Yooper Rocketman

I used to feel the same way. Found those feelings even get more intense with something you built. Here's a non-stop flight coming home from the LOBO (Lancair Owners and Builders Org.) Annual Convention, in a plane I built in my garage! http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT Tom

Thinking about all our friends down in Florida. Hope it peels off to the north east! Tom

https://mooneyspace.com/topic/17176-engine-failure-fl190-yesterday/?tab=comments#comment-246662

Been there, done that!

I just completed some maintenance on my Lancair and flew about an hour late yesterday afternoon to verify everything was right (more avionic glitches, but found the problem). Anyway, after eating a box dinner I had brought along, I called a friend to take along for another 1 hour flight before dark. She was having dinner with a friend, and asked if he could come along as well. I said fine but when they arrived I thought he might have a medical condition when they walked from the car to the FBO, as he stumbled a bit. I asked who would be riding up front, and my friend said the guy would be. Boarding my Lancair for the co-pilot seat is difficult, and I always do a pre-boarding demonstration to ensure a safe and easy boarding. Well, he did NOT board as I described, and my alert neutrons went off. I discretely asked my friend if he had been drinking and she said YES. I promptly advised him he would have to deplane, as I could not allow him to fly with me if he'd been drinking. I could only imagine what bad could happen with someone in the front in such a complex plane without their faculties. I told him it was against FAA regulations (not sure if it is, but it helped support my decision). She elected to deplane too and my flight was done solo last night. It was too bad she wasn't more honest with the situation up front, as I could have called someone else to fly. As it was, it was too late to call anyone at the point I refused to fly them. My willingness to "just go flying to build hours", and providing an experience to others in this impressive plane will be dropping fast now as I passed my magic 150 hours on that last flight and these types of flights are pretty expensive. Taking a trip to Santa Fe for LOBO next week, and maybe sending it off for paint by the end of September. Oh, an Mooney related, I flew the Rocket over to Duluth, MN with a couple customers to buy a truck on Wednesday. It only took 15-20 minutes longer and bunch less fuel cost. That bird sure flies nice!! Tom

Well, I was blown away this past weekend. I am part of the oldest established "Pilot's Organization" in Michigan that was started in 1939 by a local aviation pioneer, Mario Fontana. Anyway, we had the August monthly meeting / dinner and a new member attended, a local business woman who has just started her private pilot lessons. At the end of the meeting I asked her what prompted her to become interested in learning to fly. She said she had been looking for something new to do for a while and grabbed her phone and showed me a picture of my pickup truck with the billboard for our airport day on the trailer behind it. She said "THE FOURTH OF JULY PARADE" and my entry (which she had no idea I was the person driving it). Guess it's nice to know the work put out to enlighten the public actually pays off sometimes. Tom

This site won't let me download the in flight pictures. Here's a link to the Lancair site which DID allow them to be downloaded. http://lancairtalk.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3507 Tom

My best friend/ hangar partner/ fellow Mooniac has not flown for 1 1/2 years due to a crazy medical issuance over the last 10 years that would have cost him over $10k a year for a 9 month medical (3 months tied up in review every year). And that's for a medical condition the discovering doctor now thinks was a misdiagnosis. So.... every 3-4 years he was able to convince the VA to perform all the expensive tests and he would fly for 9 months and then go into inactivity again. Well, he got his BasicMed on Friday and, with his E model down waiting on a MT 3 blade prop (should arrive this month), I checked him out in my Rocket. He had 38 hours in it over the years, but it's been quite some time since he flew it. We did same air work and 4 landings. He greased 3 of them nicely. I felt totally comfortable with him flying the Rocket without me. Our neighboring EAA Chapter was having an airport day yesterday and they wanted me to bring the Lancair up, but also wanted the Mooney so I could help with Young Eagle flights. Steve agreed to fly the Rocket up, and I had a little side trip to Manistique, MI, flying a doctor friend over to Traverse City, MI. That flight turned a 4 hour drive into a 22 minute flight. As you can see my fried was pretty happy on the ramp in KTVC when we arrived. After that flight I pointed it to Houghton and got up in the flight levels to see if my awesome True Air Speeds in the winter would drop with warmer weather (thankfully they didn't). I flew the first Young Eagles in the Mooney , showing Steve the tricks to hot starting my Rocket. We alternated for a couple trips and then he just stayed with the Rocket while I did a couple flights in the Lancair (one Y.E. and a flight for an old friend/customer that is an A&P/IA/PP). With the exception of his first start, Steve started every time afterwards like he owned the plane. I WAS IMPRESSED. We had arranged for fuel and to leave after his last flight when I discovered a group of 8-9 girls sitting on the now quiet ramp, hoping they would still get their airplane ride. I noticed all the planes with more than 2 seats had left, with just two "2 seaters" left. I talked with Steve and we decided to grab a plane load each and help get those girls a ride. The picture below shows them next to the 17 year old pilot (accepted to the Air Force Academy) after they all got their ride. It's pretty clear they were happy campers! Steve brought his wife's good camera with a telephoto lens on it and captured some air to air on the way home. I tried to load them but they wouldn't go. I will try them later. We were two tired pups as we pushed the planes in the hangar, but what a rewarding day! Tom

Good God guy, what did you do? Tom

Looks like a pretty clear case of FAKE NEWS

I flew into Anoka (just north of Minneapolis) on Saturday and was given a crossing restriction "cross 15 east of KANE at 4,000'". I had a retired airline (and Air Force) pilot with me and we decided to start down right away. Looking at my descent it was pretty aggressive, but even pulling power (we dumped a 100 knots) and the aggressive descent rate I found we were not going to make the restriction without a 360. I called MSP approach and said "it looks like it's going to be tight making the crossing restriction", hoping he would have an option. He came back immediately with "pilots discretion to 4,000'". I would have missed it by 600' without a turn or the new clearance. Good folks at MSP! http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N994PT/history/20170729/1230Z/KIMT/KANE/tracklog Tom

The more I look the less it's likely there are ANY turboprops capable of 280 knots indicated. The Brasilia and the DO-328 have VNE at 250k. Wonder if whoever wrote that STAR knew what max turboprop speeds were?

