EricJ

I have a client related to offshore oil systems, and my understanding is that in order to visit a rig you have to do the dunk training. I don't really ever need to visit a rig, but thought about doing the training anyway just so I could if the opportunity came up. Might be fun. Or terrifying. Should be interesting, though.

Well, that'll be three. I've been in the middle of an extended acquisition that is still dragging on, but I've been on the Deer Valley hangar list since February. Small chance it might wind up at Scottsdale, but we'll see.

Rapid City is my home town and I finished my PPL there many years ago. It seems like once every ten years or so an airliner headed for KRAP lands at Ellsworth. It's not a good career move for the pilot. I've not heard of any GA airplanes doing that, though. And, yeah, the crosswinds at KRAP are legendary. This says Rapid City has the most unpredictable weather in the country: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-city-has-the-most-unpredictable-weather/?ex_cid=538fb

Energy is proportional to the square of the speed, so you have it right that doubling the speed quadruples the kinetic energy. The basic (Newtonian) relationship is: E = (1/2)mv^2 where E is the kinetic energy, m is the mass of the object, and v is the velocity. So your basic conclusion that losing as much speed as possible always helps to reduce the kinetic energy. Pointing into the wind, full flaps, etc., etc.

Here in the southwest there are many places where the only thing reasonably smooth for a long ways in any direction is a lake. You either put down on rough terrain or in water. There are places where I'm liking my chances on the water better.

I think the speculation on risks to physicians is just speculation. There's no way to know until the system is tested. It reminds me of advice from the patent attorneys at a company I used to work for, "It's not really a patent until a judge says it's a patent." That said, it seems to me the risk is being overblown.

I've met one like that already. I expect to make use of it when my current medical reaches expiration.

FWIW, I did just notice this in an early M20J POH:

Radio-controlled airplanes.

There's an MSC in Chandler, AZ (KCHD), about halfway between KSAF and KTNP. May not be important, but could be a resource for parts, at a minumum.

Did a trip around northern AZ on Thursday in the Arrow. This is Horseshoe Reservoir, one of the reservoirs that holds runoff in the Verde Valley for the canals. This reservoir spends a good part of the year empty and fills up in the spring. Went to Winslow for lunch (the E&O cafe on the airport has great, simple Mexican food), and then to Flagstaff for some high-altitude airport practice. On the way you go right past Meteor Crater. On the way back from Flag we did an orbit around Sedona. That's the airport on the mesa in the middle of the pic. We didn't land this time.

Tough to do with a split wheel. You need the wheel to be reliably airtight to do that, which would then require a mounting apparatus (i.e., tire mounting machine) to get the tires on and off the wheel. A tube is the price you pay for owner maintainability and field repairability.

Land on the grass:

Even in race cars it's not unusual for some of the belts (especially sub straps) to be attached to the seat hardware, especially in cars used for endurance races where driver changes can happen in the middle of a race. As long as everything is properly engineered for the loads it's okay to attach it to the seat hardware. Many (maybe most) road cars do this, too. Diagonal shoulder belts are very good at preventing submarining (sliding out from under the lap belt in a frontal crash) unless the seat is excessively reclined. The idea is that the unbelted shoulder moves forward so that enough of the upper body mass moves forward of the lap belt that it would have to overcome the deceleration forces in order to travel back under the lap belt. From this standpoint a properly designed, installed, and worn 3-pt harness can be more effective than a 4-pt from the standpoint that it can be harder to prevent submarining with a 4-pt. If you use a 4-pt, in an airplane or a car, make sure the lap belt is low and *TIGHT* on your hips, as you want your pelvis restraining you rather than the belt riding up and restraining you by your soft organs in a frontal crash, which often falls under the Very Bad category of things to happen in a crash. Shoulder belts on a 4-pt should not be so tight that they pull the lap belt up into your softer middle bits.

