wombat

I'd say about 5 hours, 25 landings, over probably 3 to 4 flights would be a reasonable plan, although on the slightly excessive side. I think having more than just a single flight is important. IMO it's worth the time and expense to train the habit of getting the gear down and checking it multiple times, over more than a single day. At least twice approach and land from something other than the pattern. At least one simulated emergency approach and landing. The best is if it's from cruise altitude/airspeed to a landing at an airport that wasn't planned by the student. A 737 is mostly just following the checklists too. I wonder what the distribution is for how many retract hours pilots who have had a gear-up landing had before their gear-up.

My employer started including a prohibition on employees flying themselves at some point in the last 10 years as well. We are self-insured and just have the insurance companies administering the details for us so it's not like the insurance company would be at risk by covering this, but the variability of cost for this scenario is so high they might have said in their proposal to run the program for us that they are only willing to do it if my employer prohibits personal aircraft. And I hate to admit it, but why would they bother? The employer is basically not out any money at all by doing this. They expose themselves to risk, both financially and socially.... Financially, even though they might have airtight legal paperwork that absolves them of responsibility, lawsuits are decided by people, and these days public sentiment is to take anything we can from 'the rich' to give to anybody poor. And if your company is still running, they are rich. And if you have a plane, (like Taylor Swift!) then you are rich too. So there will be plenty of lawyers salivating to file that lawsuit. Even if they know they are unlikely to actually win, a $5 million settlement from your employer is likely to be cheaper for your employer than fighting and winning, so they'll settle. Who loses? Your employer. Socially, do you want to be dealing with customers who are mad about the cost you are charging them after your employees have been in the news for crashing their airplane and killing some innocent bystanders? An airplane, just like Taylor Swift and Bill Gates fly around in all the time, and the fees we pay to this company are funding your employees in this lifestyle? Your employer's competitors would LOVE it. "Go with us, we don't rip you off for enough money for our employees to fly around in their personal jets." And what does your employer get out of letting you fly? Nothing. You are probably on salary, so you have to do the same amount of work anyway, at the same locations, for the same compensation.

With the quoting for insurance that I have seen they just ask for your hours on a form; there is no opportunity to include "I'm going to get training" or anything like that. You are asking for a quote and providing them with the conditions under which you want them to quote you. It's not lying to get a quote for a plane you have not yet purchased and say it's quoting for a plane you own, and this is the same thing. If something happened prior to the conditions being met, filing a claim would be fraudulent. So if you want a quote for coverage on your plane for after you get 10 hours in make and model you ask for a quote with those hours by putting 10 hours in the "make and model" box. Then get your 10 hours in make and model. If you have included a CFI to do your transition training as a named insured, the flights where they are acting as PIC should be covered as well.

If your complex endorsement is a single flight, you should probably find a new CFI.

I've rephrased it in my original post. To make it clear, the insurance coverage doesn't start until you have the 10 hours you said you will have before coverage begins. There is absolutely no lying involved and that is not what I was attempting to suggest.

Buy the plane you want, tell the insurance company that you will have 10 hours time in type prior to their coverage starting. Then either A: fly uninsured for the first 10 hours or B: hire a CFI for 10 hours of dual for when you get the plane. Someone contacted me last week looking for transition training. 10 hours of CFI time is likely to be less than $1,000, and you might as well get it in your plane. Make sure your CFI is covered in your plane for those first 10 hours. Either as a named insured or that they have non-owned coverage and that they meet your policy's open pilot warranty.

You got a G3X and a GFC500 *installed* for $29k? You got an exceptional deal. The price for the small G3X from Garmin is $9,895 and the GFC 500 is $8,650. That's a total of $18,545 just for the hardware which leaves $11,455 for install & tax.

It was the KS-179 Pitch Trim Servo, not the computer.

Specifically they said resistors and capacitors. Regardless, I have found that within the last 2 months, IRAN on a King autopilot pitch trim servo was available. I don't believe that pulling out a working autopilot to put in a different one is a good use of my money at this time. Compared to the other quotes I've seen, it seems unlikely that I would actually walk out of any shop with a GFC500 installed for $20k, regardless of their marketing. I note in particular "Each particular aircraft may require additional labor, repairs, alterations, or parts not included in the above."

