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ilovecornfields

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Everything posted by ilovecornfields

  1. @jaylw314, thanks for pointing that out. There was so much other “stuff” in that post to muck through that I completely missed this one. 100% agree. The treatment for CO poisoning is to get as much oxygen as possible as soon as possible. In severe cases where 100% oxygen at 1 ATM is insufficient, we send people for HBO (hyperbaric oxygen therapy) in a dive chamber. This is the standard of care and not doing so can lead to irreversible brain damage.
  2. I’m not even sure where to start here, there’s so much to comment on so I’ll start with the one statement that is true - most pulse oximeters can’t differentiate between O2 and CO so if you are in an environment with high levels of CO your SpO2 reading will be falsely elevated. There are co-oximeters that will give you both readings which we use in the hospital to screen for CO poisoning but they are expensive and there’s no point in having one in your plane since you know exactly what the CO levels are. i think almost everything else in that post was wrong or misleading. Pulse oximeters are definitely not “more harmful than beneficial.” Anytime you take an action based on a test result you need to understand the characteristics and limitations of that test. Pulse oximeters are great at letting you know your oxygen levels, when to use oxygen and how much to use. Yes, they will give you inaccurate readings when CO levels are high but since we all have sensitive CO indicators in our planes we will know when CO levels are high and at that point your pulse ox reading is not your concern - getting on the ground is! We’ve discussed this several times before on MooneySpace. FACT- a freshly dead human who fell asleep in their car from CO poisoning will NOT have ANY SpO2 reading because they have no pulse! No pulse = no pulse ox reading. Whoever came up with that 100% SpO2 reading has a fundamental lack of understanding about how a pulse oximeter works. Please, everyone. Stop doing your “research” while sitting on the toilet with your smartphones while lamenting the lack of fiber in your diet. Talk to medical professionals about medical issues and don’t get your medical facts from random people on the internet.
  3. I did notice after getting my booster shot that I don’t get any radar altimeter readout on my G500 display. Not sure if it’s related.
  4. Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.
  5. Is this a good deal or a bad one? Prices seem to have gone up this year. Maybe it’s all sitting on a container ship outside Long Beach waiting to be unloaded. https://www.tksfluid.com/shop/accuchem-tks-406b-fluid/ If anyone has a better source, I’d be interested. I emailed them last year and told them I found an old Mooneyspace thread where they were offering it for $80 and they replied “not anymore.”
  6. I ordered it from LASAR. But it sounds like I wasn’t the only one. Hopefully they’ll arrive eventually.
  7. Not sure a control tower solves this problem entirely. Went into Livermore (LVK) and tower turned a Skycatcher right into me as I was on the ILS 25R. I was tracking the glide slope and had to stop my descent so I wouldn’t smash into him. Fortunately my son saw him and I was able to avoid a collision. Tower asked that guy “Did you see that Mooney?!” to which he replied “I have him on my scope.” I guess even with a control tower if you’re not looking out the window bad things can happen.
  8. I just finished my annual and the spring is due for replacement next year. I asked my MSC if it was too early to order the spring and they said “It’s not too early. Order it now.”
  9. Isn’t that like saying anti-lock brakes, airbags and instrument ratings are dangerous because they encourage you to take risks you otherwise wouldn’t? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the equipment, it’s the decision-making that’s at fault as@aviatoreb eloquently pointed out. We both have very capable TKS airplanes and fly them like we have no ice protection. Maybe it’s a waste, but I feel more comfortable knowing I have another backup if I inadvertently find myself in an unexpected dangerous situation. We’ve both also make the same comment about CAPS and the utility of having another tool at your disposal when things unexpectedly go south.
  10. Is there an instruction manual or a trick to setting up the automation?
  11. I like to fly at 2300 RPM but notice it’s not listed in that chart. I’ve heard from several other sources that 2550 is the most “efficient” configuration as well. Is there any harm in cruising at 2300 RPM if I’m not in a hurry and the CHTs are above 300? 100 LL ain’t cheap, you know. This usually ends up being about “50% power” according to my JPI.
