0TreeLemur

Same thing happened last winter in South Africa (June-Sept.). They had a record low flu season. The reason given was COVID prevention measures also helped to minimize the spread of influenza. Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/south-africa-coronavirus-flu-season/2020/08/17/bd8aaaca-e084-11ea-82d8-5e55d47e90ca_story.html

Wow. That reminds me- last year I found a NOS 1960's overhead aircraft speaker online. Bought it immediately, and replaced the modern, dual cone, 2 lb magnetic monster that someone had put in with NOS! With great satisfaction, saved at least a pound of UL. Minor victory.

I hate that page. There is a wiki-"editor" living under a bridge there who assumes the role of ultimate and unilateral arbiter of all things Mooney. If you try and trip-trap-trip across his bridge and he doesn't like what you add, he zaps it. Meh. Better sources exist. https://www.aviationconsumer.com/aircraftreviews/mooney-versus-bonanza/ http://www.airplanemart.com/aircraft-history-and-specification/Mooney-M20-Single-Engine-Piston-Aircraft.html

#controller.com asking prices in April 2021 # age(y) asking_price(AMU) 0 800 5 500 15 300 25 230 30 170 40 110 50 90

Wouldn't an experimental Mooney kit be great? Features: Factory assembled wing Factory assembled steel tubular frame Fixed gear, which reduces insurance, simplifies design and increases UL. IO-360 or optional IO-390 to overcome the drag associated with fixed landing gear J-model cowl and fuselage What would one of those cost?

I am the same age as Matthew Broderick... That was one of my favorite movies from my youth. Favorite line: AIR FORCE GENERAL BERINGER - "Get the ICBM's in the bull pen, warmed up and ready to fly." I grew up on the eastern plains of Colorado- the fallout zone of what would have surely been massive multi-detonation ground penetrator attack on Cheyenne Mountain.

All affordable options face competition from the used market. How rapidly does a factory new machine depreciate? A quick scan of asking prices on Controller, and assuming the cost of a new one, I see this. I'd posit that it is impossible to certify a new design today and ever hope to break even. Data support this. Every company that has tried to design and sell a "modern" certified competitor to Cirrus has gone broke or quit before they went broke. That's why P, C, B (and M) are still building old certified designs that have had some TQM applied over the years. The answer to the question is like the answer to "Shall we play a game?" from the movie "War Games". Don't. You'll never recoup the costs of developing and certifying a completely new airframe. Keep refining the design and building them until the market disappears due to natural competitive market forces. It seems that Mooney has already lost. Its' only hope is infusion of cash from sources that don't expect ROI and can weather a total loss. Sorry to be gloomy, but I think the data support my thesis.

Aaah. This is rational economics. Dealing with insurance companies is irrational. They get charged full retail. I was told last year by a MSC to raise my hull value to $70k, because the full-rate cost billed to an insurance company for engine/prop/belly repairs after a gear failure at speed or G.U. is about $50k. If you don't carry about $70k hull value, they'll total it, write you a check and recoup some money with salvage.

Yes. I'm not asking Craig to do anything other than add another option to the reactions in the lower right-hand corner. If properly set up, what I propose represents a community activity. A fun weekend at Bernie's kind of community subset activity, where the most wise and respected elders of MS decree items/posts FAQ worthy while sharing Pizza and Beer over Skype. Once a year the posts with the most trophies (nomination to FAQ) are evaluated by @carusoam and linked to the FAQ. He'll do it.

I agree with much of what you wrote @EricJ. The compromise lies between "freshness", "accuracy", and "value" of the information. Our fleet is primarily 30+ years old, and in many cases 45+ years old. This argues that freshness not be the highest priority. Ultimately, determination of accuracy is ultimately up to the owner. Value is where a FAQ section can excel. Valuable information belongs in a high-visibility location. Having it hidden in random threads here and there greatly reduces its value. If it doesn't belong in a FAQ, don't put it in there. Some nuggets do belong there. Often, the simpler the better. Wise moderation required. Add a response option to each post. Make it a trophy symbol, or something like that, to select if the reader thinks that a particular post is FAQ worthy. If a reader selects that response option, then add a quantity equal to that readers' combined presence and prescience, which would be something like log(community reputation*content count), to the FAQ worthiness score of the post. After some time posts that accumulate many FAQ worthiness points get analyzed to identify a threshold. After that threshold becomes set, posts exceeding that threshold get put forward as potential FAQ entries. The topic of the post determine the FAQ. If many of our most experienced users feel that something is valuable, we should acknowledge that collective power and use it.

Wow, there's a 12 step program for brake bleeding? Why is that not in a FAQ section? Somebody share a link! @Shadrach?

Seems like the AH is most likely if so- the gauge is connected to it, and it is connected directly to the regulator. Second vaccine shot from yesterday has me feeling crappy today, so my plans to go to the hangar to test thwarted.