@LANCECASPER Not sure what the deal is then, because I sent mine off to a shop for IRAN and they were happy to do it and send it right back to me after replacing a few surface mount components, in perfect working order. So I came out of this $29,000 cheaper than installing a GCF 500.

Are the jack points in front of or behind the main gear? Is the engine lifting loop in front of or behind the nose wheel? @PT20J helpfully notes the weight on the front wheel isn't all that much more than the engine. What does the fuselage do if you remove the engine? If the plane will fall back on its tail from the jack points if the engine is removed, then lifting by the engine hoist is acceptable. Why not do multiple things? Add a bunch of very aft weight.... 120# in the luggage area and 25# on each side of the horizontal stabilizer. Given their arms relative to the jack points, the remaining weight to be lifted by the engine hoist would be less than the engine weight. In that case you are not 'lifting the aircraft by the engine hoist', you are partially lifting the weight of the engine, which is 100% acceptable from the engine manufacturers. I don't know if putting mass on the horizontal stabilizer is acceptable. Of course the downward force on the structure is fine (How do you think you lift the nose when taking off?) but putting even soft weights on the tail might bend the skin or crush a rib.

But the original poster's issue isn't that the autopilot isn't working. It's working just fine and is likely to continue to do so for many years.

I've heard it's incredibly expensive to install.

I agree that you can get 'wings level' with that (assuming you have already engaged the flight director) but it does include a button press on a different device, so if I was scared and the aircraft was already in an unusual attitude, it might be a challenge. I think it would be OK to skip picking a heading, just go across the AP... Flight Director on, altitude hold, heading mode, then autopilot engage. After that, once the aircraft is under control, set heading to current heading. And yes, I'm sure there is a limit to the range of atitudes that the AP will engage on. I couldn't find it in the pilot's guide, but I didn't look hard.

WHUT? How would that even work? Does it send fake pitch attitudes to the autopilot? Would I never have to press the altitude hold on the autopilot again? My autopilot would remain in pitch hold mode, and the GAD43 would tell it the pitch is too high, too low, or just right, in order to achieve the desired vertical speed or altitude? I *have* a GAD43, but I don't know if it's a GAD43E. I don't know what the differences are. Some random news release from 2012 says " The enhanced GAD 43e functions as an altitude preselector and vertical speed controller when interfaced to compatible autopilots." This might be my avionics upgrade for next year's annual! Reading the Garmin manual at https://static.garmin.com/pumac/190-01102-02_E.pdf it's still not clear to me.

Regarding avgas in the oil..... Some 182s have a 'oil dilution' option, which pumps some avgas into the oil, thinning the oil to make it easier to start. If Cessna (I know, I know, they don't know the first thing about airplanes and engines) thinks avgas is OK to add to the crankcase occasionally, I suspect some avgas (even a lot!) isn't going to hurt during an oil change. But also, the contaminants are mostly spread evenly in the oil and developed evenly over time. Getting the last 1/2 quart is 6.25% if you refill to 8 quarts, 4.2% if you use 12. That is the same as changing the oil 1.875 (1.278 for a 12 QT sump) hours earlier if you change on a 30 hour schedule. I don't pay the slightest bit of attention to going 2 hours over my 30 hour interval. Let's see... Cost analysis time... 1 gallon of avgas = ~$7 1 oil change = 8 quarts at $7 + 1 filter @ $50, so let's say $100 total. If you change oil every 30 hours, oil changes cost you $3.33/Hr, and the reduced oil change interval going to 28 hour intervals would cost you $6.66, because that's 2 hours of flying you lose. If you add the avgas but keep your oil change interval, that costs you $7..... Basically the same. There is no way I'd track my flying budget that closely.

I've got a KFC 150 and G500 (Older) and while I recognize it lacks some features of the GFC 500, I really don't understand why people think it's worth $30k to upgrade. If I was dead set on a glass panel, I'd get a the G500 TXi and keep the KFC 150 for now. If I didn't absolutely have to have glass, I'd do as many others suggested and use 2 of the GI-275's. The additional features of the GFC 500 Vertical nav enroute Altitude preselect Vertical speed S&L Button TOGA button (remote) Stability protection Airspeed protection Smart Glide For the amount of money it takes just to upgrade the autopilot, you can buy and keep a brand new Subaru Crosstrek at your most common destination airport.

