SantosDumont

If I had understood anything about what my missions would be when I bought my Mooney... I would have bought an A36. I have 3 boys, and didn't have enough confidence in my abilities to want to put my whole family in the airplane and thought I would never want to. Now, 600hrs later and IR, it would be nice to be able to jump in a plane and take a trip to Disney, or whatever. But the M20F has been a great platform to spend that 600 hours and learn what my missions are.

The last night flight I did was returning to Vegas from San Diego. I routed out to TRM to get fuel, then climbed up into the big black nothing. I circled over the airport to gain altitude, because couldn’t see the mountains in the horizon. Fought a monster headwind, I was doing 85-90 kts ground speed. I thought maybe something was wrong with my engine. The only thing I could see was blackness. I was basically flying by instruments because I couldn’t tell what was up or down. That’s when I realized I never wanted to do that again. I never want to have an emergency and my only option be falling into a void.

I can’t feel a difference it Tailbeacon installed. It weighs less than the strobe that was there.

Can it also jack up the main?

I guess I'm unlucky? This is the 2nd flat tire I've had in 3 years. Crown Air wanted to charge me $500 to come over to KSAN to change my nose tire. Call out labor is expensive. For $500 I could probably just carry around a nose spare.

I have no idea. Taxied over to fuel, bounced a bit over the speed bump. I didn't think it was super hard. But when I got out of the plane the left main was flat.

Yesterday I flew over to VNY and got a flat tire when going over the speed bump in the fuel area. Luckily for me there was a mechanic right there with access to spare parts who was able to help me. I was able to get the tire change out in 90 minutes. That made me start thinking what I would do if that happened to me at any of the places I go where there are no services available. I’ve had a flat nose wheel on the ramp at KSAN and they basically told me good luck. Does anyone else carry around spare tires? I also think if I bought another wheel and had it already mounted that it wouldn’t be as bad to deal with as having to jack the plane up, remove the tire, take it apart, etc vs just slapping the new tire on.

IMO in the not too distant future: Garmin announces the acquisition of uAvionix.

I nose over and pop out the speedbrakes.

8200? In a turbo... maybe. NA I wouldn't do it. You can probably land, but taking off is a whole different thing.

On my IO-360-ES I use this $2.50 funnel from Walmart. It rotates perfectly in-between the two bottom engine frame supports right underneath the oil filter. There's plenty of space to reach in and get the oil filter off and just drop it in the funnel. Then I flip it over and let it drain out. I just attach a piece of hose to the bottom and run it into the oil jug. I have oil changes now where I don't even get a drop on the ground. Wish I could do the same on my cars.

Got mine installed this morning. Seems to work great. ATC reported they were receiving ADS-B reports, and I was able to run a report from the FAA when I got home.

We have Vegas prices for hangars here in Vegas. HND tiedown: $45/mo, T-hangar: $1200/mo BVU tiedown: $45/mo, T-hangar $450/mo I was in a 6-bay community hangar at BVU, each bay had their own electric folding door, paid $500, then someone bought it and raised the rent to $600. Could probably make some money building a row of T-hangars.

The Rockies/ Sandia tend to develop CB starting in the late morning. Flew from Vegas to Denver a few months ago. Stopped in Los Alamos around 10AM, by 1PM the CB had already built up preventing me from flying up the valley and through one of the passes. Ended up up going east from Santa Fe and up around the east side of the mountains. It was plenty bumpy, like flying in a washing machine On the way back I left Denver early and went through Mosca Pass at 12.5k, the air was silky smooth.

If I commit to building an RV-8 you might have the chance again.

The median time I want to be in the cockpit is about 90 minutes. Long XCs I start planning fuel stops every 90/120 minutes. If it's gonna be more than 5 hours of flight time, I'll just go commercial.

Too bad you didn't have these thoughts two years ago. Sad story, but I was in a hangar at TSP with a Baron whose owner passed in a tragic bicycle accident. No immediate family and his sister had to sell it... It went for ridiculously cheap... low 100s I think. I heard that now it's the chase plane for MQ-9s out of Edwards.

Wish I would have seen this thread earlier in the week, just placed an order through Sportys and will cancel my pre-order with uAvionix on Monday.

I haven't had AMEX rejected at the pump yet.

Draco's not dead... just sleeping.

1 bounce ok, 2 bounces, go around, 3 bounces and well... this is what happens.

About freakin time. I was starting to look at Garmin 335s. Just placed my order. https://uavionix.com/uavionix-receives-faa-stc-tailbeacon/

Yeah. I already have a slaved HSI, so I just really want it to be an AI and ditch my vacuum. The G5 makes me upgrade to WAAS, which puts me on the path to a $20k panel upgrade. I see my options as $2k AV30 + $2k Tailbeacon, or $15k GNX375 + $5k 2x G5s.

I didn't think the AV-30s were certified yet? Hoping to ditch my AI for an AV-30. I came out of KLPC a few months ago through a layer and when I leveled off my AI was stuck in a climbing attitude. Shook the plane around and it seemed to come back, but now it's not something that I trust in IMC, and it's the only vacuum instrument I have.

I just changed mine out for the stainless phillips. Much easier to get the cowl on and off now!