Ragsf15e

Every pilot with a family onboard knows not to fly out west past noon in the summer. That’s a recipe for kids/wife hating flying. It ain’t that hard to plan family trips in the cool morning weather.

Just be careful thinking you’re good with $14-16k/year. Maybe guys who are doing owner assisted annuals and most of their own maintenance can keep it that low, but that hasn’t been my experience. Have multiple people tell you what they spend/year in total costs. I don’t have my numbers in front of me, but I’d guess - $14k, $22k, $17k for 75 hours/year. That includes everything and some engine work. You’ll definitely need to factor that in. It’s hard to get your mind around this, but yearly costs quickly overcome the purchase price, and they are gone, not coming back at sale.

If you’re adding up exact fuel prices and round trip costs to compare between SWA and a GA airplane, you’ll be very disappointed with GA in the long run. You won’t beat the airline on cost. You buy a GA airplane because you love it, not because it saves $$. It won’t. Especially tied down outside. Not trying to be a jerk, just making sure you go in eyes wide open. A J will cost about $20k/year to operate 100 hours/year all in.

I flew in bad smoke a couple years ago and noticed weird black rings on the paint behind all the rivets. It came off, but there was definitely nasty stuff in that smoke! flew from Spokane to Boise to Salt Lake yesterday and was above smoke layer at 11,500’ the whole way. Fires everywhere!

Ok, glad you got it under control!

Fair enough. Nothing wrong with a full power runup. Just be careful that it’s rich enough. It’s pretty easy to get the “maximum power” part close, but you actually need to be richer than that. At least enough to keep chts under control. The target egt works surprisingly well for a large range of density altitude although I haven’t tried Leadville.

1. True. However it only takes 1 takeoff at sea level, full rich. Look at the egts. IO-360 should be low 1200s if mixture is set up right. I don’t know where a carb version falls. 2. With respect, I think you’ve got it backwards. Target egt is real good to keep max power balanced with CHTs as you climb. You will have to lean slowly every 1,000’ or so as you climb to keep egt at your target. Doesn’t have to be exact, just within about 20-50 and you’ll see consistent power and CHTs. If you leave a target egt set in cruise, you’ll be overly rich. Maybe 150-200 ROP as a guess. In cruise, there are a lot of factors affecting cruise power and they are more constant than when you’re climbing since alt/temp/pressure are no longer changing. In cruise you can be very exact and set a very specific egt for desired operation-like 100ROP or 20LOP for example. In cruise, it’s worthwhile to go through the 1-2 minutes of setting the egt properly. Now what about an intermediate level off or altitude changes on instrument vectors... First, if the power is pulled back below 65%, you aren’t gonna hurt anything so it doesn’t really matter where the mixture is set as long as it’s running smoothly. If you’re at full power, use a known fuel flow to get in the ballpark of 100ROP or LOP, like ~9gph for LOP or 12gph rop (original target egt is fine too but overly rich).

If you do this and save weight in the nose, can you remove some charlie weights for bonus UL increase?

Oh that’s my dream plane! I live in the NW and fly an F so winter is a little tough for flying. I see you have TKS... do you mind telling me what your useful load is? Is that without any tks fluid in the system? Thanks and congrats!!

People covered the target egt method pretty good and several people made sure everyone knows about the possibility of reduced power if you didn’t lean (full rich) or even if you lean too much (past peak rpm). Here’s one more tidbit... you are balancing maximum power output with engine temperature control. Don’t forget to look at the temperature side of that equation after you’re safely cleaned up and climbing no matter what technique you use. At high power, low speed, and thin air (high DA), the CHTs can heat up quickly if you don’t have extra fuel going through for cooling. No matter if you use target egt (as I do) or if you do a full power runup and then enrich “1-2 turns”, look at your chts on departure and enrich the mixture or increase forward speed if they are climbing too high. I do something (enrich) by 380f to make sure they will stay around 380 but definitely below 400. I also cruise climb at 120mph. The temps are my personal technique, but you should definitely look at cht to adjust your pretakeoff lean and make sure it’s working. If you do use target egt, adjustment should be minimal but it may be there on a real hot day or high altitude.

I called his shop last week to ask about a gear issue and he got right on the phone and talked me through the troubleshooting process for my specific problem!

SWTA in San Antonio (might be in San Marcos) will work well too. MSC with good rep here.

The F/G are together and they are doing separate testing for the short bodies. Rumor has it, short body testing is started, but it’s after mid bodies.

Yes, it’s beautiful but what did it cost (with the gfc too)? To the OP... be patient. Find one real close to what you want. If it’s a simple upgrade from a GNS430 to an Avidyne440 to get waas, that’s easy to assess cost. Otherwise, the $35k airplane plus deferred mx plus cleanup interior and paint and upgrade avionics will get you a beautiful $75k airplane for the low low price of another $50-$80k. And months of downtime too.With any new airplane there will be lots of unexpected costs that first year in addition to any planned upgrades. So wait on the $75k airplane or at least really close instead of spending $35k plus $80K for an airplane worth $75k. Again, if it’s close, you can get a good feel for the cost of a Garmin-375 or maybe dual G5s, but a whole new panel and autopilot? Unless it’s a forever plane and money isn’t an issue, be patient.

Great choice of airplane. Great reasons for having it too! Enjoy!

Not too far, I’m in Spokane. You from around here?

I always feel slighted when I get “cut” in front of like that! Happens all the time too! First come, first serve apparently isn’t a thing. Happens in my Meridian work plane too. Tower will put Citations in front just to spin me up!

For day trips, the little Kalispell Downtown airport is in town. They have a courtesy car, but you can walk out the fbo and you’ll be next to several restaurants. Very walkable on a nice day. Limited parking at the fbo but it’s fine. Watch the big towers south of the airport. On the ramp at Kalispell Downtown...

Probably not great for fuel pump, however, not gonna hurt the engine.

Mine is exactly the same at 28psi. I think you’re good.

Fwiw, I replaced my mechanical fuel pump a few months back and the new one has behaved as you described. 30psi on the ground, maybe 27 at full power airborne. after about 10-15 hours it’s more consistently at 29 ish in the green and not 31 in the red during ground ops.

Red like that yes, but the actual “button” is probably twice as fat. Maybe like the diameter of a dime or so?

That could definitely be true. My mm and parts catalog were made on the best “xerox” machine available in 1975! A few things are kinda blurry. That one definitely looks like a standard klaxon. The bigger one is a big fat red one (25 amps).

I didn’t. Even though the CB was a little sloppy, it’s been holding since I reset it once. I think if I really wanted to replace it I’d get one from spruce at the appropriate amperage. It seems that the part number doesn’t exist anymore. Calling Lasar is another good option. They have been helpful in the past and may even have the part.

Sounds pretty good. Works well in my F. I would recommend leaning more than “a little” after start. It should be aggressively leaned. Like it should stutter when you try to add power for taxi. Full rich or close for runup. Then, Lean aggressively after runup too. No fouling, engine temps are just fine at low/idle power and, If somehow you forget mixture full rich for takeoff, the engine will remind you by dying.