afward

Rogue, has anyone ever told you that you're a mess? I say that in good humor, of course.

Eh, you're gonna need a max gross weight increase for that (or put the whole airframe on a diet)... 124 horsepower for 45 minutes would be 256 MJ of energy usage. Our best battery tech for weight & volume (Li-ion) will weigh as much as the TSIO-550-G you're replacing, and fill more than just the engine compartment in the process. Dino-juice really is quite incredible as an energy-storage medium, even with the terrible thermal efficiency of the Otto cycle.

Well, is it so far fetched? Dr. Cheng-Yuan Chen was the CEO of Meijing Group at the time of the acquisition, and was also the owner of the Soaring American Corporation that ostensibly became Mooney Aircraft's owner with the deal. Meijing Group advanced the funds to purchase Mooney, so it's entirely possible that the transfer to SAC was $100M and only part of that was used for the purchase. Apparently it really was a "private" transaction, in as much as Meijing Group is private. Note that one should account for the way the Chinese Government handles the press and business in general when considering these bits of information. I personally find grains of salt in short supply these days... Interesting side notes: Dr. Chen's advanced degrees are all in aerospace and were earned at USC. Apparently he's a bit of an aviation nut. Meijing Group is actually a real estate developer in ZhengZhou, China, and the local airport there is the center of the first state-designated Airport Economy Zone in China. The ZhengZhou AEZ was announced seven months prior to the Mooney acquisition. Meijing Group actually went all-in (apparently) and created two aviation subsidiaries in the ZhengZhou AEZ around the time of the Mooney acquisition to assemble, trade, and exhibit aircraft, and to do airport construction.

If one doesn't need to launch munitions, just about any piston GA aircraft will be cheaper to purchase and operate than the military drones. Diamond made a very smart play there... Bring back the M18 as an optionally-crewed sensor platform? It could work, especially with a modern engine & propeller... Now, if Textron is looking to purchase, that would be simultaneously terrifying and fascinating for the brand. Possibly someone else? Dunno... I do know that the current ownership reportedly paid about $100M and had plans to invest another $1B total, though most of that investment has likely happened in Zhengzhou, China. I dunno, I have thoughts, but nothing overly clever or concrete...

@M20Doc that's the type of thing I was thinking of, though I didn't know the Swift Museum Foundation did so. I'm pretty sure there are a couple others that have done the same thing...

One of the defunct manufacturers' drawings ended up being bought by the type club. I don't remember which one offhand... Grummon? Bellanca? Anyway, the type club can legally contract with an already PMA'ed subcontractor to produce the parts, which sidesteps a whole lot of the paperwork we'd otherwise have to do... Not sure how owner produced would work in that situation... That's certainly the right regulation, though.

Haha, yeah... I'm pretty careful with my foot placement on the pedals, but there's always the possibility I'm on the brake and don't realize it. Thanks for the pointer!

Interesting... So the difference in my technique is that I'm not letting the nose rise so high in the flare, so it settles in a lot more smoothly at touchdown (within the limits of my skill, that is). Before, it would set down, then start steering pretty hard to the left (usually) or right (once or twice) a moment after touchdown (probably when it started getting good traction). Now, it still likes to meander (need the steering horn bushing replaced!), but at least it's controllable. Either way, I'll report back once it's back from the shop. We'll see how it goes.

Well... "fixed" is a strong word here. Worked-around it, maybe? I've found (thanks to another MSer) that I was landing far too nose-up at touchdown, which when corrected leads to mostly docile handling on the rollout (it still wants to meander a little, but it's not darting by any stretch of the imagination). It's still going to get fixed properly (maybe in the next day or two; depends on weather), but for now I think it's perfectly fine for someone who knows how to properly land a Mooney.

What I think is interesting about this: X-plane Flight Simulator's creator (Austin Meyers) was working on this with TruTrak back in 2014. Not nearly as polished or capable, but there's video of them landing an RV-10 dead-stick from cruise via autonomous control (Xavion running on iPad driving TruTrak A/P over wifi). Five years ago. There's another where they demo'ed a pilot incapacitation mode (it was focused on a dead-man's switch implementation). Methinks Garmin saw a good idea and "borrowed" it (though Garmin's is a very impressive implementation). Looking at what they've talked about so far, I imagine Garmin's system is turbine-only for the near- to mid-future. Autonomous piston engine management is a bit beyond the extant integrations for certified aircraft. Maybe someone else will release something similar, but for piston aircraft?

https://www.localnews8.com/news/pilot-killed-in-american-falls-plane-crash/1135805546 @mike_elliott looks like another one.

