ragedracer1977

That's how I figured. Thanks! My estimation is that it added 4oz.

They were looking a little ragged. Had some vinyl I've been test printing that I'm pretty happy with, so I decided to wrap them. I'm pretty happy with how they came out! Now the question is, how do I log this?

I did. I even put it out in the sun so the cooling fan would run.

Funny. I just opened up my back up iPad. I still had the weather briefing open from about 20 minutes before I left KDVT. TAF called for scattered at 3000 and ceilings at 6000 until well after we had planned to leave on Saturday. Wow were they wrong!

Do you have a Stratus? Or anything USB powered in your aircraft? Do yourself a favor and make sure it's somewhere you can always reach it. I very nearly had an inflight fire in the cockpit this weekend. Over the Grand Canyon, no less. The USB cable I use to charge my Stratus decided to go up in smoke. Details are in the Cedar City thread. I don't know why, I don't know how. The cable was not abused, it's only ever been plugged into the Stratus. I'm believe I acquired the cable at a local convenience store, but I'm not sure where exactly it came from. I had thoughts in the past of mounting my Stratus on the hat shelf. Boy am I glad I didn't. I mounted it on top of the nose wheel well. If it had been back there, I'm not sure I would have smelled the smoke until it was too late. And even if I had, would there be anyway I could climb back there in flight and fix it.... Thankfully the Stratus seems to be OK. I've had it on the charger (out of the plane!!) for several hours. It's charging fine and no sign of ANY heat in the cable. I believe the issue was just a cheap, unregulated, Chinese cable.

Here’s a couple pics of the sights. It was beautiful!

True, if it’s class G to 700 or 1200 AGL. KCDC is E to the surface. So, you have to simultaneously remain 500’ below the clouds while remaining 500 agl. So, VFR minimum is 1000’. edit to add: yes there was a Walmart. My wife and I bough some spare clothes.

Yeah I wanted to fly that way but BCE was low IFR all weekend and even this morning

Will do. It was not the factory cable, so I don't yet know if it was the cable that was faulty or the Stratus. The Stratus was still working via battery power just fine.

I have the IR. It was 0c at the surface. Tops at 16,000. Field elevation was 5800'. MEA 10,000. No oxygen on board. Flying through who knows how much icing seemed like a bad idea.

Well, I'm home now, but it was an experience. My wife decided she wanted to get out AZ and go see some 'real' fall colors. I heard the area around CDC was pretty good for that, so I planned it out. Weather forecast was for some light rain all day Saturday, but ceilings above 3000' until late into the evening. We left bright and early Saturday morning. Everything was pretty good until we started getting closer to the field. Forecast called for 3700' ceilings, actual was more like 2000'. I knew the forecast showed improving conditions, so we went on in. Landed about 10a local. We spent the day driving up to Brian Head and Sunset Trail, where there was already a foot of snow on the ground. Unbeknownst to my wife, I was keeping an eye on the weather, and by about 2p I knew we were spending the night. Ceilings kept getting lower and lower. I think around 300' was the last report I got when I called the AWOS. So, I called up the FBO (CDC has some awesome folks, by the way!) and asked to keep the courtesy car overnight. No problem. We grabbed a hotel and had a really nice dinner and evening without the kiddos! Come Sunday morning, it's really not looking better. In fact, it looks worse. Again, forecast called for ceilings well above 2000', but that wasn't happening. We drove out the field around noon as it looked like the best chance was between 12 and 2. At St. George, just 40 miles south, the ceilings were 12,000. Figures. To top off the adventure, the AWOS broke in the middle of the night, so there weren't any actual reports and we had to just use our eyes and judge. The math (spread /4.4 * 1000) had the ceilings about 500' and my eyes told me that was pretty accurate. We weren't the only folks stranded. There were 2 guys in Air Tractors (aerial firefighters) and a really nice woman from Idaho in her 182. I threw in the towel for good when the Aerial Firefighter guys said there was no way in hell they were going flying. If they wouldn't, I wouldn't, LOL!. So, we spent the night again. Side note: If you ever go to Cedar City, check out the MStar Hotel. It's $40 a night, but the rooms are outstanding. Anywhere else, I'd expect to pay $150 a night, at least. It's an old run down place, but they've put a LOT of money into the rooms. Finally got out this morning. Ceilings were still crap, about 12-1800 AGL, according to the heli guys that were buzzing around. Just above minimums. Visibility was good, though. We headed south and in just a few minutes the ceiling was over 10,000. Lessons learned: Bring extra stuff. We had to go to walmart and get toiletries and underwear and clothes. I brought a ton of keep warm stuff, but didn't plan on being away from home for 2 days. Think a toiletry kit is gonna become part of my flight bag. Just the basics. Also, it dawned on me later that we could have left even though the ceilings were below VFR minimums. Not that I would have (they were low enough that it would have been stupid), but I forgot about Special VFR. CDC is class E to the surface. Untowered, but I could have called up SLC approach on the radio or on the phone and requested special VFR. Maybe not the greatest idea, but when you can actually see the sun a few miles away (which you could this morning) it might come in handy if you're dumb enough. Adding to the adventure: I ran a tank dry on the way up. I knew I was getting close, I was watching the gauge, and then I was gonna switch as soon as I saw the FP start to drop. I normally get about 2-3 minutes before the engine quits once I see the FP start fluttering. Well, I forgot. I got distracted. All of a sudden the engine stops. I say "Oh shit!" and in my head I meant, "Oh shit, forgot to switch tanks, lemme do that real quick." Except all I said was "Oh shit.". I quickly switched tanks and the engine came right back online, no issues. My wife had been quiet watching a movie most of the flight, so I didn't even think about. 2 or 3 minutes go by and she finally quietly says "Are we going to crash?" WHAT? She said all she knew was she heard the engine sputter, I said Oh shit, and then nothing else. She said "I just figured I better be quiet and not say anything to interrupt you, but I thought we were going down." LOL. Moral: Keep your wife informed, or better yet never say "Oh shit." and then not follow up with why you said it. More adventure. On the way home, we're approaching the rim of the Grand Canyon just north of 1G4 (grand canyon west). Were still north of the SFRA, so we weren't that close. I started to smell something hot. Maybe something burning. Uh Oh. Having learned my lesson last time, I didn't say anything. I started trouble shooting. I made a turn towards 1G4 (closest field). But I'm looking at the rim of the canyon and beginning to make a decision to continue or put the plane down on the rim of the canyon. Once you're over the canyon, options diminish very quickly! First I turned off the cabin heat. It didn't improve. I start looking around the cabin and this time OH SHIT. I see smoke. Something IS burning. About that time, my wife notices. She asks if I smell smoke. I say yes, I've been troubleshooting the last 20 seconds. I start to reach over to start shutting down the avionics and she sees it. It's the power cord to the Stratus. I'll post pictures later. Right where it plugs in it was melted and smoking pretty good. Unplugged everything and we were good. Fire in the cockpit scares me. Glad we got it figured out, but equally glad that I was making mental decisions very quickly and not feeling panicky at all. Last adventure. Coming back into DVT, I call up the tower about 12 out. Get right traffic for 25R. I ask for 25L if able. As I'm descending in, Tower calls and says "cross midfield at 2,000, make left traffic for 25L, then contact tower 118.4 (south tower)." Hmm. Pattern altitude is 2,500. I hesitated but I made sure to read back clearly "cross midfield at TWO THOUSAND FEET, left traffic 25L, then contact 118.4". I'm at 2700' about a mile north of the tower, so I pull the throttle all the way back, gear out, get it down to 2000 before I hit midfield. As I'm reaching to change frequencies, Tower calls and basically says what the hell are you doing, I told you 2500, get back up to pattern altitude and contact 118.4. I reply that he told me 2000, I read back 2000, and I'm initiating a climb to 2500, switching frequencies. So, everything back full forward, pitch up and back to 2500. Uneventful landing. I went back and listened to the tapes on LiveATC and there's no doubt he told me 2000, and I read back 2000. Clear as a bell. They didn't give me a number or anything, and I swear when I switched and called ground, I could hear a background conversation that included something about 2000'. I filed a NASA report anyway. So, that's the story of my weekend!

