Skates97

I guess I could have been more specific. The thread was about the custom sunshade he made. I replied that I made my own for all my windows. If there's nobody in the back seat I will often leave the ones in the rear windows.

LA, we used to call it that when I was in Montgomery, Selma, and Tuskegee. The locals knew what we were talking about, everyone else was confused thinking we were referring to the left coast where I live now.

Completely off topic, but I didn't start it. The one thing I remember from living in Alabama 25 years ago was the habit that everyone had of putting their blinker on if the person in front of them was turning. I guess they thought it would help the person behind them know why they were slowing down. I would shake my head when three people had their blinkers on, the first one would turn and the next two would turn their blinker off and keep going straight.

I agree. Even if I had to replace them sooner than if I didn't use the reflective shades it's not going to break the bank.

I did the same thing for all my windows. The ones in the rear windows will often stay in place when flying on a hot day to keep it cooler.

Well done!

I went with the lightest tint they have. Even the light stuff makes a difference in the heat in the cabin. I appreciate the thoughts on the tint at night. After flying at night with the light tint on the rear windows many times and easily seeing through the rear tint lights, taxiways, other planes in the pattern and on the ground, etc I did put tint on the fronts. I haven't flown at night with it yet but plan on going flying this Wednesday evening. I'll see what I think of it and if I don't like it or feel it impedes my vision and safety I'll pull it and go back to the strip across the top of the window to just cut down on the sun beating down. I will provide an update after some night flight with it. I'm not sure how tint on the sides of the plane are going to cause a runway incursion or running into a ramp hazard. It seems to me that if you are paying attention to what is out your windshield that you won't wander across a hold short line or run into something. As a side note, I know that flying and driving are different, but I have been driving with light tint on my front windows for decades. It hasn't impacted my safety on the roads, many of which are much darker, less well lit, with worse signage than you get at an airport. (With some terrible drivers that you have to watch out for along with deer on mountain roads, pot holes, and lots of other FOD in the road. I guess I should knock on wood but 30 years of driving and never even a fender bender.)

Trim it as close as you can. If it is a little too big for the window then pull it away, trim a little off with scissors, and put back on. If you don't get it lined up you can pull it all the way off, spray a little water, and reapply. It's not a one chance type thing.

Looks great! Nicely done.

Had the 500 hour inspection done on the mags and got to take it up for a couple trips around the pattern before it was dark, and then made some short hops to local airports. (Still working on getting photos and videos for my July flights done... Flew 26.7 hours in July, a personal record for a single month. Stay tuned for an epic blog post this coming week. ) 500 Hour Mag Inspection – Night Flying

I'll be honest, despite reading that it is a non-event I was a little nervous the first time. I knew about what my burn was from previous experience (no FF gauge) and so did the math as to about when I expected to run out. I made a note of that time range (a window of about 15 minutes) on my knee-board and when it got to the beginning of the time I gave the fuel pressure gauge a more often glance than just my normal scan. The fuel pressure just slowly started dropping (at a steady rate) and I reached down and switched over before the engine quit. It really was a non-event as others had said.

Come on over, I'd be happy to help you do it.

I watched that one quite awhile back. It's a great video and I keep it in mind every time I am flying and see storms on my tablet. Thanks for sharing it!

I am trying to remember what is on my stick but I think I am somewhere at 5 gallons or so when I can just see the fuel barely in the bottom directly below the fill cap. I have run a tank dry and when I went to fill it was only able to put 24.5 in it (26 gal tanks) so I plan for 1.5 gallons as unusable.

I was out yesterday and replaced the tint on the one rear window that had gotten scratched up. I took pictures and wrote up how to tint your windows. I know many of you have already done it but others have expressed apprehension about doing it. Take a look at how easy it is. (And if you mess up a couple of times one roll of tint for $13.00 is enough to make a few mistakes and still have more left over. Window Tinting - Made Easy

Yes, and still waiting on them to be available for some models over a year later... We have a client in Australia that converts trucks to RH drive. They are waiting on air bags for Sierra's and Silverado's but we still can't get them. The last update I have from GM is from July 2016 saying they would be available in the 4th quarter of 2016... An example of a crazy one was I think the Camaro where they had us change the key. The ignition key had the key fob built into it, but if someone was really tall it was possible for them to hit their knee on the key which could turn the car off. So, you replaced it so the fob was separate from the key which made some people unhappy. It didn't affect very many people, and years ago they probably would have told people that were tall to just be careful and not bang their knee on the key, but in today's litigious society they still issued a recall on it.

The auto industry does this all the time. I've been on the Parts side of GM Dealerships for 25 years. The number of recalls that have come through that are ridiculous yet are fixed on the Auto Maker's dime are crazy.

