Deb

For the Ovation 2 there is a note on the “Takeoff Distance” chart stating: Landing gear: Down until obstacle cleared and in the Normal Procedures, Takeoff checklist:

From https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/science/amelia-earhart-robert-ballard.html?smid=nytcore: For two weeks in August, a multimillion-dollar search from air, land and sea sought to solve the 80-year mystery of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. Robert Ballard, the ocean explorer famous for locating the wreck of the Titanic, led a team aboard the resesearch vessel Nautilus that discovered two hats in the depths. It found debris from an old shipwreck. It even spotted a soda can. What it did not find was a single piece of the Lockheed Electra airplane flown in 1937 by Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan, which vanished during their doomed voyage around the world. Dr. Ballard and his crew don’t consider it a failure. For one thing, he says, they know where the plane isn’t. And in the process, they may have dispensed with one clue that has driven years of speculation, while a team of collaborating archaeologists potentially turned up more hints at the aviator’s fate. “This plane exists,” Dr. Ballard said. “It’s not the Loch Ness monster, and it’s going to be found.”

Here’s what Bob Kromer wrote from http://www.donkaye.com/donkaye.com/Bob_Krommer_on_Mooney_Slips-Part_1.html: From the Mooney List December 2, 2005 by Bob Kromer. Slipping a Mooney During development and certification on the M20K 252 at the factory, I encountered the aerodynamic buffeting while slipping on approach as described by Dan Eldridge in his posting on slips in his M20K 231. Obviously, this gets a test pilot's attention and we began an investigation. Thought you might be interested in what we found. For our slip tests, we flew the M20K, the M20J and the Mooney/Porsche engineering prototypes that were at the factory at the time. This gave us a good cross section of different aircraft configurations (short/long fuselage, different pitch trim requirements on approach, etc.) What we found was 1) All airplanes were fine above 85 KIAS in full rudder deflection forward slips, flaps up and flaps down. 2) But somewhere between 80-85 KIAS and lower, AERODYNAMIC BUFFETING FROM THE HORIZONTAL TAIL/ELEVATOR occurred in the M20K and the Mooney/Porsche airframes ALONG WITH A SLIGHT LOSS OF ELEVATOR EFFECTIVENESS AND A SLIGHT NOSE DOWN PITCHING MOMENT. These conditions were worsened with flaps down compared to the flaps up. Aerodynamic tufting of the horizontal tail revealed what was happening. In the M20K and the Mooney/Porsche with their more forward CGs, almost full nose up pitch trim is required for a "hands off" approach at the target approach airspeed. This puts the horizontal stabilizer of the Mooney tail at a high negative angle of attack (to keep the nose up). With the horizontal tail at this high negative angle of attack and especially with flaps full down, the local airflow over the horizontal tail is getting pretty close to max alpha, the angle of attack where the tail will stall. I want to emphasize that IN NORMAL FLYING, THERE IS PLENTY OF MARGIN - no need to worry about the tail stalling in your M20K or long body Mooney. But start slipping the airplane at 85 KIAS and below or have a little ice on that stabilizer leading edge and those margins can get mighty thin. Combine a slip maneuver with some pretty good yanking on the control wheel in turbulence and you might get a partial tail stall. We did in flight test - in the M20K the result was buffeting felt in the control wheel and the slight nose down pitching moment. So my advice from the test pilot's seat is don't go there - especially if you fly a Mooney model that requires lots of nose up pitch trim on the approach. An aggressive forward slip in those airplanes with the speed low and the flaps down puts the tail in an extreme airflow condition. The airplane will warn you with buffeting and a slight pitch down, but who knows - add some ice and look out. This is not the way to fly your Mooney. My bottom line opinion - keep the ball near center on the approach and you're flying the Mooney design correctly and safely with the safety margins it was meant to have. Best Regards, Bob Kromer and http://www.donkaye.com/donkaye.com/Bob_Krommer_on_Mooney_Slips-Part_2.html: From the Mooney List December 3, 2005 by Bob Kromer SLIPPING A MOONEY Went up to the attic last night and dug through my old flight test data sheets from my Engineering Flight Test days at the factory. I did find the observed data for the slip tests I did. Looked over the data. From those test results, here is some additional