Skates97

Needed to get a flight in today to keep my streak going for flying every week. Today was week 49, just three more to go to hit my goal of 52 weeks. Short hop from FUL to POC for some breakfast in between some small cells pushing through the area.

Yep, waiting with my checkbook!

Having a carb you get a fair amount of warning as the fuel pressure slowly drops. I've been running a tank dry on long cross country flights for almost nine years now. Never any issues. Three times I didn't catch the fuel pressure drop and the engine quit. Not a big deal. You will also see a surge in fuel flow as the bowl refills after switching tanks. Also as Mike mentioned early in the thread, the next time you switch to that tank there may be a brief interruption in flow as the lines that had air in them fill with fuel. Once I ran a tank dry, switched over, and finished the flight. Topped both tanks and started on the tank I landed on. One hour into the flight I switched tanks and saw my fuel pressure and flow start dropping so quickly switched back thinking "What was that?" Then I realized it was probably air in the lines from the previous flight. Switched back and after a brief moment the pressure and flow came back to normal and continued on. This is why I run it dry, my personal minimum is on the ground with 10 in the tank I'm landing on, not 10 gallons split between the tanks.

And it's very helpful to have it sitting on a towel when you take it apart to keep that little steel ball in between the two halves from running away....

This one with the USB mini fits the Ghost X. https://www.nflightcam.com/products/nflightcam-gopro-audio-power-cable The XL uses a USB-C port and I tried the NFlightCam cable that has that connection but could not ever get the XL to pick up the audio.

I have a few Drift Ghost X cameras. One I use with the Nflightcam cable to capture the radios. The Drift Ghost XL will give you almost 7 hours of battery if you have the wifi off on it, I love it for the longer flights under the wing. I just recently bought a DJI Action Pro 5 and the stabilization and picture quality is amazing, a huge step up from the Ghost. They claim up to 4 hours battery if wifi is off on 1080 with stabilization but I am seeing about 3 1/2 hours.

We fly out of some high DA airports in our D with it's whopping 180hp. I have found it's never a problem leaning on the roll. I know where my EGT's are taking off at 100' MSL from home base and lean to "about" that number on the roll. Even out of KPSO with DA's above 10k we don't have a problem, it doesn't climb fast but it is safely doable. You have to know that the deck angle is going to be different that what you're used to seeing, it's going to climb slower, and you just let the plane give you what it can. Pulling back to climb faster doesn't work as others have mentioned. The DA in this instance shouldn't have caused issues.

I have done all sizes. The small ones in crates, the big ones clipped into a rear seat belt so they can't get up front. I should have followed your #1 and #3. I was bringing a Dobe mix from AZ back to CA. He was fine the entire flight but got just a little antsy before landing when I smelled something. I've had Dobe's for about 15 years and they can clear a room with gas so I didn't think much of it until after landing when I saw there had been an accident in the back seat. It took quite a bit of cleaning, and was the last time I took a dog not in a crate.

I practiced it with my instructor and consider 900' my minimum to allow for startle factor. The really eye-opening part of it is how much you are looking at the ground as you come around to keep your speed up. It was much more nose down than I expected. Every takeoff I brief an abort point on the runway if I am not at 60mph, option immediately following takeoff (somewhere ahead), and traffic pattern altitude -100' as "able to turn back."

I should really start putting up pictures of my flights here... Yesterday checked a couple more SoCal airports off the list. Fallbrook L18 with it's 2,150' runway and Oceanside KOKB with it's "long" 2,172' runway.

You're a short hop from Art Craft in Santa Maria. https://intothesky.com/2023/01/17/art-craft-paint-review/

Agree, pre-loads are supposed to be checked every annual. I had a similar issue once early on with my plane. Jacked the plane up, released the gear, took out the thumb button which was all gunked up and cleaned, lubed, and replaced along with the shaft where the handle slides up and down. Made a big difference. I agree with the others that if it suddenly became difficult without any maintenance performed I would look for something jamming the mechanism.

