Jamie

I just spent 5 minutes trying to do a comparison between experimental stuff (dynon) and someone else with certified equivelents. I don't know the stuff very well, so wasn't able to come up with anything quickly, but the dynon prices are amazing. What I'd like to see (and it may not exist) are products that are EXACTLY THE SAME, but cost more for the certified version. Suggestions? I'm trying to get an idea of the current premium this part 23 stuff causes.

Long shot, but... My preferred instructor is busy for a few months. I want to get an instrument rating, and I'm looking for a cheaper alternative than the 10 day courses. Anyone have any recommendations?

They wouldn't have to pay me if they'd just pay for the paint job... I need to go to one of those formation flying clinics. I think that would be very cool.

I have a low time 390, and you guys keep scaring me with the $4000 dollar cylinders. I wonder if it would make sense to have the engine taken off and replaced with an IO360 of similiar vintage?

Unless you found a way to convert energy back into avgas, your potential + kinetic energy was frittered away ENTIRELY by a combination of parasitic and induced drag. Or do you have thrust reversers? Last notch of flaps is well known to provide more drag than lift. That's the point. The landing "flare" is intended to get the wing into the high lift / high drag part of the envelope so you can... bleed off airspeed. Eschewing speed brakes is just aerodynamic elitism.

You're right. I need to wait until I'm closer before deploying them. Stay high, stay fast, stay cool, drop like a brick. Weeeeeeee.

Ok, here's an example of where I used them this weekend. And it was to help ATC. -And- it was pure self interest. I'm told to expect 18L. I planned (yes, I planned) my descent to have me lined up with 18L a few miles out 1000' above TPA so I could stay comfortably above the urban area north of the interstate. My hangar is in the middle of the two runways (18L, 18R). Construction currently prevents easy access from 18L. There's a LONG taxi required if you land there to get back around to the "old Ts". Anyway, when I'm handed off from approach to tower: "Huntsville Tower, 1138J descending through 3500. fyi, I'm headed to the old T's after landing." (I started doing this before the construction because they assume I'm headed to Signature, and it saves everyone some aggravation with them having me exit at the wrong taxiway.) The controller asks me if I'd like 18R. "Sure!". But, there's a commercial jet departing, and another one ready to go. Controller:"Hold on... I'll see what I can do." I know he's trying to decide if he can get them gone before I arrive. So, I pop the speed brakes and just like stomping on the brakes in a car, I slow right down. It's amazing... it's an on/off switch. Slow down to gear extension speed, out comes the gear, the flaps, raise the speed brakes, "slow" flight at 85kts and give the departing aircraft a chance to get off my runway. Could you do it without speed brakes? Prolly. But it was soooo much easier with.

Enough rich of peak to show < 400F CHT (it's hard to see 380F) on the engine monitor, at 55%. I have no idea how many degrees this is, only looked a few times, and then promptly forgot. Mike Busch makes the CHT point firmly enough that that's my guide. And as far as ICP, I'm running at 55%. Apparently I can't really hurt the engine there. I lose 10kts, use 9.5 gph and seem to get what the LOPers get without worrying about special injectors. (Seem. Seem. I'm not against LOP. I just don't have a modern engine monitor and injectors to be able to play with it. Until then, this seems to be the kindest way to run my engine.)

You may enjoy http://www.avweb.com/news/maint/182906-1.html?redirected=1

From the paper, flaps apparently allow you to rotate sooner, and (I'm guessing) Vx is improved. Flaps allow you to land more slowly => less kinetic energy => shorter roll out. OTOH, I have 10,000ft. I'd rather go faster, sooner, and start accelerating to cruise climb. Flaps add lift, sure, but also drag. Also, one less thing to be messing with in the transition from tower to departure, one less thing to distract during touch and goes (wow, I'm just hitting all the soft spots today), more graceful transition to cruise (I hate that little burble as the flaps retract), etc. Flaps help shorten take off and landing distance, but the effect isn't free. If you understand the trade offs, you don't need to use them for each and every take off (or landing).

