0TreeLemur

I've got a business trip coming up in late May in SLC. I see a good opportunity for a nice long XC in my Mooney with a stop to see my son in Los Alamos. I'm looking for a recommendation of a good field to land and tie down for four days from someone with experience in SLC.

When I owned a M20C it used massive plugs. I carried around a spare plug and gapping tools in my tool bag. Since I sold the C and bought a J that uses fine-wire plugs, I no longer need them. It's all unused. I'm asking $60 for the lot, and I'll pay shipping to CONUS addresses via UPS ground. That's essentially half price for my MS friends. If OCONUS, you pay shipping. If you want these send me a DM. I'm not interested in splitting it up- all or nothing. Thx. -Fred

^^ This is what we use too. Except we don't have those exotic tiger stripes!

The gathering on April 8 for eclipse viewing at 42A (Melbourne, Arkansas). The crew of that large grey military airplane (single engine turboprop) landed just before the totality started. They landed long and filled the air with tire smoke as the pilot slammed on the brakes with the end of the runway rushing towards him. I've never before seen an airplane fishtail like that! There were four Mooneys in attendance, including @Pasturepilot and family!

I had the cowl plugs in place. And while I didn't check the wheel wells, I suspect when when the gear came down arriving home that probably cleaned out any nest material in there. I'll give it a look though. The spot next to my tie down had a huge amount of nest material on the tarmac where the nose of another airplane once was. Obviously someone didn't put in their cowl plugs and got nested. I learned from their misfortune.

Thanks a bunch for this! Gave me chills to listen to it again. At the time it just seemed surreal. The kid (ok, I'm obviously older than him so I can call him that) flying the Lancair did a fantastic job of staying calm! I really appreciate @whiskytango's perspective here as someone who has lived this experience.

Great insight based on your experience. Thanks for sharing this.

And I followed your instructions as written.

While flying on an IFR flight plan last Thursday over NC, talking to RDU approach, I heard the following (more or less): aircraft: "Mayday Mayday Mayday 360XS has experienced a total loss of power, the pump is broken and I'm going down" <I guess loss of oil pressure?> controller: "Aircraft calling Mayday please repeat" aircraft: "360XS has an engine failure and I'm going down, where is the nearest airport?" another aircraft: "Allegiant XXX 130 for 10" controller: "I want everyone on this frequency to be quiet. Break. 360XS the nearest airport is TTA. You are six miles north of the field." aircraft: "Can you give me a heading?" controller: "fly heading 200" aircraft: "I'm at 2900 ft and think I can make it 360XS" < minute or two later, after controller talked with trouble aircraft and urged new arrivals on frequency to stand by.> aircraft: "360XS I'm not going to make it to TTA. What is the highway below me? I'm going to try and land there. controller: "That's highway 1." <that's the transmission I heard from that pilot> Today I used the google machine to learn of the outcome. The pilot walked away, but he did impact one vehicle, causing debris to hit another. https://wset.com/news/local/photos-airplane-crash-lands-on-north-carolina-highway-after-leaving-lynchburg-regional-airport-moncure-fire-department-chatham-county-flightaware-april-2024 Photos show a broken propeller blade. Maybe I misheard and the pilot actually said "...the prop is broken..." This raises a question- in this situation is it ethical to land on a busy highway in the case of an engine out? Looking at google earth, there were not a lot of other options. According to the TV station reports, it everyone walked away, a fantastic outcome. But that was far from a guaranteed outcome given that it was 3:40 p.m. on a Thursday and there was traffic on the highway. Not sure that I would have done anything differently from what this pilot did. Is it ok to risk the lives of what are essentially uninvolved people to try and save your own? My first experience hearing a Mayday call. It sure is attention getting.

Where exactly? When I preflighted the elevator control area was clear. They can't get in anywhere else right?. Is that what you mean?

Update: the warm water did the trick. Surprising what a difference water temperature makes. Cold water does not do the trick.

@t42dor I have an extra spinner. During the annual on our J in January, they discovered a cracked interior bulkhead in my spinner. Needing an interior bulkhead, I bought a spinner that had a good one 'cause that's the deal that was made. So I have an extra spinner w/o a bulkhead. I'd sell it and you could move your bulkhead. It's for a McCauley 2-blade prop. If you are interested I'll send photos. It's unpainted aluminum with a few scratches but looks serviceable.

