EricJ

Yeah, very impressive. Long range tanks? What sort of fuel burn do you manage doing this?

The article says that's where the test was done, which is pretty interesting. FWIW, that square of land in the pic with the circle in it is a section, i.e., a mile on each side.

Any particular bank angle is optimized for one speed, and the range of speed required to take off and land is fairly broad. The way around that is to make it bowl-shaped, which requires getting the trajectory through the bowl fairly accurately, which won't always happen, especially as traction conditions change due to the weather. And the tire's ability to provide lateral traction depends on whether it is braking or not, so modulating the brakes would make it even more exciting. Would be fun times.

It would be fun to get some video of a day when the pavement was wet or slippery, though.

That's historically common with alkaline batteries that are left in-circuit. For things that aren't used often but may be needed on short notice, it's best to leave the batteries uninstalled but with the unit. For equipment like this it's a good idea to inspect them frequently and turn the device on to check the battery level as they can self-discharge over time, too. I take spare batts with me for anything handheld, including my tablet, handheld radio, oximeter, stratux, etc. An exception is the CO sensor, as the battery in it is made for extended low-current in-circuit use. Bottom line, alkaline batteries do that. It's not a Costco thing, it's an alkaline battery thing.

Avoid the Mitt Romney method.

A recent instructor that helped me get current again had me doing the "flaps, gear, cleared to land" check always on short final. Certainly not a bad habit, and does provide a backup on the straight-in approaches. Doing multiple GUMPS checks is never a bad idea. I tend to use the gear to help slow down, anyway, so that helps get it down reasonably early in the process. Also, regular functional checks of the gear warning horn is not a bad idea, either.

Probably doesn't need any hardware changed, just a hard reset and factory reprogram, like initially programming a freshly-built unit.

Wildhorses and I both race cars with the same national organization, which doesn't allow exhausts that open before the driver position unless the driver wears a respirator (which nobody wants to do, and basically nobody does, so basically everybody's exhausts dump behind the driver position). From that perspective, being used to that rule, it does seem a little weird that it is basic SOP for GA airplanes to dump the exhaust almost universally in front of the cabin space, often in front of the firewall. As much as the floor and firewall are essentially anything but hermetically sealed, and there are even cabin ventilation inlets in wing leading edges well behind exhaust dumps (I'm thinking particularly of older Arrows that dump the exhaust nearly under the prop), the above experience doesn't surprise me at all. That said, it's been this way almost since airplanes were invented, so maybe it's not that bad, but it does make you think. With the CO meters getting more common in GA cabins (and lets hope this trend continues), maybe enough experimentation might lead to some simple procedures or practices to minimize this, too.

Ovation cycle? Are we talking about women or airplanes?

I think I see some electrolytic caps on there. Those are usually what fails due to aging in electronics like this, or a cracked solder joint from many years of vibration. I'm guessing "track" and "capture"? Usually the control loop for "capture" is more aggressive than "track", which should be much tighter so that it doesn't wander around. i.e., set it to Cap to home in on (capture) an omni radial, and Trk once you are on heading on the radial and the needle is centered. That's totally just speculation on my part, so take it with a grain of salt. Are there no manuals left around for these?

Probably some age-related cognitive issues setting in. Doesn't matter how many ratings or how much experience you have when that stuff starts to happen.

A guy was showing me his 180 that had the STC where the whole side opens up to load long cargo. He routinely loaded it up to the gills with stuff, so I asked him how he knew whether the CG was too far back or not. He said on takeoff give it full throttle and if you can bring the tail up right away you're good to go. He'd been flying it that way for decades, so it seemed to be working.

baño means 'bathroom' in Spanish and is pronounced like banyo. Just makes me chuckle when I see it. Going NW or W out of Scottsdale it's just a convenient point to navigate around Deer Valley's Class D space.

Do look at some info on copyright standards and what constitutes infringement or not on images, especially artwork. If it is your original work, you are (probably) clear. I would suggest not discussing here (or anywhere) any details. I do still want a shirt.

A fave waypoint near here that I use a lot just because I love it so much is BANYO. My flying is typically VFR using the GPS, and there are so many happily-named waypoints around here that using the fun ones is a preference in route selection.

Just transition training to meet insurance requirements, so CFI is preferred. Thanks, though!

Or a Mooney-knowledgable CFI. I may need one in that area before too long.

Ordered one!

I thought the question was the vapor space, not the liquid. In some important ways gasoline vapor in a tank is worse than Jet fuel vapor in a tank (e.g., gasoline vapor doesn't need to be warmed to be at flash point).

I forgot about the missiles, yeah.

The conditions for ignition are fairly tight, and I suspect that either it never actually arced, it just turned on and off, or if it did arc you were fortunate that the conditions weren't complete for combustion. I'm sure you appreciate that anecdotal samples of one aren't conclusive. TWA flight 800 is a counter example.

Clear as mud. My take-away from that is that nobody really knows for certain.

Does anybody know what's different about the earlier models that makes them unsuitable for the gw increase?

Submerged fuel pumps do not spark, specifically so that they don't ignite the vapor in the tank. They're also designed to be submerged, and even when the tank is near empty the pumped fuel surrounds the pump, partly to cool it, but partly to keep fluid rather than vapor around the pump. Fuel level senders are low-voltage for the same reason. The vapors in the tank are most definitely volatile, but electricity itself isn't bad, just sparks, and there are easy ways around making something electrical spark.