You're all over the place with the "you", but if you're addressing me, I'm not taking a position on this. I don't care what anyone else does. Just commenting on the blind spot some have with the POH. It's either authoratative, or it's not. And actually, I did give reasoning behind the use of flaps in the technical paper that was an attachment on a post in a previous thread about this.

Directed at no one in particular... I think it's funny how the POH the LOPers ignore for leaning advice suddenly becomes the One True Way when it comes to stuff like flaps. Either the test pilots "knew what they were doing" or they didn't. Or... The POH is like any other technical document... part truth, part "we've always done it that way", part "It's dumb, but it's required by CFR...", part "the lawyers made us say that", and part "no, you don't have to, but it can't hurt and an inexperienced operator won't know when you can do it and when you can't so..." I found a paper from years ago, which I posted to a previous thread on this that had lots of math to essentially say "flaps help you rotate sooner". On the runways of the time, this probably made a big difference. And, I suppose, getting the wheels up and into ground effect sooner could be an advantage on a soft field. But they're obviously not required for take off, and you're not going to die if you don't have them down in normal situations, so the advantage is less clear. The "visibility over the nose" aspect is interesting, and now I'm going to feel like a Concorde pilot every time I set take off flaps.

Exactly. "Cougar gold" would be a 25 year old male .com millionaire with a thing for older women.

jeeeez... we're living on the edge.... I didn't even know it was possible to break your own foot just by walking. Where do I file a bug report...

Yeah... but what about the $4k-$10k for the instrument rating, the $6k for the spiffy engine monitor, the $12k for the paint job, the $9k 'cause the tanks need resealed, the ..... Wait. Nevermind. We tell him -after- he buys the plane. I always forget.

^^^^ THIS.

Good point about the first 10 hours or so... learn to land in someone else's airplane.

As for learning in a mooney... based on my experience I don't see why you couldn't. I had 180ish hours when I bought it but most of -that- was 20 years ago. I'd only been flying, I dunno, maybe a dozen hours in 172 / arrows when I bought my mooney. And I bought it without flying it. First landing with the instructor was fairly easy, since I'd been reading here about the importance of nailing the landing speed. I dunno... my mooney just "fits". They aren't hard to fly, and they aren't hard to land if you pay attention. On the "maybe not" side, though, sure... you can afford to buy it. Can you afford to keep it? Have you done the math? $60k is what it costs you to enter a club that has fairly heafty membership dues. Hangar / tie down, insurance, MAINTENANCE, fuel, property tax, sales tax.....

you sure enough about that to short something?

I made 600% on LEH puts right before they imploded. And then spent a year trying to repeat that. A man's got to know his limitations, and mine is: "don't f with futures, not even the emini's". Options are as far as I'll go. Still, I totally get livermore's point... invest to invest, not for a specific goal, because having the goal influences your decisions. Bleah. what do I know, anyway... I'm nearly 100% cash because I'm too stupid to BTFD like the Fed wants me to. Stupid me, looking at "fundamentals" and "value".

I flew 2.5 for pie. Seriously.... "Slice of Pie" in Rolla, MO is worth it.

Thanks Scott.

WANT. Looks like there are optional sensors... which ones did you get? Does yours do fuel flow? If so, did you reuse any previous fuel flow sensor, or add a new one? Fuel quantity? 14 hours doesn't sound nearly as bad as I would have thought. Had your mechanic seen one before? How much of the 14 hours was him figuring out the instructions? This has gone from "Wow, that'd be nice to have" to "The annual's in January..."

jesse livermore said to never, ever try to make the market give you something. This sounds like a really bad idea...

I'd pay $20 / month to Mooney for something like, I dunno... "Bronze Level Support". Basically, I pay them a little every month and get an email addr / phone number I can call to get questions like this answered in 48 hours. They could use the money to pay for additional staff, parts, etc. I'm long since out of warranty, but the ability to ask the factory questions and get a quick response... yeah, I'd pay for that.