AaronDC8402

We've got a GNS-480 and Garmin 330 as well. Any reason why you didn't decide to get ES upgrade for your 330? I haven't done anything yet to look for pros/cons of that versus other options.

The popular thing with my local pilot friends right now seems to be doing aerobatic training. A couple of the local flight instructors offer it. It's fun and teaches some skills and situations you're likely to not encounter otherwise. That's the next thing I intend to work on once my excitement wears off from the Mooney (just got it 6 weeks ago).

I second the idea of bringing some child entertainment of some sort. My toddler son has flown with us a handful of times (previously in a 182RG and now in the Mooney). Of all the flights, he has slept only one leg of one flight. Left with nothing else to do, it's a struggle to keep the hearing protection on. Keep his mind off of it, and he doesn't seem to mind. When he was an infant, I worried more about shallow climbs and descents. Once he turned 1, I started getting a little more relaxed about it. At 18 months, he didn't seem bothered at all. He's nearly two now, and his excitement at the sight of airplanes is unbelievable. I guess he's hooked. Getting the bulky car seat into the Mooney is a little more difficult than the 182. The back seat of the Mooney is a lot more comfortable and the WnB envelope is more accommodating, so Mama can sit with him in the back.

How did you know the fan had died, if you don't mind me asking? I fly a 1989 J as well. The check list calls for listening for it, but I've never been 100% certain if I'm hearing a fan or the turn coordinator, etc. All avionics function as they should, so I assume they're cool enough.

I finished building my headset a couple weeks ago. I've got about 8 or so hours flying with it now. Ended up being $80 in parts. Haven't even thought about using the Lightspeed lately. I put together a short video to show the components I used and the very basics of how to connect it together. Sometime soon I'll put together a better video to show more of how to build it and some in-flight video with audio.

Thanks! It looks like I was headed in the right direction. Any idea how it is attached to the engine? The tach generator threads onto another piece (adapter?) that attaches to the engine case. The adapter piece to the engine is what seems a little loose, but only in the up/down direction. Is there a seal in there that might need to be replaced?

Oh yea, the label is there, but a little damaged. In particular, where the part number is located. Picture below. The date on the label is May 1988, so I'm guessing it's original to the plane. It's got the original tach over on the far right of the panel.

We did the first oil change on 1ZX last week. This was the first time since buying that we had both the top and bottom cowlings off of the plane. There seems to be a small oil leak on the back of the engine. I attached a picture of where the leak seems to be coming from. Hopefully, there's enough of a picture to be helpful. I've got two questions: What is this thing? My best guess is a tach sending unit, but i expected there to be a cable for the tach instead of electric. How is this fitting attached to the engine? The whole sending unit moves up and down a little. Seems to only move in one axis. The oil change went great otherwise. Nothing "extra" in the oil filter. A quick drain was already installed, and works like it should. I've got some ideas for making less of a mess with the oil filter next time. The oil leak must not be too bad. No puddles under the plane, and we've only put in about 1 quart every 7 or 8 tach hours.

Looks like a few of us had the same thought in a short amount of time.

Is it leaking where the valve stem meets the wheel? Or out of the center of the valve stem (where you fill it)? If it's the center, you just need a new valve or to tighten the valve. No need to remove the tire for that.

Thanks for the suggestion to change the setting. Now I'm seeing most of the VFR flights. When I look at position only flights, I see a message, "This flight is restricted from public view". Any of you seeing that as well? Any suggestions on how to fix it. I can't seem to find anything in the settings.

That's a good price on the GDL if it comes with a battery too. Before I bought mine, I looked for a used one. Used ones were nearly the same price as buying new, so that's the route I went.

The PlaneCovers cover is really nice. Awesome fit, good materials. The near plane definitely has nicer paint finish.

It is. The other plane seems to be based at GVL. I didn't run across the pilot or ask the line guys about it.

I was surprised to see another 201 parked next to ours on the ramp today. Different paint scheme, but similar colors. I can't help but figure the line guys put them next to each other on purpose. It was fun to see a couple of them together.