Per the discussions I've had (or read) recently with insurance people, the problem is multi-faceted: The 737 MAX claims alone are expected to be (a lot) larger than the entire market's premiums this year. There are more claim dollars being paid overall (more GA flying, so more claims in general). There has been a sizable market contraction in underwriters (read: several have left the market in the last year or two). What underwriters that are left underwrite our policies and the big airline policies (not 100% overlap, but close enough). Investment dollars into the aviation underwriting market have reduced significantly in the last year or two. Premiums have been under-stated for some years ("buying business"). The market cannot afford to do so any longer. The Nall report is great, but it is focused on fatal accidents. I don't think it's fair to make statements about what premiums should do based on its data alone.

OK, spoke to Don himself. I probably just need the SB M20-202 spacer and new pucks. The rest should be serviceable as-is, so I'll hold off on the oversized bushing or steering horn unless we get everything apart and find it's necessary. Thanks!

Haha, yeah. Sage advice, Anthony. I have seen that article from DMax. It sounds pretty close to what I'm seeing. Actually, I should probably just call DMax and discuss it... Duh...

So my new bird likes to "dart" on landing rollout. It does not have SB M20-202 applied, so I know there's some improvement available there. Two things I notice: 1) The discs on the nose have a date code of 1968. 2) When someone works the rudder pedals I can see the sleeve of the steering horn moving independently of the arm it goes on (rotates and has slop on the outer end; looks like it can move about 1/2" each way where the pushrod attaches). My A&P wants to put in the LASAR oversized bushing (LASKIT122A) and the spacer for SB M20-202. I'm guessing he's also going to try to shim the horn back to spec on the arm. So my questions are: Will that be sufficient? Do I actually need the bushing? Should I replace the horn and arm entirely? I will be replacing the discs. The ones on it might still meet spec (highly doubtful), but since he'll have to pull everything apart anyway I think it's worthwhile to replace them now.

I've thought about having this done, but I'm not sure how it would work legally (wouldn't qualify as owner-produced and the machinist shop wouldn't qualify as a repair station). I've also thought about going to the local machinist shop and seeing if they can make a new one as owner-produced. I currently have a spare they can use as a template...

I'll probably have to. Ah well, such is owning a 52-year old machine, I guess.

DMax said Mooney had it listed at $1,063. Do I need to email Mooney directly?

Soooo... The new plane still has its original downlock socket and really needs a new one (the thumbnail check would best be described as "sloppy"). The J-bar is latched solidly when I check it (in-flight!), but I'd really like to replace the socket soon. Does anyone have any ideas on where I could find a good one without paying the factory mark-up? Note, I do have a replacement socket I can use from Texas Air Salvage. It's also worn (not quite as bad), but I'd prefer new or nearly-new. LASAR is out of stock. When I called, they said their "guy" wasn't making any more, so there's no telling how soon they will have stock again. Thanks!

Yeah, I got the download to work with another (16GB!) drive I had on-hand. I did re-format it because I'd previously used it to install a Linux distribution (which means it wasn't set up the "standard" way). Needless to say, that drive is now the JPI download drive and will be used for nothing else. Side note: The drive that wouldn't work is a USB3 drive. The one that does is USB2. JPI specifically calls out USB2 in the documentation, so I wonder if the EDM 900 just gets confused when presented with USB3... It wouldn't be the first time I've seen supposedly backwards-compatible hardware fail to work with downlevel clients. (For anyone not aware, USB3+ connectors are all supposed to have blue inserts inside to differentiate them from USB2 and below, which are usually white).

Changing USB sticks worked! Thanks for the advice, everyone. @kortopates I'll review the pilot's guide and try again. Thanks.

I'll have to try different USB sticks and see if that helps. Hopefully it's as simple as that. I came up with the same answers from their site. I do have a voicemail in to them to call me back, so maybe? I've thought about swapping those wires. Not something I have to get done right now, but it's on the list. The K factor page didn't appear to let me make changes, but that might be a mis-read on my part. I'll take a look again. Thanks!

OK, I'm not going crazy then... Wait for boot, exit the refuel question, put in USB, wait 10+ seconds, nothing. I might need to try a smaller USB stick or a different adapter. Go figure. FWIW, the JPI was installed two owners prior to me, and wasn't the best install (k factor is high, tach/hobbs time left at default, amps read backwards, etc.). I wouldn't be shocked if the installer failed to hand over those parts to the guy paying for the install... Maybe next time I try calling JPI I can get someone useful on the line.

My Google-fu is weak... What is the magical incantation of cables, adapters, & devices to get a USB-equipped EDM-900 to download? I tried a generic USB A -> USB B adapter and a Verbatim 8GB USB 2 stick, but the EDM wouldn't recognize it... Calling JPI hasn't be fruitful. Thanks!

As I understand it, lead-acid is used because it will sink over-voltage events and save your avionics. I know Li-ion can't do that. Not sure about LiFE, though I think it is limited as well.