ilovecornfields

I still remember the mantra I had to recite every time even though I haven’t flown a twin in 20 years: Maintain directional control Pitch for blue line Everything forward and everything up _ foot dead, _ engine dead Veryify Feather edit: almost forgot the last step “Raise the dead!” Now you’re making me start to miss twins. Too bad many of them are slower than the Mooney.

My wife was anxious when she first started flying. I asked her what she was worried about and she would mention things like “the wings falling off.” I told her things like that almost never happen (this was before the Arrow’s wings fell off at Embry-Riddle). We talked about it and discussed that there are certainly aspects of GA that can be anxiety-provoking, but they’re not the ones most non-pilots worry about. The solution- she started taking flying lessons! Even after just a couple of lessons it seemed to make a huge difference and not only is she more helpful in the cockpit (she gets ATIS, tunes the radios, programs the GTN, etc.) but she’s not anxious about flying anymore. She said it was a bit awkward at the flight school though when they told her she should get renters insurance before her solo and she tried to explain that she never intended on flying by herself. I guess it’s better than saying she doesn’t want to learn how to land!

You might consider spending a couple of hours with a CFI in Tahoe to learn some mountain flying while you are there. I did that and felt it was time and money well spent.

I’m not a mechanic but I think it was required by the STC. I didn’t get the impression that it was my mechanics idea to do that.

It looks like @carusoam wins the prize. After a couple of ground runs, a couple of trips around the pattern and an inspection at my home airport, I flew out to Top Gun. Had an awesome experience there. Mark came out as soon as I pulled up and has his ear on the cowling within seconds (after seeing the keys on the glareshield, of course). The plane made the noise again and he thought it was normal due to fuel evaporating, but took the cowling off and did an inspection. He also installed my Hubba Hubba hubcaps (since apparently the FAA requires a 337 for hubcaps!) and I had an uneventful (and much more relaxing) flight home. Couldn't be happier with my experience with Top Gun. Mark seemed extremely knowledgeable and was really efficient and welcoming. Would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for a MSC in California. Price was very reasonable as well.

I've been told to do the opposite because a lightly loaded airplane will have less loads placed on it than an heavier airplane. Maybe someone with more knowledge can comment. This is from mountainflying.com: (https://www.mountainflying.com/pages/mountain-flying/turb_va.html) MISCONCEPTION Pilots notice that a heavily loaded airplane rides smoother in turbulent air. They perceive this as an indication that the airplane should be loaded to its maximum whenever turbulence is expected. This is a bad assumption. Consider an airplane that has a maximum allowable gross weight of 3,000 pounds. If it encounters a +30 fps gust that results in an additional 2-g load factor, the airplane experiences a total of 3 Gs load factor. Multiply the 3-g load factor by 3,000 pounds and the wings are supporting 9,000 pounds. Assume the airplane is loaded to 1,500 pounds and that it is subjected to the same gust. With half the inertia, the gust acceleration is doubled, causing the airplane to experience a 5-g load factor (4-g force plus 1-g level flight). Multiply 1,500 pounds by 5 gs and the wings are supporting 7,500 pounds. The lightly loaded airplane is subjected to 1,500 pounds less load when encountering the same gust. Even though the heavy airplane realizes less load factor, it incurs more strain. The pilot recognizes load factor; the airplane recognizes load. Barry Schiff also wrote a nice summary on flying in turbulence: https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/january/pilot/proficient-pilot-turbulent-advice

Thanks for the responses. It may have been bubbling but definitely not the sound I’m used to. After taking the cowling off and sending the video to the mechanic he had me start the engine and do a runup and it seemed to start right away. I always open the oil filler door when I shutdown so I doubt it was too hot in there. Looked at the JPI data for the flight and everything looked good. Didn’t know the alternator had a separate cooling fan. I’ll have to ask the mechanic about that tomorrow. Also, no rain, no water, not a particularly hot day and no hamsters to be found anywhere.

Sounded different than the usual post-shutdown percolating. Seemed more mechanical or electrical to me. That’s what I originally thought, which is why I didn’t take the cowling off right away. I wish I hadn’t waited because by the time I got it off the noise had stopped.

Thanks. Added a link to the original post. My first YouTube video!

Heard this noise after shutting down the engine and putting the plane away in the hangar. This was after a short (20 min) flight to a local airport with no issues during the flight. Took this video a couple of minutes after I noticed the noise. It slowly decreased in amplitude and by the time I got the top cowling off noise was gone. Master and mags were off the entire time. Tried doing a runup afterwards and alternator, mag drop, mag grounding all seemed normal. Any thoughts? Plane is an Ovation 2 with no vacuum pump. edit: YouTube video link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtsz_n8ZO3s CE371C63-C083-4929-962B-34230EEE4E13.MOV

Reminds me of an old engineering joke about the angle of the dangle... i forgot to take a picture today but it’s attached to the copilots cup holder with two 3m command strips. I used to have it behind the copilots seat but the CFO got tired of me elbowing her in the headset every flight.