  12. Hi Dr. Evil, I wouldn’t describe the G1000 Ovations as “modern and serviceable” unless you’re buying a new plane. I bought a non-G1000 FIKI Ovation because I wanted to be able to update the panel over time as new technologies came out and with the G1000 you’re pretty much stuck with what you have. If it’s not already upgraded with WAAS you’re going to have a really hard time finding that upgrade. I’d had some icing encounters that I didn’t really care to repeat so FIKI was a big deal for me. FIKI and O2 should be easy to find (they’re like peanut butter and jelly), just keep in mind a full tank of TKS will cost you a few knots and 100 lb of useful load compared to the non-TKS Ovation. As a new pilot I would consider a partnership and building some experience while you take your time to look for your Mooney. There’s a lot of situations you can get yourself into with a FIKI Ovation that your basic private pilot training doesn’t prepare you for. That being said, they’re not particularly difficult to fly. My son has no problem flying ours “under the hood” (he’s not tall enough to see over the panel) and I’ll bet he could even shoot an approach if I let him. You just have to be more mindful of your energy management than with the Cherokees because if you try to force a Mooney to land when it’s not ready bad things can happen. What kind of Evil Doctor are you? “Take Over the World” Evil or “Cosmetic Surgery and Nutraceutical Supplement” Evil?
  13. So, here’s the weather forecast for the next few days for where I live. I don’t remember reading about “bomb cyclones” and “atmospheric rivers.” Is this really a thing or just terms the media used to get us excited about weather? What implications does it have for flying? Should we avoid it altogether during these cataclysmic weather events ? @Scott Dennstaedt, PhD, maybe you can shed some light on this. ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS A cold front will move through the Central Coast today with partly to mostly cloudy skies with areas of drizzle/light rain. Rainfall totals should remain below one-tenth of an inch in most areas. This cold front will be followed by fresh to strong (19 to 31 mph) northwesterly winds and clearing skies tonight through Saturday. On Saturday, a storm with hurricane-force winds is forecast to rapidly intensify as it travels eastward across the southern Gulf of Alaska from 988 millibars to 948 millibars in less than 24 hours. This storm will be classified as a "bomb cyclone." To be classified as a meteorological bomb, a storm needs lower 24 millibars in 24 hours. The associated cold front is forecast to tap into subtropical moisture and take on the characteristics of an Atmospheric River (AR) as it moves into Northern California with heavy rain. Expected precipitation totals in Northern California will range from five-plus inches in the northern coastal mountains and the northern/central Sierra Nevada; three to five inches in lower elevations of the Bay Area and Sacramento Valley. The ECMWF and GFS models continue to indicate that an intense cold front, strengthened by vigorous upper-level winds, will move through the Central Coast Sunday night into Monday morning with moderate gale-force to fresh gale-force (32 to 46 mph with gusts to 60 mph) southerly winds and between one and three inches of rain. The Santa Lucia mountains above Cambria could see as much as four inches. This system will produce multiple feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada above 8,000 feet.
  14. So, when I bought my Ovation I INSISTED that the prebuy could only be done by The Best MSC (located in a state where they wear big hats) and that my annuals could only be done by MSCs. A lot of it was based on what I read here about the clear superiority of some shops compared to others. Overall, things went fine, but some stuff always got missed (sometimes big, sometimes small) and they were always $6k-$12k (without accounting for the “missed items.”) I have a friend with a Bonanza who insisted that his IA was meticulous and would do a great job on an annual but I resisted because as we all know, Mooneys are special. I eventually approached him about doing the annual and acknowledged that I knew many mechanics didn’t like working on Mooneys because they were so difficult to work on but he made a comment that it was more the owners than the airplanes that made mechanics want to stay away. Long story short, did my post-annual test flight today and the plane has never run smoother. I almost over rotated because the control pressures were so light without all the extra friction. He showed me several areas where “required” items had either never been done or hadn’t been done in a long time, despite the last 4 annuals being done at highly respected MSCs. He said some of the stuff was a pain in the a$$ to get to so he wasn’t surprised that it had been skipped, but he also said he wasn’t impressed (or surprised). I have to admit, I was an “only an MSC gets to touch MY plane” snob and I was completely wrong. The sad part is that my new mechanic is going to retire soon but he promised to keep a few of his clients around so he doesn’t get bored. Oh, I forgot to mention this annual took less than half as long and cost half as much as my fastest and least expensive annuals. He had a procedure coming up so he worked through the weekend because he doesn’t like the annuals to take more than a week. I also don’t mean to imply that all MSCs are bad or a waste of money - it’s just that It seems the supervision at some of these shops isn’t the best and a good mechanic is a good mechanic, regardless of where they work. I wonder what other aviation ”facts” I’ve been wrong about? Maybe I should be doing the initial climb at Vx after all…
  15. Ask Kurt at Expert Aircraft @ F70. He’s done a bunch of these (including my Ovation). So, there’s more than one Gee-Bee?!
