Yooper Rocketman

We have one for our Mercy Flight Organization, using it regularly on an A-36 Bonanza and a twin engine Seneca III. It works absolutely great. Two speed selections with a variable speed control for each speed range. I would highly recommend it for those finding it in their price range. Tom

First serious cross country trip since my hand surgeries. Also first trip to our Florida home since the Christmas break. Man this weather beats our U.P. winters!! Departed at 18 degrees, landed 3 hours and 25 minutes later at 72 degrees. The wife is happy!! Tom

I have a friend (from Spruce Creek) that lost his engine in a Bonanza in Florida (from R.I.) and had his engine done like you mention, after he barely made the small airport. He spent 9 months getting the engine OH'ed and installed, and ended up down over a year and way too much money fixing a ton of issues before he could ever get it back to his home base. I think if he was to do it over he might have been better off pulling the wings and taking it to New Smyrna for the work. Tom

That's part of the reason I posted the event. Had I not experienced it I would likely found it hard to believe. Several have asked so I will respond on therapy. Yes, I've been going to Occupational Therapy for 5 or 6 weeks now, 3 times a week (can't remember when I started). In addition, I replicate the therapy regimen 3-5 times every day on my own. Although there's improvement, it's excruciatingly slow!!! I am still not convinced I will get full finger function back without further treatment, but I'm working my tail off trying through hand exercises. Finally, thanks for all the supporting comments. That contributes to the motivation in pushing the exercises to the limit. Tom

The only one I was aware of was not a Rocket and went down in the Republic of California from an obvious over stress event. I'm not going to take the time to research it as it's not germaine to the topic being discussed (IMHO). Until this point I was with Paul........................ ok, I still am, with exception to beating down Rocket conversions. I had to weigh the Lancair MANY times, prior to paint and interior, and a final time (or more accurately, several times) when completed. We calibrated the scales and NEVER found any discrepancy in them. That said, I was amazed at what 1/2 of one degree OR LESS of air frame difference could make on those damn scales for weight. I'm talking Mooney empty weight equivalents. I went from dancing and celebrating to cussing in more than one scaling session. Paul is right, you better be the most anal person in the world if you desire ABSOLUTE ACCURACY in weights derived from scales on an airplane. I am, and because of that we must have final weighed the Lancair 6 times. And as a qualifier, that comment is coming from a Oshkosh Lindy Award winner......... I didn't just throw an airplane together. Getting a weight you can "take to the bank" is no where near as easy as it sounds. Tom

Charles, You got me wondering now. I only let instrument rated pilots like @gsxrpilot get stick time in my Lancair. Looks like you might have just earned your chance!! Tom

Yes, Dickinson County Hospital System.

It IS AMAZING how we take so many things for granted until we encounter something that really wakes us up. I was running 20-30 miles a week, doing 2 hour daily work outs, lost 20 pounds, getting in shape as a 63 year old competitive soccer referee, and had this crazy medical issue surface. Makes you appreciate life itself! Tom

