Jump to content

GeeBee

Supporter
  • Posts

    3,806
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    25

Everything posted by GeeBee

  1. I bought the same unit and I love it. It is more than enough power to run the G1000 and it is an intelligent charger. It comes with clips as well as a plug so I can charge the #2 battery if it needs it. Overall better value for the money unless you need starting capability.
  2. As to picking the least bad, of bad choices that is already happening in automobiles, and I have experienced it. A while back I was driving when a truck at my 4 o'clock start drifting from the right lane into me. My car began steering itself to the left, it even crossed the yellow boundary line, however it determined the ditch to the left would not be safe so it slammed on the brakes to let the truck go by. It determined the ditch conditions through its high res stereoscopic cameras. High resolution topo coupled with cameras could do the same thing in an airplane. Using maps is not out of the realm as again, my car does that. If it sees on the map a curve beyond which the suspension cannot handle at the current speed it will slow. It even slows for round about. AI is here and it is at the consumer level. With the proliferation of single pilot jets and owner flown turbo props this system is a huge quantum leap in safety and I am sure insurance rates will reflect that.
  3. Just a question, is anybody running LOP with Electro Air ignition? I am interested is how an IO-550 does LOP with an advancing ignition system.
  4. I have a few thousand hours in the flight levels with clear windows above the arctic ice. There is NO tint that can save your skin or keep you comfortable. I have tried them all. Amber, green, grey. Put on a lot of sunscreen and stuff a chart in the frame to block the direct sun. You are in the flight levels (positive control airspace) and you have a traffic display. See and be seen is not a factor.
  5. The CA Franchise tax board makes the IRS look like a bunch amateurs. These are not people you want to tick off.
  6. My current airplane and previous I went with Kannad Integra for the following reasons. Dual frequency unit 121.5 and 406 Built in GPS Built in antenna if the external antenna connection is lost in the crash (which happens a lot ) Longer battery life and inspection period because the battery compartment is air tight. Made by McMurdo group Standard equipment on Boeing and Airbus Built like a brick you know what Price is right. About 900 for the unit and remote. Add 700 for an blade antenna (don't use the whip on a Mooney) Install was about 600 dollars. If you have an RJ-11 wire (looks like a phone wire) between your unit and the panel, buy the "Ameri-Fit" replacement model and you will not have to run a new cable. It will plug and play.
  7. It depends. On the Beech airplanes (except for Sierra and Duchess), the inner gear doors open and create an increase in drag during retraction, somewhat substantial I might add.. So leave them down. On a Mooney, the only direction for drag to go on retraction is to decrease, so suck them up right away although if you are that close on performance, you probably should not be operating out of that field. Also your attention is better placed on airspeed control than looking for the gear switch.
  8. Thank you Hank, I was and the VA is an excellent example where you do not have to participate, but you do have to contribute under pain of loss of liberty.
  9. I have in fact lost 2 million in pension assets to a bankruptcy. However, I chose to continue employment with a sinking company. In the private sector all transactions, regardless if you are creditor or customer are at will. No such status exists for the public sector. Try telling them you are at will and don’t wish to participate any more and you will find men with guns on your doorstep telling you to participate or be Wesley Snipe’s cell mate.
  10. No, the difference is, it is not your money. Fraud waste and abuse in the public sector is my and your money. How someone in the private sector wishes to waste their money is their business and business is usually very cruel to those who do waste money.
  11. Where I live, the electric utility has the legal right to clear the right of way even drop lines to a house. Last week the utility came through and cleared tree branches from the lines and they do it with specialized and very efficient equipment. I can point to a pine tree on the ground that the utility dropped because they said it was dying and a threat to the line. I live in one of the most heavily forested areas of the country and we do not hesitate to protect the lines. When an ice storm comes along, if you have not cleared the branches and dying trees they will fall on the lines. It is no different problem than CA except one place has the will to establish legal basis to clear the right of way and the other does not. As for CA running the grid, they can't even build a train line. Run a huge grid...really?
  12. There is a difference between regulation.....and operation. The FAA and the NTSB does not operate the airlines, they regulate them. Nor is that regulation perfect. All one has to do is look at the innovation coming out of EASA vs the FAA. Do I have to remind you how long it took for the FAA finally admit that actually a second attitude indicator powered off a different source would actually be better than requiring a T&B? Or that TCAS would be the best anti collision system? That is just a few examples. Finally I would remind you that PG&E is in this fix precisely because the state and the state PUC has failed both in insuring ROI on the grid AND maintenance of the forest areas under their control. IOW, where the state has had operational control they failed. Nothing in the history of State of California operational control suggest they could operate a grid successfully.
