JohnB

I think Austin heard all of the outcry and has reduced the price to $0.99 per month as I heard from being bombarded with emails from xavion about this issue. I had chocked up my original xavion purchase as an oh well, there's some wasted money, as it doesn't work in the background, and it's not nearly as helpful as foreflight. This could have been done differently. What would have been nice would to offer a free trial of the package for a while, then if you like it, you pay when the trial period is over. As with most charts, I don't think we mind paying $120 year for whatever we use for our E chart solution. But I have my doubts that xavion will ever be as useful as foreflight, so I'm not looking to spend more money with this product, but I would have tried a free trial.

Totally agree, That inky non moving black you describe should be classified as Hard IMC, irrespective of weather. It is something I experienced in a rich, bowel enhancing event when flying over the desert within a year after I got my vfr ticket, (totally vfr legal, night CAVU.. then high clouds formed above with no stars, and gradually no lights below due to sparse population), this is what absolutely convinced me that I must immediately begin to get my IFR ticket to fly safely. Now, if that were to occur, no problem.

Thanks everyone for clarifying one of those "Im gonna ask that one of these days" questions! That definition is much clearer. I recall an instructor that didn't have a good answer to that question many moons ago. To me, it's clear that if any portion of your approach is in IMC, or youre under the hood with a safety pilot, you can log that as an instrument approach, otherwise not, even if on an ifr flight plan is what I understand the interpretation is. The grey would be at night above a cloud layer, or even at night with a cloud layer above you in an unpopulated area without surface lights, with no reference to maintain control, I would consider logging that as IMC time even if not in a cloud. But as someone else mentioned, I don't think anyone other than us cares about what number of hours are actual vs non actual, as that number doesnt count toward currency.

Curious what everyone is logging as actual time based on the above definition. For example, if you file ifr, go through a dense marine layer for 0.1 hours, but can't see any ground reference for another 0.7 hours due to clouds below, how much time do you log as actual instrument flight conditions? 0.1 hours or 0.8 hours? Also if you would count 0.8 hours as actual, are you tracking separately your hard IMC time where you can't see anything out of your windows? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Totally agree with you Bonal, my pre purchase inspection at LASAR was much more detailed than an annual done by Top Gun previously, and they even picked up items that were missed on the previous annual. They have an extensive checklist, tell you of all of the airworthy items that you can use to make decisions on price and buy no buy, then all of the other things you could get repaired if you wanted to. Money well spent.

No worries Dan, I did both the online and the live course, at least when I took it, the online was free when you bought the course as it's VERY helpful to go over all of the graphs and info now before the live course as you'll get more out of the live course when you do. Just ask about it and I'm sure they'll give you access if you've registered for the live course. Happy Flying! John

I would highly recommend LASAR in Lakeport for pre-buy. They will take the time and diligence to really go through your airplane so you know everything about your airplane. Top Gun is not as thorough and i would not recommend them. Havent heard glowing recommendations from Crown or Foothill, except for Lance's above. Yes i know LASAR is further than the others and might be more expensive, even just to get there and back, but this one is an important inspection for your new investment. Whatever shop you decide on, best of luck and early congrats on your new Mooney!

Interesting question, I have a Bravo, and took the APS course. I already had GAMI injectors on my airplane, but if I did not have them, I would have had them installed, here are my thoughts. First, our Bravo engines do not do well lean of peak. Without getting into a huge discussion over this, although it can be done, it takes perfectly balanced GAMI injectors to do it, and if they're not, will be very hard on our engines. - the advantage I see of having GAMI injectors that it should balance fuel flow on all of your cylinders, which should decrease fuel consumption a little bit but more importantly cylinder longevity by not having such a spread between cylinders. - yes, you absolutely should take the APS course and you'll have the answers to these and more questions you haven't yet thought of. Even though you won't likely do LOP operations in your Bravo, there's a ton more valuable insight into things that will increase your knowledge of your airplane - your power setting of 30" 2400 is a bit higher than what I run (29"/24 number = 53) and you are running a higher %BHP which is probably not too bad and will give you that extra 5-7 kts speeds, but the course will teach you about internal cylinder head pressures and you can then make your own judgements about where you wish to run your engine. - but the question of whether you should add GAMIs if you're not planning on running LOP is a valid one, and would be interesting to hear other potential benefits than the ones I mentioned above from the APS guys when you go there, (or if they're any around here)

I have a JPI 800 unit, which I just got upgraded, great value. Got HP%, USB port, and more precise oil temp, and I think engine temp monitoring with the same probes for less than $300.

