Skates97

Hope so, the trip to NC this summer ate up a good chunk of my vacation but was completely worth it. Next year I should be able to fit in Oshkosh. I am planning an Alaska trip but I think that one will be in 2021.

Going through pictures as I'm writing up our trip and noticed that one of these is a MS member at the Mid-Atlantic clinic, @kpaul, look familiar? I believe the ones here on the tablet are the two of you, as I departed right after.

Went to the airport before work Tuesday and finished cleaning the bugs off from our coast to coast trip, then went by the airport after work to fly. My hangar neighbor had just got back from spending the day at Catalina so I visited with him and his wife for about an hour and then went up for a short little flight. Just a quick little flight, made a steep turn over the house and waved at the family and grand kids (not that they could see me waving) and then down to Irvine lake and back to KFUL. Landed a little after sunset, but not long enough after to count for any night currency.

I would like to know as well...

My concern would be if someone tried patching the tank from the outside, what other shortcuts have been taken on maintenance.

Or get an Android... I've never had it overheat and shut down, including summer flying in the southwest.

I have the arm going under the yoke, above it blocks too much of the panel for me. I also have the knob that you twist to tighten it on the left side so it doesn't interfere with the knobs for the parking brake/heat/vent. The only thing on the left side are switches that don't stick out very far.

This is what I have in my 1965. Ram Mount for Yoke: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005F29036/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Holder for Tablet (I have a Samsung Tab A 10.1): https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085MDF52/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Would love to, but we will have company at the house. Probably should stick around and visit, even if it would be more fun to leave...

Just the standard "Fly in the morning." Not that you have to fly in the morning, but in the West you have a better chance of getting to where you want to go in the morning than the afternoon. Afternoon in the Summer means there will be buildups somewhere, the only question is where. Have alternate plans. When we flew over Yellowstone it was in the afternoon. We left CA in the morning and I had made plans to go up through Jackson Hole. When we made a fuel stop in Delta, UT and I took a look at the next leg there were still tentative plans to go through Jackson Hole, but monitoring the weather as we flew, we instead stayed west of Driggs-Reed (KDIJ) and into the park from the west, making a loop and going back to Idaho Falls. Another nice thing about flying in the West is the visibility is often unlimited so you can see the buildups from 150+ miles away and avoid them. We could have just as easily had to scrap the whole thing that late in the day, but it was just a side trip so that wouldn't have been a big deal. This was a trip from SoCal to Rexburg ID (near Idaho Falls) a couple years ago where we ended up going west around Pocatello to avoid storms. Idaho Adventure

Mine must have been up this morning, donation sent. Thanks again for keeping the forums up and running.

I did the same thing with my plane. I don't know about the improvements in sound but the temperature improvement was significant, both in staying warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. I think it is worth it for that factor alone, even if there is no sound improvement.

If you are looking for a school, I did all of my PPL at DuBois there are KCNO. That was three years ago so I'm sure that the instructors aren't the same but the owner is great and I have nothing but good things to say about the school. If you are looking for an individual instructor there is Mike Jesch out of KFUL and then @kortopates down in San Diego. Not a long hop to him in the Mooney. Weather here is always like this in the mornings from around May-June.

Bob, when you overfly Yellowstone if you follow the main road through the park you will see most everything. The rest of the park is beautiful, but just forests and streams. You don't want to miss out on Grand Prismatic which is right off the main road. We did this a couple of years ago (still need to post pictures) but here are a few from that trip. We came into the park from the west, big storms near the Tetons and in Jackson Hole, and flew east to Yellowstone lake before following the road out to the west side of the park. Yellowstone Lake Old Faithful - Not too exciting from the air Sunset Lake, Rainbow Pool, and Emerald Pool Perhaps the most beautiful from the air, Grand Prismatic

This is awesome, put me as a yes! I need to find out how many are going to come along with me. Will let you know.

Mike, thank you for the update and all that you do. I also appreciate much of the discussion that has taken place in this thread, it has given me many more things to think about to try and be prepared in the event of an emergency.