  13. Baloney. We delivered power for decades through area of dry brush in all areas of the West. My father was a lineman for Idaho power at one time and later for a contacting electrical services firm in CA. CA has totally mismanaged the grid to create third world conditions. First you clear the woods and brush around the lines! It requires regular maintenance which cost money (more on that later). Second it requires a belief that trimming and clearing the brush is a necessary ingredient to a 21st century existence and not listening to the watermelons. Third, in creating a buy back program for solar, the cost of grid maintenance is not being allocated to the solar users, only to the users of utility wattage. It does not take a genius to see the more solar buyback, the more the grid maint budget will be starved, while inferior allocation in the form of solar expands. The CA PUC has botched this so badly it is beyond anything I could imagine when I lived there. This is America, we don't have planned electrical outages like Venezuela. We fix the problem so we don't have to have them, not accept the line of baloney being delivered.
  14. It is true only the factory can zero time an engine. Recognize however that the factory can install any parts, including used parts that meet their specifications. Now I cannot speak for other shops but I do know Carlus Gann and his build will be to new specifications if you spec that. His balance is also way better than factory. His prices have gone up lately Because Lycoming has raised prices on parts I believe in an effort to drive people like him out of the business. He has built built 2 engines for me and his work is superb. The sad part is if you put in a factory zero you will have an inferior engine to a Gann engine but you will have better resale. Here is the way I would look at it. If you are going to fly this engine a 1000 or more hours, go with Gann. You will fly in the comfort of knowing you are behind no better engine. If you are going to sell the airplane in the next few years, buy a factory zero time for the resale value.
  15. I will second StevenL757. The MD93 is the bomb. Nice big white LED display. Simple to operate and USB ports in the bargain. My previous airplane had one and I don’t have room in the G1000 panel now but I am looking for a way because I like it even over the G1000 internal unit which is a PIA to use.
  16. Funny that no other state has this problem.
  17. You have to be careful with "Battery Reconditioning" modes. Some chargers use higher voltage to de-sulphate the battery plates. In AGM batteries high charge voltages can permanently damage the battery unless the voltage spikes are sent in pulses of 22-28 kHz. If your charger has an AGM mode and a reconditioning mode you are good to go, otherwise check the manual of the charger.
  18. The thing we forget is these war birds were designed under pressing needs which means they would not meet FAR 23 or 25 design requirements of today. Indeed, this B-17 had a special AC not a standard. They were designed to carry men into war, not fly passengers for money. The original B-17 and a B-17G are two very different airplanes just as a Mooney C and an Acclaim are very different. We also forget how often those airplanes failed in various ways. I once read a book called "The Global Twentieth" which was the history of the 20th Air Force. Flying B-29's only 5% ever returned with all four turning. 30% on average returned with two engines shut down, yes two engines caged. Finally while these airplanes do not operate at war time weight, their performance is a question mark because of the lack of 115 octane fuels they were designed to operate on. While you can retard the timing and turn down the blowers the real world performance is really hard to calculate. Along with that fact is the effect low octane has long term. Yes, the timing is retarded but the valve timing. lift and duration have not. You end up with a lot of fouled plugs. In short, without long term study of these engine on low octane, you really don't know. The maintenance intensity of latter day radials was overwhelming. I don't think we realize how much jets changed the world. Take a DC-6 or Super Connie that flew NY to LA. When that airplane arrived in LA, it was done for the day. Every plug had to be changed. TWA found it was quicker to remove and replace the entire engine and prop than change the rear plugs. They could do it in 45 minutes. So intense was the monitoring of these engine they had an oscilloscope called the "Sperry engine analyzer" that even analyzed the both the low and high tension sides of the ignition system and analyzed vibration for detonation. With jets, the airlines simply checked the oil and turned it around. So the reality of engine failure on a B-17 is actually very real and very common.
  19. The Aspen requires a card to be inserted by the tech to adjust it. Had to have it done last year on my PA-18.
  20. I have to say, the last SIRS I mounted I use the 3M adhesive that came with it and mounted it to the windshield of my Super Cub. It has never moved an inch. Quite frankly when the time comes to replace the Airpath in the Mooney, I will do a windshield mount as well.
  21. Look up the "Waddington Effect" and you will be cleaning your injectors on condition, not every 100 hours.
  22. The other great thing about AMEX is you can link it to Apple Pay and Apple wallet. AMEX's computers are lightning fast. When I hand my card to a waiter, I can put my phone on the table and see when it was ran and for how much before the waiter even returns with the card. Ditto when you pay them. I click to send the money, my phone dings immediately to say payment received. They just are better in every way. Merchants hate them because their merchant fee is higher, but you get what you pay for I say. By the way my daughter is a banker (she even banks bankers!) and an expert in banking fraud including CC fraud. She says Apple Pay is the most secure system out there and to use it whenever you can.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.