Lee, Bob, You two were right on.. It was my KG102 gyro that needed replacing. Kaching. All good! (for now

Allright Mooney!! And we Mooney drivers get free admission tickets for us and our guests! WTG Mooney.. shows that WE also have a plane of fame!

I don't think it was an antenna problem as it was so localized and singular, but ill have it checked. There was one GPS satellite in the area which was known to be out, so Im not actually sure what caused it, and it may have been external to me, but I was pleased that I had a fully working DME and 2 vor receivers!

Hey Bob! I also had a nice soup departure from Kerville. But I had an interesting ADSB save on my flight to Kerville. I was flying VMC on an ifr flight plan between BLH and GBN on V94 when about 10 miles west of vicko (intersection defined by GBN) my 430 gave me a message GPS Signal unusable, Dead reckoning, use alternate source of navigation. So I switched to vor navigation to stay on course. Problem was, that the vor station GBN was known to be out of service, so I couldn't use vor navigation to get there after the intersection. But, my stratus and adsb position was working just fine on my iPad. Told atc, flew the course to GBN as defined on my iPad, and then when gps reception came back up around 20 minutes later, I was exactly on course to GBN. (As a commentary, this is why I advocate for keeping vor and Dme stations and equipment up and running on the ground and in my airplane, as even though GPS is great and easy, you never know when it might fail, and having an alternate source of navigation would be needed, especially if you're in the soup!) Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I just had a dual 2.1 usb power outlet installed in my airplane. On the cigarette lighter adapter 28v, I had my avionics shop split off another cigarette lighter plug under the panel for neatness sake, which I use to plug in my 110v inverter, which I use to power my iPad and my stratus which is connected to the rear seat are by power cable which I had tucked under the side panels to keep the cabin looking neat. So I now have two 2.1amp USB ports, two 110 v outlets which I use to plug in adapters for the higher drain items (iPad, Stratus). I've found that no cigarette lighter to USB adapter can really keep the iPad charged when actually using it in flight, but the inverter works great with the iPads own charger. You may be able to install the permanent power outlet in the back if there's enough space between your door and the frame to put it if you really need it in the back. To do the power outlet is more pricey, and requires adding another circuit breaker. Using the inverter is less pricey, and as long as it's not a permanent part of the airplane, (you can plug or unplug it) it won't require much, and costs around $60. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I thoroughly enjoyed the event. This was my first, as well as longest flight away from home base and allowed me to let my Mooney stretch its wings. Really enjoyed meeting new friends and fellow Mooniacs. My highlights were for me: Meeting so many great Mooniacs Meeting and hearing from the CEO Jerry Chen Seeing so many Mooneys on our own runway (would have made a great aerial shot) Factory Tour Educational seminars (see below) What I thought would have been great to have more of would be Aviation specific vendor booths! (I was actually looking for Aero Comfort and a few others) This would actually pay for more things we could do at the event, like more food events to mingle at.At least lunches daily would be helpful to keep us in one place. These would be a great to have something to do during down times like during the groups of factory tours. New tech is always nice, even if it can be used on other airplanes. More aviation specific educational seminars, perhaps a few that could qualify for Wings credit? More contests? The beauty contest was great fun, more would be good. Best aviation photo from your Mooney contest? Anyway, great fun and camaraderie all around.

Don't know if ill have time to take pics preflight, but hey.. check this http://flightaware.com/live/airport/KERV Which is a flight plan of all flying arrivals into Kerville. It would be interesting to see a plethora of Mooneys in the air all descending towards Kerville, of which mine will be one of them!

