Andy95W

Glad you’re back, ilovecornfields. I’ve missed having your medical insights the last 8 months.

I’ve heard from a few sources that the first shot isn’t bad, but the second one kicks your butt.

Another post, raised from the dead nearly 12 years later. Welcome, TimBo!

Just install the GAD-13 and be done with it. The best part of the GAD13 solution is you’ll get the actual winds aloft readout (with a wind direction arrow) displayed on the G5 itself. Well worth the extra probe and $300 (for the Davtron probe and GAD).

Making a one-piece avionics cover fits the definition of a minor modification to a ‘t’. Nothing about it would require an STC or field approval. All it requires is an A&P who is willing to do the work to make a cover that fits and seals out of a single piece of aluminum that is comparable to the original and do a simple logbook entry. If I didn’t have a 201 windshield, I would make one for my M20C because it’s a great idea. (I’d make it out of .032 2024T3 aluminum.) Andy A&P/IA

Depends on the Mooney. An M20J like yours? Yes, very nearly as easy as a 172 once the cowling is removed (a vintage Mooney with the doghouse is more labor intensive). Your J probably only has a fuel injector line and CHT probe that the 172 doesn’t. Hopefully @jetdriven will post how many hours his shop would charge for this work.

⬆️⬆️⬆️ This is worth noting twice. $65k will get you an M20C with everything you’ll want, or an M20E that you’ll want to spend an additional $20k upgrading. For your proposed 300-500 mile cross country trips, you’ll save 4-7 minutes.

You’re gonna love it! Everything works better now that the STEC is getting a clean, digital signal for heading and GPSS. And the GPS/GPSS combination is so slick it will fly holding patterns and entries with ease. (Others here will say this is actually pretty old technology- but it’s new to me in my old Mooney!)

Love the Tom Hanks quote, Chris.

I had a similar issue last summer, same setup except I have an STEC-50 (very similar autopilot). STEC said those drawings were proprietary, and would only share them with a dealer/service provider. I drove my autopilot to the closest dealer. $110 and took about 45 minutes.

One point that’s been overlooked- Mooneys are great to fly. Solid and stable, but still incredibly responsive. Cessnas and Pipers feel sloppy by comparison, at least partly due to the control cables. Maneuvering a C or a P airplane feels plodding and mushy- the Mooney flies like it’s on rails. You’ll hear that control forces are higher in a Mooney. They are. That’s one of the things that make them so stable. After 25 hours, you don’t even notice. The airplane just goes where you want it to go. Two caveats to the above- 1.) a Mooney must be rigged right to fly like I described above, otherwise it will fly like a truck. 2.) Beechcraft products are delightful to fly. Not necessarily better, but truly well balanced and smooth.

No, it does not display AOA. One new addition, post Air France, is the ability to display a pseudo-airspeed that is derived from AOA. It also exchanges GPS altitude for baro altitude. This is in case of emergency, of course (the pitot tubes and/or static ports ice up or become unreliable). If you Google “Airbus Back Up Speed Scale” you will get some interesting reading. Pretty cool engineering, actually.

I’ll second the above, and add that other factors are impossible to factor out. How do you exclude the individual who doesn’t maintain his airplane properly, if at all? Who changes his own oil, but doesn’t know how to safety wire the filter (or doesn’t care). How do you exclude the pilot who hasn’t had a current medical or Flight Review in years? (They’re out there.) How do you exclude the pilot at my airport who just crashed and killed his family who intentionally filed and flew IFR even though he didn’t have an instrument rating?

I do the same. I start the flare at about 30 feet, as I’m pitching up I kick out the crab. If I inadvertently flared a little too much and float too far down the runway, I’ll drop the upwind wing to get the boards to partially deploy. Works great. About 7,000 Airbus hours, about half F/O and half Captain. I can honestly admit I land better from the right seat. Airbus is the only airplane with a stick I know of that you fly with your left hand!

Similarly, it’s like when you’re IFR- you don’t need to hear “cleared to enter the Class B” because your IFR clearance is the clearance to enter the B airspace.

You and me both, brother.

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️ This.

LASAR usually has the SB kits. I believe make them in house as needed.

Skip, I have a Garmin GPS 175 and the methodology is the same. Thanks for posting that PDF. It makes you wonder, with these new navigators- everyone says to not activate vectors to final, and there’s really no reason to do so. So why does Garmin keep including that as an option, since it just confuses the process?

⬆️⬆️⬆️ I second that recommendation. LASAR has oversized bushings and bearings that are PMA’ed for our landing gear.

Here you go, Cliffy. From 2010!

I have an UMA electronic tach that begins counting at 1500 rpm. Since I normally cruise at 2350-2400 rpm, I’d say mine is very accurate- and I might come out a little ahead.

Agreed. And a great argument to just go with a roller cam IO-360-A3B6 with Powerflow exhaust.

Yes, that is correct. Nosegear 3 discs=new style.

Good luck with the upgrades! My one suggestion, very few $$ required: arrange your pilot side instruments in a standard T arrangement. That is the standard for airplanes nowadays, and will help you with instrument training. To achieve this, all that needs done is to move the VSI one hole to the right, and install the HSI below the attitude indicator. Not sure why you have a second DG, but I’d consider removing it at the same time.