wombat

Everything worked out well enough today and I made it back to Iowa today from Manassas. Brutal headwinds and anything less than 10,500 MSL was incredibly rough. Diverted to an airport that had a runway that was more lined up with the winds. I didn't think I was ready to land this plane with a crosswind component over 25 KT. And METAR when I finally landed: KOTM 012253Z AUTO 31017G36KT 10SM CLR 15/M04 A2969 RMK AO2 PK WND 31038/2218 SLP055 T01501039

Kind of funny. I meet the requirements to give him transition training. But I'm not comfortable enough in a Mooney right now to go fly my own plane without receiving transition training myself.

This 90 degree stem fits correctly, a straight one would not. I'll get a picture tomorrow morning.

On FlightAware, you can look at the track log and it has the exact time and position data. ForeFlight does as well, so you can just cut-n-paste them into a single spreadsheet and insert empty cells as necessary for the times to line up. If I set the time correctly in my engine monitor, that would be even easier. But it's off by a little so I had to shift it manually too Oh, and this data is for a brand C aircraft. It's just to demonstrate that the analysis can be done

@Shadrach check out my spreadsheet that uses both ForeFlight and ADS-B data to calculate fuel economy. It could do climbs too, but I wasn't really paying attention to that at that time. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ixfZQPAsKIh59g-zvnmV05KYbNdMHMJ3dWYyBAGOaMM/edit?usp=sharing

Tire is fixed. It was a pinch flat between the two halves of the wheel. Flying with Jerry H tomorrow (I hope) in some winds that are honestly 'sporty' for my first time back in the Mooney cockpit. We also got the bird nest out and rinsed the area with water.

Thanks for the offer, @jetdriven, @Shadrach has a tube too and he's planning on bringing it down on Monday morning. The shop here I was using for the prebuy will be able to install it, or we'll be able to do it ourselves, but for other reasons, I think the shop will be willing to do the install at a steeply discounted price.

Unfortunately it'll take more than just air. I found a helpful nearby RV builder who had a 2.5 gallon tank, and the air came hissing out as soon as I put it in. I don't see a puncture or anything, so I don't know what's actually wrong. Edit: I don't actually know if this tire has a tube or not. It might inflate if I just got the nose lifted to let the tire set back on its bead.

Trying to pick up my new plane (N5773S) but the nose tire is totally flat. All the shops are closed. Anyone have a 5.00 x 5 tube and tools that is looking for something to do? If not, I'll stay at the hotel a few nights and get it fixed on Monday.

My guess is you have some wire that has a resonant frequency with your cruise engine RPM. Next guess is that at cruise speed and configuration you have airflow pushing wires around in the cowling. So maybe try to cruise at a different RPM or different airspeed or configuration.

Thanks. I'll be trying my very first FS510 update on Saturday. With a brand new computer, no less.

I watch his videos on 1.75X speed on YouTube.

@GeeBee I could be snarky about how you can have all that experience and still miss my point. So what I'll say instead is that I think all of us should withhold our criticism and judgmental statements until all the facts are known and there are ways this pilot could have been doing everything right. Or at least close to right. The theories I've got so far are: Intentional so they could fly through the TFR The pilot is flat out incompetent Maybe too old. Maybe not instrument rated or current. Pilot error of inattentiveness Switched the radio to a different frequency that ATC didn't try to talk to them on? Switched the radio off? Missed multiple calls? ATC failure (Combined with a lesser pilot error of not confirming with ATC periodically) Equipment failure (Combined with a lesser pilot error again) The plane seems to fly quite a lot, but the altitudes shown in FlightAware are rarely either on the 500' mark or 1,000' mark, so I don't know for sure if they are flying IFR or VFR. If I had to guess though they are flying mostly VFR, because when Westbound their altitudes (from my spot checks) are even thousands plus 700' or 800', which is much closer to a VFR altitude than IFR. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N91396/history