Hugely helpful guys, and wow Charlie!! Amazing spreadsheet! Ill be using it, and man.. you must have had a LOT of time on your hands but thanks!!! Appreciated!! Havent used fltplan.com much, but I now see how it could be helpful to calculate TAS then plug that into a foreflight app then voila. Or I could use Charlies amazing spreadsheet! Danb, my other half had an issue about going higher, and doesn't like turbulence. So after explaining that higher is actually safer, and usually smoother, particularly over mountains, I flew my outbound trip at 8k around lots of bumpy clouds, and a return leg at 17k on oxygen, smooth as a baby. I also gave her her own pulse ox she could check anytime and constantly if she wished and allowed her to adjust her o2 flow if she wished. She was much better with that when she was keeping her own sat 98%+, and i was thoroughly enjoying the 240+ knot ground speeds, compared with 150 knots going out with same power settings. AND I burned less gas on a longer return route distance. At least my Bravo likes it above 10k! Hence my question about headwinds, thanks all.. this is really useful stuff!

Nice formula carqwik, interesting and simple, thanks! Did you use temperature or demonstrated speeds at your power settings at altitude to calculate your expected TAS at altitude?

Ok this is only a question for Turbo/ Bravo owners. I have noticed that our Bravos are faster and much more efficient at altitude, and its very easy when you have a tailwind to select a higher altitude based on tailwind, but what about a headwind? So how much additional headwind would you take on to get the efficiency of going higher in our Bravos? Is there a simple formula you use to decide? Here's an example. Assuming terrain is not at all a factor, and you've got plenty of oxygen on board, and 0 degrees C at 10k with standard temperature changes with altitude. In the direction you're flying, your winds aloft are: 7k - wind calm 9k - 5 knot headwind 11k - 10 knot headwind 13k - 15 knot headwind 15k - 20 knot headwind 17k - 25 knot headwind (and same increasing by 5 knots per 2k feet all the way up to 25k) What altitude would you choose for best speed and fuel economy? 7k to maximize wind advantage or? Again this is only a question for Bravo/ Turbocharged engine folks. Thanks!

I'm now thinking this wouldnt work on my Bravo, even though I already have two alternators, I also have a taxi and landing light as well as stall strip, vortex generator on the leading edges of my wings. I would think this system would have to cover all of that up to be effective, hmmm. Rats, and I was soo looking forward to this as I saw this type of de icing in action on a commercial jet, and I only dreamed of if we could only get that for GA! And someone has manufactured it!

Very helpful Brian, thanks! You mentioned that sometimes the install isn't smooth on a Lancair. Is that like a bubble or ridge underneath the surface? How common is this and would the imperfections be large enough to be a potential issue on our Mooneys affecting our laminar flow? Now I'm wondering if this would even work on my mooney with stall strips on the leading edge. Also, I'm curious if you happen to know about how much the system on the Lancair weighs. Thank you sir! John

Ok I have some great questions to ask the company when I get a call back sometime after Sun & Fun after reading these forum posts, thanks everyone. 1. Approximate cost 2. Will the company apply for flight into known ice and/or inadvertent ice flight certification and the incremental cost if we wanted a FIKI certification if its even possible. 3. What about the windshield, will it require some other tech to protect it? 4. Weight of system Did I leave out anything? Im still liking the possibility of Mooney getting an STC for this as this system appears to be an actual de-icing system and not an anti ice formation as TKS fluid would be for most types of icing encounters, and this hopefully would be lighter than 100 lbs.

I don't know, but I expect him to get back to me soon and I will ask.

Good to know Orion. Question for you since you install them, about how much does the entire system weigh once installed?

Just spoke to the company, and YES it is possible that a Thermwing could be available for the Mooney!! If theres anyone else besides me that would like to add this to their Mooney ( I think it would require you having two alternators in your plane) Let me know and I can let them know how many initial orders they might expect if they decide to apply for an STC. Here's the link if anyone needs to see it. http://www.kellyaerospace.com/thermawing-aircraft-deice.html