EricJ

The alternator will last a lot longer if it has cooling air. How much is a question, I suppose.

Iridium is a practical option but the data rate to a handset is limited (128kbps) and the service is expensive. Getting a reliable data connection with reasonable throughput to a small GA airplane is not going to be easy. I can get you a free 2kbps satellite downlink-only for the next couple of weeks or so, but that's not very useful, either.

To be fair they both changed their construction technologies for comparable airplanes at roughly the same time (as did most companies in the business at the time). Piper did, however, keep building fabric-covered airplanes up to about 1994.

I've spent a fair amount of time watching examples of those haul and dump water buckets on forest fires. Very cool to watch. When I was a kid my step-dad was stationed at Bergstrom AFB, TX, (which is the Austin airport now), and they had some of these flying around at the time:

It seems like everybody around here uses chains, including the place I rent from, and I just wince tying down with them, and I double-wince when I see airplanes chained loosely. Straps or ropes will stretch a bit and absorb some of the energy if the airplane gets blown around a bit, but a loosely chained airplane just gets all of the energy in an impulse to the tiedown when it hits the end of the chain slack. I'm glad the chain broke in your case (rather than damaging the airplane), but I shudder a bit every time I think of an airplane hitting the end of the chain slack in a storm. I suspect that sort of thing is what can make wing tank sealant crack in a Mooney.

The usual warning I hear about ratchet straps is that the end hooks can straighten out under load and basically let go, or just fall out if they get shaken too much. I think Sporty's or someplace sells them with heavy-duty ends with carabiner-style keepers.

Absolutely. Condensers are often electrolytic capacitors which degrade with age, even on a shelf. Even if a mag rebuilder installs never-used capacitors, they can be bad from shelf life. I suspect most don't test them before install. The airplane I'm (still) attempting to buy only had 30 hours on the dual mag since it was rebuilt but it turned out to be bad and had to be sent off again. I suspect that may have been crappy condensers, but the second rebuilder took care of whatever it was as the power loss was no longer there.

Especially if it's a 400. Zooooooommmm...

The MZeroA guy had his C172 repainted and a partial wrap applied. It looks pretty good! They did a video covering it.

It seems pretty clear that it's ignition noise, but it can come from any of the plugs or leads, not just the magnetos. A loose lead or a damaged lead shield, or even a faulty plug could do this.

Thanks for the effort on this! I'd be interested in the link.

I only just noticed that the field elevation there is 8207 ft. May be a contributing factor to issues there sometimes.

There's an M20J for sale in Spearfish, SD. https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?category_level1=Single+Engine+Piston&make=MOONEY&model=M20J+201&listing_id=2256446&s-type=aircraft

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.