Airways

I’m not getting any messages. According to the ngt9000, everything is hunky-dory. But it doesn’t know that there are a ton of acft out there that it’s supposed to report. I asked the avionics shop to run the TAS check with the ramp test set (this was a couple of weeks ago. They never reported their findings, but I guess when there is an antenna problem it would have been clear by running this test. I’ll ask them how this test went…

Thanks for the replies guys. The TAS targets are definitely there. They were in contact with flight info and they got traffic information about my presence. You don’t receive traffic information from our FIS without a working transponder. I even have a playback from Flightradar 24 where you can see the conflicting traffic and the source of the info (multilateration). The range of TAS is limited vs ADS-B, but when I’m able to see the colour of the other pilot’s t-shirt, the NGT should at least acknowledge the presence of another acft. The unlock of TAS is also out of question. I was there when they performed it, and you really can’t get a green “pass” during the selftest when it’s not unlocked. I didn’t get the TAWS unlock and during selftest this is clearly shown in red. So I’d say the system’s logic works. I was thinking about shadowing of the active antenna, but then the target should show up at some bearing eventually. This doesn’t happen. Even targets above me don’t show up, so that can’t be due to shadowing, right ? There are a lot of mode a/c/s targets flying around in Europe, especially during sunny weekends. But yesterdag the ngt saw none, nada. All of the time the freq of the FIS was overloaded though. Doesn’t compute… I’m really suspecting the active antenna. It doesn’t perform. Is it possible the antenna passes the ngt self-test without receiving power ? Does the antenna need a separate circuit breaker or does it get its juice from the ngt ?

I got a NGT9000+ with the NY164 active antenna. The system detects all acft with ADS-B xpdrs, but it doesn’t see any mode A/C or mode S equipped acft. The TAS is definitely unlocked and passes the selftest. Could it be a problem with the antenna itself then ? I ruled out blind spots due to placement of the antenna because then at least some acft should show up sometimes. And yes: mode A/C/S is still a big deal here in Europe :-)

I had exactly the same. Gear relay tripped when selecting gear up. Mechanic found some chafed wiring and cleaned that up. Problem solved.

We need a YouTube documentary on this

Hjelmco claim that they can develop 100UL. They already produce 98UL.

On the contrary, they moved in the opposite direction. Import of TEL into the EU will be prohibited in the near future. Only in strong diluted format (say, a barrel of 100LL) it would be allowed. This was not a problem since TEL was manufactured in the UK, which was in the EU…before Brexit. So this means we can’t produce our own 100LL, we’ll have to import it. Did anybody say price increase ? People get the politicians they deserve but boy, what did I do wrong ?

Strangely enough the Lyc IO540 has some 8.7:1 compression ratio whilst the TSIO360 is 7:1, yet the IO540 is approved for UL91. So it’s turbocharging that is the problem ? Are there mechanical tricks up the sleeve that can reduce the risk of detonation from that side ?

Suppose TCM was up for it: could they redesign the TSIO360-series so it would be able to handle UL91 or UL98 ? Without derating the engine, of course… I’m thinking redesigned cylinders, valves,… Most probably a new engine designator too. I know that G100UL is coming, but it’ll probably take another 20 years before it arrives in Europe

This one ?

Correct

@StevenL757 glad to have you back in our never-ending battle for LED recognition lights !

Avidyne: “Valued Customers: Like all manufacturers of electronic products, Avidyne has been subjected to unprecedented supply chain challenges in recent months. Despite our best efforts to maintain our costs and availability of components, including ordering our electronic components more than 52 weeks in advance of our production need dates, we have been subject to frequent supplier decommit to our orders. This situation is very dynamic, with new component shortages and price increases occurring daily. To give you an example of the challenges we face, we have a long-term purchase agreement for a particular component used on Avidyne’s IFD and Skytrax products. The supplier of that component recently informed us that despite our long-term supply agreement, they would be unable to commit to suppling any more until at least 2024. We were fortunate to locate an alternative source for a limited number of this particular component that allows us to cover our expected production of the affected products through 2022, but for an increase in price of over 500% of what we were previously paying. This increase in the cost of an already-expensive component, with no advance notice, is unfortunately not unlike the increases that we have seen for many of the components in our products in recent months. To address these challenges, and to make our best efforts to continue predictable price and availability of all of our products, Avidyne is taking the following actions with immediate effect: • We will honor all purchase orders received and accepted prior to today for shipment in 2021. • All promotions are suspended. • All new purchase orders going forward and orders scheduled in 2022 will be subject to a temporary Component Cost Increase Surcharge. We will establish these surcharges at the beginning of each month. When we accept a purchase order, we will confirm the price and delivery of that order, or we will provide our best estimate of our timeframe for delivery. Please confirm this surcharge amount with your dealer. As of the date of this post, all Avidyne products as well as the NGT9000 are in stock and available to order. However, despite our best efforts, we may be subject to unexpected interruptions in the availability of our products in coming months. To avoid being impacted by shortages, we very strongly recommend ordering equipment for your planned installations as soon as possible. We understand and regret the inconvenience of these changes. During this period of supply chain challenges, it will continue to be Avidyne’s objective to supply each order that we accept at the quoted price and on the quoted delivery date. Be assured we are working as hard as possible to mitigate future surcharges and potential supply interruptions. We will communicate future surcharge changes and any product supply interruption information as soon as possible. Feel free to reach out to marketing@avidyne.com with any questions. Sincerely, Kelly Myers”

Thank you, Skip. Yes, then it would make sense to work with a pine or aluminium profile in order to bend all in one move.

Sounds like I’m in need of a plane whisperer !

Isn’t it hard to get/feel feedback by using two pieces of pine ? How can you tell how much you bend the trailing edge before actually removing the pine and looking at the result ?

We narrowed it down to adjusting the righthand aileron trim tab. My question now is: does the aileron trim tab require equal bending over the whole span or do you just bend the outboard part ? The reason I ask is because it seems hard to bend the whole aileron trim tab at once over the whole span.

…and so the saga continues…

That is my understanding as well.

Would any of the other LED manufacturers in GA be interested in producing a replacement ? I fear profitability on such a project would be tiny (like everything Mooney-related)

Yes, that has been done. Next up: test flight to have a closer look at flap and aileron behaviour.

Allright. Shop did this but it didn’t work 100%. I have the plane re-rigged by a MSC now. Left bank is still there in full force. So next step would be flap stop or aileron trailing edge bending, right ?

I noticed ACG’s website is in German only. Do they reply to emails in English ?

@PT20J this document is very interesting and I'd like to use it in my communication with my maintenance shop. But could you clarify the source of this document and maybe a reference to this "aeronautical engineering standard" and/or "structural standard that meets the FAA type certificate" ? I'm not an engineer myself and I need to do a lot of reading on this subject before I can make a sensible argument.

Problem still there. A&P found the asymmetry too small to think much about it. He made an adjustment to the left aileron. I took the Mooney up for a test and the left roll was still there. Nothing has changed. I guess with the left weight protruding more than the right one you’d expect a right roll iso a left roll ? The elevator being an inverted wing makes it complicated