watch is now the Apple Watch 6 with the O2 level and ECG, my hangar watch is the beat up Casio. The other three I earned from a company I used to work with. The GMT in 1989, the other Rolex in 1991 and they allowed me to take a Breitling Emergency in place of a Stainless Rolex in 2002. I need to send in the Rolexes for cleaning and service, anyone have a good connection?

How can you use your cigar lighter then? If it isn’t IMC in the cabin, you aren’t living the full Executive life.

I would fly it for a year, get used to the airplane and see what you really want and see what the avionics market brings. The first year is going to reveal any engine, prop, airframe issues that will take priority over a panel that is "functioning perfectly". Then after all of that and after you decide what you want, do it once and do it right.

Those may not seem to go together because of their dramatically differing purpose. But beyond rarity which is one reason they do go together, they certainly go together for sake of the perfection of mechanical design and execution. My dad had. a very large gun collection of rare guns, that he loved to break down and re-assemble each time after shooting, and he also had a good sized watch collection, and also fine jewelry grade pens.

I would do the G500txi and 750xi given the choice.

Just want to tell the forum I'm beginning to replace my aft stub spar on a 64 m20e. I was able to find a new one on the forum. I removed the main landing gear and started drilling rivets out. I will drill until it gets too cold in the hangar. Then I will go through the gear in my heated garage. Plane is at klot if anyone wanted to take a look or help. Wish me luck. Glenn

hands race to erase life's moments with obsession time leaves us unwind. Susie CLevenger.

Gill and Champion suck

Upgrade it to the 440 before it craps out on you.

Have you checked the tach accuracy?

another way if they would reject a round robin flight plan is to file: KCHD to KTUS and list KCHD as your alternate. After you fly the approach at KTUS go missed and tell ATC you want to return to KCHD. ATC can't force you to do anything at that point. ATC can only comply with your request unless there is something in the airspace that prevents them from doing so.

But, on the other hand, it's amazing how few catastrophic engine problems, or even minor problems are attributed to the brand/type of oil used. If a particular brand/type of oil gets you beyond TBO, hasn't it done its job? Does anyone have a story about a particular brand/type of oil destroying their engine? (And, yes, I'm aware of the disaster caused by an early formula synthetic.)

That happened to me right after I bought the plane. I decided to get the 440. I was not happy about it at the time, but after flying with the IFD for a while, I am happy now.

nice. That avidyne screen dwarfs the 430. Sometimes I wish my 430 would crap on me so that I could justify upgrading.

Check. Check. Check. 2.5 Months to go. Got a very thorough IPC with a recent ER grad that wants to check all the boxes. Bumpy day with a lot of wind, what a workout! Also got a very thorough flight review with the same instructor. It was more intense than the previous several reviews put together. Overboard, but I really needed a good stretch. Next thing for 2020 is add a couple G5s to the panel. That might go into January 2021.

First I was thinking that people might get their house broken into by posting photos of their $100k watch collection. Then 88V showed us his German defence system...

I'd do the 750XI, a G3X and with the money you save on the G3x instead of a txi, get a gfc500.

Both of the above by @kmyfm20s. Do the 750xi and the G500txi. You won’t regret it. I had the classic G500, the 750, and the KS165 before the upgrades in this photo. Steve

I would add that I would have them also provision the rack and any wiring for when you add the 650xi down the road

As I mentioned, mine reads the same as the one under the wing.

Was there a problem with it being in the naca duct? That is where mine is works great. Reads the same Dynon probe mounted under the wing.

They can leak either fuel or oil out of the small drain that comes out just in front of the nose gear. Mine fluctuated a bit during climb after shutting off the electric fuel pump but didn’t drop out of the green. It leaked a lot of oil and made a mess. Replacement fixed both issues. If you replace it, the new one will likely run right at the top of the green, maybe slightly over and then decrease slightly as you break it in. I used overhauled from a well known shop in OK who’s name escapes me...

Wise counsel as always ... you sure you are just a PP? Again, thank you for your help.

My CB brethren will love this. Just picked this baby up to wear at work: Couple grand cheaper than my Omega beater.

These things about ruined the small mouth bass fishery of the Tippecanoe river in Northern Indiana back in the 70's. The have a voracious appetite for crawfish, minnows, helgramites and every other source of food. They wont be missed and a poor choice for an official fish for our beloved brand. The locals rightly called them shad. The flathead catfish would eat their guts

Update: After input and research on plastic safe compounds. A razor blade was used to clean old brittle glue off and score the surface needing to adhere to the window. New plastic safe gorilla glue gel was used and has worked like a dream. Feels solid and dried clear as a posed to the old cloudy glue.

One of the most spectacular flights I ever performed was north of Iceland the sea was so calm, the sun behind us. I could see from FL360 the reflection of the airplane in the sea as if it were a mirror. We also saw two sunsets and sunrises as our track changed latitude. I've been up to 5 degrees north. One of the most interesting things about polar flying is the knowledge that if you have a medical emergency, which is the most common emergency in airline flying, you have more medical equipment on board than just about every other alternate airport along your route. Equally so, preflighting the arctic suits in case you divert gets pretty funny.

Here is the landing when we arrived in Rio, as edited by my son Curtis...he is much more technological than I am... (I can work the G1000 at least!)