That's basically what I was doing too. Here are the graphs of the measurements. The engine monitor values are on the right axis, all the others are on the left, but be aware that the blue (Sight gauge) measurement is in gallons and the dipsticks are in inches.

I don't actually remember if the original number on my engine monitor was 37.5 or 37.8 That's less than 1 minute of fuel at cruise power which is a finer distinction than I need to make with how I plan flights. Since there is no way to separate the tanks, starting somewhere between 20 and 25 gallons, fuel starts filling the aux. While the sight gauge on the L tank stops increasing somewhere between 40 and 45 gallons, the engine monitor shows different readings above 45 gallons. At cruise power (20 GPH) I am burning 0.1 gallons every 18 seconds.

Since I bought my plane last year I've known that the fuel gauges were off by quite a bit. For example when the gauges read 10 gallons, I can fly for about 75 more minutes, burning 20 GPH. Also, they never measure more than 37.5 gallons per side, and the actual total is 55 per side. I've got an EI MVP-50, which has fuel gauges that can be calibrated. So I took some time today (3 hours) and did it. I learned that the fuel pump at S35 will only accept any given card twice in one day. Fortunately I found a friendly local who was willing to let me pump gas on his card and I could just pay him in cash. And the weather was amazing, about 70F and sunny with a light breeze. What I did was I had a 5 gallon gas can, and I would fill it from the pump, dump it in, then refill it. Then I'd wait a while for the gauges to read right, and for fuel to flow between the main/aux tanks, then record what the sight gauge said, what the engine monitor said, and the depth with a dipstick. Then I'd dump in the next 5 gallons, wait, and do the same thing. Some top-line notes: The monroy long-range tanks in my plane are supposed to hold 55 gallons. I got 54.6 gallons in, after letting it burble for 10 minutes or so. After flying back home on the other tank, I'm sure I can get in at least another half gallon. But this is the first time I'd tried to get it ALL the way full and measure exactly how much I put in. The tops of the fuel tank fillers are about 4.75" different in height. So for the last 4.75" of fuel in the long range tanks, you need to keep the caps on the mains. The flapper will keep fuel from gushing out, but it does leak past it and will eventually overflow if you don't put the actual cap on and seal it. The bottoms of the fuel tanks at the inboard edge of the filler are about 8" different in height. So I'll have 8" of fuel in the mains before the dipstick in the aux tank even gets wet. Here are my notes from empty and at each 5 gallon interval. At empty, the engine monitor reads 176 for its raw value. @5 gallons Engine monitor reads 425 The dipstick is barely wet I forgot to look at the sight gauge The aux tank is dry @ 10 gallons Engine monitor reads 691 The dipstick reads 3" Wing sight gauge accurate The Aux tank is dry @15 gallons Engine monitor reads 870 The dipstick reads 5.5" Wing sight gauge accurate The Aux tank is dry @20 gallons Engine monitor reads 984 The dipstick reads 7" Wing sight gauge accurate The Aux tank is dry @25 gallons Engine monitor reads 1070 The dipstick reads 8.25" Wing sight gauge reads 22.5 The Aux tank is just barely wet under the filler @30 gallons Engine monitor reads 1488 The dipstick reads 9.5" Wing sight gauge reads 25 2" on the dipstick aux tank @35 gallons Engine monitor reads 1640 The dipstick reads 10.5" Wing sight gauge reads 28 The Aux tank reads 3.5" @40 gallons Engine monitor reads 1785 Sight gauge over 30 with the back end pointing at 13.5 I forgot to get dipstick measurements @45 gallons Engine monitor reads 1930 The dipstick reads 14", or just above the flapper Sight gauge reads opposite 15, or bottom left of the letter "L" The Aux tank reads 6.25" @50 gallons It took a minute or two let air burble out in order to fit 50 gallons in. I forgot to get a engine monitor reading. The main will overflow if the lid isn't locked The sight gauge points at the bottom left of the letter "L" The aux tank was completely full for a minute or two. I didn't use the dipstick again before adding more fuel, so I have no reading. @54.6 gallons It took multiple small additions and about 10 minutes to get the fuel in Engine monitor reads 2160 My wife was calling me asking where I was. I'd already missed my previous meeting by more than 2 hours. After I flew back home (20 minutes from engine start to shutdown, including 5 minute cool-down) which I did exclusively on the other tank, I had maybe 1" to 2" of room in the aux tank to add more fuel.

