Skates97

I made a home built one that pulls the air across the radiator and through a manifold, the air never comes in contact with the water. It does a good job, even leaving Phoenix when it's 100°+. https://intothesky.com/homemade-ac/

A few years ago they had commercial flights that couldn't leave PHX because it was hotter than what they had performance charts for.

It's just a little bit of sweat! Talk to all the guys in AZ. I have done pre-flight on the plane there when I had to wear gloves because the skin of the plane was too hot to set my hand on it.

I agree 100%. A few years back we were leaving KTCY up near Sacramento. It was reporting clear and I think about 5 miles visibility. On the ground you could look up and see the sun and a little bit of blue. Take off and at about 1,500' AGL it transitioned to the smoke and zero forward visibility with no horizon. You could look down and still see ground straight down. It was like that for about 1,000' until on top of what was a thin layer. It is much different than taking off into an overcast where you have a good idea where the bases are and when to get on the instruments before going in. With smoke, there doesn't seem to be a "base," the visibility just sort of melts away and if you aren't paying attention you could be in trouble quick.

They are, but I like the regular burgers more. They get them from Harris Ranch, good beef.

Clean the engine, put the dye in, take it around the pattern once and then put a black light on it. If you fly it more than once around the pattern it will blow all over and you wont' be able to track it down. We were chasing a leak for a bit until my AP/IA had me go this route. He put a black light on and it was obvious that it was the quick drain for the oil that had a very slight leak. Never had any drips on the wheel, but it was coming up out of the top/front of the cowl and back towards the windshield.

Will do, tell Deborah hello from us. I don't think we'll make Tampa this year. With Oshkosh and a number of other trips I'm about tapped out on vacation days. I don't have sun visors so the windshield strip helps. I also have some scraps that get put up on the front side windows in cruise and even across the top of the windshield for an extra layer if the sun is right there. On descent I will pull them off the windows, fold them up, and shove them in the back pocket of the seat. If I'm wearing a hat (almost always when flying) I wear them like that. If I don't have a hat on I wear them like you do, but then the mic seems to wander around and after 3+ hours I feel them on the tops of my ears. Wearing them up on the hat, the mic stays in place better and I don't even notice them there.

That would be funny. Side story, when I was doing my night cross country for my PPL I decided to go to KTRM which has a field elevation of -114'. I thought it would be cool to land below sea level. We landed, and the altimeter had stopped at 0'. I commented that it was a ripoff and my CFI said "I can adjust it down for you," reached over and turned the knob on the kollsman window to put it below zero. Yep, just a short trip over for lunch. The burgers are good but I got their DC-3 chicken sandwich instead this time. It was very good.

I didn't even notice the vehicle until watching the video later. I was keeping an eye on the guy holding short and the runway in front of me. The road isn't used much, we've been there a bunch and made the hike on the airport perimeter trail a couple times and rarely see any vehicles. Most of them are going down the road to Avalon.

A short hop from Fullerton to Catalina. The channel was covered in a marine layer that also covered most of Catalina Island. The airport was sitting just above the tops of the clouds living up to its name "The Airport in the Sky." There was a lot of traffic in and around the airport but we easily slid in behind a Pilatus. A year ago when we were going to AVX regularly the landings were smooth. This time, after 8 months between flights there, the upslope got me and it was more "planted" on the runway than "touched down."

The control wheels (yokes) aren't the problem. it is the shafts. The shafts are all the same OD, but the newer shafts are thicker with a smaller ID. You can do like @wings_level did and get shafts from Mooney or try to find a used set off a newer Mooney that isn't subject to the AD.

Mine is right next to the baggage door. Required removal of the interior above the baggage compartment and the lower trim along the left side to run the cable.

