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My first cancer diagnosis prompted me to switch. I had a valid Class 2 with a special issuance for obstructive sleep apnea at the time so I immediately transitioned to BasicMed. This move preserved my ability to keep flying when my doc and I judged I met the requirements of paragraph 61.53, and never having to worry about a future Class 2 or 3 being denied or submitting to the ass pain associated with the recurring reporting and pile of documentation OKC requires. It was quite an easy decision and transition. I briefed my primary doc using the materials AOPA provides, answered a few questions she had and she was immediately on board. After surgery and adjuvant cancer treatment, a later bout with a different cancer that required surgery, and a total hip replacement, my doc and I are still making excellent informed decisions on when I am and am not good to fly without needing the okeedokee from a remote government official who has never seen me. I can't fly for hire anymore, but I'm fortunate to be retired and not in financial need. BTW, the score is Junkman - 2, Cancer - 0. I'm hoping that remains as a final score.

I am more curious as to why anyone wouldn’t be flying under basic med.

Have you had to deal with OKC on ANYTHING beyond just a normal 3rd Class AME in-office exam? If not, then be careful giving OKC much credit. Their default attitude/response is one of denial and demand for a plethora of data backed up with a large dose of 'protect the public'/'save the children' rationalization. Oh, and time is NOT important to THEM whatsoever (except how little time you are give to provide info back to them!). So, yeah, I've had lousy experiences, too!

I had to do the contact cleaner twice on the 50 year old F model. Then it was the relay. The cool thing about the relay was there were two sides to it. So I just switched wires to the other side.

Definitely don't sell your airplane or give up. Definitely do prepare for the very worst from the FAA Medical Branch and act proactively. If the process went smoothly for you without expert legal representation, you got very lucky. Like many if not most bureaucrats, the docs at the NTSB medical branch care much less about actual service than creating an appearance of usefulness - their priority is finding he path of least resistance to creating a facade of protecting public safety. Their fundamental laziness and indifference, which are the only things that would would make a licensed physician take that kinda job in the first place, also make them cave pretty easily when an astute attorney appears capable of creating extra work for them or exposing their rank incompetence before an NTSB judge. My message is not just that the NTSB Medical Branch is often capricious in its actions against pilots but also that they have vulnerabilities that provide a means to manage the serious threat they pose to your medical certificate. Also it is best to do everything possible to avoid the SI hellhole in the firstplace.

Here is a pic.. -Don

3m vinyl overlay that looks like carbon fiber… -Don

At least at the beginning, the FAA's often revolving door of expensive and repeated testing for SIs probably sent more people to BasicMed than any other single factor.

If you are an aviator, understand catching a diagnosis is often the same as a non-pilot catching a felony.

I assume you mean sleep apnea - one should be able to get around that. But remember the FAA Medical Branch is a bureacratic meat grinder that will casually end your flying career for no real justification at all. It is run by bottom barrel physicians with almost zero incentive to understand the detailed reality of any medical situation. They will not do the right thing unless forced to do so. GET A LAWYER WITH EXPERIENCE IN AEROMEDICAL MATTERS IN DEALING WITH THE FAA. I can recommend a couple of excellent ones and share my related experience with the medical branch if you want to PM me. THIS CAN CERTAINLY WORK OUT IN YOUR FAVOR, BUT YOU HAVE TO BE VERY PROACTIVE IN DEALING WITH THE FAA.

Hi all, I’m looking to upgrade my autopilot from the original Accutrak to the TruTrak, now Aerocruz 100 AP, which recently got the okay for my Mooney M20C. All I’m looking for is an AP that follows the my WAAS GPS’s magenta line, holds attitude and can do turn anticipation. I did a general search on Mooneyspace but didn’t find many that may have gone before me. i’ve done some research but it seems to be the only one that does not require a G5 or some other intermediary and can run straight from my IFD 440, AND is approved for use in the Mooney. Any advice before I take the plunge, and secondly, being based in Northern VA, any recommendations for avionics shops that do the install? thanks!