Thanks everyone. Some good ideas here- I hadn't considered hot water. Cold rain did nothing to help. I'm due for an oil change, this will fill those gaps while waiting for oil bottles to drain.

On a trip this week to coastal Maryland, my Mooney sat tied down for four days, and was shat upon multiple times by birds of unknown species. Yesterday after flying back through continuous moderate turbulence with occasionally heavy rain, much remains. Even on the prop! Can anyone recommend a good technique to remove this scat? Thought I would ask and save some time. This stuff seems to have some super adhesive properties and I don't want to damage the finish. Especially bad on the tail where the towel rack makes a great roost, as well as the propeller. Thanks! Fred

Today flying from Eastern Maryland back to Alabama, I was forced by icing to take a more southerly route. Took this photo looking south-southeast towards the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The Patuxent NAS is lower right. Horrible turbulence and headwinds all they way to the GA-AL border after which things smoothed out a bit. The shocker of the day happened when CLT approach allowed me to fly over the field at 5,000.

You nailed it. I learned on steam gauges and flew behind them for almost 40 years before my first experience with tapes and intermittent indicators such as rate of turn and VSI on the Aspen. My scan is much more in tune with pointers. A quick glance at an altimeter, ASI, or VSI just gives me all the info I need. A tape requires reading the numbers. An intermittent indicator requires a lot more mental activity (1) is it there? (2) is it changing? (3) how fast? (4) if I push/pull or turn the yoke does it react? (5) how much? My neural network can scan steam gauges three or four times while doing all that stuff. I am attuned to interpreting rates of changes of needles. I miss that with the Aspen. Because my panel has only one Aspen, it retains 3-1/8" AI, ASI, Altimeter, and VSI. In a pinch those are still my goto. Under normal IFR when things are pretty steady, I can stare at the Aspen and feel quite in sync with the airplane. But when I go through a bumpy cloud wondering which way is up, I rely more on the round dials.

I agree that the turn rate indicator on an Aspen is hard to read in a scan. The Aspen VSI isn't much better. I had one open 3-1/8" hole in my panel and decided to go with a VSI. For me, that is a better steam gauge to have for flying a stabilized approach compared to a TC. It seems I'm always flying in turbulence lately and holding a standard or half-standard rate turn is impossible anyway!

They taking longer to sell, I suppose? How long is the average time from listing to sale do you reckon?

On an IFR flight plan today to Arkansas to scope out possible eclipse viewing sites, I got cleared through the MEM class-B. Took this photo of a FedEx heavy on approach just to capture the moment. I think I found a good small airport to view the eclipse if the wx gods approve.

Several different manufacturers make these in different form factors. You gotta give us more detail or a photo so we know what you are talking about.

Not sure. It was a short clip someone posted on reddit. My plane came equipped like that too and I love it! Too bad both companies seem to have surrendered to Big G. The nav side of my KX-155 is connected to the Aspen too, so I can display to VOR's on the HSI in case of an EMP. As far as I'm concerned, for what you get in terms of info on display, an Aspen beats to G5's. Two 275's too. But that's just my opinion. Of course Big G's Big Glass would be great too, but I don't have that upgrade budget especially since I like what I have.

Recently I came across a video of a Navy pilot shooting a carrier instrument approach in (I think) a Grumman C-2 Greyhound. It dawned on me that my Mooney has essentially the same panel with an Aspen, and uAvionix AV-20, and Avidyne IFD540. A shop recently called mine an "anti-establishment panel" My JPI engine monitor is smaller... Screencap:

I've considered that... but it creates a challenge because I don't think it will couple to the KC192 autopilot computer without over-driving the interelectrode diffusion integrator. Of course, Garmin sells a total solution, but I don't want to drop 65 AMU's on that turnkey solution.

Yes! Good catch! All true, except the A-C design replaced spurving bearings with anachroic helecoidal units housed in a rendundant plenum to avoid the known problem with want of lubricity.

Thanks. Maybe one of our newer members can offer one of those! I'd prefer the original as made by Allis-Chalmers though.