O2D2 is awesome. Use it with my built-in system. It’s set to automatically activate at 5000’. Easily uses 10x less oxygen than the oxysaver uses when I’ve compared them. For passengers, I use $2 cannulas from the medical supply store (ordered a pack of 10). I just cut off the end and it fits into the O2D2.

Seems like you’re trying to be obnoxious instead of helpful. You have succeded. I assume you base your desire to do this on your intricate knowledge of my personal situation and your vastly superior judgement and life experience? Or your personal experience with any of these courses or people who have attended them?

When I first bought my Ovation I started working on my commercial license as a way to get to know the plane. I tried doing it with two very well regarded local instructors and the results were very disappointing. The instrument part went well, but neither one really knew how to fly my Mooney. As someone else pointed out, pretty much any CFI can fly and teach in a 172. The way my schedule works, it is much easier to get 4 days off to do the whole thing at once than to try to do it a little at a time. Besides, I may go to Hawaii sometime and want to rent a 172 so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to know how to fly one!

Seemed like it would be cheap and avoid wear and tear on my airplane. Also, I think it’s fun to fly different planes every once in a while.

I’ve decided to get my commercial license and it was suggested that the easiest way to do it would be one of these weekend courses that do the checkride at the end. I would rather not use my Mooney for this and I noticed there are a few programs where you basically walk in withe the written test done and then walk out a few days later with the commercial license. Just wondering if anyone had had any experiences they would be willing to share with any of these courses. I actually thought it might be fun to do it in a 172 since I haven’t flown one in over 15 years!

That’s exactly what I do. My average flight is two hours so I take off at 50% power and add 1% power every two minutes so that my flight becomes progressively safer as I go along. I noticed the controllers never ask me to “keep my speed up” as I approach the airport at 100% power. I fly “progressively LOP”, of course, so by the time I get to the airport, then mixture knob is almost at idle cut-off and I just pull it the rest of the way as I’m within gliding distance to the runway. It’s all really simple. Unless I’m doing no-flap crosswind touch and goes. Then it gets complicated. In in all seriousness, with respect to the original question , I did have an engine failure on takeoff 25 years ago in a Piper Arrow that was NOT associated with a power reduction and occurred approximately 500’ AGL. It took a few seconds to fail completely and fourtunately I had a cross runway available and I was able to land without incident. I was 15 at the time so it didn’t really scare me as much as it should have. Scared the crap out of my instructor though (who I had never flown with before).

I got mad at facebook and deactivated my account (although from what I’ve been reading, they probably knew about my trip before I did!). Any suggestions on Vancouver Island?

Hi, planning a spring break trip with the family. Going to try to go up to Seattle and maybe venture into Canada for the first time in my plane. Any suggestions for GA-friendly airports in the Seattle or Vancouver/Vancouver Island area? Thanks!

Yep, Monday in the early afternoon. As soon as I finished my oil change at Troutdale we took off. The front wasn’t supposed to move in until the evening but as soon as we hit Eugene I started seeing it on the XM. It was a pain to drive, but I’m glad I landed in OAK. My home field would have been at minimums but the time I got there.

You made the right choice. I have a FIKI Ovation and made a very similar decision. Flew through that same system southbound (your tailwind was my headwind). That system moved in sooner than forecast and there were multiple layers with the perfect setup for ice. I ended up diverting to Oakland when things started getting worse and have never been happier to see the East Bay. Folks at Signature were great and ended up driving the rest of the way. Even with FIKI, in a single engine piston ice needs to be respected.

Cirrus definitely gets credit for finding a foolproof way to prevent gear up landings. I guess Cirrus pilots don’t have to have long discussions about those how have and those who will...at least not when it comes to forgetting to put the gear down.

Finally have pictures!

Yes. Friday afternoon. Small world!

I thought you guys did this on purpose? My first instructor pretended to have a panic attack and opened the door and acted like he was trying to climb out of the airplane as I was about to do my first solo in an Arrow. When we landed I basically asked him “what is your malfunction?” and he replied that he just wanted to make sure I didn’t get distracted and forget to put the gear down. He didn’t like the idea of someone doing their first solo in a complex airplane so he wanted to make sure I didn’t get distracted and forget the gear (in retrospect, he had some other issues as well). I’ve had a couple of instructors pull the gear circuit breaker to see if I noticed and I just assumed that all the talking was intended to distract me to see how well I managed things. It seems like the only plausible explanation since my needles are always perfectly centered!