0TreeLemur

General aviation has also changed a lot. When I was a kid hanging around the local airport, most GA was piston. Now it is at a minimum turboprop, with a lot of jet traffic. Piston GA is greatly diminished from the 80's and 90's. I find it amazing when I'm enroute at 7500 or 8500 in our C, how little traffic their is down where we fly. Only when we near class C or B is there much conflict.

If you forgo receiving the MAPA Log magazine with its stinky ink, and just look at the online version and its archives, you save I think $11/y on dues.

On 11/15 at about 10:50 a.m. over the Colorado Rockies, I saw this. I wasn't flying- I was a passenger in an RJ. But it was pretty cool to see. We were at FL 240, flying from GJT-DEN.

According to google maps, the image is (C) 2019 CNES Airbus/Maxar Technologies. When I look at other parts of the world, the date changes, so I think they are trying to give attribution to the image provider and accurate date. Sure, they are probably wrong sometimes. My house shows an image from last winter, which is also stamped (C) 2019.

Ok, thanks for sharing that link. Now I see why my skepticism is unfounded. That is so far from a stock airframe it is unbelievable. I would bet that this CAFE Mooney can cruise at 170 with 75% power.

Must have been near-magic, but after all LoPresti was undeniably "the man" when it comes to Mooney aircraft and speed.

I couldn't tell from the photo. An E and a C are the same airframe. I don't think the IO360 vs. O360 would make that much difference in cruise when connected to the same propeller.

So, it is a firefighter's playground. Still weird with the F-14 and two C-130's.

Hi ya'll, Out of curiosity tonight I was exploring a TFR that is coming into effect soon near San Angelo, TX. I pulled up Google maps to see what's there. Recent photo taken by satellite of Goodfellow Air Force base in San Angelo, TX, attached. I see an F-14 at an Air Force base... Wha? They were all retired by the US in 2006 or so. For an Air Force base, Goodfellow seems to be pretty short on runways. How did that and those two C-130's get in there? Why are they there? How are they going to take off? JATO bottles??? Also, there seems to be a tanker trailer lying on its side. Huh? Anybody have any idea (1) why is there a TFR in effect this week near San Angelo, Texas, from 3,500 to 18,000 ft. Why is there an F-14 on an Air Force Base in 2019??? Why would a tanker be lying on its side? My brain hurts. Genius of MS, please help me out. It looks like they do a lot of training there for firefighting. Are all these things sacrifices for the gods of fire training? Anybody know? Link to view on google maps: Thanks.

I'm a little bit skeptical of the 170 KTAS C model and here's why. Assuming a standard atmosphere, at 6500 ft, 170 KTAS would be 154 KIAS. According to Sequoia Benchmark, with WOT (MP=24.4") and 2400 rpm, to achieve 170 KTAS, the drag coefficient in a Mooney with stock Hartzell propeller (87.5% eff.) can at most be 0.015. Such a slick Mooney C does not exist? According to the data in Sequoia, a M20J has a drag coeff measured of about 0.0168. A M20C could hardly be lower, right? From the data in Sequoia, M20J N1220G has a cruise speed at 6500' STP with 24.4" MP and 2400 rpm (70% POH pwr) of 163 kts. To get the J up to 170 kts cruise, rpm must increase to 2630 rpm. Who does that? I'm calling B.S. on the 170 kt C unless they were cruising at much higher than normal rpm.

Nihao

Flew for a weekend beachy getaway to Destin, FL, (DSL). Early this morning a cold front went through, and on the flight back to TCL this evening we had a 40 kt headwind component. Notice the asymmetrical glide ring! Hate to see it, but that is a pretty nice feature in Foreflight. The trip down was about 1.4h, and 1.9 back.

NooMooney LLC?

The economics of gas turbine engines only make sense on larger airframes. A PT6 on anything smaller than a Pilatus is an expensive toy because it won't be very useful except for entertainment (e.g. Draco). While the power density of turbine engines is enormous, so is the fuel flow. Taking advantage of the engine requires enough seats to justify the expense, and enough fuel to allow decent endurance. Four seats and 1000 lb UL ain't enough and never will be, not with an engine that can drink 350 PPH in cruise.

Thanks for including the link, great read! Despite what the article says, I think the real reason for the vertical tail on the M20 series stems from the fact that it would be much easier to make with plywood. The aerodynamic argument that in a stall or spin, the forward swept tail will have a larger windward projected area is undoubtedly true. Yet M20s are not noted for having excellent spin recovery characteristics.

Followed the instructions. Works great on my C. Agrees with the book.

Looking at the post-accident photo of tha poor Chickenhawk resting in the midfield here, it seems that maybe 20 degrees of flaps were set. http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2019/11/cessna-172n-skyhawk-n739ua-incident.html

The lack of speed control was a contributing factor. Can't tell if the flaps were down- I'm guessing not. Dead feet syndrome. Almost seems like he hit the left rudder pedal? I like the final scene where the windshield was full of grass.... Classic.

^^^this

IF that is all it did, you should just pop a cold one and consider yourself lucky. Buy a lottery ticket.

Some of the KX155 radios in our airplanes have capacitors that leak. Some of the trim pots, volume knobs and solder joints become problematic as well. They are good radios, but need some TLC after all these years. They still sell for nearly $2000 with a glide slope. A thorough test/repair/adjustment with replaced leaky capacitors cost a little less than 1 amu in early 2018.

I guess four or five Naugas had to die for these hides. We plan to put sheepskin covers on the front two after we pay for the next annual.

A local upholstery shop here in Tuscaloosa did the sewing. The fellow that did the work came out of retirement because nobody else in the shop had experience with aircraft seats.

Thanks for the detail. Look forward to hearing more. Not surprised that water rushes in- non-pressurized aircraft leak like a sieve.

Thanks @mark21m20c. We have not yet changed the carpet. What is in there now is not too bad color wise. There are some stains near the rudder pedals from what I assume is sweat from all that horsepower. Quotes from two places kind of scared me off. SCS interiors has really nice products, and I ordered samples. Their prices are on the order of $500 for basic nylon carpet. The airtex prices were less O($300), but their order form didn't seem to match my aircraft. My plane has four pieces of carpet- floor pilot, floor co-pilot, a thin piece attached vertically along the front face of the box beam and the piece on the baggage compartment floor. The AirTex form had several more pieces. So, I'm going to save carpet until after the annual sometime in 2020.