Prior to our cross country I had my AP/IA pull all the accessories and replace all seals/gaskets. There were a couple oil leaks I didn't want to fly across the country with. He thought the mechanical fuel pump looked like it might have been seeping some oil and it was last replaced in 1996 so while everything was off and apart I had him replace the pump. My wife was on her way to Aircraft Spruce to pick everything up and I told her it was going to be $450 ($400 of which was the pump). She said "$1,400?" I said, "No, $450." Her response was, "Oh, I was thinking $1,400 wasn't bad, I think you've broken me."

My youngest son sleeps half the time and is awake half the time. My older son will actually try to stay awake but is usually nodding off within about 5 minutes of departure. He said it is the sound/vibration of the engine that just puts him to sleep.

Today at 10:15am we touched down in Fullerton (KFUL) completing our coast to coast tour. It was the trip of a lifetime. Over 5,000 miles flown, 10 new airports landed at, 7 new states landed in, and time with my boys that could never be duplicated. KFUL -> KIWA -> KPVW -> KPBF -> M01 -> KHKY -> KJNX -> KFFA -> KJNX -> KDNL ->KMEI -> KCPT -> KCNM -> KIWA -> KFUL As you know I don’t post when I’m out of town, but I'll start posting up the details over in the coast to coast thread I started in the coming days.

Just north of Idaho Falls is Rexburg. It's a nice little airport with a fun little museum if it's open. Not sure if they are open all the time, we were there when they had their pancake breakfast so got to see it. He has some vintage planes and an A-4 from when the Blue Angels flew them. The coolest part is the displays of uniforms and Firearms from the Revolutionary War through present day.

I removed the ADF antenna on mine a while ago but left the Loran on top as a place saver for a future GPS antenna rather than remove it and cover the holes. When I put in the GTX-335 the Loran antenna came out and the GA35 took its place.

Bucket List Flight today Beautiful morning with maybe the best opportunity for flying while we're here in NC so we flew out to First Flight. Fairly smooth, hazy flight but the winds do swirl around a little coming in final over the beach to 21. Once you drop below the treeline it changes again, but wow, how cool to land there. I get emotional about some things but must say I was a little surprised at the level of emotion I felt being up there on top of the hill. There may or may not have been a few tears shed. We back taxied on 21 along with two other planes departing and my wife snapped a great picture as we lined on 21 and waited for the Cessna ahead of us to depart. If you look close you can see the monument in the background.

If you catch it when you see the fuel pressure dropping it never even stumbles. If you don't notice and the engine quits once you switch tanks it comes right back up. One thing I learned, if you run a tank dry to the point of the engine stopping, that line is empty until you run off it again. I know that sounds like a simple thing to say. I ran the rh tank dry once, to the point of the engine stopping. Fueled up and started on the lh tank. Went r switch to the rh tank in flight and my fuel flow started dropping. I switched back to lh, thought about it for a few minutes and went back to the rh tank where all was good. Realized that it was because the line was still empty from before. Now if I run it all the way dry I will start on that tank so the line fills when I'm starting up. Edit: Having the carb actually helps because it gives you a few seconds of cushion to switch tanks when you notice the pressure dropping because there's still fuel in the bowl. It doesn't just drop, you will see the pressure just steadily falling. If you're paying attention your passengers will never even know.

We just flew from SoCal to NC and one day did two 3 1/2 hour legs. I have decided that about a three hour leg is the sweet spot as far as when I want to get out and stretch, as well as be fresh for the approach and landing. If I had an auto-pilot I might feel differently. At 9,500' we were burning about 9.5 gph, 2,500 rpm and as much MP as it would give with the throttle backed off just far enough to change the MP. With 52 gallons on board (49 useable) that gives me right at four hours with my personal minimum of one hour reserve. My bigger concern would be flying a route with more options for putting down off airport. This is a flight I am planning to make in the next few years and I will probably follow the Alcan highway or 'the trench.' We lived there from 80-84' when my dad was flying HC-130's with the Air Rescue Squadron out of Elmendorf. He has lots of stories about going after downed planes, some with good endings and more with bad endings. Giving myself the best chance at a good ending to a bad situation will dictate the route I take when I finally get to make the trip. FYI, there's another guy that made that trip and documented it, worth reading if you haven't yet. http://redfeatherpilot.blogspot.com/2011/09/so-begins-northbound-odyssey.html?m=1

Agree 100%. It took me some time to figure out just how snug I needed it to be to not come loose and also not be difficult to remove.