Ragsf15e

Copy all on the instrument approaches, landing with screaming and descending slowly... Climbing slowly shouldn't be a problem near max gross at summer density altitudes here in Washington! Good tips so far, now i need to measure my seats, figure out how to get one carseat in the back past the copilot seat and measure all the car seats at walmart!

To be honest, I'm not even sure i can get a carseat in the back without removing the front seat! The gap between copilot seat and door frame is very small in an F even with the seat all the way forward.

Definitely agree on the hearing protection and think i have that issue solved. There are good options for infants. http://usa.babybanz.com/collections/hearing-protection/products/limited-edition-earbanz-infant-hearing-protection-sets?variant=14492627139 are a decent option. 26dB nrr should be fine. Its the car seats that are a problem... Those thing are huge! Only fit in the back seat of my extended cab truck if the front seat is all the way forward... Ill measure next time I'm at the hangar.

I've tried to read through the threads on flying with kids and haven't found an answer... How do I fit my infant twins (3 months old) into the Mooney safely? I'd like to take their car seats, but thats not a requirement since the probably won't fit anywhere. Wife will ride in back to be able to tend to them. Weight and balance isn't a problem... Anyone successfully flown 2 young infants? If so, tell me the logistics of it? Anyone think of removing the copilot seat? Thanks, Rags

On the Garmin, go to the "Aux" main page (large right knob, clockwise). Get to the Aux menu which is one before the "nearest" menu. Then go to the "flight Planning" page which is the first page on that menu. Push in the right knob to get the cursor, go to "Density Alt/TAS/Winds", hit enter, fill in the data on the next page (IAS, Altitude, Temp, etc), the Garmin with gonk the winds and your TAS. I have compared it to the 3 and 4 way ground checks and found it to be within about 1 knot, however... Using this function brings in the errors of your Airspeed Indicator, temp probe, and altimeter... my IAS was off by about 5kts at 140mph indicated. The best way is really the 3 way groundspeed test. Sorry to be off topic, but everyone knows Garmin has a free 430W/530W SIM on their website, right? It's really good for learning all the tricks in that thing, especially if you are using it for IFR. Rags

I'm in an F, so a bit different, but I routinely fly above 10k out west. Oxygen is a good idea, pulse ox is also a good idea... I like it up there, but I definitely notice a slowing TAS above about 9k. Usually the gallons per mile get better as long as you don't mind going slower. When I say "slowing", I'm talking about a couple knots - maybe 3 or 4 at most. The wind and its effect on your GS will be a much bigger consideration than any change in TAS.

Anyone try these? I have a Garmin 430w and the kgx-130 looks to be the cheapest and most functional in/out I can find.

Thanks guys, that's the info I was looking for.... well, except for the part about the Cascadia Subduction Zone, but that's good info too! Rags

Hello - My wife and I are moving to Portland, OR in September and I'm looking for a new home base. There seem to be quite a few options from Hillsboro and Troutdale to Aurora State and Twin Oaks (although that looks a bit short for comfort). Can anyone suggest a good place to start looking for a new hangar? I have an M20F, so just need a small T-Hangar at a decent price. Thanks! Rags

Nobody really mentioned the syn vis option you have with stratus 2 and foreflight. $25/year extra and you get syn vis along with all the adsb weather, tfrs, notams, and a solid backup adi?! Definitely worth it for any type of flying.

Good luck. I fly out of a lot of high DA airports and usually try to leave my M20F10-15 gallons shy of full, but that still leaves 50 gallons in the F model and 4 hours plus 1 hour reserve is more than my bladder can handle anyway. I'd highly recommend making sure it's as cold as possible and that you're not near or right at gross... or leave off some fuel to give yourself a couple hundred lbs of safety margin. She's not going to climb well.

Rik - If you have an IPAD with GPS on it, Foreflight should show your heading, altitude, speed, location, etc at all altitudes. It works in the car and will work on an airliner (I watched the Foreflight on a recent Southwest Airlines flight as we flew the Maire Arrival at KPHX). If you're not seeing that data, make sure you have an IPAD with the GPS and the GPS is turned on. The Stratus will give you another GPS source and ADS-B data. Stratus 2 will also provide a backup ADI with it's internal AHRS. Bottom line - it should work fine with just the GPS internal to your IPAD so make sure you have one. Drew

You should check out the Foreflight website where they have a lot of info on required hardware. I'm actually pretty sure it will work perfectly with a Stratus - the Stratus has a super accurate GPS in it which feeds Foreflight through the wifi. Obviously yours won't work without the Stratus since it doesn't have GPS, but with the Stratus it should be fine. The Foreflight customer service has been pretty responsive to me in the past too...

Yeah, before that screenshot i flew right through all the Nellis Moas too... Right through the middle! It was awesome... Flight following from nellis control and the moas were cold. Ive done a lot of flying in there, but thats probably the first time i had enough time to really look around... 500kts is a bit different than 140! Marauder, im going to get an ipad mini and mount it on the right side of the panel just to display the adi/syn vis and approach plates for ifr flying. Ill still use the regular ipad for maps, planning, etc, but the mini will be almost like a cb club eadi. Its really good!