Well, I haven’t posted a recent life changing medical issue I encountered 6 weeks ago. I got a simple, routine, small cut on my pinky finger on Tuesday, January 22th. An antibacterial soap cleaning and bandaid was all that was required and I went 54 hours with no pain or swelling, seemed a pretty benign situation. Then swelling and pain started, and within 3 hours of first symptom I had every finger and thumb swelling and in extreme pain. I even had pain in the palm, wrist, and shooting up to my elbow. Holy crap..... I went straight to my local hospital emergency department. Something was seriously wrong!!! After 8 hours of a pain level of 10, with nothing knocking out or even reducing the pain, I was sent to emergency surgery with an infection radiated from the finger, through my tendons, to my carpal tunnel area on Friday morning. An 8” cut to my wrist and complete open of the pinky (5-6 stitches) and 3.5 days of IV pain killers and antibiotics got me discharged by noon the following Monday. Transitioned to oral antibiotics and pain killers, it only took about 8 hours at home to realize this was going south again. Back to the emergency department, thankfully the same crew, with the doctor putting me under since he knew nothing from his pain killer arsenal was going to give me relief. Back into emergency surgery again early Tuesday morning, with a stitch count now exceeding 25 as the infected areas were expanded, my surgeon thought she had the infection cleaned sufficiently now. They installed a PICC line for a 21 day antibiotic regimen and I started a 10 week therapy program. It was determined to be Strep, which a pilot doctor later told me LIVES on our skin, as the strain of infection. I was also told had I delayed treatment at all, it would have spread to my bone, resulting in amputation of my left hand. HOLY CRAP!!!! So, although recovery has been excruciatingly slow, with no ability to squeeze fingers into a fist, yesterday and today were milestone moments. I have barely enough squeezing function to hold the side stick on my Lancair, but decided to fly with my flight instructor yesterday with an ace wrap holding my hand to the stick in case a gust came up that could jog the stick out of my hand. It went really well. Today I performed a medical flight and it went very well. Nice to be back in the air! Now just hoping I will not need further surgery to get finger function back!!! And......... 20 knot headwinds aren’t so bad in this plane. Tom

Just a humble observation. Your opinions REALLY have more to do with “icing” than the TKS System, maybe even “icing in a GA plane”. I respect that, but probably a discussion under a different topic. It’s pretty clear you have no experience with TKS on a Mooney. ALL TKS systems have tail deice. Knowledge of the system would be nice when commenting. Secondly, you’re 10 minutes late if you’re turning on a TKS system AFTER encountering icing conditions. The system works 10 times better wetted out BEFORE icing conditions are encountered than trying to deice after building ice. As far as effectiveness, our Mercy Flight organization has numerous active AND retired airline pilots. Without exception, every one of them feels our SE Bonanza is SAFER in icing than our “boots equipped” twin. Absence “real world” experience with TKS, maybe a little more discretion and system knowledge would be appropriate before knocking it’s capabilities. And lastly, if you’ve built 1” to 2” of ice on an airplane, seems you pushed your equipment well beyond its abilities, which falls back to my earlier post: maybe a little better flight planning or decision making would have avoided that situation. In 2.5k hours flying with TKS protection, I’ve never built ANY ice on protected surfaces unless “I screwed up” and, even then, never seen ice at anywhere near that level (probably because of my flight planning). Affording a “heated deice system” is not an option for Mooney pilots or we would be flying in those planes. Tom

I always just lifted the button out of the yoke a 1/4" to 3/8" and it disabled the PC. Pushed it back into it's normal location when I wanted it working. Tom

I respectfully disagree. Although SOME models may NOT reflect value, I closed on a sale if my Rocket at the very end of 2018 and clearly got $10k to $15k more for my TKS equipped Mooney. I think it has more to do with specific models on the market rather than “no value” for TKS Mooney’s. On another perspective, I’ve bought and had 4 TKS Systems installed on Mooney’s, Bonanzas and my Lancair turbo-prop. Three inadvertent systems and one certified “known icing”. Of the four, only ONE left me stranded with a failed system in icing.......two times. Not what you are likely wanting to hear...... but both failures were on the FIKI Bonanza plane! Not anything to do with FIKI, but it proves there’s little advantage, other than “legal”, to FIKI over “inadvertent”. If “FIKI” is important to you, go for it. If a safe outcome to your flight is the “real goal”, apply some common sense to your flight planning rather than relying on “being legal”. And a last note, my Lancair “non-certified” TKS will out perform the “FIKI” Bonanza by 200%,. And I have 2.5 thousand hours flying in icing conditions in the Great Lakes region over the last 18 years with 4 different airplanes equipped with TKS. Tom

BTW, That is one sweet looking F Model. My first Mooney was an F. Tom

What the heck do you do in Ironwood?

