ilovecornfields

Exactly my point.

Epistemological?! Verisimilitude?! You guys are driving me crazy with the big words. It’s making my brain hurt. In all seriousness, Skip, thank you for explaining this better than I could. While no ones work is competent “original” as it is built upon the work of others, I agree that the APS guys are responsible for bringing it to the masses in a way that most pilots are able to understand and apply the principles. They certainly didn’t invent LOP but they did do a lot to popularize and make it understandable.

What avionics upgrades have you made in the last 10 years?

Now you’ve done it! You went and got all epistemological on us. Now who’s going to clean up this mess? I won’t comment on the technical aspects discussed above (except to agree that the APS course is well worth the cost) but I believe that copyrighting other people’s original work without crediting them for it is usually frowned upon at best.

I completely agree that circling is dangerous. That’s why I do straight-in approaches wherever I go (20 times safer, right?). I’ve found it’s really helpful at busy uncontrolled airports during the weekend because instead of doing all that dangerous low level maneuvering near the ground I just advise I’m on the RNAV for a 20 mile final. People seem to understand that means I’m #1 for the runway because I’ll often see those guys give me the #1 sign after I land. Thanks for sharing that article.

I would be pretty comfortable with Top Gun in Stockton or Advanced Aircraft in Troutdale doing a prebuy.

Anyone have a picture of where this TKS overflow hose is?

That seems like a lot of work! When it’s time to do the run up (I wait until the CHTs are above 250 and oil temp above 100) I leave if leaned, go to 1600 RPM cycle the prop and hit “normalize.” Then I make sure the EGTs rise on all 6 cylinders when on a single mag then go back on both mags. The RPM drop will be higher but the engine still runs smoothly. I don’t even know if I’m ROP or LOP, I’m just a lot leaner than full rich. 1600 RPM seems to eat less rocks than 2000 RPM. My prop thanks me for that.

With an engine monitor I think you actually get better information doing a run up with a lean mixture than with a rich one - just don’t freak out when the RPM drop is higher than expected.

Good responses here. You can certainly learn in a “complex” aircraft. I did my primary training in an Arrow, starting at age 12. Soloed in it and got my private and instrument rating in it. You’re probably a better pilot already than I was as an adolescent so it’s not that challenging. I know an Arrow isn’t a Mooney, but it’s not that fundamentally different than a short-body Mooney (although the Mooney is certainly a little faster, better built and much sexier). I commute to work in my Mooney but I wouldn’t recommend it for a new pilot. If you absolutely positively have to be there you need to drive, otherwise you’re going to end up in one of those accident reports you’re so familiar with. Instrument rating is a must for anyone commuting as well. I think a Mooney might work well for you (it certainly does for me) but I would also echo the recommendation to try a Cirrus. There are many flight schools that only teach in Cirruses and you can make the gradual transition from an SR20 to a FIKI SR22T (which may also fit your mission well).

That comment is inappropriate. Mooneyspace has a long tradition of people who have no experience with something telling those who do what is what. Someone who actually has a TKS Mooney and has flown it in icing conditions commenting on how a TKS Mooney behaves in icing conditions totally defeats the purpose of this long established tradition. Let’s get back on track…I’ve only flown a turbo Mooney once but I don’t want one because they’re ugly and smell bad.

I agree with Punk Rock Don. There are certainly times above 12k feet when I really wished I had a turbo…although when it’s time to overhaul my engine I’ll be really glad I don’t.

I believe your words were “close to irrelevant.” I still disagree with that statement. There’s nothing wrong with TKS. It is a tool. If someone exercises poor judgement and used the wrong tool for the job then that doesn’t mean the tool is faulty—that pilots decision making was. I’ve been in ice a few times with my TKS (both intentionally and unintentionally) and it performed flawlessly for what I needed it to do. I don’t go cruise around in thunderstorms at freezing level and rarely fly when I expect to get ice, but it’s certainly a nice tool to have at my disposal when things don’t go as planned and it gives me some options that would otherwise be pretty unappealing (like wetting the wings and descending through a status layer that may contain ice). Having owned a FIKI aircraft I don’t anticipate I will ever own a plane without ice protection (just like the turbo guys love their turbos). I know we all like to rationalize why the decisions we made are the “best” but maybe keep in mind that other intelligent people might see things differently and choose words more carefully when making broad generalizations. I am not aware of any FIKI Mooneys involved in icing accidents in the last 10 years. If you have some details on this that led you to your conclusions I would be very interested in reading about it.