  16. Is that true? I though the MOCA guaranteed obstruction clearance and the MEA guaranteed obstruction clearance and nav signal? My understanding is the MVA are usually defined by chunks of airspace so they’re almost always going to be higher than the MEA because it has to account for all of the terrain in that airspace, not just within the area defined by the airway. Edit: it looks like I wasn’t entirely right either: https://www.boldmethod.com/blog/lists/2021/02/you-should-know-these-ten-minimum-ifr-altitudes/
  17. Thanks for sharing. If I could get another 200 lb UL and a parachute in my Ovation I would sign up today. Regardless of how we feel about it here, I think the parachute has really given the competition a huge advantage. I wouldn’t mind having and extra tool in the toolbox.
  18. I did get the microkit landing height system (although I haven’t had it installed yet) which should remind me to check my gear (and be less intimidating than @donkaye asking me that during the flare) but I don’t think this is a really big deal. If moving up to a Mooney from a 172 I’d be much more worried about weather, stall/spin and bounces/prop strikes than I would about landing gear up.
  19. I agree with Rich. Lots of things I worry about when I go flying. Landing gear-up isn’t one of them. Maybe it’s because I did my initial training 30 years ago in a “complex” airplane or maybe it’s because there are so many other things that are much more likely to hurt me. So far, doing my GUMPS check and checking the gear on short final EVERY TIME has worked for me. The devices exist. There are even some planes that will lower the gear for you if you forget (look at the Arrow). None of these should replace proper habits. Edit: If you’re familiar with James Reasons’s “Swiss cheese model” you’ll se why adding multiple layers of safety features still won’t prevent all accidents. Every layer of cheese still has holes in it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model
  20. Well, I do know a few… My vacuum pump was removed by a previous owner so I think I’ll stick to the Gatorade bottles.
  21. You need wall suction for that one and a nurse to yell every five minutes “go ahead and pee!”
  22. So, there I was, just driving to the store and minding my own business when I get a call from a number I don’t recognize. I was expecting an appliance delivery so I answered and a nice gentleman tells me he’s from the San Jose Flight Standards office and asks me if I’m the owner of (my N number). I figure he knows the answer to this question and it’s public record so as I’m debating between hanging up on him and calling the AOPA Legal Services team or playing along I say “yes.” Then he says, “I’m trying to follow-up on some ADS-B data, do you know what your airplane was doing on September **?” At first I thought he was calling because my ADS-B signal was intermittent and thought it was weird that they would call about it but then I suddenly remembered what my plane was doing that day - getting a pitot/static check. I told the nice guy at FSDO and he said “That makes sense. I received a complaint about a stationary ADS-B target that was going between sea level and 30,000 ft so I had to follow up on it.” I guess the controller saw the target and initially couldn’t tell whether or not it was real so he got a little upset. The FSDO guy thanked me and said he would talk to the shop about how they were shielding the antenna and said not to worry about it. I shared with him how happy I had been to learn that the random call I had just received was from FSDO and he basically said “yeah, no one is happy when they find out it’s us. We’re no ones favorite.” I thanked him for his service and then called the avionics shop. In 30 years of flying my first call from FSDO and hopefully my last!
  23. Definitely hit the mark. Although, for some reason that always reminds me of my 2nd favorite FBO bathroom sign. I included my favorite sign as well.
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