I have a good friend in eastern OR I plan on stopping to see on trips to Port Angeles to see my sister. Who knows, you just might get that ride. Tom

I have always been fascinated with the Kitfox. Look forward to progress updates!! Tom

You hitting the Wings Program tonight at KIMT?

I have no interest in flying VFR on that long of a cross country, irrespective of the cost. I want the safety of positive control airspace. I’ll continue doing what I’ve done the last two years, accept the ground stoppage and wait it out. The purpose of this thread was to see if this was a typical “day after Christmas” issue, a “any day between Christmas and New Years” issue, or just a couple unique weather/traffic issues the day after Christmas the last two years. Tom

Jeez Erik, I just turn the hangar heat up from 50 to 68. No where near as much work for this Yooper. We even heat our outhouses now. Might even look at indoor plumbing next year. Tom

Early morning flight from Iron Mountain, MI (U.P.) to Milwaukee. Landed before the sun came up. Looking east at Sheboygan, WI and Lake Michigan. Tom

Kris, Griffin GA.....really. That's where my first Mooney, N929PG went after I sold it. I think it was Jim Gore, a doctor? His dad was a Mooney owner too. I actually delivered the plane to him. Tom

Yesterday was a bittersweet one. I spent the last couple days knocking out my final squawks on the plane for delivery, scheduled for Saturday. We actually came back early from Florida to allow time to prep and deliver the plane, which had been paid for back on the 27th. I flew down to Milwaukee to pick up Steve, the new owner. I arrived at 7 AM, let him fly it back to KIMT, teaching him the differences in my Rocket from his current "partnership Rocket". He did well. After loading all the stuff that went with the plane and taking him to lunch, I sent him off at about 2:30 PM. It was a more sad moment than I was expecting. Tom

Very nice Don! Brings back memories. Tom

I said I would snap some pictures but got a bit distracted and wasn't sure I would even make it home from Florida yesterday. Spent the first 3 hours in the morning with my lower stomach saying you're not going anywhere farther than 50' from a toilet. Finally cleared up my system and we departed around 10:15. I had been looking at a non-stop from Spruce Creek to Iron Mountain several days in advance, but a combination of increasing head winds and the need to file an alternate put me 7 gallons short of legal IFR reserves, which with the prop-jet is tight anyway. So.......I picked the best TAF across the route, Fort Wayne IN, which was looking like 2500-4500 ceilings. I should have known someone blew that forecast, as every other TAF in the area was reporting what I ended up with there, 700'-800' ceilings. I picked Smith Field, opposed to KFWA, as the fuel pricing was $2 a gallon cheaper. The runways were a little short, 2900' and 3100' for my Lancair, but I've done 2800' once with no problem (beta and reverse helps a lot!). I ended up doing the LNAV non-precision approach, with missed just below 600' and a 700' ceiling. The A/P flew it perfectly. I made the first turn-off. FWA Approach asked me to cancel when I broke out, to which I questioned how could I do that, the field was IFR being under 1,000 ceiling? Apparently they would just prefer we "don't talk about" what the actual ceiling is. When I called Flight Service, like 4 times, after landing, the phone lines were down. In a panic, I ran into the FBO and got KFWA Tower's phone number and called to cancel, and used the same number to get my clearance going out a few minutes later. All in, it took under 4.5 flight hours to fly home with headwinds the whole way and never saw the ground the whole trip. Tom https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20190102/1415Z/7FL6/KSMD https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20190102/1730Z/KSMD/KIMT

Just flight planned my trip from Spruce Creek (south of Daytona Beach) to Iron Mountain ( in the U.P.) for tomorrow morning and it looks like winds will allow my first non-stop trip home, 1200+ NM’s, in about 3:40 hours. I guess we’ll see if winds tomorrow match what was forecast this evening. I will try to post some pictures. Maybe a departure picture of weather in the 70’s and landing less than 4 hours later in the teens with snow and snow banks will put the trip in perspective. Tom