jaylw314

I've never heard of or looked into the FS210, sounds like an interesting way to spend more money... Ah, that's why. You're stuck with Foreflight, Apple and Garmin for everything

I don't believe so, the screws and base should be in contact with ground (the airframe via the grounding screw). Where are you checking the antenna wire and base? The base should be completely isolated from the airframe by the gasket to prevent dissimilar metal corrosion, but they both should be connected by the grounding screw (easier to replace a corroded screw/rivnut than the antenna or airframe).

Don't know about the C in particular, but I can't imagine carburetion is a huge factor in flying IFR. You'd use it if you suspected carb ice even with no visible moisture, which is what you'd be doing in VMC anyway. Carb ice might be more common in IMC, but I haven't read anything suggesting it is a frequent occurrence in IFR flying

The annoying letters are R, S and T. You have to twist the same distance in either direction, and they're common letters

Headaches are a normal part of IFR training. The sheer amount of focus required would put me on the couch for a few hours after every flight. It does, of course, become easier with practice. I have an autopilot but I almost never used it in training. In retrospect, I wish I had made a point of using it more often, because now I have difficulty including it in my IFR workflow. I frequently find that with the autopilot on enroute, in my pre-approach workflow, I'll do my approach briefing, set the radios, talk to ATC, set the altimeter, do my IF checks, roll onto the final approach course and then realize I forgot to press the APR button on the autopilot. In practice, safety statistics suggest we should be using autopilot about two-thirds of the time, and hand flying one-third of the time. I think I successfully done an autopilot approach twice so far, so I have a long way to go there... Anyway, my suggestion is to avoid using the autopilot routinely during training, but do make a point of using it for proscribed times during training.

I thought you were going to say "when I do, I drink Dos Equis!"

You're welcome! I looked at your panel again, and the way the 530 is recessed in the panel, do your knuckles take a beating when you're dialing the knobs on the 530? Sometimes your going to spin the dials really fast to get from "A" to "Z", so I was a little worried seeing that. If so, I wonder if the tray could be modified to be flush with or proud of the left and right instrument panels...

Those are easy to answer--I can recall reading about accidents where known failure of an AI was a contributing factor. Even though the AI failure was known, it fails in a way that still displays (incorrect) information, it becomes a distraction since it is part of the instrument scan, which contributes to disorientation. Hence the suggestion to carry around instrument covers so you can cover it up if it fails. I think the argument that this conclusion can be applied to glass is at least worthy of consideration. The glass panel IS the routine instrument scan, and it can have different failure modes, some of which may be more distracting than others. I don't know if you can turn them off without impacting other systems to minimize the distraction. While you can have backup instruments, they are generally NOT arranged in a fashion typical for your instrument scan, nor do most people practice this. I agree though, that the premise that glass instruments cause accidents is suspect. Glass is associated more with accidents, but that does not establish cause/effect. In fact, as pointed out already, the converse is equally likely to be true--that high-risk profiles "cause" people to have glass instruments.

The 530W is great. It's a bit dated, but the functionality in such a small space always surprises me. Look for little "gotchas" that are both good and bad so you're not surprised by them, such as-- Get used to the D-to>ENT>ENT sequence of buttons If you want to skip a waypoint and fly direct-to the next one, pick the waypoint on the Flight Plan screen and press D-to>ENT>ENT. If you want to fly he next course to a waypoint (instead of direct-to), use D-to>D-to>ENT instead. If you're flying to a waypoint, and want to reset your course to the waypoint from your current location, you don't need to go to the Flight Plan screen. Just use D-to>ENT>ENT from the map screen No, you can't put Victor airways in your flight plan. You do need to enter each waypoint. Save your commonly used airways as individual flight plans, then you can add them as modules. Alternatively, Garmin does sell a terrain card that doubles as a flight-plan card allowing you to transfer flight plans from your computer. If you don't have GPS steering (GPSS) to your autopilot, holding patterns with autopilot are tricky. On the other hand, the 530W automatically times or measures the ATD for your holds, which is fantastic There is NO altitude data in the approach or departure procedures, so you still need your paper charts immediately available When you add an approach to your flight plan, just load it with your best-guess IAF waypoint. Don't load it as vectors-to-final. It you do happen to get VTF, it's easy to change by pressing PROC and first option is "Activate Approach VTF". It's takes more button presses to load VTF and then change back to a waypoint IAF DON'T FORGET TO ACTIVATE YOUR APPROACH BEFORE YOUR APPROACH! and so on... Some of this stuff I'm paraphrasing from a website somebody made Also, Garmin has a free G530W training simulator on their website. It's not kept current, but it is close enough to be helpful poking around while you are on the ground. You'll find that you will need to develop a new IFR checklist to accommodate the 530W, but it's worth it. Practice with it for a while with a safety pilot or instructor for a while so you can figure out your own process. Practice losing the 530W with an instructor--you are obviously used to IFR without it, but you are probably not used to losing your primary NAV radio, glideslope, COM radio, as well as the sudden loss of situational awareness all at the same time. The first time you realize "Holy cow, I can run this approach without having to flip back and forth on two NAV radios!" will be an great day. Good luck and have fun with it!