I'm about 220 NM north of you (KIMT), and will have my Rocket for sale before too long (6 months +/-). I don't fly it much now or would offer to meet up the next time I'm down that way. Tom

I was always told "assigned speeds" were "IAS". I know of no turboprops capable of 280 Knots "indicated". Even the TBM has a VNE under that (266k). A Cessna Conquest is 247 knots. I file 300 knots but my VNE is 274 knots indicated. I don't see how ANY turboprops can comply with that procedure? Tom

So you flew right over Oshkosh and you didn't stop? Tom

I've flown 4 different planes with the TKS installation, 3 non-FIKI and 1 FIKI. I've only had one pump fail and it was on the FIKI Bonanza, where I was glad I had the second pump (although I had altitude options that day as well). Ironically, I have had the most issues in reliability with the known FIKI plane and it's the only system that let me down in an icing encounter (nothing to do with the certification level on that particular issue). The redundancy does not extend to the filter, which plugged on me. I noticed upon my first TKS installation (my Mooney Rocket) that if you use a hand pump to extract the fluid from the drum, it will leave tiny bits of black rubber in the fluid. Luckily I was skeptical of this, had used a paint filter in the funnel and it was the only way I would have been able to see the contamination. Fast forward several years to the Bonanza TKS planes (owned by our mercy flight organization. I had warned everyone to NOT use a pump unless they filtered the fluid and one pilot didn't believe me. I had actually pulled the pump out of the drum and supplied a barrel stand to gravity fill the containers, yet they started using the pump again. Wish he had been the one flying the day the filter plugged and the system quit! Our maintenance shop had to completely drain the tank and flush it (while disconnected from the filter) to clean the contamination out. Tom

Initial report was it's totaled.

Works on all the Lancair's. You're on your way to building one now! :> ) Tom

Saw on interesting presentation by Mike Busch this morning about runnng past TBO. Seems the hard data shows serious engine failure rates are significantly higher in the first 500 hours after overhaul than any other time frame of the engine's life. The engine time reviewed went well past TBO on the charts without ever getting back up to the rate of newly rebuilt engines. Amazingly when I toured the Continental Engine Factory last fall and discussed my 400 past TBO engine in the Rocket, EVERY tech or manager I spoke with said " keep running it!" Anyway, oils came up during the presentation and he recommends Aeroshell W100 and Camguard as the best oil for present engines and avgas ( with lead), providing you can work within the ambient temps conducive for straight weight oil. Phillips 20/50 XC was his recommendation for multi viscosity for good reason. The Aeroshell multi viscosity is 50% synthetic, which would be his first choice if not for leaded fuel. Only petroleum based oils will suspend lead so the lead scavenging ability of Aeroshell multi weight is half that of Phillips 20/50XC. As far as W100x, he felt the additive package in Camguard was better than that and using two additives (W100X AND Camguard) was of no benefit As usual, Mike presented hard facts to back his presentation. I highly recommend finding this one on the EAA website where he has something like 70 forums on record. Tom

Hey!!!! Be careful.........your chances of a ride are dwindling fast! Tom

Yep, looks like the same system. Checked you on Flight Aware. No grass growing under the tires on your Mooney! Nice looking bird! Tom

I flew down to a Hamburger Social for supper last evening. Got to see an ex-Lancair builder/owner that I had helped close one wing (for which he returned the favor and drove up to my shop to close one of mine as well). I hadn't seen him in 5 years, got to see my Lancair completed and watched my start-up and departure. I had to watch a system moving in in the event a deviation was required. It wasn't, but got pretty rough as I passed the leading edge of it coming in near Green Bay. I will pass 135 hours this morning when we go to KIWD to close on a new semi-truck! 150 hours, here we come! Tom

Sorry 201er. Yes you get kudos too. But you and I seem to be on the short list of flyers that do over 1,200 nautical miles on one tank of fuel, which kind of shoots my original theory in the foot. I didn't envision back then owning a plane like I do now, and surely didn't (and don't ) have the back side to handle the long ones you do. I can do those long ones because of speed. You do them because of tenacity and borderline craziness. Tom

Funny you say that. There's one based out of Heavens Landing GA and his tag line when he posts on the Lancair Forum is "Enlightened Mooniac". That said, in 130 hours in the Lancair, with pretty impressive ground speeds, I've never had ATC say a word to me. In contrast, the last flight to Florida in my Mooney Rocket at FL230, a real nice tail wind and ground speed of 297 knots, ATC asked me if I was a prop-jet Mooney. The next flight down there in the Lancair I saw 395 knots and not a word? Go figure. Tom

It may be fairly soon. I need to fly down to Deland so my engine guy can look at the engine. He wants to perform an inspection somewhere between 100 and 150 hours (I just passed 130 hours yesterday flying with @tigers2007 ). Your weather hasn't been conducive to me wanting to come down lately though. In a couple weeks, Spruce Creek will have the airport shut down for repaving for 3 weeks too, so I'll have to drive over to my house if I want to stay overnight. Tom