211º

This is a fun post to read. Go Mooney. Go Mooney M20E!

Similar set of tools as Hank... plus the spark plug socket that I just added this week. Oh I also have two different LED flash lights.

Yep. Poor Man’s, Rich Man’s, 220, 221… Just recently paid my annual premium and was trying to see if I could see the insurance company's cards and what they were betting. Given the above and assuming that advertising, overhead, salary, profit are half of what make up the annual rate, I think it is a safe assumption that the insurance company is betting that on average they'll pay out around $60,000 (in some form or split) to my 99 friends and me each year.

Earlier today I completed a bit of a thought experiment. Given: (1) 99 friends and I each have an airplane valued at $50,000 each and (2) each year we pay an insurance company $1,200 for hull value insurance. Assume: (1) liability insurance is not included or is addressed elsewhere, (2) insurance company wants to on-average "just break even," and (3) airplanes are "totaled-out" when they wreck Determine: How many planes should be totaled each year? Solutions: Collectively, the insurance company receives $120,000 per year from all of us. If each plane costs/is insured to $50,000, then the insurance company assumes about 2.4 ($120k/$50k) planes will be totaled per year. Or in other words, there is about a 1 in 42 (100/2.4%)chance that I'll call my insurance company about my planed being totaled each year. Agree or disagree?

I wonder if Air Force 3 is a reserved name? It might provide expedited routing.

Just flew in and out of MDW for work. I came close to going to Gary Indiana again, but the L’s (For Midway) schedule is so much better than the South Shore Line (for Gary). I kept the speed up on final until two miles out, then slowed and put the gear down. The controllers were quite good and it was kinda fun. Two things that I learned. The over lay of ForeFlight for SID and STAR were very helpful. I should have learned the names of the VORs not just their identifiers. “Direct Peotone” is much different than “direct Echo Oscar November.”

"only 27" in Wilmar.

The other nice/cool thing about Wilmar is, “I have never seen so many Mooneys in one space. “ If I recall correctly, I don’t think they work on anything but Mooneys.

Yesterday afternoon/evening I flew westbound into a setting sun full of haze. Each airport I passed said "10 miles visibility," but surely that was at ground level. At altitude, forward visibility was a few miles or so. Off either wing, I might have been able to agree to 8 or so miles. At one point, I wanted to take a picture to verify with flying friends about the horrendous visibility, but when I put my camera up to take a picture, that previously indistinct horizon refined itself into an obvious horizon line of earth versus sky. That got me thinking, in this type of situation where it is IFR (but only because of haze) it seems like using an iPhone camera pointed out front might just give enough information for a safe resolution should the pilot's artificial horizon go off-line. *this photo is soooo much better than what I saw out the front - I was floored.

I flew a there and back mission of about 18 minutes each way to save about $2 per gallon for 31 gallons of fuel. It’s kind of like I would have lost money if I hadn’t done it.

The mechanic was able to swap the end, but was a little different in that this harness - Skytronics (?) - had to have the end tapped out instead of (my understanding) of a spring based system. Anyway, better than a complexly new harness.

I briefly spoke with an on-field mechanic yesterday but had to keep it short as I was walking into a meeting. I got the feeling that “he’s see this before” and “we’ll take care of it in your hangar” kind of solution. I’ll update the post when I return via Southwest on Thursday.

It was literally the last one before a test run-up. Oh well. Time to slow things down a bit I suppose.

Anyone ever have this happen when reinstalling the wire to the top of the plug?

I compiled a lot of information over here. I hope that it is helpful. https://www.windfield.farm/positive-control Dave

@WPrince See this link: https://www.windfield.farm/positive-control for a bunch of information that I've curated from MooneySpace. That cracked hose is (not kidding) windshield washer hose. 3/16 or 3/8", I can't recall. There are also areas about altitude hold and heading hold on that site

Another vote for a G5 to replace the AI. For IFR, I quite appreciate all of the info “right there”. And (silly as it sounds) having an altitude and heading bug to fly by. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I flew her 100% of the time. It was good.

I recently relocated to a hangar with a bit of a grade. I've been looking at the ads and online - based on the initial recommendations - but 4 to 6 weeks is waking my inner mechanical engineer. I have an 80V Kobalt grass trimmer that can accept different attachments (a rotating spindle slips/fits into the different attachments). It seems like if I can find an attachment that is an edger, then all of the rotation changes-in-direction are complete and now I "just" need to attach a gear reduction and some type of friction to the tire. Has anyone tried something like this before?

Ahhhh, the glass is indeed half-full.

After each flight and just before I leave the hangar, I have to pat my plane on the silver spinner and say "Thank you Queenie" with the implied - "thanks for flight and for playing your part in getting me back on the ground." Any other post-flight habits from anyone?

On a recent large design-build highway bridge over large river job, I performed Quality Assurance duties (a part of the process was to make sure that the QC happpened and was documented). [An aside, it is interesting to see the improvement in QC when an engineer needs to sign a checklist confirming that all things were done]. That job reinforced the need/necessity of double checking that work was done correctly and that it was documented. In a recent post-annual maintenance induced error, it made me think of and search for a specific post-annual checklist that I could sign MY name to that everything was QA-checked. Disappointing to find maintenance induced errors for relatively pricey work, but I suppose that we humans have a lot on our plates. If I find the specific list, I’ll post it… otherwise I’ll create (and update it as I think/find/learn of more things to check). Sidebar: two times in the last year when maintenance was performed, the mechanics failed to reconnect the RNC antenna connector for my transponder (two different shops).

In addition to the 1/2” short handled ratchet wrench, push a camera up in the hole to take a video of the area for when you hear the washer fall off and you’re not surprised. After the servo is disconnected, you should be able to wiggle the servo around and out of the access hole so that you can use a 3/8” open end wrench to remove the hose. Also pay attention to the chain and which way it faces and which links are used. if you look in the pictures link here https://www.windfield.farm/brittain-autopilot and scroll down you’ll see a sample of the servo connection (outside of the wing).

Yes!!! And easier to rest elbow on knee!

Kind of a side topic... I'm kind of amazed how terrain and points of interest become familiar. Not just things like crossing the Mississippi R or Wabash R, but specific smoke stacks, notable Warning Areas (one in Indiana is a miles by miles rectangle of trees surround by farms), an airport by a prison, a power plant seemingly in the middle of nowhere, antennas-from-heck to name a few.