I think the problem with trying to characterize the proclivities of the FAA Medical Branch is that trends don't matter so much as the n=1 of your own experience. They might be reasonable and you could still be the exception; it's cold comfort if you can't fly or have to wait an unreasonable amount of time. And probably some people have suffered less from that Eye of Sauron than others and got away with things they could have been dinged on. I've been on both sides in the military version of this. Actually, 3 sides if you count the programmatic side and being accountable to multiple higher-up interests, sometimes with contradictory goals. We all want to be an exception to the rules, esp. dumb rules. I'm guilty. But practical safety of your flight and your passengers should be an important goal... You might be surprised how debilitated some people are by sleep apnea. Don't even know it for years. So I wouldn't not get it dealt with, regardless of what else you do. Dealing with absurd insurance company and bureaucratic regulations is another matter. I understand the idea of the sleep apnea guidelines, and at least there is a defined pathway to SI. But it is tedious. Basic Med really does seem to shine in this area. It is definitely worth being proative and managing your communication and disclosure. I'm not saying lie, I'm saying be proactive. I'd second finding the best AME partner you can, if you go class I-III. There are some services that will help you (I heard an interview with a former mil pilot become doc become AME who made an analogy with a checkride... I think he had a consulting company. Disclaimer, I've never used this). The advice about attorneys is interesting, and smells right. I'll definitely do that if I end up needing it...

Well, as with any large, bureaucratic organization, it's hit or miss. My OSA SI, and a friend's SI for a stent, were relatively painless. Good experience with the AME that handled the process, reasonably prompt response from CAMI, requirements well-documented and evidence thereof accepted without further question. SI in-hand after a few weeks for me and a few months for my friend. There's no doubt others have bad experiences, and I'm sure one's likelihood of a good/bad experience varies from year to year as staff, administrators, and the executive branch change. But I also think it's important to give counterpoints to the sort of guaranteed-gloom-and-doom outlook other folks make here, because that sort of panic is exactly what leads people to conclude they have to sell their airplane and give up flying, when it's not actually the case. No quarrel from me about moving to BasicMed (or MOSAIC Sport pilot now) once a standard medical is obtained. But a subset of us want to preserve the legal right to offer paid ferry services, fly turbo Mooneys above 18,000, and so on.

Just have to stay in front of it. Nice stats!

Once can and should write out a narrative for the clinician to document and sign if they are comfortable with its veracity. It's nice if someone with a medical background writes the narrative - I have personally done it for others in need. Also electronic medical records (e.g. Epic) do allow entry of edits and addenda well after the note is signed at the time of the visit - folks should not hesitate to ask for this to be done if necessary. It is also a very wise alternative to have one of the handful of lawyers nationally who are versed in aeromedical issues guide the clinician on the documentation the FAA wants to see. This approach costs money, but one should never leave anything to chance when dealing with the FAA Medical Branch - be as proactive as possible. They are not your friends - just lazy bureaucrats tasked creating a fake facade of protecting public safety.

Very sorry your dad had to go through that. He had a very typical SI encounter - nothing has changed. Some of their most absurd SI requirements are imposed through the HIMS program - a glimmer of hope there is a bill before congress to force FAA to reform that program. But the key is never to get dumped into an SI or HIMS bin in the first place - that will usually make you give up (or put up with living permanently inside a Kafkaesque dystopia if one is an airline guy). One more glimmer of hope - the NTSB judges that hear appeals to medical denials/deferrals have gotten more pilot-friendly in the last year or so for some reason. Their longstanding MO had been only to rule in favor of pilots if the Medical Branch had made an egregious error in applying their own oppressive written rules to pilots, resulting in very few reversals. Now they seem to be actually looking at the details of the situation, resulting in more rulings in favor of pilots. The downstream effect is much more hassle for the Medical Branch buffoons in defending their actions in front of an NTSB judge, making them more likely to cave up front if you lawyer up with someone experienced in communicating in the language that might produce a reversal by an NTSB judge. For this reason, I can't emphasize enough the importance of (1) extreme caution in communicating with any physician, and being very proactive in influencing how they document any issue in the medical record - for instance the "sleep apnea"diagnosis might have been averted up front here through reframing the semantics, using a different diagnostic code (2) Doing everything possible to avoid getting put in the special issuance category in the first place (3) Getting a lawyer IMMEDIATELY at the first sign of trouble with the FAA - there are a just handful of individuals/firms nationally that are particularly facile at dealing with the Medical Branch, which suddenly tends to act more reasonably when all communication is on their letterhead, not directly from you. (4) DO NOT SEEK HELP FROM AOPA PILOT PROTECTION / MEDICAL SERVICES. They often align their "advocacy" with the positions of the FAA Medical Branch, to a degree that one top tier aeromedical attorney described to me as legal malpractice.