A little over 300. I have a 225 amp alternator, the battery is the buffer when I really use a lot of power. My headlights dim quite a bit. Fortunately, you rarely hit peak amps.

I’m over it, lol. FWIW, the IA there signed off on my annual, with a new panel that doesn’t have a 337 or STC. Didn’t seem to bother him at all.

I’m approaching old man status. I have 2 10” subs, and a bunch of other speakers and around 4000 watts of amp juice. My kids like it.

You know I know you, right, lol! I’m meeting Jim tomorrow. I’ll drop your name too haha. He’s gonna just look over the plane - interview it and I so to speak. But it sounds like I’m in good shape. Where’d you end up in the hangars? Wondered why I hadn’t seen your bird in the covered parking for a while. btw, I think you might hold the record for the longest annual if it just got done!

I called Brad to inquire about an annual next month, he said he's booked through February. Called Jim Sorter. He said call him back in 2 weeks and he'll see what his schedule is like. Haven't heard back from Munsey. I really want to do an owner assist on this one. I'm hoping I can make it happen. It's not the money so much as it is I want to see everything about my plane so I know it better.

This plywood is sealed. It's not bare. We'll see how it holds up!

Couple pics with it mostly set up. Going to lower the middle shelf about 1/2". Oil bottles won't quite stand up. You can get them in, but it's too snug.

Well this is interesting. I have a carb temp sensor in my carb, but no gauge on the panel. Wonder where those wires go...

Bought a 2x4 basics kit (the legs and shelf brackets) for about $70. Could have done it just fine with wood, but this is very quick to build and you're basically guaranteed it's square and level. I bought 1 sheet of plywood (3/4" finished - it's already sanded and sealed) and had home Depot rip it in 2 pieces, one 23" and one 25". Bottom shelf is 23, the top overhangs the front by 2". I like a lip on the top to clamp things to. Used 6 2x4's to build the bottom, 6 for the shelf. Used a piece of scrap I had to add a 2nd shelf. Added pegboard to the back wall. Also picked up a really neat LED under cabinet light. It has built in Bluetooth speakers! The whole project cost me around $225, with the lighting. It was too dark to take a good pic of it all set up, but I'd give a thumbs up to the 2x4 basics kit!

Never heard of having the passengers hold the doors open as speed brakes. Interesting concept. Do you think the Mooney I could have my wife hold the door open for a super slip?

When I first started installing signs, I went all over the valley. You could get a Garmin for your car, but they were crazy expensive. So I had this huge book I carried around (Thomas, I think). You would flip to back and look for the street, then cross reference the address number, and it would give you a page and grid to look at. Then flip to that page, scour the grid till you found the street. Then figure our how to get there. I don't think my kids would have a clue how to use it if I gave it to them.

At that price... I might just fly up to VGT instead of having Rich watch. @Jeev I currently have an ANCIENT Mooney autopilot. Basically a first gen Cessna Nav-O-Matic (ARC AF-512B). Single axis. Does your install price include removing the old unit?

It comes down to affordability. An autopilot I can afford (read:justify to the household accountant) that won’t do the one thing I almost never do, vs the autopilot that costs the same as my complete aircraft that does only one extra thing that I’ll almost never use... the math is easy for me.