@GeeBee Why don't you tone down a notch here? I don't know what your experience is, but you don't seem to understand that there are plenty of situations that happen that don't match with your experience. Things like planes without a dedicated radio for 121.5, or areas where the frequency ATC wants you on isn't published on the chart, or that ATC might not hand you off to the next facility before you fly out of the previous one's range. I've provided several examples where the pilot could be doing everything right and by the book but could still be not able to hear or be received by ATC for some time and not know it until they make a radio call and ATC doesn't respond. And the immediate question then is how long is OK for a pilot to not have a confirmed communication with ATC to them before the pilot must take action or is in violation of some regulation. The real answer that I expect would be supported by the FAA is that it depends on a lot of things, including the pilot. You are extremely confident in your condemnation of the pilot of N91396, but you don't know what happened, and from my interactions with you, you can't, don't, or won't imagine that anything that you have not personally experienced might occur. All that being said, I suspect that the pilot of N91396 was doing something wrong. How do you fly for as long as they did in that crowded of airspace without talking directly to ATC and not think something is wrong enough to call them and ask? (9 minutes + however long it is ATC was trying to reach them before enlisting the help of other aircraft) But I don't know what their last interaction with ATC was, or how long ago it had been, or what the pilot could hear on the radio. And while I have my suspicions, what I know for sure is that this thread doesn't contain enough information for us to be sure.

@GeeBee This is the question I've been asking a lot over the last few days here....How long of not having an interaction with them can I wait before asking them before it's a violation? If someone is flying North over KCVO (Corvallis, WA) at 9,000' on an IFR flight and is on 125.8 and 5 minutes ago was the last time they had to respond to a radio call from Seattle Center, are they in violation? FYI, they are not on the correct frequency for that altitude, but it's not charted on the IFR charts. They should be on Cascade Approach on 127.5. There are several reasons why someone could not have switched over and without knowing what that reason was we don't know if there was a pilot deviation. "Last Assigned" is not necessarily the appropriate frequency. I've had flights where I was unable to receive ATC in some locations due to their transmitter failing and had to switch to a different frequency (and wait a few miles) before I could talk to them again. I'm not overthinking this, these incidents happen and we have to be able to deal with them. Just because you have not experienced it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

@GeeBee No, at 9,000' you need to be listening to Cascade Approach or Portland Approach, not Seattle Center. If you are listening to Seattle Center which is the charted frequency, you are not watching the appropriate frequency. But if the controller missed the handoff call, how would the pilot know? Now controllers are very good at their jobs, and they usually try multiple times. But mistakes happen to both pilots and controllers.

@Hank Thanks for pointing that out. I assume that ATC tried to talk to him for a while before he actually entered the TFR, and they had other aircraft trying to talk to him before he entered it as well. But I've certainly had times when I was flying towards a TFR (Firefighting TFRs over the Cascades) and while I knew about them, ATC wouldn't necessarily say anything until maybe five minutes before. And even then I've had to remind ATC that the TFRs are 3 dimensional and they have a top, which I was usually above. So all said..... possible pilot deviation. But I don't know enough.

@GeeBee Don't know that it was unclear to anyone. But there is an open question of how long you can go without positive radio contact with ATC before action is required of you. My statement on this is that if he was flying his assigned clearance, his offense is not that of violating the TFR. Maybe he was violating 91.183, but that depends on how long it had been since he last talked to ATC. Also maybe depending on why he hadn't been talking to them. That being said, it sounds like the time he was out of contact was a lot more than 9 minutes. (When ATC does talk to him, they say the incident was "20 miles ago") And from the times of the events (26 minutes after the hour ATC was asking for other planes to help, and at 36 after the hour they finally talk to him) And I trust that ATC has been trying to contact him on all of the 'reasonable' frequencies for quite some time. But as an example of how this could happen in a way where this pilot isn't at fault, if you were flying North past KPDX on IFR, at 9,000' and you've been hearing ATC the whole time, but they just hadn't said anything to you personally after you passed Salem.....How long would you wait before saying anything? The IFR low charts say it's all Seattle Center... But below 10,000 you need to be talking to Cascade Approach or Portland Approach depending on the location. But you can still hear ATC talking to all the same folks going from Cali to Seattle or Alaska. And if you were 1,000' higher, you'd be on the right frequency. It's possible (although in my opinion, unlikely) that N91396's pilot did nothing wrong; the controller *could* have missed handing him off to Charlston Approach, and he was on the correct Center frequency and hearing traffic the whole time, just didn't make an active call to make sure they remember he's on frequency. So before I join camp "N91396 should be forcibly sold out from under this dude" I'd like to know more about what happened.