I heard they recently approved an MT prop with beta thrust for some Cessnas. I wonder how this would work on a Mooney? Maybe I can enter some STOL contests with my Ovation. I think I caught one of their prototypes today flying backwards near Santa Ynez: IMG_1658.MOV

I’m not a cardiologist (although I know there’s at least one here) or a flight surgeon but I’ve noticed the opposite effect - my HR is fine at altitude but the shoots up when I get the weather at my destination and realize I’m going to have to shoot the approach. That being said, since you ask this is what my “research” revealed. I’ve been on a high fiber diet lately so it was a short “research session”: The major CV-related effects associated with elevated altitude are: Immediate decrease in oxygen delivery to the tissues, which requires a cardiac response. Increase in pulmonary vascular constriction, which increases pulmonary afterload. Increase in sympathetic nervous outflow, primarily by an increase in epinephrine but also norepinephrine. https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2012/03/30/15/39/altitude-and-the-heart My guess is that even at normal-ish arterial oxygen saturations you’re still getting the hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction, decreased end-organ tissue perfusion and sympathetic outflow because even with supplemental oxygen the partial pressure of oxygen in the lungs is lower than at sea level. Maybe you could try breathing from a nonrebreather mask @ 25 LPM at sea level and again at 5000’ and see if you notice the same effect (with someone else flying, of course). I doubt you would. Maybe there’s also an element of peripheral vasodilation from the sun and heat. Is the effect the same at night? Please let us know when you get the answer.

Really?! I think it’s still pretty relevant but maybe it’s like a turbo where you don’t see the point until you have one and see what it can do. Can TKS get overwhelmed by ice? Absolutely. Any de-icing system can. Is it irrelevant? No way.

How could vandalizing a bunch of gas stations with politically-charged content possibly be taken the wrong way?

My son’s 6th grade class wants to build an airplane play structure (likely with significant parental involvement) that resembles a Pitts S-2B (or some other open cockpit biplane). Does anyone have any experience with something like this. I was thinking of reaching out to my local EAA chapter but I was just wondering if there was any wisdom regarding projects like that that someone would be willing to pass on.

@CAV Ice for the win! Thank you for a great product and excellent and timely support. My son still loves his TKS titanium keychain, by the way.

Thank you. I think the question was regarding a non G1000 M20R with no vacuum system and whether this makes it “non FIKI.” I don’t know about others but I have a G500, battery operated standby AI, AHRS on a FS210 and another backup AHRS on a Sentry which has its own battery and displays to my battery-powered iPad. If I lose all my attitude indicators then something bad has happened. Maybe the vacuum system requirement was there to ensure you survive an electromagnetic pulse with your FIKI certification intact, although that certainly wouldn’t be my concern at that point.

I don’t have a vacuum system in my FIKI Ovation. If the FAA wants to violate me for flying into known icing without a vacuum system on an airplane that has no vacuum operated equipment I think I would have some colorful language for them.

Independent of political ideology, abusing an emergency frequency which one day one of us will depend on is shameful and insulting to the entire aviation community. It’s basically a big f-u to your fellow aviators. If you lack the insight and/or executive function to not tie up an emergency frequency with your verbal ejaculations then you really have no place in aviation. I know people ACCIDENTALLY transmit on guard all the time, but deliberately tying up this frequency for whatever reason is at best a pathetic cry for attention and at worst sociopathic behavior. Either way, it doesn’t belong on guard.

What caused the four engine failures? Were they all sudden and catastrophic? In hindsight, was there anything that you now realize suggested something was wrong?

It probably won’t hurt you to have it and not need it in an airplane, but why even do that when for $20 you can know if you need it, when you need it and how much you need? I use an O2D2 set at 5000’ and just put it on before takeoff. Then I check my oxygen level a few minutes after leveling off and every hour. I usually get the tank filled every annual flying 100-150 hours/year. My wife doesn’t like wearing the cannula if she doesn’t have to so she just uses the pulse ox and uses oxygen when she needs it. Having the pulse ox makes you realize that those altitudes the FAA chose were more about terrain and convenience than human physiology. It makes no sense that the altitudes are based on MSL altitudes and not density altitudes especially out West when the density altitude (what you’re actually breathing) can be a couple of thousand feet higher than your indicated altitude. With the pulse ox you can also see the day to day variation- for example I’m usually 92-95% at 8000’ MSL without oxygen but I’ve seen it as low as 88%. I understand cheap reliable pulse oximeters weren’t available when the regs were written, but they are now. Seems kind of ridiculous to make all these rules based on altitudes and times when all you really care about is what your individual SpO2 is. I can’t prove it, but I suspect a lot of poor decision making and accidents at the end of trips had hypoxia as a contributing factor with people thinking that because they were following the regs they were safe. In a medical setting (or underwater) there are clear harms to having a higher concentration of oxygen than you need but those are different topics entirely.

I actually wish you would go into your medical background because you’re really confusing some pretty fundamental concepts. The O2 level in the cockpit is completely irrelevant for the exact reason you mentioned in your post - everyone has different physiology. If my SpO2 is 88% and my son’s is 96% then I need supplemental oxygen and he would not be likely to benefit from it. It’s not about “wasting” oxygen it’s about titrating a medical therapy to a clinically relevant endpoint (which is something I do every day at work). I appreciate you have a little knowledge on the subject and are eager to share, but please consider that not everyone has the background and ability to differentiate between the well meaning and misinformed, malicious and intentionally misleading, and accurate medical information (as we’ve proven in the last 20 months). With all due respect, if you don’t know what you’re talking about then please keep it to yourself. No one needs this right now. There’s a reason we monitor cockpit CO levels and individual SpO2 levels. As one of my son’s t shirts says (available for purchase at his Etsy store) “I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you.”