I had a friend who would say "Buy the best and cry once." I agree it is worth it. I flew 500+ hours with nothing, not even the positive control wing leveler because they didn't put them in the D's. I like having the trim button on my yoke and being able to adjust trim after taking off, on go arounds, and on approach while leaving my right hand on the throttle. There are times I wish I had put in the Yaw damper servo as well like you did.

I have a 12v in the baggage compartment that I plug it into. It sits on the backseat when not being used. I'll set it on the floor just in front of the rear seat with the exhaust/outlet facing forward to keep it from overheating when in use. I'd leave it there all the time but it prevents me from sliding my seat in my D all the way back to get in/out. It came with cannulas which are nice. I bought a splitter and hose off Amazon so my wife and I can both use it. At 13,000' and below on 6 it keeps our sats in the upper 90's. https://a.co/d/4QcLfvv https://a.co/d/7wjEJ0u

And it looks amazing!

You realize if he does that he won't be able to afford the plane, the girlfriend, or the former wife...

Strut https://a.co/d/7ZPotq1 Mounts https://a.co/d/3QK0t1r https://a.co/d/2MqoNHH Would have to track down the entry but it was something like "Replaced door hold open arm with gas strut."

Best tip I ever received for adel clamps is to clamp it down, put a piece of safety wire around it to hold it closed, after getting the bolt/nut on clip and remove the safety wire before tightening all the way.

Cabin Door Baggage Door

Will be at the hangar next Wednesday and can get a couple pictures.

Mine would never stay open and would hit me in the back all the time. My IA didn't have a problem with me putting a small gas strut on it. It holds the door open great, when taxiing or doing runup the prop wash closes it to about 2 inches and then opens back up smoothly at idle. After my baggage door arm got bent terribly by a mechanic I put a small gas strut on that as well. It's nice because as it closes it goes over center and applies pressure to keeping the door shut. Not sure if it would make a difference if the baggage door wasn't latched and not will to try that experiment... They're similar to this but I would have to look at the length and weight rating to see what I have on there, I ordered a few different ones before settling on which worked best.

Haven't eaten any of the "food" from A&W but the rootbeer floats got us through a few hot afternoons! There was a food truck with Mexican Food by Exhibit Hangar B that was halfway decent in 2021 and 2023.

Put static cling tint on the rear windows, it makes a huge difference. Easy to do yourself and cheap. Keep a few scraps to place on the front windows in cruise or even up on the windshield to cut down on the sun. When not using them just fold them up and put them in the seat pocket. https://intothesky.com/2020/06/02/window-tinting/ You can also make your own window shades out of this stuff. Cut to size they stay in the windows just fine, if it's a hot summer day I'll leave them in the back left window the whole flight as it doesn't affect visibility and in the back right window in cruise. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Reflectix-R-21-50-sq-ft-Unfaced-Reflective-Roll-Insulation-24-in-W-x-25-ft-L/3011904 I also made a homebuilt a/c similar to the B-Cool that @Fritz1 mentioned. We use it in the summer if we're going to AZ. https://intothesky.com/2017/08/20/homemade-a-c/

I have the Inogen G5 and got it through Main Clinic like @Ragsf15e. All they required was a copy of my pilot's license. I've been at 13,000 with my wife and I both on it set at the max of 6 and we were both in the mid 90's. I have a 12v outlet in the baggage compartment we plug it into. I've been at 11,000' on it by myself and my sats stayed at 98-99. We use it anytime we're above about 8,000' (which is almost every flight out of SoCal) just because we both feel better after the flight and it doesn't cost us anything to use it.

I'm with the crowd on this one, not a fan of either one. The top one doesn't do much for me and the bottom has too much going on in addition to the dark fuselage. You could try reaching out to Robert at Flight Lines design. https://www.flightlinesdesign.com/ I worked with him when coming up with the paint scheme for my plane. I gave him ideas and pictures and then he ran with it giving me different schemes and modifying as I told him which parts I liked and which I didn't like. One thing I am very happy with was putting a dark color on the leading edge. I did it specifically to be able to see any ice building and it has been great. The few times I have picked up ice it stood out easily where on the white I'm not sure it would.