Probably to emphasize how common and easy it is to freak out when a door opens in flight and to make dangerous flight decisions rather than just flying the plane and landing normally, as an open door almost never is an immediate safety of flight issue.

Yes - like this.....

Motivation seems simple: bust a medical, and you are probably screwed for life.

yes i know, i just want to be able to say i can utilize the privs once i initially get it 8)

@Flyler no problem. It's either one or the other. Both are really nice and you will enjoy whatever you pick. The installation is pretty much the same for either.

@Fly Boomer Everything sounds normal if you are not supporting the yoke, the weight of the elevator and gravity is enough force to close the micro switches in the pitch servo to tell the computer to start auto trim. Normally there is a 3-5 second delay before auto trim will start. Auto trim will continue to run until you remove the load on the pitch servo. The only thing that sticks out to me is that you cannot overpower the trim servo. All servo slip clutches should be set around 22 inlb. Preflight test procedure is in the AFMS under section 4a. I have attached a copy of the AFMS for reference. AFMS KFC150 M20J-K.pdf

@OSUAV8TER Awesome, thanks for making that so easy for me

@Flyler either the Whelen Orion 650 model or the AeroLEDs Pulsar 650 will replace that legacy position/strobe light. Both the Orion 650 and Pulsar 650 have a red or green LED position light and a white LED strobe light. They have the same mounting footprint (screw holes line up) and you can reuse your existing wiring. You do need to locate and permanently remove the strobe power supply because the LED strobe lights take 14 volt direct current power. Leaving the power supply in the electrical circuit will permanently disable the LED strobe lights. The pricing on the Orion 650 and the Pulsar 650 are going up on November 1st with the Orion 650 seeing a sizable price increase from what I can tell right now. Here are links to my website. They are all in stock. https://www.gallagheraviationllc.com/WAT-14V-Green-6501G-Wingtip-Light_p_167.html <-- 14V Green Orion 650 https://www.gallagheraviationllc.com/WAT-14V-Red-6501R-Wingtip-Light_p_166.html <-- 14V Red Orion 650 https://www.gallagheraviationllc.com/AeroLEDs-12V-Green-Pulsar-650-Wingtip-Light_p_505.html <--14V Green Pulsar 650 https://www.gallagheraviationllc.com/AeroLEDs-12V-Red-Pulsar-650-Wingtip-Light_p_504.html <-- 14V Red Pulsar 650

BasicMed since 2018. Easy to get. I asked my PCP before my next annual checkup and sent some information on what it was. “Sure. No problem.” No regrets. I guess it precludes me from flying to Canada and potential ferrying, but I hadn’t been doing either anyway, so, it hasn’t made any difference in my flying or teaching. Reasons were multiple.

I think the relays are only in the planes that have the takeoff position preselect.

The antennas on top look salvageable.

I do the same but with Corrosion-X on most fasteners before they get re-installed somewhere exposed to the environment. Seems to give you a few more years before anything rusts or seizes in place.

^this x100

Flying for hire

I don’t even do that, I just put them in a Dixie cup and spray them with LPS before I screw them in. They never stick.

The interesting thing is that my 1987 K doesn’t have relays at all. It’s just wired right to the limit switches. And yes, that’s how it is in the wiring diagram too.

My comment was not meant as a defense of the OKC nor a criticism of Dev. It was simply me recognizing that they must have really done something to piss Dev off to elicit such a strongly worded rebuke. I experienced OKC through my dad's eyes and it was not a good experience. My dad was able to work through the SI process after bypass surgery. Several years later his PCP innocently prescribed him Metformin for elevated blood sugar levels; he was not a type II diabetic (and still isn't at 87) but was trending in the wrong direction. OKC's view was that a Metformin script equaled a diabetes diagnosis. He could not un-ring that bell even with a letter from his PCP, AME and blood work. I think it would have been possible to correct if he wasn't on an existing SI. He hung it up after a few years muddling through two SI's a year. He would start working on the next year's SI approval shortly after being issued his current SI. That was nearly 10 years ago. I'd hoped that things had improved.