information that might help answer some of the questions that have been raised: 1. The data shows that it's the airplanes that require lots of nose up trim for landing that are the most prone to experiencing the tail buffeting condition we talked about earlier when aggressively slipping at or below 85 KIAS. We simply could not get the M20J prototype to buffet in a full rudder sideslip at any CG and flap condition tested, down to 1.1 Vstall. From those test results, I think it is safe to say that the Pre-J models and the J model itself will not experience any tail buffeting/partial airflow separation over the horizontal tail in an aggressive sideslip maneuver. So the J and Pre-J models should be okay for slipping on approach. Not comfortable, and in my humble opinion not the way to fly a high performance airplane like a Mooney, but safe. 2. It's the K models (and variations ther3of) and the "long body" models that showed the possibility of inducing a partial horizontal tail airflow separation in an aggressive sideslip condition. I got it in both the Mooney/Porsche and the M20K model prototypes in the landing approach configuration. These are the airplanes that require almost full (if not full) nose up trim for a hands off, trimmed condition on final approach. (Sometime, run your pitch trim to the full nose up position on the ground and look at the negative angle of attack of the horizontal tail. Quite impressive). It's this high negative angle of attack with full nose up trim that puts the airflow over the horizontal tail at a fairly extreme condition. 3. Extending the flaps adds to the downwash angle over the horizontal tail, making the negative angle of attack over the horizontal tail even greater. Mooneys spend a lot of their time at or near forward CG. As the CG moves forward the need for more nose up trim on the approach is required for trimmed flight. So does lower airspeed. So the worse condition for aggressive slipping in the K and up models is slow, forward CG, full flaps - just like we are when configured for landing. Remember, it's anything that requires the need for more nose up trim that adds to the possibility of experiencing horizontal tail buffeting when aggressively slipping on the approach. 4. Aggressive slipping does strange things to the local airflow over the horizontal tail. The bottom line is this - the horizontal tail will see a greater negative angle of attack in the slip maneuver. So add an aggressive slip to the conditions noted in #3 above and you can experience the partial airflow separation over the horizontal tail and the resulting buffeting that we found in the flight tests. The Mooney is such a good design that there is no danger here - just a buffet in the control wheel from the elevator, a slight nose down pitching moment and a little loss of elevator effectiveness. But I want to emphasize - THIS IS NO PLACE TO BE FLYING. Add a little ice to that horizontal tail leading edge or a gusty crosswind requiring heavy elevator input and look out. That minor buffeting and airflow separation can get worse. 5. Someone asked what would happen to an airplane if the horizontal tail completely stalled. The answer - bad news. A sharp nose down pitching moment and a loss of elevator control would result. With increased airspeed as a result of the nose down pitch, the tail might start flying again and elevator effectiveness might be restored. But we're talking a loss of aircraft control here - a pilot's worse nightmare. How much altitude might be lost in this loss of control experience? A guess - 2000 feet. 6. Incidentally, ground effect helps the condition - the downwash angle over the horizontal tail is slightly reduced with the wing/flaps in ground effect. This reduces the local negative angle of attack of the air flowing over the horizontal tail - a good thing when it comes to stalling the horizontal tail. Again - the bottom line. Aggressive slips in your Pre-J or J should be okay from a safety of flight viewpoint. K models and up - margins here are thinner. Chances are you might experience some tail buffeting in the K models and up when aggressively slipping - not a place to be. From my flight test experience, I would avoid aggressive slips on approach in the K's and up. The Mooney is a wonderful design, but all designs have their limits. I certainly don't have all the answers and would never claim to be an "expert" or tell anyone how they need to fly their airplanes, but maybe some of my engineering flight test experiences at Mooney will help you better understand your airplanes. I've got lots of good data in my attic. Hope to share more of it with you in the future. Best Regards; Bob Kromer

They’re here!

