jaylw314

Yuck. I wonder what would have happened if you had said "Cancel radar services, good day". That might have reminded the controller you are not under his control as VFR traffic, but I wonder if they would have wrongly sent out an intercept or violation based on transitioning an MOA FWIW, my last flight through your area, the Oakland controller was excessively friendly and helpful. He kept offering to have me go direct and cut corners off my planned route.

There is no clear distance/volume limit for FIS-B. I can pick up regional NEXRAD data for most of the west coast, as well as METAR/TAF data any airport I zoom in on. I have not seen any technical data on how FIS-B prioritizes data by distance from you (which seems unlikely since you can pick up FIS-B without ADS-B Out), if the data is limited by which local towers you are receiving (seems more likely), or if the data is not limited at all (seems unlikely since there is not unlimited bandwidth). Anybody know the answer?

I'd love to try them, but when I called, they weren't even taking a wait list for orders...

I use a Lightspeed Zulu2. 5 hour flights are OK, there is some discomfort by the end, but I don't think it's worth spending another $500+ on another headset.

I guess the question is how high the risk is with normal plastic jugs. If the risk is almost zero, as I suspect, conductive jugs would probably not be worth the cost. Most of the Darwin awards you hear about are people filling jugs in the back of their pickup truck. Then it wouldn't matter at all if the jug was conductive or not...

Is there any chance this is morning sickness? By the time you bring the engine back, the culprit exhaust valve might be unstuck. This could account for the power reduction and backfiring, and without an engine monitor there would be nothing to see on EGT and CHT unless it happened to be the monitored cylinder.

Did everyone else miss this? In one of his webinars a few months ago, Mike Busch mentioned how properly torqueing the through-bolts was crucial to proper function of the crankshaft bearings. If loose, the bearings can loosen and even rotate, which could cause a catastrophic loss of oil to that bearing. It makes me wonder if that was the root cause of part or all of the engine condition.

Yes it is poor, but if you have 1000x the contact area compared to a wire, it's pretty good. Yes, I was specifically thinking of plastic containers. Ideally, a metal container should be grounded to the airframe. Since you can't do that for plastic, the only thing would be to place it on the ground, since the airframe and ground voltages equalize over time if the plane is standing still. At least draining fuel should not build up a static charge on the airframe. I get that fuel builds static charge falling through air, but does it also build a static charge flowing through an insulated tube? That would also seem likely, but I don't know how significant that effect might be?

I purchased through AAA and would also recommend. I did everything remotely and bought the plane sight unseen (although I had a friend go out to complete the transaction and fly it back), and they followed up on all my requests and questions. I'm not suggesting they should be entrusted with everything, they are essentially used car salesmen, so some amount of ickiness comes with the business that you have to exercise your due diligence. On the other hand, they were responsive and did everything they promised to do. The only caveat for my experience is that I was buying a plane that was actually _owned_ by AAA. I think most of their business is sales by private owner, so that might have made them more motivated and responsive, so take my experience with a grain of salt.

Unloading fuel would be less of a problem since you can put any fuel canister on the ground to ground it. Putting the fuel back might be more of an issue. Is there a risk of static discharge when you pour fuel from a portable tank directly into the wing tank from above? Or are you supposed to leave it on the ground and use a hand pump?

There have been no fatal accidents on US certificated airlines since 2009 either in or outside the US.

I don't know if this is an issue in the K, but in the J the cabin heater SCAT tube is routed above the cowl flap bellcrank with almost zero clearance. If the SCAT tube got replaced or moved at annual, it could be interfering with the movement of the cowl flaps (and the mechanism will eat a hole in he side of the SCAT tube. In the end, my mechanic ended up squashing the SCAT tube a little bit to keep adequate clearance between the SCAT tube and the cowl flap mechanism.

Thanks, that's what I thought. In retrospect, the 530W's do not have altitude information on approach waypoints, so there's no way they could protect you from busting altitudes. I was thinking specifically of approaches with a stepdown fix inside the FAF.

Do WAAS navigators (I have a 530W) always use a 3 deg slopoe on LNAV+V, or or they adjusted for each approach so you don't bust any minimums on a stepdown approach? Or does it vary by navigator?

10:1 is a good ballpark for all Mooney's (or 2 statue miles for every 1000')

Finally back in action. Test flew today, no obvious squawks. Now to get back to getting instrument current.

I tried to call QT to see if I could be put on the waitlist for a headset a few months ago. Phil said he was so busy he was not even taking names for a waitlist.

Just get a stubby or palm screwdriver that you can use one-handed. Unclip the cowl flaps and you should be able to reach them by feel.

Yikes. What was the source of the copper? Is there any brass in a magneto, or was it just the coil? I'm guessing if the copper oxide is green, that it has been there for a fair amount of time now, since it takes time to produce the green copper sulfate from sulfur in the air...

Nice narrative, thank you. How bad was the smell of smoke flying through IMC for half an hour?? This summer we had fires up here in Oregon, and even though the smoke was not bad enough to cause IMC, I could barely keep my eyes open for the burning smell. We did get the Mooneygirl apparel, thank you! Merry Christmas!

Not a local guy, but I grew up there. IMO you should definitely use flight following or IFR there simply because it helps getting through the Miramar airspace which is just north of MYF. I flew down this summer on a weekday, it was not particularly busy. Of course, I had just flown out of Santa Monica throught he LAX airspace, so my brain might have simply been going in overdrive still... I should point out the news stories about the fires are suggesting Santa Ana conditions over the weekend. As opposed to the normally pleasant conditions, that means winds from the east that are gusty, hot and dry. By gusty, I mean 25-50 mph gusts, so check your weather briefing carefully.

Ha! I thought that was a funny way to say that. Kind of like how I had a cat that was half my age when I was 40, but alas, I am too old now. If you're under 18, you'll want to make sure the parents give the ok, even if you have a PPL. Just a thought

FWIW, if the rivet is loose, just hold the tail end with pliers when you drill it out.

Yes, I've been very grumpy at home for the last few months.

In all fairness, I'm short and can reach the pedals, but I'm so close to the instruments I need bifocals to see my panel