Ragsf15e

Yep it’ll definitely take a trim change to change the airspeed. Almost all the “basic” airplanes I’ve flown (and most of the advanced turbines too) trim to an airspeed. That means if you’re doing 120kts in cruise (trimmed hands off) and pull power, the airplane will enter 120kts descent. Yeah, it’s not perfect, it’ll hunt/oscillate a little as it settles into the descent, but it will still be trimmed at 120 kts. If you add enough power, it will enter 120 kts climb. If you trim it down for ~185mph descent, it will take you pushing pretty hard to get past 200mph.

500fpm with cruise power set works for my F too. I do not reduce power until ready to slow down and configure. 500fpm seems to be about right to keep you in the yellow but below Vne. Enough people have said it, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being in the yellow, even close to Vne, as long as it’s smooth. Use one of the multiple math or technology solutions to compute your descent point. 5 x altitude to lose in 1000’s works. ie, 5,000’ to lose, start wot descent at 25 miles.

I’ve got a 3/4” hole in the top/middle of my windscreen where an OAT gauge was removed years ago. It was filled and sealed. Been through MSCs and independent IAs. Nobody said a thing about it. Even the MSC that didn’t like the generic placards on the instrument panel vs the “authorized” ones from 1968. I wouldn’t assume that the window was an airworthiness issue, and even if it was, authorizing an annual INSPECTION doesn’t authorize ANY maintenance/repair except those described in the inspection (oil change, air filter, etc).

Here’s the link to the last low voltage thread. Lots of good advice.

Here we go again... I just went through this with my 68F. Well, the low charging part. I never had any avionics drop off. Heres the deal, don’t go replacing stuff until you go through the electrical system with that voltmeter and figure out what is broken. I replaced an alternator, and voltage reg before doing my own troubleshooting and fixing it with a $20 circuit breaker that was building up resistance and lowering the voltage to the VR. Besides the CB feeding bus voltage to the VR, the field wire comes off the VR and goes back to your master switch before going to the alternator. That master switch can be a source of resistance. Never mind 50 year old wiring. Zeftronics has a nice troubleshooting guide on their website.

I have an F and twin 3 year olds. I purposely bought the smallest car seats available so we could fit them in the baggage area. It takes a little bit of Tetris to fit them through the door and on top of each other but there’s still room for some light bags. So yes, car seats suck, but you can fit 2 in the baggage area and travel with 4 people in relative comfort on trips!

I’m in line at the avionics shop for 2 G5’s. Vacuum pump coming off this annual if the avionics shop timeline works out. And yes @Marauder is right, it would be nice to have a backup alternator, but I believe you can reduce battery load enough to keep a navcom going and the G5’s (which have a 4 hour internal backup) to get you down if the alternator dies. If that goes south, handheld radio, G5’s (internal battery) and iPad (stratus be good with iPad). Even without the electrical system, we’ve got a lot of backups.

I think @gsxrpilot tried this unsuccessfully. Not sure if it was only the aoa or also attitude that didn’t work on the angle panel. He can probably chime in and tell you.

What altitude were you at? It adds up. Was it all day vmc or would it conclude at night? IMC or VMC? Autopilot or No? Those are the factors that start to make me limit my hours.

Yep, that’s definitely reasonable. My step is original and it was corroding pretty badly. I looked at replacing it last annual and decided against the $1000. Instead, my mechanic cleaned it real good and put a few coats of new paint along with reinforcing under the step. Good as new and much cheaper.

But the retractable step folks will tell you that you’ll lose 7 knots and yaw hard right with a fixed step! Surprised nobody said that yet! So lasar has fixed steps. They are about $1000 for a metal tube/step. That doesn’t include the “aerodynamic” fairing that goes around it if you’re so inclined. My F has a fixed step and I like it. They are in a tough environment and tend to rust from the inside though. If you went without, it seems a simple job to fabricate a patch over the hole.

Ok, I’m learning, keep talking... what does the com one above the copilot do? Is it powered by the avionics master? Where above the copilot? Behind instrument panel or roof? Thanks! I’ve looked at the maint manual electrical diagrams and they are pretty hard to follow because they use a lot of symbols to represent parts and I can’t find a key. Probably a standard for electrical, but I’m a little slow on EE.