I should point out that Section 10 in the J POH starts out on page 10-2 with "We have added this special section...to refresh your knowledge of a number of safety subjects. Topics in this section are mostly excerpts from FAA documents and other articles. They are not limited to any particular make and model of airplane, and do not replace instructions for any particular types of airplanes." In other words, there's no reason to assume anything in Section 10 is specific to the M20J, M20C or even any Mooney. I'm curious where the 6,000 ft came from, IIRC the AIM suggests 3,000 ft?

My annual rates the last 3 years for $125k hull value: $2200 - New owner, no time in type, VFR $1700 - 120 hours time in type (Starr) $1300 - new IFR rating (Global) All rates came through AOPA Insurance as the broker, and I just got the Global quote for this year. I can't remember the carrier for the first year. So no, I haven't seen a sudden increase, and the rates sound typical for my time-in-type and IFR rating

Ah damn, you beat me to it!

Holy cow, I hadn't heard of DME for lateral guidance before...

Hey, the KI-300 is supposed to be coming out soon!!!!

How did they get around the whole "need to be used for aviation purposes" thing there? I heard it was kind of an untold truth that the many hangars were blatantly rented out for non-aviation use

@carusoam, I've been reading your posts for a while and getting used to your writing style, but I gotta know--in real life, do you actually speak in bullet points all the time??

That might explain why your idle mixture might not be set correctly--your mechanic may not be able to do it if the rpm gauge wobbles too much at idle!

I knew about the cabin/baggage lights, but the cigarette lighter plug? That seems like a bad design decision... I assumed non-volatile memory in panel instruments must be in common use.

Mix it with with water down to about 30% and a few drops of dish soap and it makes a cheap kitchen countertop cleaner

Yikes. If true, at least...well, okay, if true, there's really nothing good there

Only way to have a siphon would be if the fuel vent line went to the BOTTOM of the fuel tank. Only a moron would design a fuel vent that way! FWIW I did have a wing fuel sump stick last year. It had been slowly dripping for a few months and I couldn't get it cleaned out. Boy, that was a fun experience. Frantically running around the hangar trying to find an empty bucket, then frantically trying to find a pencil to stick in it before the bucket filled up. I stole someone else's pencil, broke the tip off, and jammed it in. That gave me enough time to calm down. After some attempts at jiggling the fuel tester, I finally got it unstuck. Afterwards, the valve stopped dripping, so the 5 gallons of fuel must have cleaned out the debris. I still carry around the pencil I stole in my flight bag...

I used Cramer Decker Medical. $60 for a D cylinder, plus the (very reasaonable) cost of the valve. I order mine with the low-profile gauged CGA 540 valve. FWIW, new bottles are hydro-tested and the initial testing date stamped on the cylinder, so you don't need to do it the first time. I didn't realize that at first.

Here's the link to the Schumacher website. The manual is on that page. I glanced through the manual. It looks like it has a 20A constant-current charge cycle, a 2A constant-voltage cycle, and then a trickle charge maintain cycle. My guess is that when the charge current decreases to a certain point during the constant-voltage cycle, the charger goes to the maintain cycle to examine the battery voltage. If it is still too low, it goes back to the constant-voltage charging. The manual notes that during the maintain cycle, it will revert to charging if it sees a low battery voltage. FYI, some people say that 20A is too high for an AGM battery. Likewise, the voltage during the maintain cycle is probably for fluid electrolyte batteries, and can supposedly damage AGM batteries. Schumacher makes other chargers that specifically have an AGM option

I should point out pitot icing will not predictably display constant airspeed. It will ONLY do so if both the front aperture and the drain hole are iced over. If either opening is only partially blocked, the results would be much less predictable and confusing. You'd have an airspeed that looks right enough to make it difficult to identify the correct failure, but wrong enough to get you killed.

yuck. Oregon has no sales/use tax, and excludes aircraft and most vehicles from property taxes. Every little bit helps when SALT deductions are capped, thanks to the brilliant new tax laws.