The cylinder paint code on I/O-360s is usually on the top fins between the pushrod tubes, or on a band around the base of the barrel. Blue is nitrided, orange is chrome, nothing/grey is basic steel. https://www.lycoming.com/content/understanding-engine-color-codes Like this, which is mine, which the blue indicates has nitrided cylinders:

same here...terrain is 14k immediate east of TEX with lower terrain down the valley toward placerville.Airport elevation is at 9 k so even jet equipment departs to the west.the way to have done this safely was to depart via valley to gunnison than eval ride through monarch pass at 11k.SAD.....

ohoh...i heard 201 s parrots just finished law school.Trouble ahead

As long as we're reviewing... Got the Powerplant certificate, after the usual virus-related interference with school. It was an interesting adventure, but it's done now, so I am a fully certificated mechanic with A&P ratings now. I still don't know squat, but I have the cert. Also got the MEI while we were off waiting for school to restart, so another BFR has been successfully avoided. So now I'm a PPL IR MEI and still really don't feel like I know what I'm doing, but I have the certs. 2021 goal is still in place. Still working on it.

No, the timing could still be set wrong, it’s just that the A3B6D does have any options — it must be set to 25 deg. The timing is normally checked at every annual inspection. A single mag with retarded timing will show up as an excessive rpm drop during the pre-takeoff mag check. But the dual mags are mechanically connected, so they are timed together. There is internal timing in the mag (E-gap) that can be off and affect timing also. That would best be a job for a mag shop. But, it’s unusual for mag timing to drift enough to make a major difference in power. I would definitely check that the mag hold down hardware is correct and secure. There have been issues on the dual mag with it coming loose. Skip

how hot was the oil when you saw it going down further than you're used to into the yellow?

Hello all, thanks for the discussion so far. I'm bringing this topic back up because I have a new idea. On two recent flights, I again perceived slightly lower engine power. I note that on takeoff roll the engine does not reach 2700 RPM (later in the flight, it does - so this is not due to the governor). Also, in cruise at 10k ft or so, the airplane is doing only 140 KTAS or so (well, I'm flying LOP, that _may_ contribute...). The new idea: maybe my mag timing is retarded? Add to my perceived lower power a really cool running engine. In cruise, with cowl flaps closed the CHTs, are usually around 300-330. Question to you: is there a way how I as the pilot can verify this hypothesis, without advanced equipment? According to the logs, the mags have been overhauled in late 2017 (two owners before me) and are due for another overhaul end of 2021. In the work reports of 2017, I have not found a report on checking or adjusting the mag timing. Thanks for any hints or advice. PS. The pitot static system has been checked and was/is fine.

Not a problem if you and your passengers together weigh less than a lb. No problem. Like for Tinker Bell and her BFF Ringy Bell.

Great Grandpa’s railroad watch.

https://www.ocair.com/generalaviation/docs/jwapilotguide.03.31.2017.pdf Save this to your efb. I’m based out of John Wayne. I reference this one pager all the time. It’s basically what niko is saying. The only thing that I have noticed is sometimes both runways are on 126.8 and sometimes they have the NW side of the field on 126.8 and the SE part of the field on 119.9. I have noticed that it seems to be based on traffic and workloads. Also be ready and aware that they may ask you to side-step to the other runway. This happens to me about 1/4 of the time. I always prepare my landing spot to need to land on the shorter 20L even if I was given 20 right. Something to note, the numbers on 20L&R get a really big washing machine action because the large operators hold short on the taxiway at the numbers between the runways and you can’t expect them to be aware of their jet blast. Anytime I see someone holding short between 20 R&L stay above them and shift my landing spot about 500 feet down the runway. Some VFR reference points they use OFTEN to familiarize yourself with are Signal Peak, Mile Square Park, Huntington Beach pier, Irvine Lake, and El Toro VOR. SoCal approach usually says something like “Proceed direct to mile square park and contact tower 126.8” they do it for sequencing and then may ask you to do a “cross the field over the tower at or above 1,300ft and enter a left downwind for runway 20L” or “proceed direct to numbers”. Moral is they expect you to know those handful of vfr waypoints to sequence you. Other than that they are good controllers. Very efficient. Do yourself a favor and get a spot on the SW ramp. Trust me. You will save a lot of time by being on that side of the field. You don’t want to get stuck in those taxiway Charlie traffic jams. -Trent

I shouldn't be so snarky, but I've gotten more screwy handling from them than anybody else. Phoenix isn't great to GA either. I was flying to Gillespie IFR once and got the weirdest vectors ever, then I was cleared for the approach to Lindbergh! I told the controller I was going to Gillespie and he said "oh, ok" and vectored me all over the place then said I was cleared for the approach to Montgomery! I said "I'm going to Gillespie!" On the third try he actually cleared me for the approach to Gillespie. I went from the simplest approach ever, straight down the airway to the IAF to a 1/2 hour of crazy climbs and descents. Just a month or two ago, I was flying to Santa Barbara IFR and they kept me at 9000 ft (I think) until over the airport. I was requesting lower for a while, but they wouldn't do it. Then they cleared me to descend heading out to sea. They didn't turn me back towards shore until I was down to initial altitude (~3000 ft). I was about 20 miles out to sea. They owe me 40 miles of fuel! I filed IFR out of Camarillo to Phoenix (KCHD) and requested 15000 ft. That would have put me on top. They kept me below 6000 feet until I got to around Riverside and then had me climb to 15000 heading south almost to San Diego before they turned me east. They gave me 4 reroutes during that time, including one they reneged on when I was handed off. Maybe they just don't like me?

Nothing fancy or spectacular here for my 2020 flying goals.......continue to maintain, fly and enjoy each special moment with my little Mini-Mooney! Happy, healthy, prosperous and safe Mooney flying to you all in the coming New Year !!

The nice thing about measuring by running a tank dry in flight, is that you KNOW your useable fuel number. And that's really the only number that matters.

An accounts receivable ledger? I don't know how you do it, but my money going to the Mooney is not really a receivable.