Good point. If you have the master on, there will be power, but even a minimal voltage drop might be a bigger deal when you crank the starter because it will get a lot bigger with more amps. When chasing alternator issues with just the master on, Zeftronics has you look for 0.5 or greater drop from battery or bus, but with the starter, even that might be too much. Probably best to check it like N201MKTurbo said. Carefully...

Interesting... I have a solenoid in the engine compartment, low on the pilot side near the pilots feet. I assumed it’s the starter solenoid but I haven’t chased the wires. Is this the same one you reference in the pilots footwell? I wonder if different models have them different places? The other one I have is right next to the battery like you said.

This is good advice. Basically, there are lots of connections between the battery and starter (alternator too) and they’re all susceptible to some corrosion causing a bad connection. Swapping in parts is fine, but as a “slightly older owner”, I think you’ll soon find out that the 50+ year old electrical system will have lots of ways to fail and surprise you. I’d highly recommend getting out the voltmeter and testing voltage starting with the battery itself and then moving through the system. Battery should be ~12.5-13.0ish. There should be minimal drop as you move past the master solenoid (with it on obviously). Then check out the voltage at the starter solenoid in the engine compartment. Finally, have a friend help check voltage at the starter. You will find your culprit in minimal time and replace less parts.

https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/f0684a_514bcd15d2bf40ca86d548170ac9cccd.pdf There are lots of turbocharged airplanes on their stc (M20U, Cessnas and Pipers) and lots of answers in their faqs. You can put the mag on, but it’s limited to fixed timing mode. However, I don’t see the Bravo or K on there. This link shows approved Surefly engines. Lots of turbos, but only fixed timing. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/712b87_e6a0da0541ce494d835f6b8456de1ebe.pdf

Pretty sure Surefly is stc’d for turbos. Just gotta use it in fixed timing mode instead of advance.

Bunch of folks complain about the AOA functionality but the temp, Attitude, and clock functions seem to work well. It seems to be a reasonable backup attitude indicator.

These guys have you on the right track, but definitely consider ditching the vacuum ADI and going with a G5 (or 2). Is there anything else on the airplane vacuum operated (like speedbrakes)? The G5 is relatively cheap compared to the safety inherent in ditching the vacuum system. Hard for me to tell, but is the autopilot an STEC? G5 works ok with those.

While I haven’t pooped my airplane (yet), my wife and I have changed 2 poo diapers on the 4 hr flight between Spokane and grandmas house in Carson City. It’s an adventure. Sprawled out child across laps in the front seat, wipes, diapers, and yes, poo. We’ve been flying our twins since they were a couple months old. The pilot window is placarded at 140mph, it’s just big enough, and the landlubbers should be real happy that theres no civilization or even roads over Eastern Oregon and northern Nevada. I bag the pee diapers because I love Mother Earth, but by god, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere in these tiny airplanes!

Yep, I have the PF standby vacuum system. I also have a vacuum gage and a vacuum warning light. I feel a lot better about flying ifr behind 2xG5s. I do a lot of instrument instruction, and we can generally get students to be relatively “proficient” at partial panel for their checkride, but after that, the skill falls away quickly if not constantly practiced. If you think an ivsi is gonna help you maintain pitch attitude partial panel, you better practice under a hood very often because that’s a perishable skill and the ensuing loss of control in imc will kill you real quick.

I don’t see it this way either. The FAA has mandated that we have a backup attitude source if we want to fly IFR, and it doesn’t matter if you’re using a legacy vacuum adi or a brand new G1000nxi system, theres a backup. The difference is that the electronic displays have something like 10,000 hours mtbf and clearly alert and/or revert to a backup mode if they fail. They also contain their own backup power. Traditional vacuum pumps generally last 500 hours ish and can fail in ways that are difficult to catch in IMC. They also don’t have internal backup “power”. Now I don’t disagree that your pitot/static instruments are easy to read and reliable- heck, they don’t require power or vacuum at all. I think if you got a reasonable amount of time behind an electronic display you would see the more efficient scan Eric mentioned.

Western Aviation in Spokane WA

The vacuum system is not that reliable, especially compared to 2xAHRS with 4 hour batteries. Honestly, I think the vacuum system is dangerous compared to modern digital attitude displays. Reading them is a learned skill as they pack a lot more information into a small space. I already have digital engine instruments and definitely would not go back.

The 7” G3 display is also an option. It’s cheaper, saves space and looks good as a pfd. If you want to use an iPad for all the mfd type stuff, 7” pfd might be just fine.