From http://www.ifr-magazine.com/issues/33_7/features/A-Date-With-AIRAC_1248-1.html: “The AIRAC date occurs every 28 days on a Thursday. Each country determines the exact time of the switchover to coincide with low air traffic volume. In the U.S. it is 0900 Zulu or 1200 a.m. to 0400 a.m. local depending on time of year and zone.“

Deb (both of us)

Yes; it’s behind the MFD.

Jerrod, Are you looking for a school, or just an instructor? There are options a TMB, Endeavour at KOPF (Freddie is a good guy, but we have no experience there) and there are several schools at HWO. Further north, FXE and PMP have schools. There are also instructors with planes at FXE and probably others. If we knew which airport(s) were convenient for you we could be a bit more specific. Debbie

From Trek Lawler (Garmin Field Service Engineering Supervisor) posted on BeechTalk 4/17/2019 https://www.beechtalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=166081&start=105: Hello everyone, we just received approval on the revision 18 of the G5 install manual which updates the type design data to reintroduce shielded twisted-pair cable, MIL-C-27500 as an optional wire type for use in CAN bus installation and other minor clarifications to the STC Installation manual. we will have the new manual posted here very soon. let me know if there are any questions,

Tom (@Yooper Rocketman) and Beth graciously invited us to visit them on Friday. They are terrific hosts and we had a great time with them, along with their friends Steve and his wife Patty. They have a lovely home in Spruce Creek (7FL6), a very impressive aviation community. Lots of neat airplanes there besides Tom’s gorgeous Lancair IVPT (turbine). Tom’s plane is spectacular! The fit and finish is outstanding, and there is meticulous attention to tons of details. It’s amazing that he built such a fabulous plane at his home. Tom’s hand seems to be improving after an incredibly scary event; we’re hoping he continues with a speedy recovery.

We flew to the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell from Sedona. It was a perfect day for flying and the scenery was spectacular. Even our pictures don’t do justice to the natural beauty. This was definitely a Mooney flight of a lifetime. We feel blessed and privileged that we can do this flight in our Mooney. A few pictures (or it didn’t happen): Grand Canyon, Dragon Corridor: Grand Canyon, Zuni Corridor: Lake Powell: Final approach to Sedona RWY 03:

We can’t say enough good things about Eric and Paul in Willmar, MN (Oasis Aero and Weep No More). They are great guys and know Mooneys very well (they are an MSC). Eric flies our plane with us before thhe start the annual, and again when it’s done (he’s also a CFII). They’ve encouraged us to participate in annuals as much as we’ve wanted, and as a result we’ve learned a lot about our plane. They’ve been on schedule with us and stand behind their work. Even though it’s a long trip for us, we go there because our plane will be as good as it can be when they’re done, and we will have had the opportunity to learn and follow along the way.

Additional news: https://www.inverse.com/amp/article/53236-ipad-mini-5-upgrade-features-price. Possible Apple announcement March 25. Will use A10 Fusion chip (same as iPad 9.7). Probably not compatible with Apple Pencil 2, possibly compatible with first generation pencil.

The Electronic Module Assembly (EMA) needs to be overhauled at 7 years (by AmSafe) and replaced at 14 years. The inflators need to be replaced at 12 year intervals. Here's a link to AmSafe SB507592-401-25-01 dated June 15, 2015 which extends the service life of the inflator assembly from 10 years to 12 years: http://www.mooneypilots.com/service/SL_15-15.pdf. Here’s a link to a previous thread on this topic:

It was Clinton County, PLB. Here’s a link: http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NY/Airfields_NY_NE.htm (scroll down to the second airport).