Definitely check voltage at the starter first as @N201MKTurbosuggested. To do this I disconnected the big wire at the starter and had my wife crank it while I held the VM. There’s a troubleshooting guide for Continental starters (I think, or maybe it’s a Concorde battery one) which has you measure at the battery like you did and at the starter while cranking. It supposed to be something like 24V (edit, min at starter is 20v, see below) minimum at the starter. That’s from memory. After I checked all this, I realized my problem was the starter adapter which really sucked.

Thus basic med. I dream of flying my plane to Mars, but mostly I just fly it to cheeseburgers.

The easiest way is to remove the right radio rack. It is not as hard as it sounds. I would do some more troubleshooting before I did any of that. I would connect your meter to the big wire that goes to the starter and crank it and see if you have any voltage there. If you have voltage there, you have a bad starter, not a bad relay.

I'd been on an SI for over 20 years to maintain my 3rd Class. Had it down to a science. Then, last year, without explanation, OKC decided they wanted not just a status letter, but my Dr.'s clinical notes with VERY specific items covered. They made it clear that a 'Summary Notes' from my visit would NOT be acceptable! While I had to sometimes go back and forth with nurses to get the required items included in a status letter, that was manageable. Dr.'s clinical notes, on the other hand, are nearly impossible to get edited after the visit. The odds of a Dr. including EXACTLY what the SI letter demanded would be slim to none... and slim was no where in the room! This 'pushed me over the edge' to get Basic Med. It was incredibly easy! And, now, I don't need to deal with the OKC bureaucracy ever again. The only Basic Med restriction that bothers me is not being able to fly out of the country. But in nearly 5 decades I've never done that, so not sure it's going to matter much! Of course if I hit lottery my spiffy new PC-12 will require me to deal with renewing a 3rd Class

Curious of how many of us moved to Basic Med. Started a poll:

Service Bulletins are easy to find. https://mooney.com/contact-2/ Scroll down and select your model and then you'll see all of the Service Bulletins for your airframe. You can find them as easily as anyone else can on here. (The one that was referred to was SBM20-283A. This one also covers the riveted V-Clamp requirement.)

Nice work AV! thanks for sharing. the mechanics of buying a plane have never been easier… With MS, we collectively either know the owner, or the plane, or can have somebody Knowledgeable put eyes on it for us… getting a decent PPI is a known part of the game… MS even has an insurance guy around here somewhere… Transition training is the next fun step! PP thoughts only, not a CFI… Best regards, -a-

Aviation applications seem to be paranoid about grounds, and tend to put more than needed. I suspect this is just for redundancy, but there may be some static/lightning mitigation going on as well. The pitot heater is just a resistive heater, so it doesn't care about polarity. A specific pitot tube may be made with one side grounded to the tube or mount, though, so it may be worth checking that.

That's an unusual main gear on that Ovation!

To my understanding, sleep apnea isn't normally a tough one to get around if you use the CPAP.

Week-end trip from Rouen (LFOP) to Saumur (LFOD), the hardest bit was climb to 2000ft as it was windy (storm Amy), however, we know the worst was behind and we were flying toward nicer weather. On return the windsock has given up indicating !

If the "true cost" of a part is more than the market will bear in a sustainable fashion, then you can't charge that much. I think there was just a different assessment of the business and marketplace between the two managements. I'm not sure the new path is any smarter than the old one. Maybe less so.

My first thought as well. I don't have a problem with using AI to rewrite things like this for clarity, but at least spend some time tailoring the output.

It was a beautiful day up north yesterday. Record breaking highs today, then possible freezing temps by Sunday.

I helped a buddy in buy a Cherokee 140 from them that had a freshly painted H-Stab. Turns out that the entire stab had several cracks. The cracks were bondo’d over and painted. Owner needed to buy a serviceable tail. Indy said sorry… -Matt

Was monitoring 21.5 yesterday at work…man First heard someone report a baron down in FL, we relayed it to ATC, reports were it went in hard, saw the photos later, yeah Next heard a kitfox report down and safe, bad day but good news considering, benefits of flying STOL planes Then heard a plane reported down just N of Gila, later find one dead one in the ED. I’ve heard stuff on guard before, though normally it’s just the regional kiddies making animal noises, but three in one flight is a record I’d not like to repeat :(