Bit of a headwind as you can see!

Flew from St George, UT to Minden, NV vfr yesterday. Gererally 4,000' ceilings in the valleys, bases around 9 to 10k msl with all the high mountains obscured and ice in the clouds. Having syn vis was really nice as i crossed some of the lower passes at 1,000' agl to maintan vfr!

Bob - I've got a JPI930 so most of the same data you're talking about. I think sometimes we have "TMI" (too much info!). Here are my responses to your points though and what I see on my A1A engine in the M20F... Oil pressure will go into the upper end of the yellow (I think that's below 60psi) in idle after flight (when the oil is warm and thin). Generally it'll be in the green at idle when it's colder. This is consistent with the manual that gives a different pressure requirement at idle (thus the yellow range). My oil pressure is always solidly in the green at normal flight settings with oil around 180-195 degrees F though. My RPM usually shows 2710 or 2720 on takeoff so it goes red... am I overspeeding the engine every time I takeoff? I think not. If I had a normal analog gauge the needle is probably 50 RPM fat anyway. You can certainly test the RPM, but I suspect it's well withing tolerances and the gauge is just giving us more info than we need. Finally, good question on the CHTs... lots of techniques on these. Most people say to keep them below 380 in cruise / 400 or less in climb or something like that. It will depend on how you lean - i usually cruise around 6 to 10,000 and lean to peak or slightly lean of peak. This winter I've been showing about 1-290, 2-330, 3-330, 4-310. I show more like 380 on #2/#3 in the climb. In the summer I keep them around 380 to 400 in climb and around 350 in cruise. I'd like to know how stable your fuel pressure is during climb immediately after you turn off the electric pump... mine is all over the place. Scared me a few times, but stays in the green although goes right to the bottom of it sometimes. No change in flow and the engine runs perfectly. Rags

That's one fast puppy!

That's actually a really good question. I only have one ASI, so I couldn't really determine (I didn't have it recalibrated after I found the error). Since all your 3 (!?) ASIs agree, I guess you will know it's the pitot system that has the error if you do a groundspeed test, solve backward for IAS and find that it's not what's indicated. Remember, there is an IAS correction in the POH that is supposed to be applied and the faster you go, the more you have subtract from the IAS to get CAS (Calibrated Aspd).

I don't want to be a party pooper on the awesome KIAS you guys are showing off, but you should really do a 3 or 4 leg speed check to validate them. Last summer I used my IAS, temp, pressure alt, etc to compute my TAS. Funny though, when i compared it to my ground speed, I was "always getting a headwind"... when I did the GPS 3 (or 4) way speed checks, I found a 6 knot error in the IAS at cruise speed - it was showing 6 knots fast! My POH does show a ASI correction chart, but not 6 knots. Anyway, I'd highly recommend doing the GS check to figure out what you really have... or leave well enough alone and just enjoy it? If you do the speed check, you can figure out your real TAS and then work backward to IAS and see how far your IAS is off which might be nice to know.

Highly recommend flying over the Grand Canyon using the Special Rules VFR chart (it's on Foreflight too if you download it and then zoom in enough). it was easy and you can keep Flight Following (radar advisories) from LA Center while you do it if you're worried about traffic. I had the SR Freq in one radio and Center on the other. They did ask "4044N, are you familiar with the Grand Canyon SFRVFR Area?" I said yes and pressed on through. it's a heck of a view! Mesquite NV is a good stop if you want to stay outside Vegas - the airport is small, but decent fuel prices and the Casino will come pick you up and has cheap/nice rooms and good food. St. George Utah is also close and is a beautiful new airport. An O2 system would be nice for this trip... you'll want to be at 11,500 or 12,500 for much of your time out there and my wife an I were wore out each evening without O2! I'm getting O2 for the next trip that way. The MOAs and restricted areas will be hot if you go through them on a weekday, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Much less likely to be hot on the weekend, but there are a lot of Air National Guard units in AZ that may use them on the weekend. Again, doesn't hurt to ask and you can go through the MOA if you need to even if it's hot... it's nice if you warn them first (speaking as a USAF pilot). I agree with the previous guys who suggested KSSF in San Antonio over KSAT. KSAT is nice, but too expensive. Equal distance from the Alamo. Enjoy the trip out west, I did almost the same one for Christmas!

Heck, I can't make it post a link right now... search for "M20F speed checks" and you should find it... someone help me out with a link!

Ross has a fast F, don't listen to him. Mine is a 1968 with a 700 SMOH engine (15 years ago) and minimal antennas. I can get 144 KTAS at about 5,000' if I fly WOT, 2500 RPM, and 100 ROP. Generally I fly higher and at peak or LOP. I'll see around 135 KTAS. You've got to do a GPS based 3 or 4 leg test to figure out your speeds - don't use your airspeed indicator, temp, etc to figure that stuff out - too many errors and unknowns. Go run a 3 or 4 leg test. I'll post a link to a previous thread with lots of speed numbers for F models below. Rags

Thanks for all the great ideas and encouragement guys. Good to see it's possible to keep flying even with very young kids!