If you feel like you have nothing to do, it's probably because you are flying a Cessna 150 with a headwind. Not much more frustrating than to look at stop-and-go traffic on the interstate under me that is still passing me.

Agreed. I think we all agree that checking in if it's been 'too long' is a good habit. But how long is too long? I don't know of anywhere that has any guidance other than 91.183. Saying someone violated 91.13 for failing to do so in a timely manner after just 9 minutes since their last radio call doesn't seem right to me though. Why don't the regulations just tell us how long is too long? I don't want another airspace overlay that gives a time in minutes between mandatory two-way radio communications checkins. Is this something you are supposed to pick up in your IFR training? It should be in 91.167 – 91.199. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-F/part-91/subpart-B/subject-group-ECFRef6e8c57f580cfd And if so, it should be one of the requirements listed in 61.65 - Instrument rating requirements. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-14/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-61/subpart-B/section-61.65 But exactly where is it in the regs? But maybe the FAA thinks that "Long enough to fly into an active TFR" is too long and is a violation of 91.13? I don't know, but I do know I never want that to be me! The AIM has some things to say about radio communications failure in chapter 6, section 4-1. , https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/aim_html/chap6_section_4.html Specifically it says "pilots are expected to exercise good judgment in whatever action they elect to take"... But that's only if the pilot has realized that they are in that situation.

MOONIAC The best aviation related license plate I've ever seen was at the Seattle FSDO parking lot, a Porsche 9114S with plate "VNE"

I tend to think that the value of an airplane with upgrades is the cost of the 'base' airplane, plus the depreciated value (5% of the remaining value each year) of the upgraded hardware, but not including the cost to install the hardware. So if the plane is worth $100,000 and you put a $10,000 radio in it 5 years ago, spending $3,000 to install it, the plane is worth $100,000 + $10,000*(.95^5)) == $107,737. But of course anything less than $1,000 in this scale is a rounding error, outweighed by someone's particular preference for paint colors or avionics brand or if you sell the aircraft with a full tank of fuel. But the important part is that at most the plane is worth the base value plus the value of the installed upgrades, and if you are having the upgrades done, you will never recoup the cost of the labor to install it.

@exM20K 9 minutes? I'm a Western States (excluding California) pilot.... I get 9 minute blocks without hearing ATC talk to anyone else on the radio let alone talking to me. Now I do know there is a difference between flying out here and flying on the crowded Eastern Seaboard, and 9 minutes is acceptable out here but not out there. But how much wiggle room is there? 3 minutes? 90 seconds?

@lithium366 Perhaps it's not the cam that's worn but the tappet or some other connecting pin or part? But this is just going back to what you said at the very beginning. Found this article about measuring dry tappet clearance. Sounds like a bit of a hassle. https://www.kitplanes.com/maintenance-matters-36/

@GeeBee The things you say are not wrong, but.... I know you are not this extreme about it, but please follow along with my reasoning here... In my 182 I've only got one radio. Can't monitor guard. Maybe N91316 is in the same boat? (haha. A plane, in a boat!) It almost sounds like you are suggesting that any pilot who flies an aircraft without a second radio is in violation of 91.13. What would you think of a plane with no radio at all? Yikes! And what do I do about getting weather at my destination? Can't switch off of 121.5 because that's a violation of 91.13, right? So every airplane needs to have a dedicated radio just for 121.5? I really doubt that's what you are really suggesting; I took that to an extreme.And I really doubt that N91316 has only one radio. But this is exactly the sort of reason I don't like to invoke 91.13. Because what seems extreme to me might not seem extreme to you. This is why we have rules other than 91.13, so we have a document that says what is 'extreme'. A big part of my question here is when does it go from just a quiet frequency to lost comms ? 5 minutes? 50 minutes? The rules about that don't exist. 91.183 is what we've got and it has nothing to say about this. I've called up ATC a bunch of times just because things got quiet for 'too long' for my liking.