Ok. It would have to be the AH. A plan of attack has emerged based on input above, I'll replace the vacuum line between AH and gauge tomorrow. If that doesn't do it, I'll then swap regulator using the one that @Andy95W has graciously offered to the cause. If that doesn't do it, then by deduction my AH must have a case leak. Nothing else is in that branch of the circuit between the pump and gauge.

I've reached a similar point in the fault logic tree. Hard to believe that it could be a leak that big and have the PC system still operate. It was quite turbulent when I flew today, and the PC system was very responsive. So now I'm leaning big leak in hose going to gauge from AH, or bad reg. Regs are surprisingly expensive it seems, new.

Hi Doc- the gauge suction port is connected to the spare plenum port on the artificial horizon, and the other gauge port is vented to atmosphere through a plastic filter ala the type Brittain used. The hoses are old.

The reg is old as dirt as far as I can tell. Might be orig. Never mentioned in logs. It does have a brand-spankin' new garter filter tho.

So, annual done on our M20C. Went to pick it up. Odd vacuum behavior noted. At last year's annual done by MSC, I reported a squawk on the vacuum system running in the bottom of the green arc just barely above 4.5" Hg. They tried adjusting the regulator, but couldn't get it any higher. This year, with about 450 h on the vac. pump, I asked the A&P doing the annual to replace it, which he did. When I arrived at his shop, he was scratching his head because he was unable to get it to reliably run in the green. Here's what we saw during testing. He connected my old vacuum pump directly to an a/c electric motor for testing. With a 3500 rpm a/c motor, he was probably turning it a lot faster than normal. Closed off and connected to a vacuum gauge the pulled almost the whole atmosphere. Connecting that pump to the aircraft and adjusting the regulator to 5" Hg, seemed fine. This suggests that the regulator is working, at least when connected to a very strong vacuum source. Idling the aircraft, the A&P noted that the new vac. pump on the engine was pulling a vacuum on his finger. Shut down and re-connected the system. On runup, at 1700 rpm it only barely registers on the gauge, between 2 and 3" Hg at most. At 2400 rpm where I normally cruise, it pulled 4.5" as before with the old pump. With bad hail storms in the area causing me to want to get the aircraft back to my home drome in its covered nest, I agreed to not fly IFR in it until we resolve this. When I took off, at 2700 rpm this morning, it was up slightly above 6" Hg! In cruise at 2400-ish rpm, it fell down to about 4" and varied a bit. PC system still worked even at that low vacuum. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Brand new pump. He checked all hoses and connections. Removed vacuum gauge and tested it outside the aircraft. I suspect a faulty regulator. If there was a major leak, it seems that the PC system wouldn't work. Should I try a new regulator? If you are tempted to suggest that I dump the vacuum system and all that awesome Brittain tech and instead spend 20 AMUs on a glass panel, don't waste your time. I ain't doin' that.

I dropped a Cardinal in one night like the tailhook crowd. It was a rental in a place and time far-far-away. I never got a call back so I guess I didn't damage anything too badly. Luckily, I was alone after a long day.

I really like this light. It has a grating over four of the 18 LEDs that does actually cast some light to the sides. Much safer for taxi ops than the incandescent for sure. Not sure if it will solve your problem, but it is good and bright. I spotted two deer on the runway on short final by their shadows.

Same guy, he's all over fluid mechanics. He designed the wind tunnels that were used by Germany, Japan, and the U.S. to design and test their WWII fighters. Probably safe to say that nobody since has had such a large singular effect on aerodynamics.

That airspeed indicator has a white arc for a different aircraft. Top of white arc for a 66C should be at 100 mph. Yellow arc looks ok. Good luck.

Congratulations on having good fortune on your side. In flight with a stuck open throttle creates interesting challenges to test a the pilot's dead-stick landing skills. The last annual presented a great opportunity for someone to observe the missing cotter pin, if it was missing then. The importance of putting eyes and/or fingers on every critical linkage with some regular frequency can't be overstated. The timing seems odd given that at last shutdown that bolt must have been in place. The drag on the throttle plate must have created some shear on the bolt that disappeared when you shut the engine off, and allowed the bolt to come on out. The nut and pin probably blew out the cowl flap opening.

Yes, but creating more lift than drag and a bit of a nose down pitching moment, causing your elevator to create negative lift as a compensation in level flight. All that will slow you down a wee bit.

Agree. With ailerons in neutral position, the end of the flaps on our C are about 1/8" (3 mm) further off the floor than the ends of the ailerons. Photo: flap-gap seals after install. They seemed to improve climb performance a bit, with no noticeable difference in cruise speed.

So the endurance figure the design report gives at the battery end of life is approx. 45 seconds on a single charge. New batteries might propel the thing for more than 90 seconds. Not sure about charging time, depends on random factors like panel orientation and atmospheric opacity (dust). Solar constant at Mars is about 580 W/m2, top of atmosphere. The crazy thing is- not only do the batteries pull duty to power flight and guidance/radios but they also power heaters at night to keep the cells from getting too cold, which will kill them. One good feature is that they can spin up the rotors to dust off the solar panel. Should have first flight this week!