Skates97

My experience buying planes is just the only one I bought, which I had to put extra down on because the bank did not think it was worth what I and the seller thought it was worth. I do however have a fair amount of experience with financing of autos after 25 years in dealerships and I think @KSMooniac makes an excellent point. I have seen plenty of people get financing that didn't have the right credit, the amount financed was higher than what "should have been" financed, they received better rates than they technically should have qualified for, etc... In every case it was because the Sales Manager or Finance manager called in a favor with a bank or credit union branch president that they had developed a professional relationship with. In fact, the last car I purchased for my wife we sat in the Finance Managers office as he called up his contact at the credit union and said "Listen, this is our Controller and he's buying it for his wife, I need you to do better than that." When he hung up the phone we had a rate about as close to zero as you could get. I think with your track record/history you could have (or may already have) a couple of contacts that you could lean on a little to get some of those contracts bought.

I seem to recall seeing a case where someone's screen was full of large pieces which were all too big to get through to the filter. If I remember right their filter was clean?

That was a good presentation, I'm glad I tuned in. I learned some good stuff about convection and wind shear that I didn't know. Flying summertime in the southwest deserts I try to learn everything I can about convection, I'm seen some amazing storms develop in a very short period of time.

https://www.windy.com continues to make improvements and additions to their website and their app. In addition to the METARS (with history), TAF's, and a host of other forecasting options they have now added Skew-T charts, all you have to do is right click on the map and select that option. https://community.windy.com/topic/6998/windy-offers-sounding-forecast

Catching up on posts... What started out as a dusty/windy flight in Salt Lake gave way to beautiful skies south of Vegas. A crazy dust cloud from a field that extended 60+ miles to the north, 45+ knot headwinds for a space of time, St George with a crosswind requiring full rudder, it was an adventure September 30th. More pictures and video on my blog. https://intothesky.us/2018/09/30/dusty-and-windy-salt-lake-st-george-corona/

I don't know if it interfaces with your autopilot, you would have to email them. It will be certified as primary AI so no backup required. However that does not necessarily mean no backup recommended... Send them an email. The few times I have I received quick responses from them.

Planning on purchasing next month before the discount goes away and will either install then or wait for annual in December. I am currently just flying VFR but do quite a bit of flying at night and have no backup AI (albeit the night flying is only over populated areas, the LA Basin at night has so much light there is no shortage of ground references). For the price point it I think it would be nice to have the backup AI, the "poor man's probless AOA" as Bob put it, the clock/timers, and TAS and I already have an empty spot in the panel just to the left of the Airspeed Indicator that currently just has a blank plate in it. The installation manual does not look terribly difficult. I just had my current AI overhauled a few months ago but I am intrigued by Aerovonics AV-30 that they are anticipating certification for sometime mid-next year as replacement for my vacuum AI and DG to remove the vacuum system.

Got an email from them that the AV-20 is now certified. According to an email I had received from them they are planning to keep the show pricing of $795 for 1 month after certification. https://aerovonics.com/av-20-1

The actual measurements that they are giving are showing 5.65" diameter. Alex said that he had to drill new holes because the retaining ring sat 1/8" more forward but that it fit in the hole.

Looks like the 63342 has a narrower beam than the 63362. I think that I would want the wider beam and for half the price it's just a bonus. Edit: Oh, and 2 lbs lighter...

Right now Amazon has that light for $162.47. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0102OHDNA?pf_rd_p=faa1d3e1-fadf-4279-ac2d-3096206e4690&pf_rd_r=V8EC1TWW0G8DWX3VKYE8

Which brings up the question, how many runways actually have a 50' obstacle at the threshold? The airports I have landed at all seem to have nice open areas on approch, or if not they have a displaced threshold. I'm sure there are some with a fence very close to the threshold (but not 50' high). I landed at Skypark in Salt Lake last month and there are roads crossing at each end of the runway so you wouldn't want to come in too low in case there was a big truck going by, but 50' high right at the threshold? Where did that number come from? Why not 40' or 60'? Really, I've always wondered that from the first time I heard it in my flight lessons.

