Robert C.

I went through the MD-3 vetting process about 2 or 3 years ago. My first flight to College Park (CGS) was on a semi-VFR day and I had filed IFR. Over Baltimore I was descended (late ofc) towards CGS and broke out around 3000ft looking at a landscape I'd never seen before. CGS was very hard to find with its short runway and given that I was higher than I should have been. When I visually acquired it it was too late to go straight in or properly join the pattern so I tell Potomac Apr that I'll fly over the field (all the time heading straight for the Mall in the not so far distance) and join a left downwind. So I get myself down to pattern altitude by midfield, having made the CTAF calls to make sure ATC was right about there being no other traffic. Focusing hard on timing base turn (did I mention the narrow and short runway and unfamiliar sight picture?). On base, quick scan left and right to clear the airspace. And, there he is...3000ft offset laterally from the runway threshold at pattern altitude....all black and hovering and watching. Not sure what branch he was but having a Blackhawk hanging there observing your every move is an interesting experience. I don't doubt that if I hadn't turned and joined the pattern I would have had a close up view quite quickly

Too bad he didn't say more about the Civil Air Patrol and didn't give them some credit. It is actually one of their (many) missions to provide aircraft for these AF/ANG training sorties.

Gorgeous! Did you consider a 310R as well? Or was it automatically a Baron for you? Curious about the pros/cons of each.

Thanks Steve, would love to see it, and we should aim to meet up anyway and have lunch somewhere. Let's see when the cold wave ends and make some plans!

ditto, for me it's usually below 250F and this morning (AGL OAT 15F) at altitude it didn't even hit 200F.

Cruiser, I may have misunderstood the drawing he showed me. I'll check with him. Robert

yesterday: 9,500 ft, 2550 rpm, WOT 15 gph 181kts 13.3 gph 175 kts (~50 LOP)

If you are planning on doing long X-C trips you'll want O2 for sure as you'll want to spend time above 10,000ft on a regular basis. It allows you to take advantage of the winds and to lower the Fuel Flow. O2 also reduces fatigue on long, high, flights. Fly at night? O2 above 6-7000ft is pretty darn helpful for night vision. FIKI is more of a question mark. If you plan on skipping IFR in the winter you're fine without, but if you want long X-C flights in wintertime and someplace cooler than California you'll find it very helpful Good luck finding your dream ride! Robert

yeah, like I said, it feels like a red herring. All that data to play with now that i have data logging!!

Update for those of you who still might be interested We swapped the probes for #2 and #4; Also, did a flow test on all 6 injectors. All injectors tested as clean and undamaged. Flew over 2 hrs today and the EGTs now no longer bounce all over the place, so it looks like moving the probes around solved that problem. While troubleshooting all this I did look harder at CHTs (during cruise). I noticed that cyl #2 & #3 sometimes have a wave pattern with CHTs rising and declining by 10F. Frequency can be anywhere from 1-6 minutes. The others are more stable. Any thoughts on whether this is worth worrying about? Thanks for all the input and suggestions! Robert

My O3 usually has rather low oil temps, especially in the winter. They run typically between 160-170F. I've been told that this is too low to cook off moisture and that a "winterization/baffle kit" from Mooney might be the thing to get. Couple of things make me nervous. 1) The baffle (in the left/port cowl opening before the oil cooler) should only be in when the temps are below 30F on the ground. Here in New York Tri-State area there are plenty of winter days where it is slightly above freezing. So that implies a constant dance getting that sliding baffle in and out. E.g. today it was about 35F and at altitude the OilTemp never got above 165F. 2) The kit comes with instructions and material to cut another door in the cowl to make it easier to slide the baffle in and out. $450 for the kit and 2-3 hrs of installation time. Anyone here have experience with such a winterization kit? Any thoughts or recommendations? Robert

Looking at the raw data file that the G1000 puts on the SD card it looks like the sampling rate is 1 sec.

Hi Anthony, thanks for the suggestions. The color coding for the CHTs are at the bottom of the lower chart (which has the CHTs). It is the same as the EGTs so cyl #4 is purple on both charts.

Thanks Paul. I don't see any anomalies in the behavior of CHT #4 (over multiple flights) so I'll ask my shop to start with checking the probe connections. Any thoughts on the GAMI spreads? Number #4 is never the 1st nor the last to peak. When seeing a .8-1gph spread can adjustments narrow that or should I lean towards buying GAMI injectors?

Hi Jim, I was wondering about injector cleaning so good to hear from someone else that it's a possibility. I'm using their "free" service at the moment, so no recommendations from them. Oddly enough I got an e-mail from them just a few days ago trying to persuade me to become a paying customer by flagging that my oil pressure was higher than 75% of the peer group and the oil temps below average. Both are solidly in the green range though and I'm not ready to sign up yep.

On this flight # 3 and 4 which both peaked last at 14.5 gph (at an altitude of 9500ft). #6 was the 1st to peak at 15.6gph.

CHTs look steady; don't fluctuate much including for #4. They range from 220 (#6) to 300 (#5) with #4 at 280 after starting at 285 after leaning.

Didn't know a data logger could be so interesting! F.e., discovered (courtesy of savvyanalysis.com) that on most of my recent flights the EGTs on #4 and sometimes #6 fluctuate more than the other EGTs. The attached screenshot shows one example of EGTs graphed against FF. The LOP pull is very obvious and the rest is a cruise segment. On other flights #4 has also fluctuated more but wasn't higher than the other cylinders. GAMI spreads have been between .8 and 1gph. Any hypotheses that I should discuss with my A&P/IA? Robert

Jose, Make sure you pre-book your shop. The one that did mine is already beginning to turn away walk-up business because they are too busy and he expects it to get worse in 2018. Robert

Yep, that's the one: 203-743-5100. Feel free to use my name and tail number. NorthEast corner of the field, at the departure end of Rwy 26. Pale blue hangar. Good luck!

Ralph is selling his S ? =:O Hope all is well with him. Robert

Well, my shop (Reliant) at Danbury (KDXR) maintains my Ovation, a "J" and a "C" as well as some other brands' piston planes and does a good job. Head of Maintenance for Reliant (Steve Disorbo) has a great reputation. At my 1st annual he found a number of things that the MSC that did my "pre-buy into Annual" hadn't found. There is a MSC at Norwood (OWD) MA but I have no experience with them. Robert

yep, delightfully easy. My 35 min flight home from the avionics shop sufficed to "validate" the installation. No need for any of the rigamarole of doing turns and climbs/descents in "rule airspace." Robert

9) Just discovered today that the new software will fly DME arcs for us Guess that is old hat to the 530W and 430W users, but new for us ! @Txbyker Russ: how does the database replication work? Robert

Now that is interesting. My AP-IA all but refuses to set it for more than 26.5gph, claiming that is what the STC and TCM give as the target number. Maybe I should look for a nearby shop willing to make that adjustment.