Life jacket, Spinlock Deckvest 6D (on recommendation from @Hyett6420). Easily converted from auto to manual inflate, extremely comfortable, you don't even notice you are wearing it. I knew on the approach I would be over the water and also on departure from TOA back to FUL. Not to mention that if I had to ditch, the best place is going to be just off shore in the water. It is more expensive than a lot of the other ones out there, but if I have to go in the water off the coast I feel much better about having it than the others that are commonly used. It has a crotch strap, spray hood, and lifting loop. Andrew could speak better than I can to the benefits of it compared to others. https://us.binnacle.com/product_info.php?products_id=15056

The "May Gray" weather in the LA Basin makes for great IFR practice. Typical ceilings are between 1,200-1,400' with tops around 2,000-3,000. I took advantage of it to fly IFR from FUL to TOA. FUL was overcast at 1,400' and TOA overcast at 1,000'. Tops for the flight were at 2,200' which gave time in IMC prior to the turn to intercept final. The video contains all comms between myself and ATC, the sections without comms specific to my plane have been sped up between 5-800% to shorten the length of the video.

No paper towels, they are abrasive and will scratch it up. Buy some micro-fiber towels, they can be found everywhere. I only use new ones on the windows and windscreen. After they become used they are relegated to use on the rest of the plane.

Try this again. If it won't download send me a PM with your email address and I'll email it to you. Rear Folding Seat Mod.pdf

DuBois there at CNO still has their M20B that has manual gear.

My wife and I tried to watch it, she's the one that said it was so ridiculous she was done watching. Even from the beginning of the problem flight they go from a climb at I think it was around 10,000' when the pilot flops forward onto the yoke and they are now in a dive. A few seconds later they pull out of the dive just above the trees and then are back in a climb at altitude (with the auto-pilot still on despite the previous dive). There are scenes where the flaps are flapping up and down independently (I guess they are called flaps...) and a multitude of other things wrong. The movie has him screaming in over the numbers and down the runway, fast enough he would have never landed it. Reality is his speed was fairly good and he said it was one of his best. He had about 230 hours in 172's and 150 hours of recent time prepping for his Instrument ticket. The movie shows him as having only a introductory flight in a 172 that didn't go well. The real story is not as exciting, but it's a movie based on real events, not a documentary. AOPA had a good article about it when it happened back in 2009. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2009/april/14/unintentional-king-air-pilot-an-interview-with-doug-white Edit: Here's another article from NBC. He was only in the air about 30 minutes from when he called up ATC and was on the ground. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna30190350

Probably not a lot of difference in the paint, but if there was body work to take out dents and dimples in the plane that can add some weight.

I ordered them through Precision Hose https://www.aircrafthose.com/ and was happy with the price and service. In February 2022 I paid $76.68ea for them. I didn't need to send in the old ones, limited down time, had them ready to swap out during annual.

I used to do the same thing. I changed procedure. I will stuff a couple old rags under it up against the mount. Remove the entire piece of safety wire to have that out of the way, loosen it up with the wrench and then spin it off quickly and let it fall into my hand. If I spin it quickly it keeps most of the oil from running down and I end up with a few spots of oil on the rag. Edit: I should add that this is after letting the oil drain so most of the oil is out of the filter. This is what they end up looking like.

I don't disagree, I was just pointing out to the OP that there is another option for the step. I didn't remove it for the weight difference. I have gained more useful load by shedding my own extra weight than by anything removed or updated in the plane. It looks like currently $295 for an overhauled pump from Aircraft Spruce, which will fail again in another 500 hours or so. I was putting in G5's and the M20D's don't have a wing leveler so there was no reason to keep it, other than for the step. I did all the labor under supervision so no cost there. I was kicked out of the CB club a long time ago, the $435 for the conversion is a drop in the proverbial bucket. One unnamed benefit, if you do your own oil changes, not having a vacuum pump makes it so much easier.

No, you don't need to remove the baggage compartment interior. You go in through the panel to the avionics bay on the left side of the plane. You don't even have to rewove the interior as you can feed the wire from the back to the front through the existing vacuum line that is no longer needed. AS-IOM-001_Rev 3 - Electric Step Conversion.pdf

Get the electric step conversion from @takair, it's an easy install and worth it to ditch the vacuum system. http://flightenhancements.com/auto-step.html

I like straight lines on the short bodies. When it came time to paint I sent the graphic designer pics of some designs I liked and what I liked about them. One thing I wanted was a dark color on the leading edge to more easily see if it is picking up ice. Lastly was incorporating my logo in the tail. There was back and forth as he refined different ideas, I'm very happy with the result.