I just had my flight review Saturday (currently writing up the experience). My CFI (85 yo and flying since he was 12) had the same advice. He is not a fan of coming in low and dragging it in for a normal landing, and if his students do that he will reach over and pull the power momentarily which gets their attention. But, for a short field landing he says get slow and drag it in under power so that you can cut it and touch down. He also wants you to hold it off and not plant it on. If you have your speed right and you pull the throttle you will touch down where you want followed with aerodynamic braking and full brakes. We stopped easily under 1000'. Funny, as we were taxiing back for the next trip around the pattern he said, "Don't be afraid to use your brakes, if they wear out it's about the cheapest damn thing you can replace on a plane."

Congratulations, that's a bucket list item for me. I'm just getting started but checked off Hawaii last week. Flew a 172 from Maui Aviators around about the same path. Took a CFI with us the whole way for a couple reasons. Biggest reason, I have almost 300 hours in the last two years but have never flown a Cessna. Even if I was proficient in the Cessna having the CFI make the position calls and point out interesting things "tour guide style" allowed me to just fly and enjoy the ride. I need to get the pictures off my camera and upload them.

But if you put bright enough lights on the disco ball will that eliminate the need for external strobes?

Here's an old thread from the Vans forums. There was a debate about colors and this poster has some connections at the Air Force Night Vision Research Lab. He posted the results of a telecom with them discussing colors. The consensus was "cool white" dimmed down. http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showpost.php?p=479679&postcount=23

Thanks for the report about the trip and the usb cable. I was going to ask about the temps figuring for Cedar City this time of year it could be icing conditions. Glad you were only stuck a couple of days. I have family that's lived there for 40+ years and there are times a storm will come in and stick around a lot longer than just a couple days. I don't mind sneaking out under the clouds, I do it from time to time heading from home to Phoenix because I know it's clear skies to the east, but I don't think I would have tried going down the pass towards St George. We fly it going to visit my wife's dad sometimes on our way back from Salt Lake. It's not a place I would want to find myself if the clouds closed in at all. Oh and beautiful pictures of the fall colors! Two weeks ago up in Provo we took my 14 yo son up American Fork Canyon to see the fall colors. He couldn't understand why we were going because he's never really seen the leaves changing. I think I heard him say "Wow!" 20-30 times on that drive.

Yep, @gsxrpilot is the one that put the map together. Anyone that wants a link to it needs to have their location in their avatar, ask him to be included, and then he will add them and give them a link to it. For privacy reasons he hasn't made it a public link anywhere that I know of. I have the link saved in my bookmarks.

Had a nice flight to Salt Lake a couple weeks ago for my niece's wedding. This is part one (the flight there) and I will get the return flight written up in the next day or two. Nice winds going there with ground speeds of 170mph+ most of the way. https://intothesky.us/2018/09/28/morning-weather-delay-corona-ca-kajo-to-salt-lake-ut-skypark-kbtf/ Haze over Lake Matthews Fuel stop in Delta Tumbleweeds growing up through the cracks in the taxiways at Delta, there were bigger ones growing up through the cracks on the sides of the runway.

Not Signature, but we landed in St George Sunday to have lunch with my wife's dad on our way back home. We parked and got out and the line guy came over to see if we needed anything. Very nice kid and as we chatted he pointed to the still running Challenger which he had just fueled parked right in front of the door to the FBO. He said "I don't know why those guys always have to park right in front of the door." I said "Because they're cool." He rolled his eyes and said "They're not special, all you guys are the same to me. "

Yes, I was taught most birds will drop a wing and head down. There are a lot of birds around some of the airports here and while I haven't been too close to any I have observed that behavior numerous times.

Back in January I flew past a flock of geese at 8,500'. I was heading west and they were going east, fortunately they were about a mile off my wing. (I'm assuming they were geese, I don't know anything else that flies that high in a "v" formation.)

These are not approved yet and they are saying Mid 2019, but I really like the look of them. https://aerovonics.com/av-30

Flew to Phoenix a few weeks back to celebrate my parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary. With all four seats filled, plus bags, plus the home-made AC (it was a hot weekend there) we had to get a little creative with the loading of the bags to stay away from the backside of the CG envelope. Ended up with bags between the kids and my wife's small bag under her legs in front of her seat, but we had cool air blowing from the AC! Most flights I guesstimate weights of bags and people because I know we are well within limits. For this flight everyone got on the scale before getting in the plane and all bags were weighed so I could calculate everything. Creative Weight and Balance Where we would have been with all the bags in the back vs where we were with two of the heavier bags between the kids and my wife's bag up front.

Here's what I did, I took some duct tape and folded it to go through the grommet and then a couple strips to hold it to the end.