About twelve years ago the SCCA (car racing organization) hosted a safety symposium with a bunch of the top-notch race safety engineering folks from that time. At that time head-and-neck restraints were new, so there was a lot of info on those, but there was also a lot of info on harnesses, as six-point harnesses and some other technologies were pretty new at that time. Harness materials were discussed quite a bit, including aging. A lot of the science came from US military studies on helicopter harnesses, and one of the things that came out of that was that sunlight is the big enemy of harness material, especially nylon. These days many premium racing harnesses (e.g., Schroth) are polyester, partly because of the reduced stretch (as shown in the report linked above) but also increased longevity with sunlight exposure, etc. Most racing organizations cycle harnesses out with a five-year life cycle, even if they're polyester. In other words, they expire after five years and you'll fail safety tech if you don't get a new harness (mfg date is marked on them). Some manufacturers will re-web them at reasonable cost, and this is a common thing to do rather than buying an entire new harness. That said, for whatever reason I've not seen OEM automotive seatbelts (which seem to usually be nylon) dry up and get brittle like race harnesses do over time, or even most aircraft belts/harnesses. I've done many a junkyard trip where we chopped a seatbelt out of a seriously old nearby junked car and used it to hoist an engine or something heavy, and they never, ever seem to break. A junkyard I used to frequent (back when you could do such things) would routinely swing engines/transmissions/whatever from the bucket of a front loader while transporting them around the yard swinging from a single old seatlbelt. So there's data out there that suggests being careful with old belts/harnesses, especially if they've had a lot of sun exposure. I think with automotive and aircraft belts the main thing to do is check condition. If there's any fraying or brittleness or fading, think about replacing or rewebbing, especially if they're old and have been in the sun a lot.

I learned: CIFFTRS: Controls Instruments - AI, DG, Altimeter double check, vacuum, etc. Fuel - double check quantity, selected tank, pump on. Flaps - takeoff setting Trim - Takeoff setting (and I also use this as "Trim, Transponder", to make sure the Transponder is on ALT). Runup Seatbelts I use this as a double check while holding short, mostly to make sure all of those things have been done as I should have been through the laminated checklist before I got to that point. I consider it "successful" if I find everything was ready and "doubly successful" if I catch something I missed. Win-win! I finished my tailwheel endorsement in a Super Cub a couple of weeks ago, and that FBO keeps the laminated checklist velcroed to the wall just in front of the throttle. It wasn't a long pre-takeoff checklist, but it wasn't short, either. It did have "door" on it, which was good because I kept forgetting to close the door otherwise and they want the door and window closed so you can hear the instructor better. Even on a simple airplane like that it was useful to me to be consistent with the checklist. It just takes forgetting one stupid thing to make your experience a lot less stellar than it would be otherwise, so using a MFG/POH checklist with personal or custom additions for new equipment or whatever doesn't seem like a burden to me at all.

This has everything you want. Can probably add a chute for less than the cost delta to a new Cirrus. http://jacksaircraft.com/aircraft/index.php/aircrafts?id=95

I seem to recall that one argument for keeping the tanks full is that condensation can't form on the inside of the tanks if it's full.

FWIW, in a car the downside of flushing from the bottom up is that any debris or gook or sludge that has settled at the bottom in the calipers gets potentially shoved up into the master cylinder where it can do more damage than it can in the caliper. For this reason many people prefer to fill the master and bleed out the caliper, so that the settled crud goes out with it. It's probably not as big of an issue on airplanes, but overheated brakes can change the chemistry of the fluid in the calipers, especially if the fluid has absorbed any water (which is normal for it to do over time), so getting that fluid out of the system first is also advantageous in a car/truck rather than pushing it up into the master cylinder. Sometimes a spongy pedal is from overheated or wet fluid that just needs to be flushed out. The main downside of flushing from the top down is to make certain the MC never gets empty so that air doesn't get in it. Again, just automotive experience but it's what I think of when people talk about flushing from the bottom up. Edit: Ah, just saw Robert's post about the nipples being on the bottom. That makes a difference, so feel free to ignore me.