Tony, I'd suggest starting with leaving a card or letter, etc. with contact info at the hospital for the pilot and/or family.

I figured out that my flight instructor has a Clarity Aloft headset that he uses in his aerobatics plane. I have only ever seen him wear a Bose Aviation X in less exciting planes, so I had a good idea what his opinion was. My instructor had a few days off from aerobatics, so he offered to let me try out his CA. I flew about 3 hours with it today. I'll be doing another 3 hours tomorrow before returning it. The headset I use under my racecar helmet utilizes a set of headphones called PlugFones. The foam replacement pieces fit on the Clarity Aloft headset, so I elected to use those instead of my instructor's used foam pieces. It definitely felt weird being in the plane without my ears covered. Based on placement of the mic (doesn't reach the front of your mouth), I didn't expect that to work real well either. Initial fitment of the formed wire piece that fits over your ears didn't seem right. After 30 minutes of flying, I've decided I really like the in-the-ear concept. The formed wire part even felt comfortable. The sound quality of incoming radio calls is great. I asked a few controllers how my transmissions sounded. All reported loud and clear. The CA headset is better than any other passive headset that I've used. I was surprised at how clearly I could hear the sound of air around the plane and the engine while both still being incredibly quiet. The experience is tough to describe. Since I've very much a DIY'er, I'm going to take a stab at making my own in-the-ear headset. I've already started ordering parts. The headphone portion will be the same PlugFones that I'm used to. I'll start a new thread to document the build as I sort it all out. So far, it's looking like I'll have about $100 in parts. We'll not discuss the time investment or it'll take the fun out of it. Thanks again for all the input and opinions.

As others mentioned, the manual gear extension is between the front seats. I'm already familiar with that from my cross training. Oxygen makes sense based on proximity to the gage and pilot's O2 connection. Such a wealth of knowledge here. Thanks!

I thought all 201's have a fixed step?

A new question came up today. What is this that I have pointed out in the attached picture? It looks like there used to be a crank handle attached to it.

Good to hear that I'm not crazy for considering it. This has been prompted by my Lightspeed Sierra's needing to be sent back a second time for warranty repair. It would be nice to have a second good headset. I like the LS headset a lot when it's working, but having the problems with it makes me second guess buying another set.

Do any of you have any experience with in-the-ear aviation headsets? There are a few that show up most prominently when searching the internet (Clarity Aloft, Quiet Technologies, Faro). The in-the-ear headsets have some cool features: lighter weight, less bulky, no semi-permanent ear cup impressions on your head. I've had good experience with foam ear buds for communication in my race cars. Good, clear comm's to and from the airplane are most important. Decent sound quality for music is really nice too. I can find reviews for all three of the headsets I mentioned, but no comparisons of any of them. All the reviews I can find seem to be basically paid advertisements. Any slightly less biased opinions would be greatly appreciated.

I looked at this plane in person pretty early on in our J search. It checked a lot of boxes for us. We didn't test fly it, but we looked it over pretty well on the ground. The paint is fresh, but has a couple of imperfections at rivets and seams. The interior is simple, but nice and relatively new. I had mixed feelings about the vinyl wrapped interior panels. When we looked at it, it was listed at $120k. It was a little over our budget of $100k. Ultimately, we had a little trouble spending over our budget for a plane with that much time on the engine. I did like that the owner has oil analysis done every oil change, and had good reports from that. The paint scheme looks nice, but we also don't really like red. That pushed us to keep looking. At $110k, you're getting a lot of avionics in a nice plane. No reason not to expect hundreds more hours on the engine too.

Thanks for the reply! We're having the same problem with our S-TEC 60-2, but we don't have an Aspen or 2nd Aspen. The autopilot controller was recently removed and re-installed. We're hoping for just a poor electrical connection during installation.

Sorry to resurrect such an old thread. Did you ever confirm that you had a connector issue? Or was it something else?