I got behind the Cherokees I trained in on more than one occasion. One of the more interesting things I experienced in my PPL training was task saturation where your mind can't take on another task. Often it resulted in my CFI taking over the radio calls over the practice area do I could continue to concentrate on flying the plane. With more practice the radios and other tasks became second nature so that I could do more and more. By the end of my PPL I think I can say I never got behind the plane. 100+ hours into my Mooney ownership and every now and then I still get a little behind it. It's not just that there's a few more things to do with the prop and gear, it's just that you're going faster so you have to plan ahead better.

A&P said it is SOS and if I turn to the start position without pushing the key in I can hear the buzzing. He didn't want to try to change anything because I hadn't had problems and when they tried it would start up right away every time.

I've had my plane since December and have put over 100 hours on it. It has an O-360-A1D in it and the mags are Model 4370 (rev E) and 4347, with the shower of sparks. The only problems I ever had with starting was when it was hot and after I replaced the starter solenoid those went away. Other than that it has always started easily. I had the 500 hours inspection done on my Slick Mags. From what I knew they were at 530 hours. It's possible they were older than that because the log entry only says "swapped mags" as part of an engine tear-down after a prop strike about 10 years ago, but doesn't say how many hours were on them at that time. The mag checks were always good, but I went ahead and had them done anyway. The mag checks are now about what they were before, but it seems that it has more power. I've taken off from Corona 40+ times and know right where I typically leave the ground. Last night I was off the ground about 200+ feet sooner than normal for when I am flying alone. That doesn't make much sense to me because I was making 2,700 rpm before having the mags done and still making 2,700 rpm so I'm not sure what is making the difference, perhaps someone can explain it. Anyway... The A&P left me a message Monday that the plane was done and back in the hangar but to give him a call because there was something "odd" that they had found. (Not exactly what you want to hear). I called and he asked how long I had had the plane for and if I ever had trouble starting it. I told him since December and no with the exception of the starter solenoid. He said that when his mechanic was putting the mags back on that he didn't see a wire from the buzz box that would go to the retard points. He told him he must have just missed it, but they both looked and couldn't find one. He told him to go ahead and put everything back together but that he was sure it wouldn't start. They got it all together and tried starting it. Two blades and it fired right up to their surprise. They tried it four more times and every time it fired up after two blades. He told me he's still not sure why it starts without that wire running from the retard points to the buzz box, but that it starts so well he didn't want to add anything to it that wasn't already there.

I got my shirt but haven't been back out to the airport yet. I took a look at the pics so far and gave my vote to you. I figured you could use it more than me.

Go somewhere with a long runway that you aren't worried about getting it on the ground. Get into ground effect and then just try to hold it barely off the runway until it touches down. It doesn't take much nose up to do that. I've never flown a 172 so I can't comment on that, but compared to the Cherokee it doesn't feel like I'm really flaring much at all in the Mooney. Better yet, take up the offer from @Marauder to go get some landings in with them. Do a few where they are landing and you can just pay attention to the sight picture without worrying about flying the plane. Once you have that in your mind then it's your turn to try it. Going up with @MHemperly and watching him land helped me a lot to get the sight picture.

Wishing you a full, speedy recovery.

I'm there with you. I did't know that you had to push the brakes for the parking brake to work and if it was mentioned during my training I don't remember it. I just looked back at the checklist for the planes I trained in and the first step of the start up and run-up checklist was "Parking Brake Set." Even with the parking brake set I always had my toes on the brakes before starting the plane. And, after taxiing to the run-up area I already had the toe brakes engaged when I set the parking brake because I had just stopped us, but I never put it together that having the brakes on was required for the parking brake to work. It has also always been my procedure to stand on the brakes during run-up just as a backup in case the parking brake failed. (In fact, if the engine is running and I'm not moving I have my toes on the brakes, just in case). After I got my Mooney I had it in the hangar, pulled on the parking brake and got out. I leaned against the wing and it rolled a little so I thought, "That's a bummer, the parking brake doesn't work." It was after that I learned that you have to have the brakes on before pulling on the parking brake, turns out it works just fine.

I can second that. I got my Mooney when I had about 58 hours total and 152 landings, all in Cherokees. It wasn't until I was at about 60-70 hours in the Mooney and around 100 landings before I was feeling as comfortable landing it as I was landing the Cherokee. For me it is always about the speed and not flaring too much. Taking @donkaye's advice from other posts I try to trim for 80mph, hands off on final. In my plane that is usually almost all the way trim up. After that once I know I have the runway made (short final) I pull power and then "try" to fly it onto the runway with just a little nose up attitude. If I do that it is very smooth. The flare is much less nose up attitude than in the Cherokees. If I get too much nose up in the flare it will come down hard and bounce. One of my best landings was at the end of this video at Logan. Touchdown was right at the 1,000' mark, we barely even felt it touch the ground.