I'm a borderline case that will likely benefit from BasicMed. It doesn't look that complicated to me, and I get a reasonably extensive annual physical, anyway. Even when I was a teenager and started flying eons ago I had to get a waiver for the vision requirements for a Class III due to one eye not meeting the minimum requirements. Last year when I started flying again I figured I'd be good with my existing waiver, but I got caught out by some specific wording on it and had to jump through a bunch of hoops to finally get my Class III renewed. I was saved only by the fact that it appears the overall requirements have been relaxed since I was a teenager, and some extensive quality time with my optometrist got me documentation that I do, barely, meet the existing requirements without the waiver. If I have to do it again in a couple of years it is likely that I won't pass, as it was very close. At a minimum, the risk is high that I won't pass in a couple years. So my best bet will likely be to go with BasicMed rather than actually attempting a Class III again and potentially getting it denied. From my perspective this is a great option which I will avail myself of when my current Class III gets toward expiration. I don't like that I'll be limited to <6klbs and <18kft and US-only, but given the circumstances I'm happy to trade that for being able to keep flying. Those restrictions aren't that onerous, especially for somebody who will primarily be driving something like a Mooney around the 48-contiguous states.

This vid is from a couple of months ago, and was actually kind of a joke. My buddy taking the vid and I both race cars, and I instruct at a teen driving school where we teach handling for accident avoidance and general survival skills. So, for us, texting while driving is a big no-no and teaching that philosophy is part of the personal mantra. The trip was a return from Nevada to AZ skirting the Grand Canyon airspace. It was a VFR flight and I'd forgotten to activate the flight plan and was attempting to do so, but we had no coverage so I wound up calling Flight Service on the radio. I usually leave my phone on while flying, and often get texts while enroute somewhere. I seldom try to text out, but when it is useful and I can get a connection it's a very handy thing to be able to do.

+1 on all of the cable connections needing to be clean. Over time some can get corroded or dirty and just need to be cleaned up.

As others have mentioned, the paranoia is good because it'll keep you vigilant about making sure the gear is down. When you get comfortable (or complacent) is when you have to be even more intentionally vigilant. I'm still in the process of obtaining a Mooney, but I've been flying an Arrow around in the meanwhile and the same sorts of things apply. Learn what the gear horn sounds like, and don't put yourself in a position where it's on a lot so that it never gets to the point where it ever sounds "normal" or "okay". Even in an Arrow, dropping the gear is nice to get the airplane slowed down, so making that your first go-to technique for slowing down for landing is useful. This depends partly on the safe deployment speed of the gear; in an Arrow you can just about drop the gear at cruise, so it's easy that way. Doing the GUMPS checklist frequently is always okay. I usually do it several times before landing. Get used to visually checking the gear status lamps frequently whenever you're in a configuration to land or approaching landing. You can also put your hand on the gear handle as much as you want during approach and get used to that "feeling" right, too. Get in the habit of "flaps, prop, mixture, gear, cleared to land" verbal checklist to yourself on short final. I learned this while getting my complex checkout, and it's been surprising to me how useful even the "cleared to land" verification is at that point. Sometimes you get forgotten by the controller, and you don't want to touchdown without a clearance at a controlled airport. And you can do a GUMPS or gear check in a fixed gear aircraft, too. Verifying the gear is down or hasn't fallen off helps to keep the habit alive. The Arrow I fly is a rental, and a not-infrequent thing to happen is that the last person flew it at night and turned the lamp intensities way down. I've done go-arounds to get time to figure out why the lamps aren't green, usually because somebody just turned them down. I always have to relearn where the dimmer is in that airplane because it's not in an obvious place. But the point is just get a system or systems and use it, multiple times per approach doesn't hurt.

I've never seen those rear windows before. Interesting.

Gordon Baxter had a regular article in Flying magazing for many years called "Bax Seat". It was always interesting and funny, and he sometimes talked about the Mooney he flew.