Yes, but only about 1/2" to 3/4" difference. I actually spent 3 hours today calibrating my left fuel tank's gauges. I'll write more about it in another post.

I think fuel is about 33% of my cost. 1/3 is maintenance 1/3 is fuel 1/3 is the cost of capital. If I include the cost of the hangar, it changes a little, less than 5% difference though. But this would vary quite a bit based on what airplane people have and how much they fly it

I would recommend the inertial reel for at least the front seats. It's so much more pleasant to put on and wear in the cockpit. After nearly 2,000 hours of manual adjustments, I smile every time I use my inertial reel seatbelt.

I talked with the avionics guy and figured out why the G500 needs to be booted up for the electric trim to work. The autopilot needs to have an attitude reference. Historically it would be the KI-256 attitude indicator, but that was replaced with the G500. The G500 has an output wire that lets other avionics know if it has a valid ADAHRS. That signal determines (via a relay) if the autopilot servos can get power, since if you have no attitude reference, the autopilot cannot operate correctly. So the electric trim (which is controlled by the autopilot) and the autopilot cannot function without the G500, therefore they cut power to the servo if the ADAHRS reference isn't good.

Well, I fixed it. The problem was me. And a few unexpected limitations of the electric trim and the autopilot. The power to the electric pitch trim servo is routed through the Garmin G500. (Not a GFC 500, just a G500) The G500 must be powered on for about 22 to 28 seconds before it closes the relay for the electric trim. Additionally, the autopilot itself must be powered on for about 3 to 8 seconds before the electric trim will work or you can successfully initiate an autopilot test. I didn't expect this. The problem started when I picked the plane up from annual. The plane is still fairly new to me, even though I've got 90+ hours in it, so when picking it up from annual, I thoroughly reviewed my checklists before doing anything. And after getting the engine started, before doing anything else, I reviewed the checklist. Then I immediately turned the avionics power on, the electric trim, and hit the autopilot test button. The autopilot test failed. So leaving the engine running, I turned electric trim off, avionics off, and master power off, then turned them all back on. And the electric trim didn't work, and the autopilot self-test failed. So I flew home, and spent a dozen hours testing what was going wrong. But since I was always just testing the electric trim and autopilot, I would turn the master power on, turn the avionics on, turn the electric trim on, and then hit the AP test button. A lot of times, because I didn't need the G500, I'd pull the breaker for that before testing. Which, unknown to me, would ensure that the pitch trim servo would never get power. After talking to Steve at Autopilots Central, he told me what voltages I should expect to see on each of the wires going in and out of the yoke, and where that power was coming from. It all 'clicked' for me when I was testing the voltage on the 4 wires to the AP disconnect switch with the power on. All four should have about 14V. One going into to the AP disconnect has power from the autopilot circuit breaker. The other power in comes from the electric trim switch. (And unknown to me, through the G500!!!). The power out from the first input goes to the sonalert and the flight computer, the power out from the second goes to the electric pitch trim servo. I didn't know which wire was which switch or if the wire was input or output. Just that pins 3 and 6 went across one switch, and 4 and 8 went across the other. Since the sonalert was working when the AP would fail its self test, that meant I should expect to see +14V on the first one, both input and output. When I measured it, I did find +14V. That was pins 3 and 6. On the second one, I found no voltage on either of them. So while I'm sitting there staring at the multimeter, I hear a tiny 'click' and the voltage goes to 14V. I reach up and try the electric trim and I hear the servo spin. I press the autopilot test button and it completes successfully. So I turn the avionics and master power off, and immediately turn them back on. No voltage. So as I'm staring at the multimeter again, I hear a tiny 'click' and voltage goes to 14V again. So after about another 30 minutes of turning stuff off and then back on again, and pulling breakers, I finally come to the conclusion that after the electric trim switch, power goes to a latching relay on the G500 and from there to the AP disconnect. Until the G500 has been powered on for about 30 seconds, that switch will never get power. Once it has gotten power, I can pull the G500's circuit breaker and it will maintain power though. So ends the saga of the electric trim that wouldn't. Just need to get the servo re-installed and I'm back to 100% functionality!